You've got your Airsoft gun and you're ready to go but do you know the proper technique for drawing your gun, shooting your gun and moving with your gun?
It's not just for looking cool, like in the movies, proper technique for these three aspects of using your weapon can give you a real advantage in battle.
Pistols and rifles given their differing weights and sizes may have slightly different approaches in order to get the best result.
Airsoft Gun Drawing Techniques
If you are carrying your pistol, you should hold it in your dominant hand down by your side. For a rifle, you should hold it close to your chest with your dominant hand holding the pistol grip.
Otherwise, you should keep your pistol in your holster until it is time to draw it out and then take up one of the stances mentioned below:
Weaver Stance- In this stance, the strong arm is extended while your supporting arm is bent at the elbow.
Your foot on the supporting side should be pointing ahead of you towards the target while the foot on your strong side is pointed 45 degrees outward allowing you to pivot quickly if necessary. This stance offers a stable push-pull grip with the pull of the support hand and the push of the strong hand.
Isosceles Stance- For this pose, the shooter faces the target directly with legs spread shoulder width apart. Both arms are extended to bring the gun in line with your eyes giving you maximum peripheral vision when firing.
While taking up these stances, you should slide your foot over the ground and into the ground to clear debris or other trip hazards before you aim and move at the same time.
These stances apply to both pistols and rifles.
Airsoft Gun: Shooting Basics
Once you’ve chosen a stance, ensuring a proper grip of the gun is essential for proper sight alignment when you line up your shot.
For a pistol, you should grip the handle with your dominant hand with one finger curled towards the trigger while the supporting hand is used to grip the underside of your pistol; with this pose, your thumbs should be touching each other.
The supporting hand should be providing the majority of your grip strength, your hold, on the pistol.
For rifles, your dominant hand should hold the pistol grip while your supporting hand should hold the handguard or a grip mounted on it as far along the handguard as possible.
You should hold the buttstock fully on your shoulder along with holding the handguard as far forward as possible as this technique can lessen the effects of recoil.
It may not be obvious straightaway but everybody will have their own dominant eye, like a dominant hand or leg, which gives you the best sight.
Regardless of which side your dominant hand is on, you should use your dominant eye to look through the sights of your gun.
Airsoft Gun: Movement
Once you have your stance and shot lined up, you will need to know techniques for how to transition out of it and move with your weapon.
You should always move forward when carrying your gun as you can never be too sure what’s behind you; rather than backing away, you should turn to face where you want to go.
If you have to make a turn, you should lower your pistol to your side while you should lower your rifle to give you a full view of where you are moving to.
During a turn of 180 degrees to go backwards or any other pivot turn, turn with your supporting leg in the direction you want to go; this allows you to use your supporting hand to move people or objects out of your way rather than bashing them with a gun.
Kneeling is another important movement in combat.
The standard kneeling technique is simple but can make your aim a bit unsteady while there is a particular kneeling technique more suitable for modern combat.
This technique involves going down to one knee with your knee facing out 30 degrees to the side of your body rather than straight on with your toes touching the ground. Your standing leg should also be pointed out to the side away from the body.
This provides a more stable base for you to draw and aim your gun while also offering better freedom of movement with your upper body turning from side to side to hit multiple targets from one position.
