Keep an eye out for shattering ASG Blasters (again).

[Rogerborg]

This isn't definitive, but we had a lot of reports of shattering BBs today going through mesh today.

The initial suspicion was that someone had brought a bad batch of Mystery BBs, but then it started getting reported on both sides.

The reason that I suspect it might have been Blasters is that I saw a hire player getting sharded by shots from a marshal squad who might have have been using Blasters, as it's the only brand that the site provides, in 0.2g and 0.25g.

Maybe not, I didn't have the opportunity to check. But it was getting reported so often that I do have to suspect the site BBs. No aspersions on them, they've used Blasters for years without issues, and they were taking it seriously.

Please sing out if you hear anything similar, and I'll update this if suspicion falls on another brand .

 

[Yukarin]

I see shattering with blasters too, thats often why they are touted as medium quality BBs. 

 

[Aengus]

*Laughs in paintball mask*

Blasters do like to shatter especially the tracers in my experience. A shattering tracer does look cool though ?.

 

[jcheeseright]

ALL BBs shatter in my experience. Just depends what they hit. 

Anyone who wears mesh and blames the BBs other people are shooting needs to reassess their priorities.  

 

[Albiscuit]

A shattering tracer does look cool though ?.

Like mini fireworks!

ALL BBs shatter in my experience. Just depends what they hit. 

Anyone who wears mesh and blames the BBs other people are shooting needs to reassess their priorities.  

This is true, although I wear mesh... Only as I have yet to find a decent pair of goggles which fit nice and dont fog.

 

[Robert James]

Like mini fireworks!

This is true, although I wear mesh... Only as I have yet to find a decent pair of goggles which fit nice and dont fog.

Edge are pretty decent 

 

[E21A]

ALL BBs shatter in my experience. Just depends what they hit. 

Anyone who wears mesh and blames the BBs other people are shooting needs to reassess their priorities.  

100% this 

 

[ImTriggerHappy]

Like mini fireworks!

This is true, although I wear mesh... Only as I have yet to find a decent pair of goggles which fit nice and dont fog.

Just buy a dye mask and be done with it.

I wish I had started using them a few years earlier.

 

[Druid799]

Like mini fireworks!

This is true, although I wear mesh... Only as I have yet to find a decent pair of goggles which fit nice and dont fog.

All lenses big or small will fog to some extent, just maintain your anti fog throughout the day and you’ll be fine , I sweat like a pig in a synagogue but between each game I try to remember to give both my goggles and the inserts a once over with a revision wipe and there fine , weather I’m hooning around the place or gone static .

Way I look at it it’s no different to keeping any other bit of kit at it’s best level of performance .?

 

[Rogerborg]

Anyone who wears mesh and blames the BBs other people are shooting needs to reassess their priorities.  

Knowing that people do wear mesh (and I wish they wouldn't but they do), would you be happy shooting at them with BBs that you know are particularly prone to shattering?

I particularly feel for the rental that got sharded through his site issued mask by what might have been a site issued BB.  Not a great experience.  I was just after lending my spare glasses and lower face mask to another rental player who who'd been issued some god awful skull-face mask with small eye holes that he could barely see through.

 

[Musica]

Knowing that people do wear mesh (and I wish they wouldn't but they do), would you be happy shooting at them with BBs that you know are particularly prone to shattering?

I particularly feel for the rental that got sharded through his site issued mask by what might have been a site issued BB.  Not a great experience.  I was just after lending my spare glasses and lower face mask to another rental player who who'd been issued some god awful skull-face mask with small eye holes that he could barely see through.

Can attest to the poor quality of the rental masks there. I suffered them once never again got full seal and lower mask to get me through. 

 

[jcheeseright]

Knowing that people do wear mesh (and I wish they wouldn't but they do), would you be happy shooting at them with BBs that you know are particularly prone to shattering?

I particularly feel for the rental that got sharded through his site issued mask by what might have been a site issued BB.  Not a great experience.  I was just after lending my spare glasses and lower face mask to another rental player who who'd been issued some god awful skull-face mask with small eye holes that he could barely see through.

Like I said, ALL BBs shatter!  If you go to a site that provides mesh for rentals I'd be very interested to see their risk assessment, there's no way on earth their insurance is covering that. 

 

[Rogerborg]

Like I said, ALL BBs shatter! 

There's splitting cleanly in two, and there's breaking into shards small enough to go through mesh, regularly enough for it to be reported multiple times on one day.

