Airsoft Cover

this is just a topic I thought of when i was at an airsoft war. what is a great household item that you can use for an effective cover?
some that i have thought of are:
Wooden planks set up against something (less affective)
Trees (average)
Wheelbarrows (less affective)
Tarp set up against a sturdy object (very affective)

sadly, i am thinking of setting up some cover in my yard, but i dont have enough of these items and my yard is very small
(maybe 100ftX35ft) and that includes a big area of plants and a deck, so what are some suggestions for cover i could set up that would make my yard a better spot to airsoft at?

what type of cover are you looking for(sniper cover or just normal stuff for some fun games)?

i would also try to stay away from backyard airsofting as it can cause some major trouble for the game and the people who are playing.

sticks

Try fox holes. If your parents will let you...

i was looking for more of just fun cover. and sadly backyard airsoft is the only choice for me right now.....

k well i know where i live all the power lines (and other hazardous things) are under ground, so call AEP or something of that nature before you start digging foxholes. try sandbags too, would still have the War look but these are easy to find and store. something that would make your parents happy is if you planted some plants that are bushy but dont look too bad (ask yer mum about these, im sure she has some ideas for you). other than that theres always the tree house or Walmart jungle gym.

if those dont work then i dont know what to do

sticks

yea, im pretty sure that there arent any gas pipelines in my backyard, but i do know there is a septic tank, and the last thing i need is to be covered in poop while i airsoft. but the bush idea sounds good. my next door neighbor combines his yard with mine and we airsoft, so its usually not that bad. thanks for the advice guys

ok....well....for paintball, we always just tried to find scrap plywood or osb particle board to make a speedball course, another thing you can do is use pvc piping to frame out the shape and then use a tarp and tie it to the pvc....relatively cheap and lightweight. maybe that helps:)

Depends on what you have lying around... some objects that I have found to be effective:
-1983 Winebago
-1965 Volkswagen Beetle
-4 pieces of plywood put together to form a building like structure
-Lawn mower
-Old furniture
Actually I have to be honest, I havent used hardly any of that stuff, but it would be fun to try it.

Just thought of another one to add to the list...

rent a few U-Haul trucks... perfect cover.

The best place to get wood is a construction site. They have piles of junk wood and the best part, it's free!

good call fox....just make sure you clean the nails and screws b4 doing a dive onto one!

I have actually used cardboard for a speedball party I threw once. It worked quite well because it was really thick. They were used to house pumpkins, watermelons, and potatoes in a grocerie store so when I cut them in half they had the perfect shape for a barrier. If I had more time to set them all up (I had like 25) it would have been so much better, but the friend I had come early to help me didn't help out all, he just kept shooting them for 2 whole hours saying how great they were... big help.
In any case, there is no way a gun could make it through those things. Even if it shot 550 I bet you it would have taken about 50 shots in the same exact place. BB's got stuck in them, but they'd never break through. If you use regular thickness cardboard its going to go through virtually unaffected so you need the triple thick stuff I am talking about.

also I have a speedball course (I think it is great fun for CQC) where I currently use tarps and sheets. I have heard so many great things about those tarps (me and my friends made them into 4 houses that have a door and 2 windows) but to be honest with you they are that great against any good gun. They will work to conceal your position and will guard against shots taken about 25ft away (i think... i haven't set them up for about 3 months).
Sheets on the other hand are awsome. There is no way a bb's going to make it through. If that were the case then we'd all have big wholes in our shirts when we were shot. They aren't too expensive, very reliable, easy to pin up and take down, and you can put them in a multitude of different places (all you need are two trees that are close enough). If you could make your own frames you could make some awsome building type structures. I have black and green ones.
This isn't going to give you a very attractive course, but it will give you a very cheap course that can be taken down and moved as many times as you like.
Sorry for the length, I just wanted to give you some practical answers that I know from experience since this thread turned into a joke. Hope all helps you.

