Is training with Blowback Air Soft Guns a benifit?

Is training with Blowback Air Soft Guns a benifit?

Winter is approaching and it becomes more difficult to get to the range but I don’t want to stop training. I also would love to do some more “Fit Shot” style work outs from the comfort of my basement. The only way I can think of to make this happen is a blow back air soft gun. I have seen a few of these models that are near exact replicas of a Glock 17. I think this could provided a perfect training opportunity to train more often on trigger control, grip, draw, and even force on force training which you can’t readily find volunteers for with live fire. The question comes down to what are the benefits and disadvantages of training with a simulated firearm?

Advantages

The obvious advantages seem to be the decreased cost to fire and the ability to train anywhere at any time. The fact that they now make many models that will fit in my current holster and have the same grip seems great because I will be training very similar to the way I shoot. I have been told in the past that extending and aiming while training without firing is a mistake because you do not get the feedback of seeing where your shots are placed; air soft resolves this problem. Since these training firearms also have removable magazines reload practice would be easy to do in home. More practice helps to reinforce this practice into habit. The practice guns use iron sights and in principle function the same as their hand gun counterpart and will provide similar fed back when you make mistakes.

Disadvantages

With all of the advantages of the air soft training there are some obvious setbacks. When you train with blow back air soft guns you will not have similar recoil to a firearm so the simulation will not be completely accurate. The guns also do not provide the noise of a bullet exploding which definitely has an effect if you flinch due to the noise. If the training guns are not balanced similar to the hand gun you fire then the training won’t be accurate. The other worry is that will your training with the air soft gun make you a better air soft shooter without improving your pistol handling ability? How is the accuracy compared to a handgun? How is the reliability of these training guns?

It is clear that there are advantages and disadvantages to training with air soft guns. I am sure that I have missed a ton of these in my brief inquiry. I am curious to which industry professionals use air soft or recommend it for training use. Does anyone disagree with its use and mark it as counterproductive? What are your thoughts?