Saturday, July 12, 2008

Fun with Airsoft.

So, back in the day when Marko and I were roomies, I got my first electric airsoft gun, an HK MP5SD3 at a local gun show.

I was working at Montague Gunsmithing at the time, and we took it into the back room at the shop to try it out, since we had a pellet trap set up back there on which we could hang targets. I loaded a mag, hung a target, and ripped off a couple of short bursts. "Whoah! This is cool!"

"Hey, let me try it," says Marko.

At the time, I didn't know you weren't supposed to recycle pellets, so I handed it to him, saying "Sure, just let me go downrange first and pick up a couple of those pellets before you shoot." I strolled down towards the target and bent over to scoop up some of the little plastic BBs. As I did so, I thought to myself "Oh, no. I'm down here bent over with my butt in the air, and I just handed him a loaded... OWWWWW!"

With as much dignity as I could muster, I strolled back to the firing line with my hand held out. "Gimme the gun, dude."

"No way. You'll shoot me with it."

"We live in the same apartment. I know where you sleep. Heck, I know where you shower. You can take it like a man now, or from ambush later."

*sigh* "Okay, here."

I'll say this for him, he's a mensch; he didn't even flinch.

Good times, good times. :)

20 comments:

Jeffro said...

An armed society is a polite society.

;)

Johnny said...

When you get your shot you take it.

Anonymous said...

In the immortal words of instapundit,"Heh."

Brass

breda said...

Is this an example of the guest blogging we should expect over on The Munchkin Wrangler?

Anonymous said...

Butt in air. Red welt from airsoft pellet. This has all the makings of a penthouse letter.

phlegmfatale said...

Aw, jeez.

Anonymous said...

About 9 years ago at a previous job, the group I was a member of had an office off the main cube farm. At some point, someone else on the project discovered Airsoft and we placed an order for several realistic Glock airsoft guns (cheap spring powered models, but still real looking). We used them for target practice against styrofoam cups and each other when things were slow. At some point afterwards, one of us left ours out and another person on the project saw it through our office door's window. Well, that person reported it to the Asst Program Director and we got pulled into an informal meeting. The Program Director and the Asst PD were asking us about guns in the office (no secret that we were gun nuts and hunters) and finally the light comes on for me when I realized what might have happened. I explained to them about the Airsoft gun and we were told to take them home and not bring them back. Remarkably laid back for Corporate America. No HR, no security, etc.

Chris

the pawnbroker said...

ten years ago my son was 14 and went bonkers for paintball, quickly graduating from wallyworld specials to midrange co2 guns and ultimately to something called an angel lcd powered by a freakin' 3000 psi nitrogen tank...

i never really could get past encouraging him to shoot and be shot, even when it's "just" paintballs (he'd come home covered by blood-red whelts...fun)...

it's the same with me for airsoft, and of course there's always the dumbass who will flash one of those deadringers for lethal hardware and get his stupid self shot to death by someone like me...

jtc

Mark said...

My dear, if I'd've known about that I'd've suppressed my sniggering whilst lying in wait outside his bathroom so I could've dropped a triplet into his happy-sack as he exeunt the cloaca that time.

I had no idea it was an Honour Matter.

New Jovian Thunderbolt said...

Who could resist that scenario? If the munchkin wrangler was downrange, instead of you, in similar circumstances, all bent over...?

Anonymous said...

Airsoft is fun, although I find myself disconcerted by their realistic appearance. I like the Drozd:

http://www.airgundepot.com/eaa-drozd-kit.html

I see by this ad that they're available in the US in black now - mine is the older black and yellow, which I don't mind. Still looks cool.

Although the Drozd fires BBs (I shoot lead pellets in mine) so it does have that "you'll shoot your eye out, kid" aspect.

Drang said...

The electric airsoft went through a vogue in the PX in Korea several years ago. Seemed like a lot of money for a toy gun to me, but an incredible number of soldiers were spedning their money on them, and then runing around post shooting at each other with them.
All ended when the Sergeant Major wiped out on a bunch of airsoft pellets during PT...

Tam said...

new jovian thunderbolt,

"Who could resist that scenario? If the munchkin wrangler was downrange, instead of you, in similar circumstances, all bent over...?"


Well, duh! Why do you think I suddenly got that premonition? It would have taken someone more mature than both of us put together to not take that shot.

New Jovian Thunderbolt said...

So I guess the question it, if in Munchkins place, would I take the shot?

Yes.

And when you marched down the range, announcing you're due, and explaining, rationally, why, would I sit still for the return fire?

Yes.

Most honorable people would re-enact the same scenario at any rate, ignorant of the activities of the others.

So the question really should be, would you hang out with someone that wouldn't take the shot, or receive the vengence shot, or be willing to shoot the vengence shot if the tables were turned?

I say no.

New Jovian Thunderbolt said...

And who says the Constitution is not a suicide pact?

Ken said...

Brass said:

In the immortal words of instapundit,"Heh."

Indeed.

Don said...

My dad was a mechanic in a Pillsbury flour mill before Airsoft had been heard of (this would have been in the 70's and 80's.) The mechanics always had some downtime when things were running smoothly and the machinery was all being used.

Their game was blowguns. Wire-dart blowguns. Dad told us stories of guys hiding in 55-gallon fiberboard drums or lying on top of 20-foot stacks of grain sacks to wait for someone to come along and turn his back. Then he'd get a 3-inch sharpened wire dart in the butt.

I can't imagine why that place shut down.

staghounds said...

THAT explains the odd pink biscuits Cook sent us to school with during the Nixon years...

staghounds said...

Sorry, oddly SALTY.

Weetabix said...

My son bought a new airsoft pistol and he asked if he could shoot his siters with it. I said, "I don't know. Shoot me with it first, then I'll tell you if you can shoot them."

So I turned around so I wouldn't take it in the face or something. The little rat aimed at my back, then got a better idea and aimed at my calf below my shorts.

Big red welt.

"No. You can't shoot your sisters. Now hand me that thing and run."