Here we run with a standard of 280fps max and use ONLY .25g bbs. When we thought about it, we felt we didn't need the mercy rule and thus, abolished it. Mercies here come as a result of being polite rather than safety.

If it's a safety issue, you're going to have to go with the highest fps allowed with the heaviest weight for simplicity. Find a decent mercy range for 400fps with .28g. (I don't really find many AEG users going beyond that...and snipers at 450fps with .43g have their own set of mercy rules.)

Another thing, what's the appropriate surface energy transfer for such a shot? And what's the acceptable fps and energy of impact? Should all players be forced to wear long sleeves for protection? There's a lot of variables to account for. A blanket policy makes sense to go with.

My feeling on the issue is that if people would wear the face/ear protection that comes with their goggles, mercy distance would be a non-issue at any FPS. The face/ears/mouth are the only areas that could be damaged to any real extent by a plastic airsoft BB of any weight. The rest of your body can take a few hits (This does not condone "over" shooting). Sure it is going to sting/hurt a bit, but I bet you will watch your back and flank areas from then on. If you cannot stand the "limited" temporary pain of multiple hits from a BB going approx. 400+/- FPS, I am not sure why you are trying to recreate the military "feeling". Without the pain factor that causes adrenaline it would be boring and without incentive not to get hit (just like real life). I realize everyone wants to wear just the goggles to look as "Milsim" as possible but to counter this you can camo your goggles to match your uniform with a little ingenuity (Problem solved). I never play without full-face protection, I expect to get shot in the face and plan for that.

For one, I think Sha Do hit on something very basic; people taking fire return fire. Unless you have some very upgraded gun and know you have to switch to another weapon when closing (highly upgraded BA rifle, for example), someone with a stock-ish M4 taking full auto fire from an MP7 is going to fire back. That, I believe, is where the need for a uniform minimum engagement distance rises from.

Bogging people down with MORE rules and more stuff to keep track of in the heat of the action isn't going to help anything, and in fact is probably counter productive; rules need to be simple and clear and easy to remember/follow, even in the middle of a pitched firefight.



Except many (most?) people aren't using paintball goggles, so they don't have a mask anyway. Even back when I did use pball goggles, I didn't use the mask portion; it's uncomfortable and blocks airflow and prevents being able to aim properly (arguably MORE dangerous, if you're "using the Force" to aim and hit the other guy in the face or groin, instead of the chest, in the process). Also, I stopped using paintball goggles specifically because I didn't feel they were as safe as real ballistically rated goggles around higher powered guns, and I would refuse to play using paintball goggles around anything but very stock-ish powered guns (300 fps).