Armed Lifestyle - Issue 2 - June 2022

I have said this in the past on numerous occasions, but
being resident in the UK means that my access to handguns
and any semi-automatic long gun above .22 for training is
severely limited; it’s only when I’m lucky enough to work
with a “Section 5” dealer (and that also has its limitations
legally in the UK!) that I get my hands on something
“meaningful”, and otherwise I have to head to sunnier
climes (poor me!) to lay down some rounds; this involves
a significant investment of both time and money, and for
the past couple of years has been next to impossible due to
Covid-related travel restrictions.
However, in the meantime I do still want to work on
my “skills and drills” without breaking the bank, and whilst
running countless dry manipulations, magazine changes
and transititions is all very well, it’s absolutely no substitute
for some intensive live target work. I do this on a regular
basis using “6mm” (yes I mean airsoft BB!) replicas, and it
would appear that from the growing buzz in the training
world I am far from alone in this, up to and including some
LE units around the globe!
But how do you make your 6mm training varied and
valid? On my home (yes, I have a 10m range at home, as
that is safe to use with little plastic BBs!) and woodland
range I use both traditional targets, paper and iron plate,
and the AttackSense Smart Target System; I got together
with Neil from AttackSense a short while back and he told me;
“We started AttackSense after recognising that no
system existed that provided reactive training targets
which could monitor shooter performance and function in
a representative environment. With our experience gained
from the drone industry we developed a reliable wireless
target system that could operate in any environment, with
the levels of robustness needed to provide long service
life in the harsh use case targets find themselves in. It
was critical to us that the system would operate using a
tablet computer, to provide the level of detail we wanted to
track shooter performance over time and to support future
proofing, something our customer enjoy with frequent
updates supporting new features and shooter tracking.
As the system grows and our user base increases, we’re
currently re-investing 100% of our revenues back into
the product. This is allowing us to innovate with R&D in
software to improve the features and use cases we support,
and in hardware with different target designs for new
environments as well as companion units for start / stop
indication, movement sensing, flow control and improved
immersion. Close engagement with our customers is
allowing us to improve the product and find new directions
to move in all the time, it’s an extremely exciting time for
us as it is for the industry in general.”
Updates and system durability/longevity improvements
are already being introduced thanks to that oh-so-important
user feedback, and I have every confidence that the team
behind these targets aren’t resting on their laurels and
they’ve already intimated that there is quite a lot more to
come in the future.
But target shooting is still just that, even when it’s
super-reactive like the AttackSense system, and here I’m
going to get into some contentious territory! We all observe
the “golden rules” of shooting, and high on that list is
“NEVER POINT THE GUN AT ANYTHING YOU ARE NOT WILLING
TO DESTROY”; This mantra is rightfully drilled into every
shooter out there, both professional and civilian, and for
very good reason!
However, this also begins to explain why airsoft,
certainly in relation to the gaming side, gets a bad rep
as virtually every shooting association or lobbying group
will shy away from a shooting sport where it is actually
ENCOURAGED that we shoot AT one another! I can see the
point in fullness and fairness, and it doesn’t help that there
are countless examples of “bad practice featuring airsoft”
all over social media platforms, but again bad news sells as
they say, and seeing kids AND adults, some of them serving
LE and military along with veterans, behaving responsibly
with replica firearms really doesn’t sell sensationalism or
YouTube views does it?
There are thousands, if not now millions, of airsofters
worldwide, all playing their games safely and responsibly.
Many of them may well be firearms owners too and use
their replicas for regular manipulation and target training,
and although there are inherent safety issues to be
mitigated (we are dealing with non-lethal projectiles after
all!), ownership, and the use of a “6mm replica” is 100%
part of the wider shooting community globally.
Will airsofters ever be recognised by the big lobbying
groups? Probably not due to the fundamental “breaking”
of that golden “don’t shoot” rule, but that doesn’t mean
you can’t get involved in the competition side or the safe
training side and enjoy owning and shooting a “6mm
replica”, and if it means that you shoot more, that can’t be
a bad thing can it?
Next time I’ll carry on being contentious and take a
deeper look at how “6mm” can be used to train in Force
on Force scenarios, and what this may mean to you as a
shooter. For now though, keep safe, and keep shooting!
TRAINING 6MM TRAINING OR PRACTICE?
www.thearmedlifestyle.com