For 'weekend warriors,' airsoft is hard to beat

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By Ted Agres

ROSEDALE, Md. | It's the year 2013, and Russian troops are locked in fierce combat with NATO peacekeeping forces in Eastern Europe.

Bedeviling both sides is "Sheik's Fist," an unpredictable band of terrorists led by Sheik Rattlen Roll, a mysterious mercenary whose sole objective is to inflict destruction and chaos.

Thus was the stage set for "Operation Grizzly Agenda," an airsoft scenario game played in late May in the woods at Outdoor Adventures paintball field in Rosedale, near Baltimore.

More than 200 enthusiasts, mostly teenage boys and men in their 20s and 30s, plus a handful of brave, young women, sported full camouflage gear and carried stunningly realistic replicas of MP5 submachine guns, M4 carbines and L96 sniper rifles, as well as Beretta M9s and other side arms.

Despite the daylong, testosterone-fueled battle in the woods, no one got hurt. And that's by design. Airsoft guns, though realistic in size and looks, only fire lightweight, 6 mm BB-sized plastic pellets.

Photo Gallery:Airsoft Scenario

But because the pellets fly at up to 420 feet per second (nearly 300 mph), safety is paramount. Like paintball players, airsoft players wear Darth Vader-type masks that shield their faces, eyes and ears.

Airsoft pellets merely bounce when they hit a player, unlike paintballs, which leave an unmistakable colorful splotch where they break.

Honesty and safety

Befitting an image of military integrity, airsoft players are encouraged to play honestly and call themselves out when hit.