This is the only picture I can find of them right now. See that teal structure in the upper rigth hand corner. That is one of the tarps I used. You can see a window for shooting out of there too. I think they are ~25ft². if not more and ~8ft tall. Again I haven't set them up for a while so I am not too sure. The cool thing about this is if you are crossing this course playing capture the flag, you can't walk by these without making sure they are clear unless you want lit up in the back.
I think there is a sheet in the smaller picture. it is that black square to the left.



wow this is kind of sad

actually, I love speedball SOMETIMES... In moderation it can be great. I also think for us to be good advocates for our sport, we should be able to recruit new players into it with the same enthusiasm as we have for airsoft. I think really quick and fun speedball games are a great way to peak ppl's interest.

i dont like speedball only because of the lack of tactics. im not saying there arent any at all, but airsoft offers a larger variety of plans, tactics, and covers other than inflatables

as long as the tarp isnt super thin mil, it should handle a pewny bb no problem. my handled paintballs at point blank and they are far heavier and still at 400 fps.

i dont know that i agree with you ragnarock about speedball having a complete/or close to it lack of tactics. sure, there is less stealth, but you still have to know when and how to advance while having nothing to hide or use as cover to do it. i just think speedball is a completely different set of tactics than woods play. both have plenty of tactics to employ, and honestly, knowledge of both is crucial for big airsoft games. if you didnt know how to do speedball, how would you be able to do cqb in a town? towns provide more similarities to speedball than being in the woods.....just need them both in my opinion:)

Have to agree with stormtrupr. If you think speedball has a lack of tactics, then your pretty much saying there is no need for tactical CQC. I don't think this is true. If you were to occasionally focus on CQC I think it would make you that much better. Speedball is a way to do this because it facilitates the types of engagements and usually doesn't allow any of the participants to escape the CQC situation.
Another plus to speedball is, in my expierence it is a more fast paced (hince the name) game. It seems to me to be a little easier for newbies too. This may seem stupid, but if you aren't trying to bring more people into the sport, then I think you lack an important part of passion for the sport.
Nothing personal here, these are just the ways I think about myself, NOT how I judge others. Airsoft is as subjective as everything else.

Let's see... tarp, particle board, cardboard, fox holes (probably won't work so well in a backyard lol), etc. What about using some type of fabric/cloth from a place like Walmart? It'll take shots much better than tarp, will last longer in general, won't be as loud and annoying as tarp (although I like the sound of BBs hitting the tarp) which your parents will appreciate, and although it'd be more expensive, it'd be well worth it. Wrap that around the PVC piping, trees, etc. Or you could simply find junk from around the house/outside, stack it up, and use that.

And I don't want to sound annoying, but please be careful with "backyard airsofting." Most forums don't even allow the topic to be brought up, as many airsofters see it as the downfall of airsoft in the U.S. This is because backyard airsofting can often upset neighbors, parents, and local police. Upsetting these people = not good for airsoft in general. So please get permission from everyone first. I personally am not against backyard airsofting because it can be fun if done responsibly and sometimes it's the only option we have!

And just to add to the fabric vs. tarp: A friend of mine uses tarp in his cqb field, and although it sounds great when BBs hit the tarp, it's customizable and can easily be taken down, the tarp is fairly thick and BBs still go through it sometimes! With some of the lower powered AEGs and springers, 9 out of 10 BBs wouldn't go through, but with guns like my L96 EVERY BB would go through. Sure this means easy kills , but kind of defeats the point of cover lol

I sometimes play airsoft in my backyard/yard but almost every one in my neiborhood kids play airsoft so...anyway i have a humungus yard and in my back yard we have a garden thats about 20x20ft but in the winter we cut all the crops down and it leaves a big surface of dirt so i dig a hole fairly deep in it and i have a wood bunker(i dig far enought that my waist is at top of dirt and this bunker is just a square and a window up front) that i made that i put over top of it it works awsome.
i also use like dumsters,tarp,board,and sometimes cardboard this is some what the bunker looked like http://www.clcpollockpines.com/paintball/images/tablebunkerlookingout_big.jpg
sorry no other good pic

Seems like a pretty nice setup. Nice bunker. That's nice of your parents to allow you to dig there during the off-season Just wondering, how many people do you usually have out to play there?

I heard read some ppl talking about this tarp problem before. They said that even though 1/10 BB's fired will go through the tarp, it is actually a good thing b/c it more closely resembles a real gun sometimes going through a real wall. Not my opinion necessarily just sharing another POV.
I think even if bbs go through some of the time this cover can still work. You won't see too many people shooting tarps until they know somebody is behind them... by that time it could be too late

i wasnt implying that speedball has no tactics, i was simply saying that i enjoy airsoft much more because there are more tactics. i do enjoy an occasional day of speedball, but in my oppinion airsoft is better.

sorry for bringing up backyard airsoft, its just that i had no idea it was looked down on. and none of my neighbors care, so nothing bad for airsoft.

admin i only play with the few friends i have b/c some of the kids in the neboirhood are wierd and not safe with guns so i only have about 5-8 people to play with enless my friends invite someone

on a good day about 12 people play but im the only sniper so i own lol