M
any airsofters have
a particular love for
big guns – well, who
doesn’t? They look
intimidating, feel
impressive and carry a lot of ammunition.
In this article I’ll take a look at some of the
biggest on the market, and it’s going to get
messy.
We have a Land Rover with a 3.5 V8
engine that can mount a Brown M2 –
commonly known as the .50 cal – in
addition to a M240 Bravo mounted on the
passenger side. The vehicle itself has a
busy schedule over the year, what with
Stirling Airsoft games, trade shows and
being hired by
the BBC to film
the second series
of Gary: Tank
the 10mph mark. From experience it can
be damned tough to resist the urge to
just put your foot down, either to get into
or out of a fight. This is why drivers are
strictly designated for vehicles.
I remember driving at a Stirling Airsoft
event where they had taken control of the
garage for the vehicles; without this area,
friendly forces couldn’t use vehicles. We’d
been blown up via an agreed method and
were merrily trundling back to our garage
for 30 minutes of ‘dead’ time. When we
arrived we noticed we’d lost control of the
garage so we parked up anyway. Advising
the enemy we were dead and just parking
up one player pulls the door open and
BIG GUNS
I’ve fought with and against vehicles and
generally find that they add to the feel of
a game but don’t influence the swing of
a fight. They can’t hide, clear buildings or
ambush players. They can’t be taken out
of the game easily, but at the same time
they can’t take down a large number of
players either. But would I rather not have
them? Not a chance: it adds something
inspiring to a game when something
rolls up the road and people dive out into
action. Airsoft is about immersion and the
big guns certainly
help with that side
of things.
The two systems
that are on our Land
Rover are great
replicas. Firstly the
commander weapon
is a Trigger Happy
M240B. The M240
is the US version
of what the British
forces call a GPMG.
There are a few
differences between the two but only the
flash hider looks different really. It’s heavy,
weighing in at 6kg, but I’ve used it off
vehicle and it’s extremely accurate. Prefitted with a MOSFET, microswitch trigger
and silver plated wiring it can happily blaze
away for extended periods of time. The
“I’ve fought with and against
vehicles and generally find that
they add to to the feel of the game
but generally don’t influence the
swing of a fight”
Commander.
When used at
the Stirling Airsoft
games, the
vehicle is used
as a weapons
platform, troop
transport or
rapid response
vehicle, to help
Special Forces teams gain advantages.
That doesn’t mean the rules don’t work
to our advantage though. Gunners tend
to be on ‘pain rules’ – let’s face it, a lone
gunner propped up on a mount on a road
surrounded by targets is a sitting duck. So
essentially it acts as a big weapon set that
can’t really be killed. Stirling Airsoft also
has access to another two WMIK Land
Rovers which can be a very intimidating
sight.
It’s easy to see the drawback of a big
airsoft gun: it can’t really do much more
than your bog-standard M4 with a big
battery and a high-capacity magazine. This
is why rules have to be adapted to make
use of these platforms.
A vehicle obviously presents a new
set of safety issues regarding players
moving randomly around the game area.
It wouldn’t be the first time a player had
sprung out in front of the driver, firing from
the hip and forcing the driver to slam on
the brakes (proving that putting anything
rifle shaped into some peoples’ hands
does seem to lower their sense of fear…
or their sense in general).
To keep things safe a speed limit is
normally strictly enforced, usually around
sticks the barrel of his gun in my face
saying: “Hand over the keys, this is mine
now.”
My stern response isn’t printable but the
player was advised the error of his ways
and he left in a huff that he wasn’t getting
to drive.
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