Bear in mind that we're talking about a site that's been using rental masks and ASG Blasters for years without the repeated issues that occurred on Sunday.  It seems that something has changed, and I'd suspect the Blasters, especially as they seem to have past form for it.  I mention this for the benefit of those who use them as well as those being hit by them, since nobody wins if we get eye injuries.

If you go to a site that provides mesh for rentals I'd be very interested to see their risk assessment

Me too.  I don't believe that mesh should be used, and especially that it shouldn't be issued to rentals who should enjoy a stronger duty of care.  However, I can understand why it is, since it's cheap, doesn't fog, and can be worn over glasses.

there's no way on earth their insurance is covering that.

Maybe ayes, maybe noes.  What I would be fairly confident of is that if push comes to shove and someone is injured due to site BBs shattering on site mesh, that the site will be held liable (ignore any liability waiver you may have signed, they have no legal force), and their insurers will be ordered to pay out.  Courts tend to view personal injury claims against deep pockets favourably.

Whether the insurer then pursues the site owner to recover their loss is another question.  It'll depend on what they've been told and what they think that they can show.  Even where insurers are explicitly allowed by law to recover losses due to hooky declarations, my understanding is that it's rarely done.

If this sounds like I'm disagreeing with you, I'm not at all.  I fully agree that sites should think very carefully about the savings of using mesh versus the low risk but potentially very high cost of it going wrong.

 

[Musica]

From the sites I've looked at mesh is the standard for rentals. 

 

[jcheeseright]

And again, ALL BBs will shatter if they hit a hard surface fast enough or at the right angle, even really high quality ones like Green Devils.  

Similarly, the chances of a serious eye injury occuring as a result are negligible, the particles of BB that make it through the holes in mesh are travelling very slowly and are very small.  Uncomfortable for sure, but unlikely to cause even temporary damage. 

That said, if people wear appropriately rated eye protection then the chances of injury from a shattered BB are nil, because there are no holes. 

 

[ImTriggerHappy]

View attachment 42753

Even in the worst case the shards do still penetrate the eye they won't have enough force to go in too deep.

 

[Rogerborg]

And again

And again, there's splitting cleanly in two, and there's, etc.  But why repeat ourselves?

Eye damage or otherwise, it's clearly a very unpleasant experience. And something else I'll mention from watching it happen to a chap: the first thing he did, having got shards of plastic in his eye, was to lift his mask and rub his eyes.

Shouldn't have, but it's a reflex reaction.

 

[jcheeseright]

When I say shatter I mean shatter, if I meant cleanly split in 2 that's what I would have said. 

Try it for yourself, fire a load of whatever BB you want into a pillowcase or similar and they'll shatter against each other quite nicely.  Against hard mesh all BBs will shatter at the right angle. Even better, take the best quality BBs you can find and shoot them at a brick, almost all of them will shatter into many many pieces. 

As for 'reflex reaction', bullshit, it's an idiot reaction.  The brief at any decent site will state quite clearly to never take your eyepro off in the game area, getting some grit in there is not an excuse or a reason to further endanger your eyesight! 

Simple answer to this non-problem is to wear lenses and not mesh.  People's eyes are their own responsibility, the ammo I choose to use or not use is irrelevant if their protection is up to scratch, if their protection isn't up to scratch that's their problem for wearing unsuitable protective equipment. 

 

[Rogerborg]

There are degrees of shattering.  The whole point of this thread is that a problem was occurring at a site where problems had not been occurring.

As for 'reflex reaction', bullshit, it's an idiot reaction.

They're not mutually exclusive.

I get your passion for eschewing responsibility for other people's safety.  That's OK, you have to do you, but this thread is for the benefit of people otherwise minded.

 

[Musica]

As for 'reflex reaction', bullshit, it's an idiot reaction.  The brief at any decent site will state quite clearly to never take your eyepro off in the game area, getting some grit in there is not an excuse or a reason to further endanger your eyesight! 

Care to let me stick my size 9 boot in to your crotch and see if you can refrain from grabbing at your jewels?  People react to pain and they won't always be logical about it or perform a risk assessment.

People might very well chose to steer clear of this site for a while if they are mesh users for their own safety. I've been told S8 have banned this brand so locally people have options. If people care about OTHER peoples safety they might not use some left over blasters they have or change their new orders to a different brand as this isn't the first time this brand has been reported for problems. 

For me I have 5000 of these left from renting and will be getting another 3000 next time I go so unless the site bans them I will keep using mine at THIS site as the 12 or so rentals kicking about will be firing them anyway. But when I put an order in for my own I won't be getting this brand.