Can an Airsoft gun be “modified to shoot live rounds?”

There are a bunch of high end airsoft guns that are very realistic looking. They are very different internally. Some of the best are a material like Zamak so there is at least some potential that a converted gun would work, but it would not be easy, would likely not be durable enough for repeated firing, and would take a full blown redesign essentially just using the shell of the airsoft gun.

As one with machining experience, I can definitely say that yes, I could.
But it would take less work and design to start with a bin of scraps or a block of metal and a pipe instead.

It would basically involve gutting the entire donor and building at least half a functioning gun inside, depending on design.
You might be able to use the barrel for rimfire rounds--though it would be mostly an afterthought at that point--and you might be able to use the (heavily modified) slide on some designs, and in both cases it's only a very short matter of time before it becomes more dangerous to any direction that isn't directly in front of it than any target it may be pointed at.

If someone has the knowhow to actually convert one, they'd also become aware that it would be less of a waste of time and resources to spend an afternoon at the hardware store instead. Starting from scratch would actually need less tooling than converting one.

Oh, sure you can. You just need to get a copy of RC Modeler magazine, buy some modeling polymers, make a mold for the parts and get an ink pen spring and you are well on your way. Having the Airsoft frame as a basis is a definite plus...he said, tongue in cheek...



http://homemadedefense.blogspot.com/2010/07/greatest-guns-of-fiction-plastic-gun.html?m=1

I read a book once where a guy was killed with an ice bullet and the evidence melted away...

Sure one could “modify” one to fire a real bullet and a car can be modified into a boat or airplane. If we stay in the realm of fiction, even a time machine.

Rule3 said:

While we are at it, how about all the BB/Pellet replicas?. Lets make those shoot live ammo!

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I once turned a pellet rifle into a 12 gauge shotgun with a buddy with the help of some pipe (barrel), fittings and scrap metal in his dads garage.

Basically had the air part of it be a floating firing pin using a spring and a long piece of metal for the firing pin after we sawed off the barrel of the air rifle.

For other air guns look up the ME38 Magnum. Those were often used for conversions in the UK.

With airsoft guns I imagine some parts would be useful, I don’t imagine that it’s going to hold up to repeated shots though.

Goosey said:

Usually what they will modify in England are blank-firing replica guns. Not airsoft guns.

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Gah! Of course. Don't know why I didn't go there with my brain. Not just the UK either, pretty common all over the place. With varying levels off effort, depending how seriously the local laws/authorities take the conversion risk; some are pretty much guns with the wrong parts, so if you source/make a barrel, you are close to a real gun.

Since these actually happen (unlike airsoft) pretty easy to find court cases, explainers, example videos, etc about them. A LOT are very tinfoily, but this is a decent collection of info:
https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2016/11/29/converting-9mm-p-k-fire-380-resulting-failures/

Terminology matter here--as it does in so much else.

"Airsoft" typically refers to something that projects 2g 6mm "pellets" using compressed gas. Some of those compress room air with a spring; some compress air with an electric motor; some use a prepackaged compressed gas. Airsoft virtually never has a striker or hammer which could be used to impinge on a primer.

"Air guns" are similar, if using larger projectiles, from 4.5 to 5.5mm, from 2.5 to 5g--dangerous to small game in the upper ranges, but, again, no firing pins, strikers, or the like.

Now, in Europe, there's a huge issue over "blank firing" and "deactivated" firearms. Partially that's because there are over two dozen national definitions of what those terms are. So, there are eastern European arms that just have a bit of tubing hammered into the bore that prevents loading anything but blanks in them. So, they are legal, in those countries that allow that, as "blank firing." Now, Europeans have a lot of free access across the continent. And plenty of clever people.

So, people writing from a European experience will have anecdotal evidence of people just swapping out a barrel, or popping a limiter tube out, and the "blank" gun is now a "real" firearm. Which is nothing like what it would take to convert a Tokyo Marui AEG into a cartridge firing arm.

CapnMac said:

Air guns" are similar, if using larger projectiles, from 4.5 to 5.5mm, from 2.5 to 5g--dangerous to small game in the upper ranges

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That was yesterday.


210grain pellets.
50 caliber. 230ft/lbs.
I think it looks neat, but the real deal is AirForce.
American made Big Boar Air Rifles!
https://www.airforceairguns.com/The-TexanSS-by-AirForce-Airguns-s/136.htm



These are offered in .475, .357, and .308.
No powder conversions necessary.
Walther-Lothar barrels.

Jeez, I sound like a commercial. But literally anything is easier than making an air/soft into a fire/hard.

maxxhavoc said:

Well, I'm probably gonna step on a landmine here, but maybe you could at one point.

