I couldn't believe it.
What? I missed the paper target?
This moment marked the beginning of my self-experiment.
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A photo of me practicing with my airsoft gun |
How Did This Happen?
How could I miss a paper target at such a close distance? It didn’t make any sense.
Like every South Korean male, I completed my mandatory military service. For 1 year and 7 months, I served in an Army reconnaissance battalion. While not as specialized as UDT SEAL, the 707th Special Mission Group, or the Marine Corps Special Reconnaissance Unit, Army reconnaissance battalions are still considered elite forces within an Army division. Because of this, I believed I had received solid firearms training.
However, one thing always bothered me—I had never fired a handgun during my service. My experience was limited to rifles like the K2, K1, and M16.
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| A photo of South Korea's standard-issue rifle, the K2. But since I was a light infantryman, I primarily used the K1. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Daewoo_K2_rifle_1.jpg |
My First Time Shooting a Handgun
Now that I live in Europe, I’m exempt from Korea’s annual reserve forces training, meaning I have no opportunities to shoot real firearms anymore. And this made me kind of miss shooting.
Then, during a short two-week visit to Korea, I got the chance to fire a handgun. After finishing an important schedule, I had a few days of free time. Looking for something interesting to do, I found an indoor shooting range nearby. Excited, I decided to check it out.
Despite the high price, I was eager to experience handgun shooting for the first time. Stepping into the shooting lane with an instructor beside me, I felt confident. I had zero knowledge about handguns, but I assumed my military experience would carry over. After all, a handgun is smaller and lighter than a rifle—how hard could it be?
The Result? A Complete Disaster.
At that shooting range, people usually took pictures with their targets after shooting. but I didn’t even bother.
Why? Because my target was humiliating.
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| My shooting pattern was the typical lower-left grouping. I fired a total of 10 rounds, but one or two of them didn’t even hit the target sheet! I was shocked. |
What Went Wrong?
I couldn’t understand it. It was an indoor range, and the target wasn’t far away. How could I have missed so badly?
I felt frustrated and embarrassed. Even after returning to Germany(where I currently live in), the question kept haunting me.
Determined to find out what went wrong, I started searching YouTube for videos on proper handgun shooting techniques. The more I watched, the more I realized how little I actually knew.
The next time I got a chance to shoot, I wanted to do better.
The Challenge of Firearm Training
But as we all know, shooting is not a cheap hobby.
Especially in Germany, where firearm regulations are strict, practicing with real guns requires significant time and money. And for a foreigner like me, it’s even more difficult.
So I asked myself: How can I train for handgun shooting without using a real firearm?
The Unexpected Answer: Airsoft Guns
To be honest, I used to be skeptical about airsoft guns. Having used real firearms before, I had always dismissed airsoft guns as toys.
But now, things were different. I wanted to improve my shooting skills, yet live-fire training was not a feasible option for me. That’s when airsoft started to seem like a practical alternative.
So, I decided to purchase the VFC Glock 17 Gen 5 gas blowback airsoft gun, a model officially licensed by Glock and known for its high realism.
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| My airsoft Glock 17 Generation 5. I got it in mid-January |
And with that, my self-experiment officially began.
Can Airsoft Training Actually Improve Real Firearm Skills?
This is the question I aim to answer through this series.
I trained with my airsoft Glock 17 for about two months, practicing whenever I had time. I focused on drills like shooting at small targets, trigger control, and sight alignment—basically, as many exercises as I could do with an airsoft gun.
All the while, I was eagerly waiting for the day I could do live-fire training.
Then, in early March, I traveled to the Czech Republic. Since shooting ranges are much cheaper there than in Germany, I didn’t hesitate to book a live-fire shooting event on the first day of my Prague trip.
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A photo taken at a square in Prague. Prague was such an amazing city! |
I shot 56 rounds in total with a package deal that included 5 different handguns.
Here’s the list of the handguns I shot:
- Ruger KMKII
- Glock 17
- CZ 75 SP01 Shadow
- CZ P-10 F
- Ruger KGP 161
I was excited and a bit nervous about how much my airsoft training would translate to real firearms. What if my two months of effort turned out to be useless?
There are many videos out there asking whether airsoft training can really transfer to real firearm shooting. While I’ve seen them, I wasn't fully convinced of its effectiveness until I experienced it for myself.
So, you’re wondering about the results, right? Here’s the conclusion:
Airsoft training definitely helps with live firearm shooting! — though it can’t fully replace real-life practice.
As I walked into the shooting range, three things kept running through my mind:
A high and tight grip, trigger control, and sight alignment…
I tried to recall the sensations I had practiced with airsoft as I took the gun handed to me by the range officer.
First Gun – Ruger KMKII
I began by shooting 10 rounds with the Ruger KMKII. It was my first time handling this particular gun(I didn’t even know guns like this existed). but I thought it wouldn't be a big problem because I knew the basic principles of handgun shooting: high, tight grip and trigger control.
The first thing that surprised me was how mild the recoil was. (Of course, 22mm is still dangerous enough) The recoil felt only slightly stronger than the 1J power of my airsoft gun.
Because of this, I was able to realign the sights quickly and resume aiming without much trouble. Another thing that stood out was how light the trigger pull was. It was convenient while shooting, but I also thought that a gun with such a light trigger would require even more caution and attention to safety.
So, here were my results:
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You can ignore the other shot holes for now. I'll explain what happened in the next post. |
The small dots on the target were from Ruger KMKII. Not super terrible! But the instructor had me start at a close distance since it was my first time shooting. (I’m not familiar with indoor shooting ranges, so I don’t know the exact distance.)
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| This is a rear view of me shooting Ruger KMKII. Does anyone know how many yards this distance might be? |
Phew! I sighed with relief.
But I wasn’t fully satisfied with my results because it was a close distance. I wished the shots had clustered a bit more. And as I was mulling over my mixed feelings of relief and disappointment, the instructor said my shooting wasn’t bad and suggested that we move back for longer-distance shots. (My response? "Hell yeah!")
Then he sent the target all the way to the farthest distance.
I still wasn’t sure if airsoft training really had any effect on live firearm shooting.
Maybe it was because I shot from a close distance, or maybe I just got lucky.
And I was expecting that the 9mm handguns I’d be shooting next would have much stronger recoil, which could affect my accuracy...
In the next post, I'll share my review of the remaining handguns and summarize my thoughts. To read the next part, click on this link.
Can Airsoft Training Improve Real Firearm Skills? My Self-Experiment (Part 2)
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