Bioval BBBMAX Airsoft Ammunition

[pusangani]

Heyhey, first review for me as I'm more comfortable dishing out the flames on the other parts of the board, but Shinobi was kind enough to give me a bag of these things to do the review, so here goes...please pardon my shitty pics as I was using my Iphone's camera.

*Disclaimer, I am not employed by or affiliated with Bioval or any of their dealers



First impressions, hefting the bag you hear the bb's shaking around inside, and they sound different, more like glass beads or marbles than plastic airsoft pellets.



Do they kill/maim

Short answer, no.



They are ALOT harder than plastic bb's, but after gaming with them, I received no complaints of bleeders, or shattered goggles etc. my capa shoots 320fps w/.20's

I tested them at point blank range against the following forms of eye protection and with my hi-capa and a G&G AK47 Beta Spetz (both are sub 350fps guns, didn't have anything hotter to test with)

CT Shop glasses - no damage

G&G Shooting glasses - no damage

Generic ACM Paintball mask - scuff on the lens, no damage to the plastic

Cheapo Dollarstore sunglasses - lens fell out of the frame - no damage to lens

ACM Mesh mask (the type with the woven wires, not the kind with the sheet metal with the holes which is notoriously weaker) - Paint chipped off the mesh, no penetration or shattering of the bb - same result with Sekito SIIS Japanese .25 BB

Torture Test
I tried squeezing them with pliers to see if they would squash or shatter like a normal BB, but all I could manage to do was make a scratch on either side of the bb, as you can see, the same force applied to a regular plastic bb resulted in an almost flat blob of white plastic.



Accuracy
I did get good groupings from them, using my TM Hi-capa 5.1, they are extremely accurate, once you have your hopup set right (more on this later) and the .27gram weight appears to be a great balance between the lighter and the heavier sniper grade ammunition.

I used these bb's at the recent CAPSII year end tournament and managed to place 3rd, take from that what you will, but I like to think that I'm a decent shot

Will try to post some pics of groupings later on.

Pros
- Very Accurate
- Very good range, used them at CQB Paintball in Toronto and was getting cross field kills with my TM Hi-capa 5.1
- No one's heads exploded or eyes shot through their goggles, no cars were in attendance so I didn't get a chance to test it on the windows
- Didn't get a chance to test it outdoors so I cannot comment on the performance in windy environments.

Cons
- They are a smaller diameter, not exactly sure as I do not have the tool to measure, and this has caused some misfeeds in my Hi-capa when the hopup isn't dialed in right. I lost my first round in the steel challenge of the CAPSII tourny due to bb's rolling out of the gun, they won't stay in the hopup if they hopup isn't turned up enough.
- They are more expensive than regular bb's
- You can't use them at TTAC3 as they are a PITA to clean up

* I would venture to guess that they would work very well in tightbore barrels due to their smaller diameter.

Conclusion

These are pretty decent bb's, I was very skeptical about them based on what I'd heard 3rd hand from the internet, but have found them to be safe and their performance is on par if not better than most plastic bb's out there.

I'm a poor guy so I couldn't buy a different bag of the leading brands to test them, so I won't be doing any shooting comparisons with these, I can only report on what my findings were after going through about half a bag of them.

*EDIT* Further testing done with KJW M700 Takedown Gas BA rifle (500-550 fps w/.20s)


Just got back from the shop, did some testing with a KJW M700 Takedown gas BA rifle (500-550 Fps w/ 0.2g) thanks to MoreToasties for the idea

Here's what I found, I shot only 2 surfaces as I didn't feel like lugging the rifle home to test on a variety of masks, so I shot a cheapo ACM Goggle and the Clear plastic lower from on of my Cansoft SCAR's

This is what happened:

Shot one side of the SCAR receiver with a regular plastic BB (Sekito SIIS .25) from an inch away, the receiver cracked, on the second shot to the exact same spot, 2 pieces of plastic fell off from inside the magwell, not sure where they came from exactly and the plastic bb cracked but did not shatter.



Next I shot the other side of the receiver (magwell again to be fair) and this time, the receiver did not crack or random plastic pieces fell off. Instead, I got small dimples in the plastic, with no damage to the BBBMax bb at all, like Maddog said, these bb's bounce around quite a bit so it was hard keeping track of where they were going, I did make it a point to retrieve them to make sure they hadn't shattered.



Repeated this 3 more times, and got more dimples but no cracks in the plastic, the shadow of a crack seen in this pic is from the opposite side of the receiver.


Next, the goggles, these aren't rated but they still held up to the 500+ BBBMax projectile that I fired at it, 2 shots to the exact same spot. First shot made a bad scuff and a small dent and the second shot pushed the dent deeper, again the bb's bounced away without shattering.

[Shirley]

They're sweet BBs, hard to clean up from TAC, Brian won't let you use them there.
But from firing them at CAPS tournament, they were pretty accurate and smooth. Liked the finish on it.

[LUTNIT]

Originally Posted by pusangani

* I would venture to guess that they would work very well in tightbore barrels due to their smaller diameter.

Tightbore barrels work by having less of a gap between the BB and barrel so smaller BB's in a tightbore would be like normal BB's in a normal barrel. Standard BB's are 5.95mm but cheaper brands can be as large as 6.02mm meaning the tiniest bit of dirt in a 6.03mm tightbore and it can jam.

