For me it was a friend's birthday. Since then I started playing, none of my friends liked it but I am still enjoying the sport.

I always played FPS games as a kid. When i grew older, went to a few games with rental weapon. I bought a LCT AK74 with my first "stable" paycheck :) (jan 2018). still enjoying the sport! but not really the hole it made in my wallet

i played a one game of laser tag for a friends birthday and the venue had M4s rigged up to be laser tag, it was pretty fkn cool. but i wanted to try something with a little bit of impact. didnt want to try paintball because the guns all look similar, like paintball guns, and wearing coveralls in the woods is not very effective camo. lol. one of the guys that were there mentioned to me he is a part of a local airsoft group on FB and suggested i join. so i ordered myself an AEG, which i did not realize until a few months later and a dozen or so games that i did not choose the best "newbie" gun. i really like the DM role so i got myself an SVD AEG and un-upgraded its basicaly a really long AK47, very cumbersome to walk around in thick woods with. but hey, thats not gonna stop me, ill get used to it. end of my first season ever playing airsoft and i absolutely love it, great sport, great people, great exercise, great fun.

I got in it for the chicks

I was into paintball, until i played a "mil sim" game. I liked the idea, but not the clean up. than i saw an airsoft rifle kit at Walmart. After goofing around in my apartment, i started researching airsoft. been involved since 2008.

Someone called me gay and I was hell bent on proving them right

One day a friend was randomly talking about airsoft, and I suggested we get back into it. Worst financial decision I've ever made.

wanted an mp5k after playing black ops 1, got an m4 commando and started playing, got back into it after i found people that wanted to play in my area.

My friends and I have been playing FPS since before polygons were a thing, and they've been airsofters for about a decade. I finally decided screw it, I'll get myself geared up and join them.

I first got into airsoft during grade 9 (currently 22 lol). At first, my dad showed me his pellet gun which I fell in love plinking with. Soon after, I researched more about pellet guns and finally came across airsoft.

Seeing it as a safer and more fun alternative to a pellet gun, that's how I got into airsoft!

My friend showed me this video from OP: Irene 3 and it was game over for me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sm2s_b75Yu4

I got into guns from playing video games and somehow found replica firearms called airsoft guns and that was it. My first gun was a used Tokyo Marui AK Beta Spetsnaz with the short AK mag. I didn't get a battery for it until years later.

First gun was a G&G M16A1, from buyairsoft or something. It came with the Canada legal Smoked plastic lower. It was horrid.

The gun that got me into it was my friend showing me his TF11 C02 Mac11. I bought one years later and it was pure ass. But thats what sucked me in.

Since then I have been chasing my dream of a PSG1, or more specifically MSG90. Everytime I see a PSG1 on the classifieds I give it some side eye, despite not having played in the last 5 years.

Feb 1986 copy of GUN Magazine, and ARMS March '86.