Airsoft Wars-Rubber knifes,bayonets,etc

[Airsoft Elites Team]

Hey airsofters. I would like your opinion of using rubber knifes. And also, if in serious wars, if we can use rubber throwing knifes or tomahawks. Give me your opinion.
STOP GETTING ANGRY AT ME! I ASKED FOR YOUR OPINION, NOT A HATE-FEST! NOOBS!

[Jester316]

Each event has their own knife rules.

If you are caught throwing a rubber knife at a game I'm hosting, you will never be allowed back. Safety is the name of the game.

[Ivan Daylovich™]

Throwing knives and tomahawks don't sound safe. Shurikens are safe, but silly.

Bayonets are fine.

[Junto]

AP has long-standing rubber knife rules and even longer standing sentiments against calling airsoft games "WARS".

At my Fallout game I allowed melee weapons other than rubber knives, but I reviewed them myself to make sure they were light, well-padded, and safe to "tap" people out with. (Tap = To touch lightly with the weapon, not baseball swing at people.)

I would not expect other event hosts to do the same. I did it for the sake of scenario/immersion because it's true to the Fallout game series, but when we're trying to border a little more closely on reality, having elaborate melee weapons is fairly pointless.

[Icepick]

I missed the part where a serious "war" has a ridiculous idea from Call of Duty involved...

Each host has different rules like Jester stated. But most allow them as a way to get a really close kill, and to be used for tapping people out. As opposed to something that you see in the movies.

[BoogeyMan]

Rubber knives are ok - acceptable as a silent safety kill. Not to be thrown, simply a tap. The AP rules we have at a majority of games are meant to limit the amount of actual physical contact with an opponent to prevent any kind of physical altercation. Also if you have a fixed object to a gun, like a bayonet, and you "ram" someone with it - it's going to cause damage, no matter how dull it is, and no matter how many rules we lay down saying 'you can only hit someone this hard...' When people get into a stressful situation, they'll lock up and go 150% and that's just a safety hazard. The name of the game is safety here. And lets face it, we're all competitors when we get on the field and if some douche came up to me and grabbed me or hit me with a damn Nerf axe, I'd be halfway tempted to knock his face off.

Throwing rubber knives - ok - seriously, how many people on here could properly throw a real knife so that the blade would actually stick? It takes a lot of practice and how does a player tell if they've been hit with the pommel or the blade? Swords, shurikens, bayonets, axes, spears, pike poles, halberds, crowbars, etc... I feel have no place in airsoft. If you want to play with that shit go to the SCA http://www.sca.org Melee weapons seem too D&D to me - next thing we're casting lightning bolts and protection shields and wearing body armor that has +1 to Charisma.

[VogonFord]

Boffer has its own place. It's not airsoft. You're not a super-1337 Delta Operator, you're Joe Schmo who happens to have a gun. Really, the only reason I even carry a bayonet is simply because I like it, not because I ever actually use it. Shooting is almost always the better option. It's also safer and less likely to have people get butthurt. If you want to hit people with melee weapons, go to a boffer game. They're fun in their own way, but they don't belong on an airsoft field.

[Steve]

Person A: "I'm all sneaky-like, so I'm gonna go stab that dude with my rubber knife"

Person B: "Some dude came at me out of nowhere with a knife. So I muzzle-checked him in the face a couple of times before I realized it was a fake knife. Stupid reflex."

[Ivan Daylovich™]

Because Steve is retarded.

[Steve]

Because Steve is retarded.

It wasn't me. But I have basically seen this go down. Dude popped from inside a doorway, grabbed for the muzzle of the AEG, missed it, and swung a rubber knife like a paintbrush. Other dude muzzle-checked the guy with the knife before his brain caught up with the reflex. Hate on me all you want for pointing it out. It still happens. Between the l33t n1nj4z who spend hours at the dojo, and the combat vets with a few loose wires, I'll pass on doing anything remotely "hands on" in airsoft. That just escalates things to a level that I am uncomfortable with.

[Ivan Daylovich™]

That is a different situation than the one in your first post. The part where he grabbed the guys guns is a big no-no.

[Orwell]

Melee weapons seem too D&D to me - next thing we're casting lightning bolts and protection shields and wearing body armor that has +1 to Charisma.

Speak for yourself, sir. My armour adds +1 to Charisma.

[MarksInnerDemon]

In the Civil War bayonet deaths constituted less then 1% of all deaths. Knife kills, and that crap are for paint softing, and the wonderful world of random pickup skirmishes, not simulations, and barely a point on a large game if your people are doing what they are supposed to.

[Steve]

My bad for not being clear in the first post.

One guy decided to sneak up on a second guy, because knife kills are some sort of cool points bulls***.

They basically met going through the same doorway in opposite directions. Bad happened. I didn't exactly see how what went down, but my assumption is the guy with the knife was surprised, sorta flailed at the muzzle, and waved with the knife all at the same time. The other guy was probably surprised, flipped the us/them switch on reflex, and muzzle-checked the guy with the knife. Hard. I was moving around the outside of the shoot house in support of the knife-weilding gentleman, and was just coming up behind the gun-weilding gentleman when knifey-spooney went awry. F***ed up situation, entirely random chance and reflex. Had the guy with the rubber knife been carrying an airsoft instead, it would have come down to who shot first, which likely would have meant a double-elimination. Instead, there was a guy who felt like crap because he had just muzzle-checked some dude, standing over a guy who felt like crap because he was learning how to breathe again.

tl;dr:

When the game revolves around shooting each other with plastic pellets, stabby sticks should stay home. Even rubber bendy ones. Aside from the fact that getting stabbed with a rubber knife still hurts, it puts people in the combatives mindset, not the airsoft mindset. It generates a different set of trained responses, and those responses are generally uncomfortable ones for everyone involved.

[McNair]

That is a different situation than the one in your first post. The part where he grabbed the guys guns is a big no-no.

I dunno, I've had a guy stick his pistol in a door way and start unloading. I was standing right there, so I just took it away from him.