Airsoft Hacks

A common problem here in the south of Ireland that makes us envy our Northern brethren airsofters is the lack of pyrotechnics which we can employ during an airsoft skirmish. A few flashbangs and a bit of smoke could really add to the combat atmosphere, especially for milsim events. Unfortunately under Irish law these devices are classed as pyrotechnics and require a licence and permission to import and use. Obtaining a licence for their use is not a simple matter either, even when importing pyrotechnics there is a raft of paperwork which must be filled out and you must specify the date, time and location in which the devices will be used, not exactly useful for airsoft use.

About a year back I created a small ventilated metal cylinder, about the approximate size of a hand grenade, into which you could place smoke pellets which can be bought in Joke Shops and Novelty Stores across Ireland. This worked moderately OK in a CQB environment, but ignition was always a problem. Even fuses are a restricted item in Ireland!! I had tried several experiments making homemade fuses from the sulphur scraped from match heads, some string and super glue, it never really worked particularly well and was far too time consuming to ever be a realistic option.

Sparked by a recent thread on boards.ie about legal options for smoke grenades I decided to do some searching on ebay. I was initially looking for industrial grade smoke pellets which I could build a new holder around and I came across these ph Smoke Matches, could these be a potential solution to the ignition problem? They appeared to light just like matches and had an extended head which would give off smoke when burned.

These arrived today and I immediately decided to give them a test, lighting one by hand at first, I didn’t expect much from a single match but had hoped that perhaps lighting several would provide a decent amount of smoke. A small amount of smoke was produced which was quickly blown away by the moderately light wind which is blowing in my back garden.

I then decided to try a whole box (12) at once. This gave off a good deal more smoke but still not enough to ever be considered a really viable alternative to pyrotechnic smoke grenades. Perhaps in an indoor CQB environment they might prove slightly more useful perhaps with using several boxes of them simultaneously, but care must still be taken as when lighting several together, there is quite a large flame which burns for several seconds.

I’ll let the video speak for itself on how they looked:

So that’s it for those, back to the drawing board for a legal alternative to smoke grenades in Ireland.