Why calling your hits is so important...

If you about to enter the sport of airsoft, one of the most frequently asked questions is, "How do you know when your hit?" Well simple, you will either feel the bb impact or you will hear it. It is a game of honor. That is why when you play airsoft for the most part you can count on your opponents and teammates to be a higher caliber of person in general. Yes, there are the handfuls of people that will not call their hits but don’t worry because these are also the same people that will not be invited back to any ‘organized’ airsoft game.

When you get shot, it means that somehow your opponent was able to sight you and make the shot. Whether the shot was ‘luck’ or precision sniping is of not consequence in this write up. What we are talking about is why it is important to call your hit.

If you don’t call your hit, how do you expect to ever advance in your skill level? Better yet, why would you want your opponent to continue shooting at you? So let’s address the first question. The entire reason of calling your hit is so you can find out what does and doesn’t work. If you advanced to a group of trees that you had thought was going to be ample cover, but then when you got there you found out that the other side of the trees was wide open, you can chalk that up as ‘not’ a good position. Now, if your opposition were to shoot you while you were in those trees or were to completely suppress your position you can learn from that by knowing that you shouldn’t just ‘rush’ for a position unless you knew it was a secure location. But, if you don’t call your hit then you didn’t learn that that particular type of position was a potential death trap.

Moving on to the second question, we’ll use the same trees. Now let’s assume that your opposition is firing a weapon that is 450fps. He is 30 feet away, which is close enough to break skin. Now, you rush for the trees, he sees you and fires. He hits you and it hurts, you know it does. But for some reason, you don’t call your hit. Your opponent, now wondering why he couldn’t hit you the first time, lays into you on full automatic. Each time connecting his 450 fps .25g bb’s with your body. Yet, you still don’t call your hit. So, if your opponent was anything like me and he knew you were hit but not calling them, he is going to start aiming for your face. At the same time, He is going to start advancing on your position. All the while, calling in support from his team MEMBERS who have now started to unload on your position. So now, because you didn’t call your first hit, you have made it so that the only option is for the entire OPFOR to bear down on your position in full automatic fire, aiming for your face mind you and to continue shooting you until you call your hit.

Now, you may think that this is a bit harsh, but the harsh reality of this is that, if you were ‘really’ shot by a ‘real’ bullet, you wouldn’t have the option to call your hit or not. So by not calling your hit, you have cheated yourself into thinking that the trees are good cover. If you are playing airsoft, you are emulating some type of tactical unit. Whether or not it is SWAT, Delta, SEALS, Rangers or whatever, doesn’t matter. What does matter is that if you are going to cheat, by not calling your hits, you are NOT emulating anyone and you had might as well just give up on the sport of airsoft all together. If you don’t give up, what will happen is that people will begin to tell other players that you are not calling your hits. Well when this happens, you are almost guaranteed that you will no longer have anyone to play against. If you have been branded as a cheater no one wants to even waste his or her time inviting you out to a game. Because they know that when they shoot you, that you will not call yourself out.

Personally, I am not the type to call someone else’s hit. If they don’t register the hit, maybe I didn’t shoot them, but if I know for a fact that I made the kill and they still don’t call themselves out, I will continue to shoot them and I will be aiming for their face. With each connecting shot, I will become more and more pissed off. The more I get pissed off, the more I want to see you bleed…

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1... Okay I’m calm again. Now, I’ve always said, “If it didn’t work for him, it won’t work for you”. Another reason to call your hits. For instance, you advance to a position and get shot but don’t call your hit. Then you tell your teammate to rally up at your position. He gets shot, but he is an honest player so he calls his hit. Now you’re down a man and you request two more MEMBERS to your position. They get shot and again being honest players they call their hits. So you have one guy left as support, you call him in. You need him at your position because you’re about to make the ‘RAMBO RUN’. So he rally’s’ up and gets shot and being that he’s honest he calls his hit. So..... Congratulations Rambo, you just killed your entire team simply because you didn’t think that ‘anyone would know’ if you cheated.

Another lesson to learn about calling your hits is that you are showing respect to your opponent. You are acknowledging his or her skills in being able to sight you and make the shot. This allows your opponent to advance in his or her skill level by knowing what ‘they did’ does or doesn’t work. So by you calling your hit, they can get on with the rest of the game and proceed to the objective. Now, if you don’t call your hit, you are basically saying, "Yeah you got skills, but I am Rambo and I don’t need to practice". It is basically a slap in the face to your opponent. So when you are an honest player that calls his or her hits, it builds respect for you as a player because you become known as an honest player and one that people will want to play against in the future.

thanks San Diego Airsoft Players Resource
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