Airsoft gun rentals?

[SquadronROE]

What do people think of a third party airsoft rental place?

The idea would be this:

Get a bunch of entry level airsoft guns. For instance:

3 G&G M4s
2 JG M36s
2 CYMA AK47s (or similar)

Make sure that there is a battery and spare for each gun, as well as 4x Mid Caps and 2x Hi-Caps.

Also make sure that goggles are available for each gun.

Then, at any particular op or game, provide rental services. For example:

$15 - Choice of weapon, 2x Hi-Caps or 4x Mid Caps, Goggles for the whole day
$10 - Choice of weapon, 2x Hi-Caps or 4x Mid Caps

[slickridley]

I think those prices will be to low for the cost of maintaining the rifles.
But I always thought buying a batch of JG - AK's would work well, and just fix them up as they break.
They seem pretty solid.

[SquadronROE]

Yeah, I'm not quite sure how the prices would work out. I'm not particularly trying to make a profit, mostly I'd want to be able to offer people a low-cost alternative to buying a gun if they wanted to check out Airsoft. Any profits I made would be alright by me, but would probably end up being donated to some sort of charity or field. Or simply going into gun maintenance.

A thought I had is that if I offered very low rental prices, I might have to have some sort of deposit in case the gun gets broken in two or something.

[Gambler]

Yeah, people are hard on rental stuff. Smitty used to rent a few guns at games.

[D.Smitty]

Yeah, I've still got 'em, about 6 JGs, about 4 TMs, and a couple other odd ones.

It's a LOT more work than I thought it would be.

Also, you should expect the guns to need service about every 3 rentals, believe it or not. Some will last longer like the TMs, some will only last a game or 2. Consider also that airsoft guns will need some basic maintenance every once in a while even if you never use them or rent them out. Springs might stay compressed by accident, dust settles in the barrel, etc.

Still, I want to get it started again this summer when I've got some free time.

...Been busy these past 8 months: got a teaching licence, married, bought a house, writing a class practically from scratch with no budget for lab equipment or even office supplies (ya never think staples, binder clips, folders, and paper clips are expensive until you have to buy about a thousand every month!).

Didn't mean to complain. Just wanted you to know that Smitty is still keeping the AOSC in his thoughts and wants to continue to provide that rental service for our newer players!

[slimshady222]

You would have to collect a huge deposite cause my friend rented some guns and the people stole it. And if the person had enough money for the deposite then he would probably buy the gun

[D.Smitty]

You would have to collect a huge deposite cause my friend rented some guns and the people stole it. And if the person had enough money for the deposite then he would probably buy the gun

Alternatively, you could collect a small deposit and ask for ID. Driver's license has an address to write so you could report the theft in that event. That's what I did. It's not foolproof, of course. However, no security really is.

[Gambler]

Congrats on all your good fortune Smitty!