Battalion Airsoft Arena — Attraction in Jacksonville

I played here again for the first time in about 8 years and have a number of concerns that I don't remember being an issue when I last played, most of them relating to safety.

In the prep/loading area someone (maybe negligent discharge) fired a shot that ricocheted and landed on our table, the area where nobody has eye protection. No staff addressed this.

In the pre-match area next to the arena people were test firing their gun into the air over the wall.

When in the arena prior to the match beginning a lot of people were test firing their guns, some shooting at walls 10ft away which led to ricochets coming back and hitting people in the team X waiting spots. There were also a handful of occasions where people tried to walk over to the blue team while people were test firing and they were almost hit.

Prior to most matches the ref would announce the game type and ask if anybody didn't know the match rules rather than just explaining the match rules.

Nobody was trying to enforce the barrel sock rule in the loading area, I went the whole day without placing it on however I did have my finger off the trigger, barrel clear, no mag loaded, aimed down and on safe. There were also numerous people that still had mags loaded walking into/out of the loading area.

There was no pre-warning to the match start. With everyone test firing their guns, if you were in the loading area it was hard to tell if you were too late to make it into match before it started. You would be in your teams spawn and it could be 1 minute or 4 minutes and then the PA would sound off to start the match.

Some people changed teams mid-match. Not sure if it was against the rules to do so but it definitely put the team they switched from at a disadvantage. Rather than flags vs non-flags, A colored armband or something not easily changed/removed might prevent that.

After the ref would explain the game rules there wasn't a single ref in the field or the center tower monitoring the game and players. There were a lot of people not calling hits as a result.

Nobody had to have their gun chrono'd and some people's guns definitely felt like it was over 400fps with .25's. Most indoor arenas I've been to required they be chrono'd with the arena's BB's upon entry.

I think a safety brief of sorts would go a long way in preventing most of the safety issues I've pointed to. SS Airsoft requires every new member to watch a safety video on the rules and safety guidance of their arena.

In the loading area the windows for viewing are pointless as you can't see anything. If you put cameras in the arena and stream it to TVs in the viewing area that would offer a way better experience for people resting between rounds.

It's nice to see the arena has expanded more into the CQB scene. There's alot of CQB structures in the arena that weren't present initially. Both sides of the arena and the center have some nice CQB type buildings.

After a match one airsoft team commandeered the arena for about 15 minutes to host their own 3v3 tournament, preventing the rest of the arena from playing a round. Not sure if this was preplanned but everyone not on that team was confused as to what was happening.

The café downstairs is nice to get some food and drinks as well as the shop where you can buy guns and gear. Also my gun blew it's fuse in my first game of the day and the staff in the shop spotted me a new fuse which was extremely appreciated.

In summary, fun arena to play at but feel like more safety and observation should be...

First timers beware!

I took my nephews (13 and 15) to Battalion Airsoft on May 26th. They are both trained in firearms so I thought this would be a great way to spend the day.

We spent $120 which included 2 bags of ammunition. We watched the beginners’ video, got our gun and helmet and waited for the next battle to begin. As we were waiting, we looked around and noticed that there are a lot of “teams” who clearly have a lot of experience, as they were decked out in full combat gear with guns that had all the gadgets. Many were wearing custom helmets and several teams had communication systems. We started to feel like we were completely outmatched before the battle began and to be honest it was a little intimidating. That being said, we were excited to get in there and get going.

The staff could use some customer service training, as they really didn’t explain how the whole thing works. The video helped with understanding the equipment, but the battles should be explained more clearly. Had it not been for a father and son who had been several times, we would not have understood the teams, the timing,the objective and even the rules.

Once the battle began, it only took a few seconds to find out how much it hurts to get hit on bare skin with a high powered automatic air rifle. Not the ones that you get from the folks at Battalion.... the ones that the “pros” bring in. These are no joke!!!! These break the skin. My nephew got hit on the hand and was bleeding in two places. I got hit on the leg which caused a quarter sized welt on the leg through my jeans. We expected to get hit, of course, and we expected it to sting.... we did not except to bleed. Lol. After the first round, I asked one of the staff if they check the power of the guns coming in. He said that they do, but I did not see this taking place. One guy on our team was bleeding so bad that it was dripping from his finger.

In summary, had we been better prepared, we would have had a lot more fun. Their website says that a long sleeve t-shirt or hoodie and jeans are recommended. WRONG! To prevent cuts and welts you need a lot more protection than that. You will see that MOST of the guys who do this take it very seriously and have thousands invested in their gear. Very high powered automatic guns, scopes, vests with multiple magazines, grenades...... you name it!

Battalion Airsoft is NOT a place for young kids. While I did see a couple of kids around 8 or 9, they should NOT have been in there. In my opinion It should be 12 and over.

My advice to the owners....... check the power of every gun coming in. There were some guns used in our battles that were doing some real damage. Also, your staff needs some customer...

If I had one thing to say about this place it is that the employees are very unprofessional, avoid this place until some much needed personnel change happens or the integrity of the referees significantly increases. I hate to say this because the owner, Chris, is a very nice person and I believe if he has witnessed how his employees were acting the situation would have been much different but he wasn’t and his employees acted unruly and completely unprofessional. From the start of the day one employee specifically (Coleman) clearly had it out for me and attempted to taunt me the entire day. He bent the rules for his friends allowing them to cheat the entire day, while attempting to catch me cheat (which I didn’t) all day. Coleman approached me after the first game speaking down to me in a very condescending attitude about breaking the full auto rule and not calling hits. I explained to him this was unintentional and due to an issue with a new gun I was using (which I fixed after that round with some duct tape) and the chest rig I had on (which I took off just so I would be able to feel the shots better so that I could play fairly). I came just there to have fun and to play by the rules, I wouldn’t even shoot players in the back when I could have, I instead would rest a hand on their shoulder out of curtsey to them. But this was not enough for him, he and his ‘friends’ sat reviewing footage after every game trying to find and instance in which I “didn’t call my hit”. They were only able to find one instance in which I didn’t not call a hit which was completely unintentional on my part and I admitted fault. But with this new found footage Coleman walked over to me with a smug look on his face say “You didn’t call you hit”, this was done just to antagonize me. I won’t even bother bring up how bad the refereeing was because that was minuscule when it comes to how the employees treat players. As I was exiting one of the three employees used profane language referring to me as a “bitch”. I wish this would have gone differently; this place used to be so much fun but now is unfortunately plagued by referees who think that it’s their playground to allow their friends to cheat while being rude to...