Softair BBs

[Hortons Heros]

Hey there Fellas,
Wondering if softair bbs are worth the buy. What makes the difference between more expensive bbs and softair? There are some really easy markers like super cheap bbs have a seam and that kind of stuff. I have searched the FAQ but wondering some specifics about softair and anyones experience with them.

Thanks
Dave Horton

[BC_K]

Cheaply made. Very often they lose their spherical (sp?) shape and jam in guns.

That's my reason for NOT using anything named Soft Air. I use AE BB's ONLY.

[FOX_111]

they are good if you want to hit everything you are not aiming at and if you want to bust your gun. Some of them are poorly made and have the mold mark, wich can damage your hopup.

They are very crap. Only use them in cheap sprigners, mines and gas 203 shells.

[Suspect187]

come on, $25 for 3500-4000 regular airsoft bb's isn't that bad of a price

[hansrohleder]

Soft air are .12 grams so they are good for pistols and cheaper airsoft guns that don't have the power to shoot heavy .25's

They'll shoot a lot faster then regualer BBs also which is good if you are doing CQB. I buy them and haven't seem any with "mold marks"

So if you want/need .12 gram BBs definetly get soft air instead of paying extra prices to get some "offical airsoft supplier" BBs

[HGI]

even if you shoot them in any gun they wont go vary far... maybe 20 feet if your lucky... like fox said best to use them for traps for best.

[CDN_Stalker]

Add to the fact that even .2g BBs at times (longer ranges we'll say) sometimes don't carry enough energy to make a person feel the hit well. REALLY sucks on rainy game days, where the light BBs hitting blend right in with the rain drops hitting. .12g BBs will sting within 20ft, but outside that you won't hit crap with them (sorry, a good markman can hit the ground every time with .12g BBs), but if you did hit someone with them, they wouldn't even feel it.

[[Avtomat]]

softair bbs are made for softair guns

[firemachine69]

Originally Posted by Suspect187

come on, $25 for 3500-4000 regular airsoft bb's isn't that bad of a price

I'd hate to see them buy PB ammo... 8-O

[Hortons Heros]

thanks for the help. Just a note to hansrohleder that softair do come in the heavier weights. I'm done with the soft airstuff then. Thanks a heap fellas.

[Affliction]

If you're really stingy on the cost of BBs...

http://www.bbbastard.com/ offers their own inhouse brand.
I haven't personally tried them yet but I'm definitely going to in the future. The site owner (Jay) has great / fast service (I ordered a battery charger from him and got it within 2 days of payment).

[hansrohleder]

Originally Posted by Hortons Heros

thanks for the help. Just a note to hansrohleder that softair do come in the heavier weights. I'm done with the soft airstuff then. Thanks a heap fellas.

Well I can't find any with heavier weights. If you do then I would buy them and they should preform the same as anything else.

It's a damn hunk of plastic people! You're a fool for paying $10 more.

[MadMax]

I haven't done actual measurements of sphericity or group size with softair branded bbs, but I can reasonably state that bb quality does matter to some degree.

There are some brands of discount bbs with consistency issues. Very cheap bbs can include very obround pellets which can jam in a barrel and cause serious loading issues. Some brands of bbs are soft and may break in electric loaders jamming them to the point of stripping gears. Not every pellet has to be so bad that it would jam a gun or loader. One pellet in 500 pretty much renders a bag useless if you find yourself having to clear a jammed barrel. One pellet a bag which would strip your autoloader gears would have you cursing soft ammo which just destroyed your $60 loader.

A bb has a pretty small clearance between the diameter of the pellet and the inner diameter of a barrel. Very poor surface finish (i.e. unpolished seams or mould mismatching) can result in inconsistent performance.

Apart from grossly poor sphericity (i.e. jamming) it seems that small amounts of obroundness don't hurt consistency all that much. Weight plays a larger role in consistency than ultra sphericity in windless range tests. I haven't bothered to test bbs with severe seam lines as they tend to jam my guns, but I would suspect that heavy seams could significantly affect hop up consistency as the rubber would grip a seam quite differently than a smooth spot. The spin direction with respect to the seam axis would also likely have some significant effect. For instance, Straight brand sniper bbs are very consistent in range tests, but they are nearly the worst in terms of measured sphericity. I suppose outright mass (0.36g or 0.43g) plays the major part in making sniper weight bbs consistent flyers.

Getting to an airsoft game is at least a small ordeal for most players. Throw in saving money for a limited arsenal and most players are quite willing to spend a chunk more for consistent ammo. It's kind of like war really. If you don't want to spend a lot of money on ammo which doesn't misfire or sometimes fragment, you can buy lots of cheap bullets which sometimes spin out or misfire. Generally you'll still have quite a deadly weapon, you'll just have ammo that could really frustrate you in a bad time. If saving on bbs can put gas into your tank to get to a game, you don't really have a choice anyways so buy the cheap stuff.

[Mr Jon]

[MadMax]

you have to replace the happy face with a big box of cardboard with holes hosed through it in the shape of a happy face.