Newbs first loadout!

[Ian_Gere]

since im under eighteen i wear a mesh full face mask with safety glasses underneath. It seems a bit ott but just incase a bb does get through or breaks up it will save my eyes and there is no fogging so win win.

I'm not going to go into the full mathematical proof & diagrams stylee an ting here (it is available in several of our threads devoted to eyepro) but you are entirely mistaken if you think that a fragment of BB which can fit through the gaps in any commercially available mesh used for eyepro can do you any harm. It basically comes down to the way BB's shatter and the way that the possible fragment shapes tessellate into a sphere. When you consider that fragments will be spinning (since Newton tells us that the angular momentum of the whole BB will be preserved in its fragments), then clearly no dimension of whatever shape of fragment can be longer than the largest hole available, which handily enough is just less than 1/2 the diameter of a BB, at 2.97mm (found in Hero Shark goggles).

 

Since a BB cannot shatter leaving a sphere of diameter 2.97mm, the biggest shape possible is a tetrahedron and if the longest side can be 2.97mm then that takes 18 of them to make 1 BB. Each fragment therefore cannot carry more than 1/18th the energy of the whole BB, which is to ignore the energy loss absorbed by the elasticity of the mesh when hit, the same of any BB's hit by our theoretical shattering BB in a full auto stream, and the energy lost as heat and sound during the shatter - when you work out that a 500FPS 0.2g BB carries 2.32 Joules divided by 18 = 0.129 Joules you see it just doesn't matter about the complexities: the very maximum possible is so little that it can literally do bugger all to your eye.

 

As i've said before elsewhere, I realise that this seems extremely counterintuitive... I mean sharp fragments, eyeball, must end in tears... but if you looked at the shapes of particles of dust, tiny fragments of plant material/insects, and for eg grains of builders' sharp sand, you would find equally sharp and sharper edges and points, yet the most these cause even when blown into your eye by strong wind is a mild itch which only becomes a problem if you rub your eye before rinsing said fragment/s out with clean water. From personal experience I can promise you that it is the same with shattered BB fragments - you just retire to the safe zone calling "Dead man walking!", while refraining from excessive blinking, and rinse your eye with several palmfuls of water. Obviously, just like with even the rounder, smoother grained, beach sand, if you rub your eye then you risk scratching the surface of your eyeball, which does itch/irritate like a bastard...

 

If you're getting no problems with fogging then fine, but i've tried at least 30 different types of eyepro and i have yet to find any which do not hinder vision in some way or other, even if the lenses have exceptional optical properties, as at the very least on the biggest goggles going, the frames of which are the furthest out of potential sightlines, the point of view is narrowed, particularly down in front of you (which makes walking quietly through brush/rubble, while aiming in front of you, more difficult), but most polycarbonate lenses also cause occasional problems due to reflection and/or refraction. In my and apparently the majority of people's opinion however it is not a question of if a polycarbonate lens will either fog or rain out* but rather when. Certainly if you are very fit and do not exercise hard while wearing them, then the time it takes may be long enough to be irrelevant to most skirmish days, but even so may interfere with a full day's play during specialised days/weekenders. That said, my bet is that you have just not really sweated in them yet...

 

(*Distortion caused by liquid sweat condensed out on anti-fog coated lenses.)

 

In my opinion, if you can skirmish wearing a full face mesh mask without the limitations of the design, such as being unable to lift the lower half alone to eat sweets/gum and/or drink, problems when combined with helmets, visored caps, and/or comms equipment, or problems with cheek-weld/aiming over iron sights/low fitted optics, irritating you significantly, then you should stick with that alone. After considerable research into the various types of interwoven wire mesh and perforated sheet type 'mesh' it is my opinion that the type used in those fencing mask stylee full face masks provides the best tradeoff between safety, useability, optical properties, and durability:

 

obviously they never fog/rain-out;

