What Bio BBs should I be buying?

[ChristianHalley]

Hi all,

 

I am looking to buy some Bio BBs 6mm, for my G&G Arp 9. This is basically just to do some target practise in the garden at home, so I wanted to settle for Bio, just so i know they'll degrade.

I found this site: https://www.6mmammo.co.uk and it seems to have what I am looking for, but I am very new to the sport and still sceptical about buying ammo. I don't really know what to look out for when buying ammo or what the trusted brands are, or if there is anything I should be aware of when buying, since the last thing I want is to damage my gun with some cheap BBs (if that is indeed even possible).

 

Thanks in advance for your help!

[Guest]

you know they’ll take a good few years to “dissolve” lol

[EDcase]

Hi and welcome Christian,

 

6mm-ammo are a good brand.  The non-bios work well for me and most others but some people have reported issues with them jamming their guns so it can depend on what gun you use.

 

The problem with bios is they are hygroscopic meaning they absorb water even from the atmosphere.  This can make them swell and jam when used.  Yes, a gun can be damaged by BB's getting stuck or shattering inside.

So you must keep them in a very dry place.  They may still swell after some time and become unusable.

 

[ChristianHalley]

32 minutes ago, rocketdogbert said:

you know they’ll take a good few years to “dissolve” lol

Well yeah. Of course they will. But that's better than them being there for as long as a live, and then for everyone who lives here after me having to deal with them. I don't really care if I see them or not.

1 minute ago, EDcase said:

Hi and welcome Christian,

 

6mm-ammo are a good brand.  The non-bios work well for me but some people have had issues with them jamming their guns so it can depend on what gun you use.

 

The problem with bios is they are hygroscopic meaning they absorb water even from the atmosphere.  This will make them swell and jam in the gun.

So you must keep them in a very dry place and they will probably still swell after some time and become unusable.

 

Hi EDcase,

 

Thanks for that, that's really helpful.

 

I am currently using a G&G Arp-9 with a 11.1v Battery. I don't mind any performance issues, just so long as it doesn't cause permanent damage. I'm only using it casually for a bit of practise, so a few misfires here and there wont be an issue.

 

I have a place set aside for them that's nice and dry, but I'm sure I'll use them up quite promptly. I imagine I'll get through them in a few days which hopefully wont allow them to turn.

 

If you're confident that 6mm Ammo is a trusted brand, I'll take your word for it and order some today  

[EDcase]

Sounds like a good plan. (I'd keep them next to the boiler or hot water tank closet)

 

Yes, 6mm ammo is as good as any other known brand so you may as well buy some to try.  If you're not happy with them then try a different brand.

 

[djben9]

ive got some arriving today from firesupport, different brand, will pop in some of those silica bags i keep finding to assist with the moisture as well 

[EDcase]

On 01/04/2020 at 11:21, djben9 said:

ive got some arriving today from firesupport, different brand, will pop in some of those silica bags i keep finding to assist with the moisture as well 

Yes, keeping them in a sealed container/bag with lots of the silica gel is a good idea. (I always keep any sachets I get)

[ChristianHalley]

14 minutes ago, djben9 said:

ive got some arriving today from firesupport, different brand, will pop in some of those silica bags i keep finding to assist with the moisture as well 

 

That's an awesome Idea. Thanks for that! I have loads leftover from when i ordered my other kit.

[MadMole]

Bio BB's haven't used hygroscopic PVA for many years now. They are moisture stable. Mind you they take many years to rot and only under landfill conditions

[E21A]

Bio BBs, aren’t 

[djben9]

I picked up two bottles of these, only garden shooting into a catcher so most are caught but its for the odd one that escapes

 

https://www.fire-support.co.uk/product/asg-open-blaster-20g-bio-bbs-33000-rnd-bottle-white

 

annoyingly, there is no mention of them being Bio on the bottle which i think should be noted somewhere on the label, you just have to go with the website....

 

https://actionsportgames.com/en-gb/productcatalog/open-blaster-0-20g-airsoft-bb--3300-pcs--in-bottle

 

[kasaran]

I had a few problem batches with asg bio open blaster 0.25.  Would jam in my stock tm m14 and g&p m16a1.  Binned all the bottles i had.  

 

I have heard bad things about 6mmo bbs  for quality control (jamming in tightbore barrels) from a group of guys that had stocked up on them for nae.

 

Never had issue with G&G Bios.

[jsmithski]

All bio bbs are shit. Just don’t use them, it’s a gimmick and a total horse shit to call them environmentally friendly. They suck at being eco and suck at being good bbs.

[kasaran]

On 17/04/2020 at 23:19, jsmithski said:

All bio bbs are shit. Just don’t use them, it’s a gimmick and a total horse shit to call them environmentally friendly. They suck at being eco and suck at being good bbs.

 

i really wanted to lead this with a gif of trump denying global warming, but my google-fu has failed me. 

