BBs outa ma gunz.

[siggypoo]

I've browsed and searched both ASC and the interwebs in general, but I've yet to find a concise explanation of the benefits an detractions of BBs of whatever weight in whatever gun.
I think I understand that the .3Xs seem to be more for sniper rifles, .20s are a sort of chrono standard, and .12s are strictly for low-end stuffinks.
I guess I'm asking what the benefit or detraction might be if I threw .3X out of my We Scar CB as opposed to the .20s I currently use. Sure, they have greater mass, but does their range suffer because of that mass? Is there a weight range that is safe for my GBB? I mean, can a greater weight put too much gas pressure in the wrong areas, weakening or wearing them? If I put .3X in my We HiCapa or We Little Bird, would that be of any use at all, or should I stick to .20?
Whichever the answers...WHY?
An explanation of why whichever reasoning is most important.
Thanks for any advice you can give.

[lurkingknight]

heavier = more inertia... objects that are in motion tend to stay in motion. They are more dense so they fly straighter and possibly farther since they are on a straighter trajectory. The material is also more solid, less prone to air bubbles that can throw the balance of the BB off. Ever ride in a car with a tire out of balance? BBs with air bubbles will pull themselves out of a straight flight path. It explains why every now and then you get a shot that goes farther out to the sides than the others.

If your projectile is too light, it doesn't have the mass to push through the air in an effective fashion. The air resistance will overcome the forward momentum much quicker. Since the heavier BB has more mass, it retains more momentum to push through the air.

I don't use anything lighter than .3s outdoors, AEG and pistols. You want to see accurate death machine, switch to as heavy an ammo as you are willing to sacrifice the speed.

400fps with .2s = 1.48J
315fps with .32s = 1.48J


Does slower mean too slow? not really..

let's say you're shooting 100 ft away. you're talking less than a quarter second travel time between you and your target at 400 fps with the .2. With the .3... you're only going to be maybe a 1/3 of a second to target. It's pretty negligible.

You may have an issue if your target sees you shooting at a range closer to 200 feet... but even with lighter ammo, it's pretty easy to side step incoming shots, so I don't feel you've lost anything there. On a target you know is hunkered down and not moving, the speed difference is worth the trade in terms of smaller/tighter grouping, meaning I am more likely to put a shot through a gap between logs he's hiding behind than a larger cone of fire from a lighter BB.

[ThunderCactus]

Think of it like real steel, no matter how fast a 5.56 is traveling, nobody is ever going to use it to hit targets 2km away. And it's not because it's inaccurate either.

The .20 is going to leave the barrel faster, but out at 100ft or so, a .28 is actually going to be traveling faster, since heavier BBs lose their velocity less quickly.
Inherently, because they're heavier they also tend to be more stable and more resistant to the wind.

Run as heavy ammo as you can until you start losing range, basically.
at 380 you want to be using .28s
at 400-420, .30s or .32s
up at 470 if you're not using at least .36s, your totally wasting all that extra energy

The reason guns lose range with heavier ammo is simply because they can't put enough spin on them to induce proper hopup. They'll jam the gun before the hop rubber applies enough force to get the right backspin.
That's why between a stock 300fps pistol and a stock 320fps aeg, the pistol will shoot awesome with .30s, but the aeg will lose a lot of range. It's because the pistol applies higher pressure to force that BB through the hop rubber and get more spin.

It's also why Rhop works so damn well. It's not a standalone upgrade, you pair it with using heavier ammo as well. So if you were using .28s at 380fps before, then Rhop, then start using .32s.
The longer flatter patch allows a longer surface for hop to be applied, with less force. Meaning you can now apply the proper amount of spin on a BB you'd normally lose range with.

I run .30s in my ptws, and .32s in my pistol. It's a stock KSC usp compact (the pre-system 7 version, so its a few yrs old), and it'll shoot 140ft pretty darn accurately. Recently put an Rhop in it, didn't make much of a difference.
I only use lighter ammo indoors, because it's cheaper and actually hurts less.

[MultipleParadox]

What these guys said

I'll just add this, and detractors might add their grains of salt to this:

For stock or close to stock carbines/pistols, and I really mean by that "carbines/pistols that you haven't spent considerable amount of time tuning and upgrading your hop up assembly", .25 and .28 seems to be the sweet spot to get decent range and precision

I personally tend to use .28 in all my guns (gas stuff only) and get good to great performances, assuming its gas and not as consistent as AEGs

The goal is really to find what weights your hopup is capable of lifting and stick with the heaviest before you lose range (but I think I am repeating what was already said now)

[Thenooblord]

pretty much, heavier is always better, but people dont wanna spend on .30s and heavier for their pistols, but all my guns are running .32g or .36g because i got them cheap and the performance is phenominal with them

[ThunderCactus]

That's also why the single best and cheapest upgrade you can do on your gun is the hop rubber.
It's the most critical part in determining accuracy and lifting heavy rounds.

Most new people also don't understand that accuracy IS range. The BB isn't going to go very far if it's not going straight!

[lurkingknight]

One of the toughest things to gauge is how accurate doing X mod will be... especially when it comes to BBs and hopup stuff. In reality you should be looking at air seal problems first. Seal the air system as best you can THEN evaluate.


You can't say your gun is accurate when you have shots coming out with 30fps difference from one another. Once you get consistency from shot to shot on any weight, then you add stuff like BB weight and hop mods like r-hop.

You can definitely do those before you fix air seal, but full benefit isn't going to be realized until you have consistency.

[Red Dot]

Excellent question and responses, definitely I've noticed a difference moving up in BB weights outdoors... now I know why.

[KenTsui]

http://mackila.com/airsoft/atp/