What if... Some BBs are made of rubber?

[Dynamo]

Originally Posted by Aper

How about rubberized BBs covered in plastic ? Like a mini golf ball ? These bastards go the distances even with a minimum of force needed.

golf balls fly far due to the dimpling on its surface, not from the materials it's made from. the materials only contribute to efficient energy transfer from the club face to the ball. with out the dimpled surface, a golf ball would only fly 3/4 the distance it normally would. the dimples create a thin layer of laminar flow over the surface of the golf ball, lowering its aerodynamic drag.

rubber BBs could be very interesting. if they are made from stiff enough rubber, they would not compress in the barrel, but would still survive impacting a hard surface. that could mean reusable BBs, but that economic model would not fly with the BB manufacturers. impact force calculations would stay the same.

a soft rubber BB would not compress laterally, but around the axis of rotation due to the hopup induced back spin. it could amplify the hop effect and make for a more stable BB flight.

[wildcard]

Originally Posted by Dynamo

rubber BBs could be very interesting. if they are made from stiff enough rubber, they would not compress in the barrel, but would still survive impacting a hard surface. that could mean reusable BBs, but that economic model would not fly with the BB manufacturers. impact force calculations would stay the same.

a soft rubber BB would not compress laterally, but around the axis of rotation due to the hopup induced back spin. it could amplify the hop effect and make for a more stable BB flight.

one of the other reason why they stop making conical rubber bullets for airsoft is that the older ones are reuseable and very hazardous in high powered gas set up, due to imperfection it was never meant for high powered gas set up and at the tim eall the airsoft manufacturer are switching from springer set up to external gas, pump air or internal gas system

[coach]

Originally Posted by wildcard

one of the other reason why they stop making conical rubber bullets for airsoft is that the older ones are reuseable and very hazardous in high powered gas set up, due to imperfection it was never meant for high powered gas set up and at the tim eall the airsoft manufacturer are switching from springer set up to external gas, pump air or internal gas system

I miss the old MP5K's my cousins and I use to run around the house shooting each other with. The conical bullets were good but a pain in the ass looking for them all the shells, then loading them one by one.

[Danke]

I think by the time you reached a hardness in the rubber that would feed properly from a full magazine and fly through the barrel you would find they were about as hard as a plastic BB.

[wildcard]

Originally Posted by Danke

I think by the time you reached a hardness in the rubber that would feed properly from a full magazine and fly through the barrel you would find they were about as hard as a plastic BB.

Danke, they did make them (for a very limited time) that would fit in the modern AEG barrel but because of the imperfection the "bullet" would not travel farther than say 20-25ft anything more than that would require more power to the point where its very hazardous to the intended target, definitely not CQB or gaming friendly in a conservative Japanese market.

Awhile ago RAP4 was flirting around with a rubber/plastic bb with fins but I think the concept died not long after its launch.

[Wrath144]

Originally Posted by ccyg8774

Possible Pros for rubber (elastic and soft) BBs:
Less impact force at same fps and same bullet weight.
Safer to players.
May allow higher fps/BB weight for DMR/Sniper rifle players, to get longer range without compromise safety at mid-range. (Again, this is up to the game organizer to decide and may vary between games. I am just thinking about the validity of the idea.)

All of this is simply incorrect. Plastic BB's fragment or plastically deform when they hit stuff. Plastic deformation is where they don't return to their original shape after deformation. In order for this to happen the BB material itself must absorb a portion of the impact energy.
In a rubber BB (or any other material, really) if an elastic collision occurs the BB returns to its original shape after collision. Yes, it may deform during the collision but the definition of elastic collision means that when all is said and done it returns to its original shape. This means that none of the impact energy is absorbed in the BB, thus more is transferred into the other object involved in the collision (your face, teeth, goggles etc).
Another example of an elastic collision in airsoft would be with BBs made of silica.
That being said, the rubber BBs would subject the target to less overall stress (force over area) due to deformation during impact resulting in a larger impact surface area.
It would still suck though.
The best example I can think of is, two objects same size and weight. One is a pool ball, one is an orange. What would you rather get hit with?
(golf ball core vs crab apple etc...)

[ThunderCactus]

This won't work
some mags have a hard enough time feeding perfectly smooth surfaced BBs, now imagine 70 rounds in your mag all applying friction at a 30 degree staggering angle away from your feed lips. Yeah, nothing is moving anywhere lol

Also, deformation will occur when the air nozzle picks the BB up from the mag, during full auto it would cause the BB to distort through the barrel, and if the air nozzle engages partially, it may tear the BB or jam it down the barrel, causing a blockage that may be very difficult to take out.

Rubber on rubber is a bad idea, so you'll need to make a hard & smooth hop engagement, and minor distortion isn't going to just slow the BB a little bit, any ricocheting of a BB with a grippy surface down the barrel will reduce it's speed to almost nothing over an extremely short distance.

And with distortion set up from the hop, I just can't see these things flying very straight at all