Totally lost

Purple Mountain

My teenager is looking for a BB gun with plastic pellets for Christmas.

He showed me a link to a website that has one but the reviews are so bad.

I don't know if BB is classed as airsoft, so apologies, I'm totally clueless.

He's looking for something for target practice outdoors with tin cans etc. And it would need to be plastic pellets because I'd be nervous about aluminium for his first time, he's still young!

Please, can anyone help a clueless mom.

Shield

How old is he?

Purple Mountain

Almost 14

Purple Mountain

Sorry to bump this but I'm running out of time.

If anyone could pm me a link to a reliable site, I'd be very grateful.

As I said, the site son suggested has bad reviews.

Thanks.

Lemming

A BB gun is not an airsoft gun; BB guns are firearms, airsoft are not. They both fire what appear to be pellets but airsoft "BB"s are plastic and there is a legal limit regards how fast airsoft guns can fire those BBs. The pellets fired by a BB gun are not "BB"s; that name refers to the gauge of shot, and said shot is metal and fired at a considerably higher velocity.

So, first things first; is your son asking for an airsoft gun or a BB gun? That answer will inform everything else that stems from it.

Edit: what is the site in question that you keep referring to?

Purple Mountain

I'll pm you the details. I don't want to name a site here.

Thanks.

Lemming

Ok, since you are in Munster, and given that this is all a first for both yourself and your son (13), my inclination would be to recommend walking into a shop rather than ordering online so that the staff can walk you through the dos & do nots regards airsoft. After all, airsoft may be toys but they are replicas of real firearms so you will get into a fair spot of bother if one gets waved about in public.

Having said that, I am not sure if any age restrictions have been brought in regards airsoft in Ireland, since I am out of the country a decade and in the UK there is a legal age restriction at 18 (although it's a bit more complicated than that), and for airsoft sites on which one can play against others the general minimum age for kids is 14, but that is by no means a legal thing.

So, there are a few stores in the Munster region, although by no means an exhaustive list:

• Hobby Airsoft - Cork (not sure if their branch in Cork is still here, google says so, but others can correct me)
• Waterford airsoft - Waterford
• Munster Airsoft - Cork

Even if your son just wants to use airsoft for target practice in the backyard against paper targets or tin cans, I would still be inclined to recommend the above although there are plenty of very good online stores in Ireland to order from; a few that spring to mind would be:

• Airsoft Eire
• Hobby Airsoft
• SG Airsoft

Not an exhaustive list and as I have said - I'm out of the country a while so not sure which other retailers are still running/gone, etc.

I stand open to correction on all of the above.

Purple Mountain

Thank you! Greetings to the UK for a happy Christmas.