Paintball BBs

kowloon

So I know nothing about airsoft but have gotten into my head that it might be fun to buy some inexpensive spring guns and some painters overalls and organise cheap fun. My question is, do the paintball BBs actually work?
Will they mark a human target or do they only work on hard surfaces?
Do you need a strong gun to crack them or do they break easily?

Lemming

kowloon wrote: »

So I know nothing about airsoft but have gotten into my head that it might be fun to buy some inexpensive spring guns and some painters overalls and organise cheap fun. My question is, do the paintball BBs actually work?
Will they mark a human target or do they only work on hard surfaces?
Do you need a strong gun to crack them or do they break easily?

Paintball BBs are about as reliable as Bertie Ahern's tax declarations. Not to put too fine a point on it; if you want to play paintball .... play paintball. It'll be less frustrating (and a great deal more fun) than watching all those paintball BBs burst before they ever even leave the barrel.

Rhinocharge

The paint bb's are a disaster. They clog up the mechanism. Best to stay away from them.
They can even explode when your trying to feed them into a magazine or speed loader.
Cheap as chips but you'll pay for it in the long run.

You bet me to it Lemming.

elsi

Where can I get me these paintball BBs???

Rhinocharge

No self respecting retailer would stock these.

kowloon

Feck it, paintball costs as much as Berties missing cash :mad:.
I think I'll buy some cheap spring guns anyway .
Would a cheap .5J spring gun be strong enough for any kind of sporting fun?

Rhinocharge

For skirmishing, probably not, except possibly cqb.
Back garden plinking, it'd be ideal.
Where do you intend to use it?

kowloon

Back garden, a field.
Thinking of having a BBQ before I leave for foreign shores and trying to find cheap entertainment. Real guns tend to spoil the fun for all involved.
Longer range would be better but I don't want to pay much.
Do they all fire the same size pellets? I had assumed BB guns shot BB sized pellets but have seen 6mm BBs (Shotgun BBs are smaller).

Lemming

kowloon wrote: »

Back garden, a field.
Thinking of having a BBQ before I leave for foreign shores and trying to find cheap entertainment. Real guns tend to spoil the fun for all involved.
Longer range would be better but I don't want to pay much.
Do they all fire the same size pellets? I had assumed BB guns shot BB sized pellets but have seen 6mm BBs (Shotgun BBs are smaller).

BB shot is nothing related to airsoft BBs; BB refers to the gauge of shot (there are three; B, BB, and BBB) as opposed to airsoft 'BB' which stands for ball bearing and is typically 6mm in diameter.

Equating airsoft to BB guns (which are actual firearms) is likely to get you lynched incidentally, so fair warning.

Rhinocharge

Lemming wrote: »

Equating airsoft to BB guns (which are actual firearms) is likely to get you lynched incidentally, so fair warning.

Agree. If you want some cheap fun, go play paintball or laser tag. Using airsoft guns in a field in public view may leave you explaining yourself to the ERU.

kowloon

Fair enough, had assumed that the name derived from shot sizing, which, with BB being somewhere in the region of 4.x mm had me confused.
How far can you typically hit someone with .5J? Should I be looking or a full 1J to make use of a field wth some barrels and boards set about?

Rhinocharge

kowloon wrote: »

Fair enough, had assumed that the name derived from shot sizing, which, with BB being somewhere in the region of 4.x mm had me confused.
How far can you typically hit someone with .5J? Should I be looking or a full 1J to make use of a field wth some barrels and boards set about?

Firstly is the land your own or public?
0.5 J has a range os between 30 - 50 feet. I'd recommend using 0.12g for this power setting.
If everyone uses the same power rating then its fairer.

kowloon

Rhinocharge wrote: »

Agree. If you want some cheap fun, go play paintball or laser tag. Using airsoft guns in a field in public view may leave you explaining yourself to the ERU.

Paintball ain't cheap. Field is my back garden, anyone in view would be on private property.
Had planned on getting a few of the same model to keep things fair.

kdouglas

kowloon: Before you go down a potentially damaging path, I must point out, airsoft should only be played on a proper airsoft site. Twice already you've mentioned playing in a field, unless it's private land which is well away from public view and the gardai are informed of it, then this is definitely not a good idea. Skirmishing on public land is illegal and could land you in some major trouble with the ERU.

Lemming

kowloon wrote: »

Paintball ain't cheap. Field is my back garden, anyone in view would be on private property.

Paintball can be cheap (well, by comparison at least); the sites make their money off huge profit margins on the paintballs for the most part; hence the perceived cost afaik. I stand open to correction by one of the paintball folks of course.

kowloon

Normal paintball is a fierce load of hassle to boot, doesn't facilitate the BBQ either. I shall look into this further, at least I now know that the paintball BBs are rubbish.
Cheers for the advice .

skapegoat

I Can not believe no one has mentioned goggles!
If your playing with bbs and want to keep your vision wear them!
Also anyone watching Should be wearing them too.

I would seriously consider not doing this at a BBQ.
Why don't you not just do a half day skirmish and have a BBQ after?
It's cheaper than paintball and there is some gear to rent on sites.