 

the shadows created across your vision by the crossed wires being much closer than the focal length of typical points of view are smaller than those generated by the offset holes in any perforated sheet offerings, which translates into fewer instances of involuntary refocussing of your eyes close up, which instances ruin the optical illusion of there being nothing between your eye and your POV, plus they also 'reset the clock' on however long it takes before your brain regenerates said optical illusion again in any given environment;

 

interwoven wire creates a higher ratio of space to metal than perforated sheet of similar strength, so there is less of a 'shades effect', which could be considered a con rather than a pro, however when you consider that said effect is caused by a physical barrier between your eye and what you are looking at, which means that more of what you are seeing is actually your brain's interpolation of what should be there compared to transparent but darkened polycarbonate lenses, and then realise that spotting well camouflaged people in foliage is all about recognising a known shape from very little, and some of it conflicting, information, then it becomes obvious that if being blinded by bright sunlight is a problem, then a visor of some sort is the answer, not reducing what you can actually see;

 

there are meshes which provide an even greater ratio of space to metal, however the only commercially available eyepro which uses one (304 Stainless Steel 0.71mm wire #8 mesh) (made by Begadi) cannot be considered truly appropriate for airsoft since 1 burst of full auto would render them unsafe for continued use (it takes 17 hits into exactly the same spot on full auto at around 330FPS from 25mm range to get a BB through the mesh, so it is perfectly safe for any possible skirmishing hit since, even if you tried, you'd be bloody hard pressed to keep your head perfectly still while so many hits bounced off your eyepro) because they deform - this deformation rather than catastrophic failure improves the performance vs full auto BB fire since it causes BB's to get trapped in the growing dent which means that subsequent shots hit BB's not mesh, causing some to shatter, and absorbing some of their energy, however it also means that after a good burst it may only take a few, ie a likely number, of hits to cause sufficient deformation to allow penetration - that said, they are built into those ubiquitous £3-15 shades stylee frames** which are inappropriate anyway since they do not provide a seal around the eye hence a ricochet could hit the eye from behind, above, and especially below;

 

the SS304 0.91mm wire #8 mesh these masks are made from is very durable - it takes sniper hits to cause deformation and even then it is only the likes of a single wire moved 0.3-4mm across 2 holes / 3 cross-wires ie something which could be easily repaired with needle nose pliers but would make no real difference if you just left it, because the friction between the crossed wires will prevent them moving further no matter how many site-legal hits are sustained on that exact spot subsequently.

 

**There used to be some ACM ski mask style goggles fitted with this lighter weight mesh, but I haven't seen any for sale for about a year. I'd guess that these are marginally safer than the Begadi shades type, simply because there is more mesh so any point deformation is resisted by more wires crossed over each other around the hit area, thus providing greater friction - they also provide a seal between the frames and your face. I've skirmished a set many times and not felt the need to junk them yet despite several bursts to the face while wearing them, however I would not wear them to CQB where hits to the face are more frequent.

 

Lol that turned into a longer waffle than i had intended, but hey ho, it's all pertinent info for noobs and also lurkers.

[Sacarathe]

What's the best thing to do for rain out?

[Kalex]

Tactical pink blazer along with McDonalds happy meal forehead protection...

 

For some reason the uber serious players did not like... I'll never understand why

 

[Happy]

Tactical pink blazer along with McDonalds happy meal forehead protection...

 

For some reason the uber serious players did not like... I'll never understand why

 

Pink Airsofting.jpg

I can't see why either mate! Add some glitter to that gun and your loadout would be faaaaabulous!

[Kalex]

I can't see why either mate! Add some glitter to that gun and your loadout would be faaaaabulous!

 

I can't see why either mate! Add some glitter to that gun and your loadout would be faaaaabulous!

 

Glitter? I'm going whole hog... Femme fatale, my little pony/hello kitty stickers all the way!!!

[b1n0gHo5t]

Unicorn leah would approve of this

[Ian_Gere]

What's the best thing to do for rain out?

Retire to the safe zone and wipe with lint free cloth. AFAIK there's no technological solution.