In 2010 the ATF caught a lot of flak for intercepting a small shipment of airsoft M4 rifles. Here is one of many stories about that:

https://www.everydaynodaysoff.com/2010/02/28/airsoft-gun-seizure-apparently-toys-can-be-real-guns/

So a lot of folks automatically laughed at the idea, but either way some of the folks who already had the airsoft gave it a try...and I can't see any of those results on the Internet anymore. Basically, it WAS just an airsoft, but it was an Airsoft that had at it's core a closer-than-80% lower according to some people at the time. Here is a link to the "new" lower:
https://www.evike.com/products/47163/

Yes, the lower would mate with an upper. One 'smith at the time said it was 10 minutes with a Dremel and 1 new hole drilled to make it into a usable AR lower. Others said it would be just as easy to make a lower from a block of aluminum. I don't know for sure, but it was an interesting story at the time. Either way, it was no more a "machine gun" than any other AR lower (well, except that it could fire Airsoft BBs full auto.)

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This was the first thought I had when reading to OP, it was big news at the time.

Kookla said:

I recall years back that there were Makarov pistols converted to c02 air pistols imported and sold here as such.

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I think you are correct. There is a Mak that is made from a stock of a powder burner. I forget the model number. Not imported to the US. I have read about them and seen some on gun broker but very expensive. I have been a fan of he Makarov BB pistol for training for years. Nice size and for a inexpensive BB gun very reliable. After a decade of shooting one, the FPS taken with a chrony is the same since first purchase.

Quite a few videos on youtube on homemade slamfire shotguns.

This kid had some fun ones.


See more of his videos here.
https://www.full30.com/channels/royalnonesuch

Youtube banned him.

Yes, an Airsoft gun can be made to fire live rounds.
All you have to do is replace the frame, upper, and all internal parts.

Demi-human said:

These are offered in .475, .357, and .308.

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Those are air-propelled rifles, not intended for "play" use at all. Or needing a conversion from innocuous to dangerous.
Probably less-than available in Europe, too (but, you never know, the Swiss and Czech are sensible about these things.

This would be as close as you can get to a real rifle from an airsoft rifle.
http://www.systema-engineering.com/

I might be tempted to use the shell of an Airsoft toy to conceal the workings of a functional firearm - make it look like a toy - but I'd probably use a Nerf gun or something even more toy-like... .

Pat Riot said:

Oh, sure you can. You just need to get a copy of RC Modeler magazine, buy some modeling polymers, make a mold for the parts and get an ink pen spring and you are well on your way. Having the Airsoft frame as a basis is a definite plus...he said, tongue in cheek...

View attachment 883707

http://homemadedefense.blogspot.com/2010/07/greatest-guns-of-fiction-plastic-gun.html?m=1

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That there is one of them plastic Glock guns, ain't it?

boom boom said:

That there is one of them plastic Glock guns, ain't it?

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Nah, double barreled plastic Thompson Contender.

Not easily, no. It would take more skill to make something shootable out of an airsoft platform than it would to make a zip gun from scratch.

I have heard of this in news reports from the UK....also that some tear gas cartridge guns were modified along similar lines.

maxxhavoc said:

Well, I'm probably gonna step on a landmine here, but maybe you could at one point.

In 2010 the ATF caught a lot of flak for intercepting a small shipment of airsoft M4 rifles. Here is one of many stories about that:

https://www.everydaynodaysoff.com/2010/02/28/airsoft-gun-seizure-apparently-toys-can-be-real-guns/

So a lot of folks automatically laughed at the idea, but either way some of the folks who already had the airsoft gave it a try...and I can't see any of those results on the Internet anymore. Basically, it WAS just an airsoft, but it was an Airsoft that had at it's core a closer-than-80% lower according to some people at the time. Here is a link to the "new" lower:
https://www.evike.com/products/47163/

Yes, the lower would mate with an upper. One 'smith at the time said it was 10 minutes with a Dremel and 1 new hole drilled to make it into a usable AR lower. Others said it would be just as easy to make a lower from a block of aluminum. I don't know for sure, but it was an interesting story at the time. Either way, it was no more a "machine gun" than any other AR lower (well, except that it could fire Airsoft BBs full auto.)

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DeepSouth said:

This was the first thought I had when reading to OP, it was big news at the time.

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Yes, at the time it really happened. A certain brand of replica/airsoft AR15 (made in Taiwan, as I recall) could be turned into a firing rifle by removing the upper and replacing with a real upper. The lower was copied nearly exactly. Not sure how many rounds in the useful life.

ATF in concert with Customs seized a bunch of those at airports (ports of entry) from country of origin. Since then the product has been altered to not allow such swaps without machining (sort of like an 80% frame).

No doubt this was repeated like many things and soon 'everyone' was under the impression 'any' replica (etc.) was capable of transformation into a real gun by something equivalent to a magic spell. Which found it's way to a writer in England.

Kind of like a lot of movies, 'based on a true story'.