[Drake]

Still curious how they perform (safety-wise) in a >350fps gun, since that's more realistic in terms of what people use outdoors (375-400 range).

The fact they won't squish like normal BBs also leads me to think they'd either shatter when they do reach a breaking point, or do a lot more damage otherwise.

Testing with field power guns is really needed. Nothing's going to do much damage at sub-350 speeds.

[DemiBlitz]

Great review Pus, thanks a lot!

We have to use these BBs at the local field here in London, now that we have a nice review it will be a lot easier to ease peoples minds when it comes to firing them through their weapons!

Cheers!

[o2slick]

Originally Posted by Drake

Still curious how they perform (safety-wise) in a >350fps gun, since that's more realistic in terms of what people use outdoors (375-400 range).

The fact they won't squish like normal BBs also leads me to think they'd either shatter when they do reach a breaking point, or do a lot more damage otherwise.

Testing with field power guns is really needed. Nothing's going to do much damage at sub-350 speeds.

Agree, I would like to know the performance of the bb at higher FPS because we play outdoor and what about sniper ? 450fps~

[Brian McIlmoyle]

I can't see them having any issues at higher velocity.

The fear surrounding these BBs I think is unfounded ..

Though I expect they may damage cheap plastic guns if they are hit..

I've banned the use of then at TTAC3 however.. because they are very hard to see on the floor and so difficult to clean up. I'm still finding them rolling around weeks after ...

[pusangani]

Yes they do shatter, I forgot to add this to the review. We did manage to break one at the store by putting it under a dolly and stomping on it, the bb didn't shatter until the 2nd stomp. Your gun would have to be shooting well over the field limits to put out enough fps to launch it hard enough to break like that.

It reallly is a shame that they are clear and we can't use them at TTAC3, maybe the will star making them in white or something hehe

also DemiBlitz, the bb's in use at the pball field in London are regular bioval bio bb's not the bbbmax ones aren't they?

[Drake]

Originally Posted by Brian McIlmoyle

I can't see them having any issues at higher velocity.

The fear surrounding these BBs I think is unfounded ..

I'm not sure how broken car windows is "unfounded", Brian. We have that as a factual event. All we've gotten so far in response to it is spindoctoring from Bioval, so I do believe testing is necessary.

I mean here's the community that went ballistic over a video of a few kids trespassing in an abandoned facility: for their irresponsible actions and potential for giving the sport a bad image they got a lifelong ban, calls for their AV status to be revoked and some wanted to turn their identities over to law enforcement. Yet here we have BBs that were shown to have caused serious damage at one event, were tested and shown to be dangerous by at least one source, they could potentiality cause more injuries than regular BBs, yet only a handful of people here seem to think its irresponsible to allow these on fields without proper testing and in fact most people seem quite cavalier about it as long as they gain some small edge in range or accuracy.

If they're so safe, why is it so hard to get someone to do proper unbiased testing? (Pus seems on the right track, but needs >350fps guns)

[pusangani]

I suggest we take up a collection to purchase the proper equipment for me to get some conclusive results, I'll take any ak

[DemiBlitz]

Yeah Pus now that you mention that my head is hurting trying to remember...
FML, now I will need to find out :P

[Brian McIlmoyle]

Originally Posted by Drake

I'm not sure how broken car windows is "unfounded", Brian. We have that as a factual event. All we've gotten so far in response to it is spindoctoring from Bioval, so I do believe testing is necessary.

I mean here's the community that went ballistic over a video of a few kids trespassing in an abandoned facility: for their irresponsible actions and potential for giving the sport a bad image they got a lifelong ban, calls for their AV status to be revoked and some wanted to turn their identities over to law enforcement. Yet here we have BBs that were shown to have caused serious damage at one event, were tested and shown to be dangerous by at least one source, they could potentiality cause more injuries than regular BBs, yet only a handful of people here seem to think its irresponsible to allow these on fields without proper testing and in fact most people seem quite cavalier about it as long as they gain some small edge in range or accuracy.

If they're so safe, why is it so hard to get someone to do proper unbiased testing? (Pus seems on the right track, but needs >350fps guns)

The whole "car window" thing is immaterial... so what? If they don't damage ballistic rated goggles then who cares if they will break a car window?

Any BB will break glass if it is heavy enough and going fast enough.

the muzzle energy is the same for any projectile of similar weight at similar velocity regardless of their material.

They could be Adamantite or Kryptonite it would not change a thing.

Personally I have no issues with these BBs other than you can't see the damn things on the floor!!

And if we were shotting steel targets.. I may be concerned about the shatter issues.. but we have the same issues with plastic shooting steel targets .. little sharp shards...

[Forever_kaos]

Good short little review Pus.
How well can you actually see them being fired?

Like Demiblitz said, we have to use them at the local field but we use the Bio brand. I have not had a chance to use these ones yet, interested to give them a shot one day.

If I get a round to grabbing a bag I'll post my results with my AKM, shooting ~380-390 or so
(Or if Pus wanted to mail me some in a small baggy lmao)

[pusangani]

It's true about any bb breaking glass, I shot a 24 in a friend's basement with a 400fps AK and had a bottle inside shatter from 15 ft. away, and that was a regular plastic bb, unless you are wearing car windows for goggles, I wouldn't worry

[MoreToasties]

Originally Posted by pusangani

I suggest we take up a collection to purchase the proper equipment for me to get some conclusive results, I'll take any ak

Don't you have an overpowered M700 at the shop?