Category: Airsoft GI News

Editor’s Note: This Article was written by Scott Hallebeck of USAirsoft. For more information on how to find more of his videos and reviews, check out the bottom of the article.

For $200 it may seem that you don’t have a lot of options available to you for a good AEG primary as a beginner airsofter. However, over the years of reviewing all sorts of gear for the USAirsoft YouTube channel three rifles stood out to me.

If you want something small, metal, and don’t mind running a PEQ box on the side for your battery, then go on the hunt for the Lancer Tactical Cobra M4. I really wish I had bought one for myself for $125 when they were easy to acquire but sadly after I posted my review, they sold out everywhere! If I could wish a gun back into production then you can bet I’d get the Cobra back out there on the market. It was everything I liked about a stubby M4; but it could have benefited from a MOSFET as long as the cost
remained under $200.

Lancer Tactical has been getting better and better over the years with all the criticism they have received just like any company out there and my second choice is evidence of that. The Warlord series was just so good that I knew it would be a great first gun for my own newbie friend, Andrew. I loved the big ambidextrous controls from the magazine releases to the bolt releases which would make it easy for him to learn to operate. The one piece upper receiver with the MIL-SPEC metal keymod rail was neat and it didn’t make the gun very heavy! The overall weight was extremely low at around 5 pounds before you start adding accessories. If Lancer Tactical can stay on the path of improvement they are on now then I’m sure they can dominate the beginner gun market.

For my last sub $200 pick I’d greatly recommend the G&G CM16 Combat Machine M4 series. You get so many options from the hand guards to the body colors and barrel lengths. I know a lot of different fields that use these rifles as their rentals and if they ever go down then it should be an easy task for the field tech to get it back up and running. Never doubt a G&G Combat Machine. New players can wield them with ease, long time players can definitely make the most out of these low cost guns. The best part about the combat machine line, however, is that they will stick around in some shape or another for many more years to come.

Look around and test what you think you like if you can before you buy it. Ask around for some advice at your local field or come on into an Airsoft GI branch near you. I’m sure you’ll find something to match your play style.

-Scott Hallenbeck of USAirsoft

[Scott Hallenbeck is the mastermind behind the YouTube Channel USAirsoft. His channel features unboxings, top notch gameplay, and reviews of new and popular airsoft guns and gear. Check him out HERE]

What’s up guys, it’s Carl. I wanted to jot down some thoughts over on the blog because I think my last video needs a little bit of added clarification based on some of the negative reactions I’ve seen online to it, and I think there’s a lot of misunderstanding going on here, so let’s try and dispel it.

Now, I’ve only started doing videos for the channel recently, so I understand that probably the vast majority of you don’t know me, and that’s my fault to some degree, but I have been playing airsoft for nearly 15 years in one capacity or another, and I’ve been working in this industry for more than 10.

When I’m giving you hot takes in videos like this, it’s because these are all things I’ve actually seen with my own eyes, consistently, from my tenure playing this silly hobby – but these are just my opinions, and however controversial they are, guess what? We’re now having a conversation about it! Isn’t the internet wonderful?

It feels like we’re having a bit of miscommunication here, and honestly this is something yesterday’s video should have touched on. A ‘sniper’ is a person. A sniper rifle is a gun. They get used interchangeably quite often, but when I’m saying that, in my opinion, most snipers aren’t much of an asset to the team, I’m referring to a player that has specifically chosen to go out into the field with a bolt action rifle.

Now yes, very obviously there are some famous airsofters that are very good at sniper gameplay- novritsch, jet, swampsniper, the list goes on. What I thought I made clear in the video but perhaps didn’t given the reaction to it, is that these folks are anomalies – exceptions to the rule, and definitely not the standard. Their content is really enjoyable and entertaining, but part of the reason that they’re able to go out and do what they do is because they do have an understanding of stealth, fieldcraft, and when to take shots versus when to lie in wait. Absolutely no shade was meant to be thrown at them.

The disconnect, however, is that their impressionable young viewers then assume that a novritsch gameplay video might just be what an average round of playing as a sniper is like, and without that experience in fieldcraft that I mentioned, this will very likely not go well for them. I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen a bright eyed, bushy tailed new player that just bought a new sniper rifle end up returning it after a few days because the role really isn’t as glamorous as they thought it was going to be – or worse yet, they might just decide that airsoft sucks in general, and decide to call it quits altogether.

Without new players, scenes get stale, whither, and eventually die – and one of many ways that we as a community can counter that process is by being realistic about what one of the most hyped roles in the game actually entails. Additionally, I was mostly referring to larger fields and more milsim oriented gameplay, as that’s kind of where you’re going to get the most value out of being able to sneak around and scout and such, but I thought that was obvious. Maybe it wasn’t, but I thought it was!

A tool is only as good as the hands the wield it – so obviously sniper rifles aren’t useless, otherwise I wouldn’t have taken the time to build and paint the M24, but a ton of folks who go out and attempt the role could be doing it much, much better, and that’s specifically what I wanted to address.

And you know what? That’s my opinion! I specifically invited dissent in the comments because I knew this topic would draw some criticism, and to those of you who’ve been chill and contributed to good counterpoints or even just realized how tongue in cheek this entire hobby is – thanks! Carl salutes you. I sincerely hope that clears up a bit of confusion and dispels the idea that I was trying to put anyone down or make anyone feel bad – I definitely wasn’t. That being said, if you still have thoughts or comments you’d like to share, by all means, keep going! I FEED ON YOUR HATRED naw jk. Have a great weekend guys – go prove me wrong with a bolt gun

Editor’s Note: This Article was written by Scott Hallebeck of USAirsoft. For more information on how to find more of his videos and reviews, check out the bottom of the article.

Jeez, I’m talking about how I started airsoft again?  Why am I getting
asked this so much now?

You can blame it all on video games, old World War 2 airsoft videos, the
Galil, and Airsoft GI.

Like some angry parent, I blame video games for my airsoft craze and of
course YouTube. It was at the peak of Call of Duty’s popularity when I first started finding YouTube videos featuring massive groups of English and Scottish players getting
together with authentic World War 2 load-outs to play war with fake guns. I thought that was especially cool because of the places they were playing in, such as small towns or the snowy woods. I was also drawn to how realistic the games could get. After Call of Duty Black Ops went up on shelves, I found myself hunting for my favorite gun, the IWI Galil for my first airsoft gun.

I’ve had airsoft guns before but I have never had a serious piece to actually
play real games with so I worked around my small rural Texas town of Poteet to get the money together. Once I gathered about $400 together, I bought an ICS Galil AR off of this website called Airsoft GI. They had so much stuff on the site that just blew my butt cheeks off but I knew what I was there for. I was getting my Galil and I was saving what I could until the next smart purchase came to mind.

I had to have watched hundreds of hours of GITV and gameplay from all sorts of other YouTubers. I actually got to meet despite some of them not being in the airsoft scene anymore. The USAirsoft channel is a whole different story by the way; but as for how I started airsoft that was it. Video games, the Galil, and Airsoft GI being there with what I needed. Okay, maybe my ADHD had something to do with too but whatever.

I still have that old ICS Galil. I have 3 of them now actually and I’ll
gladly take the crown as The Galil King! Humble beginnings have turned into
amazing experiences and amazing experiences have turned into some of the
best years of my life as a player and an entertainer. I only have the
support of the community to thank for that.

-Scott Hallenbeck of USAirsoft

[Scott Hallenbeck is the mastermind behind the YouTube Channel USAirsoft. His channel features unboxings, top notch gameplay, and reviews of new and popular airsoft guns and gear. Check him out HERE]

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