Do any of you do any kind of actual force-on-force firearms training?

Is airsoft (or paintball) the best way to do this kind of practice safely?

Depends on what type of training you want to do.

Paintball is great outdoor training.

Airsoft is great because of the realism of the weapons used.

I've done both and can definitely attest to their usefulness.

It's good training if you treat every hit as a potential death.  It becomes bad training when people take unrealistic risks.

Interesting... I'm seriously going to check this out. 

I noticed that there's a "Hawaii All Star Paintball Games" at Nimitz Highway that supports both.
http://www.hawaiiallstarpb.com/Home_Page.php

At the risk of starting an unsolvable debate, which one do you think is better?  Airsoft or Paintball?

For Oahu, which is better in terms of equipment, players (not lamers), teams, facility, events, local stores, welt size, fun, etc? 

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

i would go with airsoft, just because it can be more realistic to your firearms and equipment you use, can modify all the regular things you would on a regular firearm.  just my opinion.  With a paintball gun, you aim differently, and possibly limited to the types of courses available.  With the airsoft you can practice many different simulation, your tactics, practice at home with paper targets, etc.

if you was interested in paintball, i have a spyder flash gun for sale.  has everything but the mask.

Just talking out loud... since the airsoft guns look so identical to the real one, I wonder if people do mix up their real firearms with their airsoft firearms.   

One would not want to mistakenly bring one or another to the wrong event.  Hmmm.

i would go with airsoft, just because it can be more realistic to your firearms and equipment you use, can modify all the regular things you would on a regular firearm.  just my opinion.  With a paintball gun, you aim differently, and possibly limited to the types of courses available.  With the airsoft you can practice many different simulation, your tactics, practice at home with paper targets, etc.

if you was interested in paintball, i have a spyder flash gun for sale.  has everything but the mask.

Thanks, bass monkey.  That was what appealed to me initially with airsoft... do you know if parts are interchangable between airsoft and real firearms?  For example, would red dot on a real firearm work on an airsoft firearm, etc?

Regarding paintball, I'll keep in mind to check out your spyder flash gun when I figure out what I want to do. 

im pretty sure they would.  they put rails and all that other stuff on it.  Have no personal experience though but im sure its quite possible.  i think there are cheap knock-offs too of those brands made for airsoft.

Thanks, bass monkey.  That was what appealed to me initially with airsoft... do you know if parts are interchangable between airsoft and real firearms?  For example, would red dot on a real firearm work on an airsoft firearm, etc?

Regarding paintball, I'll keep in mind to check out your spyder flash gun when I figure out what I want to do.

im a avid airsoft player and i do use it for  training purpose good for muscle memorie, mental stress, tactical logic, stress relief for rapid firing, or just plain exercise benefits. It is also cheaper then paint ball and the trending seems to lean more towards it as well as far as equipment and shops. Yes you can use real equipment parts for alot of things but and i mean but your red dot will get shot and those BBs will shatter you eo tech 1500 dollar halographic,  so i dont recomend it but companies like magpul, noveskie, bravo co, utg, all support airsoft so you can make your airsoft mimic your real steel for like i said active training so when the zombies come you'll be ready just another day in the office. For more of a real effect look into gas blow back that will be as real down to how much rounds your mag will carrie and the blowback action of the bolt.

Airsoft is definitely good for practicing familiarization with your weapon systems under stress. There is a variety of airsoft guns available that mimic common firearms in the military and civilian markets. For local airsoft shopping, look into Impact Games and Epowersports in Aiea, both near Best Buy and Poweredge in Kaimuki across the street from Big City Diner. The type of gameplay and players in Hawaii (Oahu) is really fast paced and first person shooter video game influenced. Not the best crowd to work with for training, but a good day of running around sweating and shooting plastic pellets at people. I guess it all depends on how much effort you actually put into it. Now thinking about it, I partially blame my bad habits in shooting to my years of playing airsoft. On another note, let's see if Bota-CS1 or Mojo can share a thing or two about airsoft.

Interesting... I'm seriously going to check this out. 

I noticed that there's a "Hawaii All Star Paintball Games" at Nimitz Highway that supports both.
http://www.hawaiiallstarpb.com/Home_Page.php

At the risk of starting an unsolvable debate, which one do you think is better?  Airsoft or Paintball?

For Oahu, which is better in terms of equipment, players (not lamers), teams, facility, events, local stores, welt size, fun, etc? 

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

Paintballs with their larger mass will have more range than airsoft.  They are pushing about 275 fps (188 mph) so the balls are slower than airsoft.  This plus the size means you can actually see and dodge the paintballs.  When I used to play I'd bait people to shoot for recon purposes...........I picked up a lot of bad habits.  Anyhow as far as shooting at people it really does a pretty decent job at teaching you lead and windage.

Airsoft you are pushing at about 400 to 500 fps (272 to 340mph).  Balls are much smaller.  Add the size and speed and you basically can't see them or dodge them.  For close in engagements airsoft does a good job.  What's bad with rifles is the mask interferes with proper cheek welds so you won't shoulder the rifles like you would a normal rifle.

Both airsoft and paintball are bad with too much ammo capacity.  It becomes spray and pray.  Paintball is limited mostly to gravity feeding while airsoft is spring fed. 

Of the two in short range engagements airsoft is king for more realistic training.

Ive played airsoft since the mid 90s ive gotta say its come closer to real guns than ever before.   I had a real bushmaster free float hand gaurd on my 620 fps airsoft ar.  Couple built sv infintys for airsoft ispc much cheaper than real .45 ammo.  They have mil sim games in which you cam only load as much bbs as the real counter part gun.  I can say having a 500 fps saw unload 3000 rnds in 2 min is fun too