Can Airsoft Penetrate Skin and How Deep Does It Go?

Can Airsoft Penetrate Skin And How Deep Does It Go

There are hundreds of videos of guys unloading an Airsoft gun on bare skin. The one thing that usually accompanies these videos are funny moments of men wincing in pain from the sting, especially when shot up close.

The question you may ask yourself is, can airsoft penetrate the skin? The short answer is, yes. It does penetrate the skin and it hurts. But there’s no need to panic. Although getting hit hard enough by a BB that penetrates the skin does sting, it’s not enough to take you to a hospital.

When an Airsoft gun is shot from a close distance and with enough velocity, it will penetrate the skin. However, stock airsoft guns don’t have enough velocity to get deep enough into the skin to cause serious damage.

In this post, let’s dig deeper into what it feels like to get shot by an Airsoft gun for it to penetrate the skin.

Can Airsoft Penetrate Skin?

Airsoft BBs shot from standard unmodified airsoft guns travel between 300-450 feet per second. At this speed, the most damage they usually cause is a welt when they are aimed at bare skin. The welt hurts and leaves a bump since blood has collected under but this is no penetration of the skin.

However, there are rare occasions when an Airsoft BB can penetrate the skin. This is when the airsoft gun is shot from close up and aimed at soft parts of the body like the face. The gun also needs to be shooting at a high fps to penetrate the skin.

How Deep Does an Airsoft BB Penetrate Skin?

In the rare occasions when an Airsoft gun shoots hard enough to penetrate the skin, the bb would not pass through all the layers of skin. It generally should be a minor wound that would not require a visit to the hospital.

Getting hit on a sensitive part like the throat might cause injury but not due to the BB penetrating the skin. It would be more of the impact of the BB hitting the throat.

Will You Bleed When an Airsoft BB Penetrates Your Skin?

You generally don’t expect to bleed from an Airsoft BB penetrating the skin.

You may draw a few drops of blood but the impact is not strong enough to reach to cause any serious injury. 

Can an Airsoft Gun Cause Serious Injury?

You can sustain serious injury if you are hit by a BB in the eye. Your eye is the last place you want an Airsoft BB to hit you. These are the most sensitive parts of your body when you’re playing airsoft and should be guarded by all means. Wearing full seal impact-rated goggles will help with this.

Protect your eye by using the best protection you can have. There are lucky ones who came out with just temporary vision loss but some do lose their eyesight. It is always better to gear up especially protecting your eye. 

What Can I Do to Prevent Airsoft From Penetrating Skin?

As discussed earlier, an Airsoft gun will only penetrate the skin when shot from close distances, and with a higher than usual fps. For this reason, to prevent an Airsoft BB from penetrating your skin, you need to:

  • Increase the distance between you and a hot airsoft gun
  • Ensure that soft and sensitive parts of your body like the throat and face are covered using something like a Shemagh
  • Ensure you have full seal impact-tested goggles on at all times during an Airsoft game
  • If you have a hot airsoft gun, keep a large minimum engagement distance to protect others from being hurt by your gun.
  • Ensure that you play in fields that have strict rules on fps limits. This will help you be sure that all the players are shooting acceptable fps and no player is using a modified airsoft gun that is likely to cause injury.
  • Don’t play around with your gun outside of the field. Treat your airsoft gun like you would a firearm. This will reduce the chances of the gun unloading on someone unexpectedly and at close enough proximity to cause skin breakage or even worse, loss of eyesight.

What Do You Wear That It Doesn’t Hurt?

Airsoft BBs hurt when you’re not properly protected. Wear something that gives more padding to reduce the impact of the shot and prevent any serious damage. But don’t worry, BBs don’t usually penetrate the skin. But just to be safer, wear better clothing. 

Pair of Jeans and a Sweatshirt

A basic pair of jeans and a long-sleeved sweatshirt will do a good job of padding you from BBs. If you want more protection, consider wearing multiple or thick clothing.

Wear the clothes just enough that you’re protected and not sweating from wearing thick clothing. Being out in the field, movement and comfort are important factors as well.

Gloves

Another thing you may want to do is get a pair of gloves to protect your hands. Your airsoft gun will be one of the first things that will be seen when you are shooting from a corner. This means that it will be a target most of the time and your hands will get hit quite a lot in the process. This is the main reason why gloves would be a good idea.

Enquire if you can rent these from the field organizers or if you need to buy a pair. If you want to know more, you can read this article to know more about what you should wear in an airsoft game.

Conclusion

While it does happen and hurts a lot, a BB will not cause too much injury at times. The airsoft has to be modified and shot up close to do that kind of damage and this doesn’t happen too often. There are FPS limitations and not a lot of people enjoy shooting someone up close. 

There are also ways you can prevent getting hurt out there. Most airsoft players and organizers will recommend using a pair of goggles as well. But to be sure, get a good pair or rent at least before you can afford one.

Once you taste a shot from airsoft, you’ll soon realize that it’s more like a bug bite than a skin-penetrating bullet.