flying lead - peace maker
Wild West airsoft is more than a little out of the ordinary, and something we
at Airsoft Action just had to find out more about. We caught up with Gareth
Harvey and Rich Vaughn to find out exactly what it’s about
rlich
Photography by Carole Bittehotmail.co.uk
[Contact carole.bitterlich@
each with their own individual advantages. I
chose a sharpshooter, giving me $100 in cash
to start with and the option of using a rifle
without needing to buy a license.
Four friends and I formed the Jameson &
Jameson Mining Company and headed out
to find our fortune. We quickly found our plot
of land and set to work building our mine, as
the sooner it was up and running the sooner
we would be earning money. Not a lot of
money though: only $100 an hour, and once
our backers had taken their cut we were left
with a mere $10 a piece. Clearly we were not
going to get rich quick that way.
Our main concern, though, was crossing
the railroad line (the track not yet laid) to
exchange our gold for cash back in town, as
this was patrolled by the crooked lawmen-forhire of the Pinkerton Detective Agency. The
road blocked our route and the Pinkertons
were asking a dollar a crossing and, with
small enough earnings as it was, we weren’t
about to start lining their pockets. This toll
RICH (COWBOYS): As a long time fan of
westerns, when I heard about Gunman
Airsoft’s ‘Flying Lead’ Western games I knew
I had to be there. So I raided local charity
shops for suitable attire, bought myself a six
shooter (as a birthday present to myself) and
booked in.
GARETH (INJUNS): When my long-suffering
airsoft buddy Evo suggested we take part in
Gunman’s new Wild West game Flying Lead
I was somewhat dubious – and when he told
me we’d be going as ‘Injuns’ I had serious
reservations.
Let’s get something straight: while on the
one hand this was more ‘playing Cowboys
and Indians’ then any Wild West living
history event, on the other hand it
wasn’t just any normal airsoft event.
As Gunman’s head honcho Josh
Smith explained, this was more a
live role-playing event that used
016
Xmas 2011
airsoft weapons for its combat than an outand-out shooting spree. I was somewhat
relieved to hear this, as our Indian Tribe
(the Blackfoots) had one rifle and one pistol
between the four of us, although we had
plenty of airsoft-safe bows, arrows and
tomahawks to ambush the unwary paleface!
Now at this point I have to profess
ignorance to a lot of the plotting and
shenanigans taking part on the other side
of the site, so it’s probably best to hand you
over to Rich who, in the guise of an Irish
rogue, took part in the side of the story
unseen by Injun eyes.
COWBOYS: The frontiersmen were fully
briefed on the rules and the aim of the game.
The aim could not have been simpler: get
rich or die trying! Our target, to escape the
discomfort of the frontier and live a life of
luxury in the big city, was $10,000. We each
chose a character class that suited our style,