A group of teenage boys darted through a field on the outskirts of Kalispell, shooting at each other with airsoft guns, when the cops showed up.  

“If you guys really want to do this, go to the Forest Service area over down Lost Creek Road,” law enforcement told James Wisher and his friends.  

The boys were engaged in what soon became a regular tradition of war games, an invented sport that involves a couple of teams, airsoft guns and a good sense of aim.  

Wisher still has his first airsoft gun, a $20 spring-loaded gun that his mother bought for him and his best friend at a farmers market. Springers shoot plastic BBs by pulling the back slide, perfect for war games. 

“We’re like, ‘OK, this is a whole new world here,’” Wisher said. “Ever since then, I’ve just been super addicted to the sport.” 

The local airsoft community was sparse before Wisher and his wife, Crystal, launched Wyshtech Airsoft in 2022 -- the only store of its kind in Montana, as far as they’re aware. 

The war games continued long after James and his friends graduated from high school. They kept in touch through the Facebook page Smoking Badgers, where they regularly post public airsoft events.  

James befriended Nick Lynn, owner of Montana Paintball Action, a few years earlier, when he asked if they could use his paintball field for games. With the launch of Wyshtech Airsoft in 2022, this grew into a business relationship that benefitted both parties. 

Airsoft fanatics can play on the paintball field for free if they rent or buy their airsoft guns from Wyshtech, with regular events scheduled during the summer. 

“He started to let us host actual official games there,” Crystal said. “And airsoft slowly started bringing him more business on days he didn't have paintball going on.” 

SELLING AIRSOFT technology was a passion James fell into after his discharge from the Army, ending his 12-year military career. He spent the last few years working in the oil fields of Texas, until he was laid off in 2019 and moved back home to Montana.  

James had a knack for working on remote-controlled cars and pellet guns and took requests from friends, a side business he started after moving back home.  

Crystal convinced him to livestream his repairs on Twitch, an online streaming platform, so he could build up a base of followers. He simultaneously launched his YouTube channel in 2020, which has grown to more than 4,500 subscribers.  

The channel became a main source for expanding his clientele base, James said, upgrading and building airsoft guns for people around the country. It wasn’t long before major airsoft companies started sending him prototypes to test in his videos.  

James even had a two-hour long phone call with the owner of Warhead Industries, his favorite airsoft company.  

“I didn’t imagine that stuff like this would happen,” he said.  

IN 2020, James launched an online business out of the spare room in their house, selling parts for airsoft guns and remote-controlled cars.  

While business for remote-controlled cars flopped, sales for airsoft technology started to soar. He transitioned to selling airsoft BBs and technology parts in 2021, under the name Wyshtech Hobbies. 

As their customer base grew, Crystal saw a need to contract with a third-party company, so she reached out to Evike, one of the largest airsoft retailing and distributing companies in the world.   

When people asked if Wyshtech Airsoft had a store, Crystal started poking around.  

"Real estate around here is through the freaking roof,” she said.   

Luckily enough, a friend of hers said there was an empty store front on the second floor of a building in Evergreen. The Wishers were soon put in touch with the landlord and applied to rent the store space for $650 a month.  

“We kind of started doing a bit of a number crunch, and realized, ‘Let's give it a shot. Let's see what happens,’” she said.   

Wyshtech Airsoft ran out of the second-floor store front for a year, until a slot opened up on the lower floor in 2023, for an increase of $200 in their monthly rent. The move was enticing, the Wishers said, because their shipments were hefty, some weighing over 200 pounds, and the lower store offered more storage space.  

“We felt bad for delivery drivers,” Crystal said.   

Jim’s dad uses a wheelchair, and he couldn’t visit his son’s store when it was on the second floor.  It wasn’t until the business moved to the first floor that his father visited his son’s business for the first time.  

THE OWNERS of Wyshtech Airsoft hope to eventually move into a larger store with an indoor arena. Winter is a slow time for business, with cold weather closing outdoor airsoft games.   

“Every now and then there are people who want to play in the snow,” Crystal said. “But not a lot of people want to go out there in the bitter cold.”   

Having an indoor arena would also be a good way to draw additional tourism dollars. 

However, real estate is a big investment, and this was a particularly hard year for Wyshtech Airsoft as President Donald Trump issued tariffs on imports this year. In August, Trump slapped a new 20% tariff on imported electronics from Taiwan and other Asian countries. 

The Wishers lost two foreign distributors, TaiwanGun, an airsoft distributor in Poland, and Begadi, an airsoft supplier in Germany, because of the tariffs. They switched to a domestic company called HPA to source their biodegradable BBs, the store’s biggest sale, but it significantly increased the price of BBs shipped to the store, paying more for a smaller supply.  

“We try to absorb as much as we can, in terms of the price hikes,” Crystal said. “But there's only so much that we can absorb before it becomes a loss.” 

Heading into winter, the owners of Wyshtech Airsoft said they’re hoping for the best, while prepping for the worst. But in the end, they’re grateful for the airsoft community that’s helped them make it this far.  

Reporter Hannah Shields can be reached at 758-4439 or [email protected].  

    James Wisher, owner of Wyshtech Airsoft, works on assembling a piece of airsoft technology at his work desk. (Hannah Shields/Daily Inter Lake)