Can't remember when or where I first discovered the "sport". I've always been a gun nut, though no one in my family shares this passion. Tracing back through time, I remember playing the Metal Gear Solid demo way back in early '98 [maybe late '97?], back when Sony still offered the PLAYSTATION UNDERGROUND CLUB/demo disk mail outs. Without going into a WHOLE other ...passion (more like obsession..) I was instantly drawn in to the world of MGS. If you can believe it, I do believe my discovery of airsoft came about sometime around a year after MGS was released; I think i tried my hardest to web-search replica "Cap Guns", not blanks (I know, it's hard to imagine an 8/9 year old specifying a "Mk23 Cap Gun" into Google.) I think I was redirected towards some foreign web-page [Japanese] and I soon discovered Marui's MK23, and FAMAS.
Little did I know how "groundbreaking" the FAMAS was to the airsoft world, let alone even knew Marui's history, nor know what airsoft actually was. Nothing went very far from those searches-my mind seriously draws a blank. The last thing I remember doing -fastforward 2001(?)- is HITMAN II. Google Search. Hardballer Cap Guns. (OLD School) Tokyo Marui. Again? What was it with that fcuking name. I did a little more research.
In the fallowing months, I'd amass the knowledge that ...well wouldn't leave me dumb founded, questioning manufacture business and history when Western Arms, some years later, came out with their HardBaller.
This knowledge took years to learn (after googling "cheap airsoft"; having owned and "gone through" a near gauntlet of KWC Springers from AIRSPLAT, before turning to the likes of Redwolf, etc.) and in that time, the love for anything guns, scope&sight recticles, Pre-ban/Post-ban, etc grew.
I really don't know how I got to where I am today,
"It's been one hell of a ride" would be ..major understatement. After meeting some friends who shared a real common interest in this during High School, I was introduced to AA right before I bought MY first gun/s, at the LEGAL age (lol, my youth laughs..) over at The Gearbox (thanks Ron & crew) summer my Junior Year.
While I may talk big here on the forum, don't be afraid to put the "rookie" in his place.
See ya'll out on the field.
