With some exciting releases of airsoft gun models this year, what we noticed for this year is a trend towards more realism in terms of features for airsoft guns. Whilst the airsoft industry already has achieved three important of the features for a more realistic airsoft gun that airsoft players want, such as recoil, blowback with the gas and electric blowback airsoft guns and shell ejection, there are still two very elusive features that will need to be put into place and one of these is achieved this year --- the gunshot sound.

Three airsoft companies have taken three different approaches to putting that elusive gunshot sound in airsoft, but they do all have a common feature --- they are electronic.

Celcius Technologies of Hong Kong developed their patent-pending C-Bangs Fire and Sound Simulation Device to achieve both gunshot sound and muzzle flash (that is another a feature that has to be fully achieved). Initially announced in March, the C-Bangs is a muzzle contraption and produces simulated gunshot sound and muzzle flash when fired. The muzzle flash as shown in the video below looks like an LED flash but is actually an electrical charge explosion which can be akin to those electronic bug zappers that light up when a mosquito or fly gets caught in them. The contraption is not impressive though and the effects may look and sound cool but does not yet achieve the realism we want.

Tokyo Marui also released their gunshot sound system this year and it is in their VSR-10 Pro-Hunter G and the Gun Sound M4A1 Carbine. The gunshot sound is only heard by the shooter as the system uses a firing sensor system which then produces the chosen gunshout sound via earphone or headphones. It may be a nifty feature at the shooting range or doing some plinking, but it might not be practical in an actual skirmish since airsoft players are already wearing headset comms that there's no place for them to don the earphones/headphones just to hear a gunshot sound.

The third approach, as posted yesterday, is a company from New Zealand called BL Tech which perhaps may have produced the most viable gunshot sound system amongst the three gunshot sound features developed for airsoft. And their contraption is more realistic, having their BL Tech Airsoft Gun Shot System designed either as a Grenade Launcher or as a tactical weaponlight. The demo of their system is very much impressive as their gunshot sound can be heard loud enough by players on opposite sides of an airsoft game. Now it's a question of the company being able to mass produce their system for those who want to use it or would prefer to license it to another airsoft company which already has the production and distribution facilities in place.

Now what we need is for all these "realism" features to put together in a single airsoft gun, and a rifle at that rather than buy all of these separately. The BL Tech is indeed the most promising and hopefully can be integrated into one complete airsoft package having the blowback, recoil, and gunshot sound. It is realism that is experienced not only by the airsoft player who holds this new airsoft rifle package, but also those around him/her as it hits the senses with a more realistic gunshot sound.

This leaves us with one more "realism" feature and that is "muzzle flash". There are attempts at it such as those from the PFI which also comes with a smoke feature but none has become mainstay. Whilst it  is an ideal feature, many airsoft players would be happy with having just the three --- blowback, recoil and gunshot sound. The fourth nice feature, shell-ejection, can be good as props for videos and movies, but can be a costly feature in airsoft games due to the additional burden of buying imitation bullet casings/shells.

Back to the question if we are near the most realistic airsoft gun. We are already there, it is just a matter of putting all of the features together in one airsoft package rather than putting these pieces together from different makers. Apart from such package, the features already in the market need to be more refined and reliable. The first company which can put all of these together will have MilSim players from around the world flocking to them.