Meet the Owner of a Local Indoor/Outdoor Airsoft Battlefield

Tommy Duren and his partner Mike Lambert opened up Unit Airsoft Dec. 17, 2010. Located at 600 Atlanta Highway in Winder, the facility offers an 18,000-square-foot indoor facility with an additional two-and-a-half acre outdoor battlefield.

Patch: How did you get into your line of work?

Tommy Duren: It started out as a group of guys getting together on the weekend and just going and playing airsoft. We just fell in love with the sport and we decided that after playing a couple of years it would be a good thing to get into. It gives people a good, clean place to come and have a good time.

Patch: What’s the best aspect of owning Unit Airsoft?

TD: The best is the customers. It's getting to meet a lot of different customers, bringing kids anywhere from the age of 10 up to, I think, the oldest we've had here is 65. We've got  a great group of customers that come in here and they also help us. It's really fullfilling because we get to teach them our sport that we love and not only that but we get to promote gun safety. We have a lot of rules and regulations here at the Unit that we use and we hope that if anybody ever came across a real weapon then it would automatically go into their senses that hey, I know I'm not supposed to do this, I know I'm not supposed to do that. Because we treat these weapons just like a real weapon.

Patch: What’s the worst aspect of owning Unit Airsoft?

TD: Playing in the heat. You know, that's basically it. There's nothing bad about this sport. I spend a lot of hours here, put a lot of time in here. Myself and my partner. You know it does take some time away from the family but other than that there's nothing bad about it.

Patch: What are some of your hobbies outside of work?

TD: Well I love hunting, fishing, camping and we do that as a family.

Patch: What is your personal business philosophy?

TD: We have a motto here "shut up and shoot." It's not ment in any shape or form to be bad because what we're trying to do is get the guys to come out here, get out on the field, get them to quiet down so we can shoot. It's not like we come here and we just go out [onto the battlefield] and go crazy. We actually put missions and objectives into every game. I guess I would say we're just a good, family, fun place to come. Why play a video game when you can play it in real life?

Unit Airsoft is open from 3 to 8 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays,  from 3 to 10 p.m. Fridays, from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturdays and from noon to 6 p.m. Sundays. Unit Airsoft also holds lock-ins typically once a month. You can visit Unit Airsoft's website or keep up with the business on Facebook by searching for Unit Airsoft.