Raising the power limit of airsoft in Ireland?

Avose wrote:

The facts : The airsoft rifles can be legally modified to go over this limit, but it is then classified as a firearm, and you must aquire a licence.
Avose

eh NO..... If your going to state " the facts" at least get it right!

Not a sniper myself but they should have a slightly higher fps than aegs i suppose!

I do not trust some people with 1 joule let alone anything more

I'm happy with the limit as it is. It's a good power. Not too strong, not too weak. It's effective for pistols & rifles etc. It gives an interesting element to the game knowing that a pistol can shoot as far as your primary, which means you have to play a little bit more tactically.

If I were looking for an increase, I'd be rather strange about it. The one thing I would like to see a small increase in would be a 328fps limit for 8mm support guns - just to give them more purpose. Snipers, in my eyes, have what they need - the issue is with the sniper, not the rifle. It's a musket, it's not going to be THAT precise.

I voted for don't care.

It would be nice to have more but its not like its a fundamental problem in the game.

Creating better sites, better games and better scenarios would be a more primary concern for me along with having honest gamers.

After we have that bolted down I might look into having an fps increase.

So we shall come back to this in ten years

I was lucky enough to test a US spec(450FPS) JG AUG A3(stateside of course) and I could not see any discernible difference in range or accuracy compared to some of the well sorted 1J replicas over here,,,I am very happy with the 1J law over here,its very well suited to our regular field size and also allows the user to use one replica for a number of different scenarios(CQB,field etc) not to mention that I am certain that the 1J rule must go a long way to the overall reliability and prolonged usability of any AEG,take TM for example,you just cant break the things .

I have never even tried to snipe so I cannot comment on the Pro's/con's of the 1J law in relation to them.

All in all,,yes I am perfectly happy with the 328FPS limit.

I'd like a higher limit.

I have no problems with Skirmish sites insisting on a 1j limit but I think its stupid that if an airsoft gun strays over 1j even by a little bit that its considered a firearm by law. I Just think thats utter bollox.

Fair enough having Skirmish Sites limited for safety fireing
at other poeple, but for Plinkers and non skirmishers I would like to be able to fire over 1j if I choose to and to be able to purchase airsoft guns over 1j and still have them classified as airsoft and not big bad nasty real guns.

There is nothing in the law to say that you cannot licence
an airsoft gun over 1j, there simply is no serial number on
one so it may prove to be difficult to process through the
Gardai's systems aka pulse.

With that said. Paintball Markers are over 1j and also dont
have serial numbers. Before as far as I am aware you simply needed Permission from your local Super intendant in order have one.

Section 3.1 on the FCA1 which is the form filled out
for "FIREARM CERTIFICATE APPLICATION" has a specific
check box that allows you to select "Paint ball gun"

There is also another box you can tick called "other"
that could be used for a >1j airsoft gun.

Also if an Airsoft Gun is over 1j it could be classified as Airgun or Air-rifle or Airpistol ALL which are covered in section 3.1 of the application form. Even if it does not fire metal ammunition.

Only disadvantage is that it would cost you 80 Euros every 3 years just to have a licence for one.
(And if your like me and have lots of guns you would be pretty poor if you had to licence them all)

Link to the application form is here:
http://garda.ie/Documents/User/FCA1%20Firearm%20Certificate%20Application%5B2%5D.pdf


One MAJOR issue I would see would be when filling in the section of how
much Ammo you are applying for!!!!!
Enter a couple of hundred thousand and it would probably break Pulse.

The 0ther thing is you could be in for one hell of a headache when it
came to proving you were proof of competence and I think for first
time applicants there are now things like firearms competence courses
in place that poeple do before they get a licence.

In theory you could do it, in practice its probably not worth the effort.
~B

Not going to happen.

This topic was last discussed in July, please see http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055960967 for details.
Several posts in that thread have links to documents anyone trying to raise this issue needs to read before proceeding.

Here's what I said then...
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=66784944&postcount=33

We are many years away from showing ourselves capable of being trusted with higher limits, if ever. And in any case, the limits in Scotland and England are likely to be reduced to 1J soon enough. The current exceptions for certain rifles on certain sites will probably be eliminated - and that's if airsoft isn't banned completely in Scotland.

1J is provably safe. Anything higher simply isn't.

OzCam wrote: »

Save your energy for something achievable.

Or maybe people could just learn how to snipe instead of just assuming sniper rifles were some kind of magic hit stick.

Also forgetting that a sniper rifle in airsoft, is a sleek-looking musket

Bullets are shaped, not spheres. They cut through the air to find their mark. BB's do not. People have grand visions of sniping, pulling off crack shots - they think they're Martin Riggs etc.

The problem is BB's don't work like that, and power alone won't fix that - it just compensates, as you pointed out. Sniping in Airsoft is a completely different ball game to real life. You don't have the same effective range, or gear to work with. As such, your field craft comes much more to the forefront (I know it's to the forefront in Real life aswell) - and in Airsoft, it's a deal breaker. If you're not committed to it, airsoft sniping will be boring.

Sniping in airsoft has no proper advantages - you take a slower ROF because you like A) the challenge, the look. Airsoft is 80% aesthetic, which is why GBB's feel so much cooler than their AEG counterpart

The one advantage for operators of bolt action rifles that a higher energy rating will give them is cutting down the flight time of the round fired (notice the complete lack of the word "sniper" there. VERY few bolty owners can snipe).
I've been on the receiving end of long-ish range fire from bolties several times. You can always tell that's what it is because it'll be a single round coming from seemingly nowhere (assuming they've learned to not stand in the open by that stage). If you notice it early enough, or if you spotted the shooter before/as they fired, you can actually stand there and watch it come toward you and take a side-step at the last second.
I know you can technically do this with AEG fire from range too, but at least with it you can compensate for such things by firing a burst. If you see one round slowly making it's way to you, you tend to play with it. If you see ten, you tend to duck or run.

Increasing the bolt action limit would at least negate this phenomenon, allowing the shooter to be a bit more accurate (subject to actual skill being present) since the round would be less noticeable in the air, would strike it's target quicker and would allow the shooter to engage moving targets.
Let's face it, with wind, energy bleed-off, smoothbore accuracy, bb characteristics, atmospheric effects, compression consistency, Bernoulli effects and a host of other factors, it's not impossible, but it's usually done with a serious amount of luck.