 

Bio bb's are generally fine, been using them on and off for years.  you just need to be more mindfull of storage  Dump them in a cold damp shed/garage you might get issues, keep them in the house warm and dry? then they will last (possibly not as long as the non bio ones, but at that point, why buy so many if its going to take so long to use them?).

 

Any reliability issues they suffer are no different from the non bio bb's, you get good ones, bad ones and sometimes bad batches within the good ones, as mentioned with my experience with asg open blasters.

 

When it comes to environmentally friendly, i doubt you have personally studied the rate to decomposition.  Which is fair as thats anything between 2 to 4 years. my source? the back of a bag of G&G bios:

 

 

having played with both bio and nonbio (one site i go to only allows bio) there is no performance difference i have seen.  modern ones are definately not the bio bb's of old, which did have so many issues.  i am always suprised when woodland sites dont insist on bios, there must be already a good layer made up of millions plastic balls on that ground and its only going to get thicker.

 

 

 

 

 

[EDcase]

I will get some to try when we can play again.

 

What is the actual danger for the environment?  Won't they just get buried like small stones.  (May even improve ground drainage?)

The main issue I can think of is animals eating them but I guess they would quickly learn not to.

[kasaran]

11 hours ago, EDcase said:

I will get some to try when we can play again.

 

What is the actual danger for the environment?  Won't they just get buried like small stones.  (May even improve ground drainage?)

The main issue I can think of is animals eating them but I guess they would quickly learn not to.

 

More drainage isnt necessarily a good thing.  It might increase the leaching of nutrients in the soils or dry them out to the point where plant life is effected.  Could go as far as creating a different ground temperature, there is a term for it but i cant remember, something french. 

 

Either way.  After decades of play and a layer of billions of bbs on the ground,  its not going to be a topsoil conducive to healthy plant growth and everything that follows. 

 

Tbh, im not sure what the bio bbs break down into?  Constituent parts or just smaller bits of plastic?

[Ad_]

36 minutes ago, kasaran said:

Tbh, im not sure what the bio bbs break down into?  Constituent parts or just smaller bits of plastic?

 

Biodegradable BBs should get broken down by microbes present in the soil and various chemical processes into other materials. What they break down into and how long this process takes will depend on what exactly they're made of though, as well as the environment they're in. PLA is quite commonly used: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polylactic_acid

 

Regular plastic will gradually break down in the environment too, but only into smaller pieces of plastic.

[jsmithski]

Whatever

[MadMole]

Novritsh Bio BB's (dont mock)

 

The main material of the sample is s Polylactic acid (PLA),. Inorganic Filler Content: 85.1 % BaSo4 + Cerium Oxide. 

They are moisture insensitive (never had one jam even after bag open several months, kept in damp workshop), and certified to German standards to be 100% biodegradable

 

Used them for last year, very consistent, no failures, no air bubbles or surface marks (unlike the AGS I used before) and cheaper for heavier weights. Very nice BB's. 

Now use them exclusivity 0.28 for AEG's, 0.36 for pistols and 0.4 for sniper. Cant see any difference from his non Bio's

[Ropeyshep]

On 20/04/2020 at 22:04, jsmithski said:

Whatever

Convincingly put, I’m sold. 

[jsmithski]

8 hours ago, Ropeyshep said:

Convincingly put, I’m sold. 

Just get your own opinion. I’m done with cleaning my barrel after every game from Bio residue. Bio bbs also suck in humid weather, during a 48hrs milsim it’s a pain when they swell and get soft.

[Ropeyshep]

Now you’ve actually expressed yourself I can use your experience to inform my decisions. See, use your words and you have far more weight in the argument. 

[Ad_]

I've used 3 kinds of bio BBs (BioSphere, Nuprol RZR Bio, ASG Open Blaster; Open Blasters seem to be the best of the 3 in my experience) and did not find any of them to leave behind any crap in my guns' barrels. I always inspect and clean my guns after they've seen any significant use so I would definitely have noticed if they did.

[jsmithski]

Maybe they got better these days, I got very bad experience using bio bbs few years ago and I decided to leave it until some convinced me. I remember bio bbs swelled so much on me I could not get them out from a midcap mag. Maybe it’s time to do some testing again

[Ropeyshep]

Just to give a little data to this thread/topic and to see for myself if there is a significant difference in the behaviour of Bios in wet conditions or a difference between the behaviour of Bios versus Non-Bios, I put a small sample of whatever I had in the house into ziploc bags of water following my last post so these are figures based on the sample BBs being completely submerged in tap water for 18 days (it was night time so I'm counting only whole days).

 

Following the submersion, I measured five BBs from each wet sample and five BBs from the original dry source bottle/bag. I don't have a massive selection and most of those are Bio so I don't have a great control group of non-bio BBs to select from.

 

So, the hypothesis tested is that Biodegradable BBs swell out of spec on absorption of moisture.

 

The attached table is a summary of the results and I think the conclusion I first draw is that there is no absorption or swelling of BBs after nearly 3 weeks underwater.

 

The variation within samples appears greater than that between wet and dry in most cases. Also, I am pretty happy with my standard choice of Nuprol RZR 0.28g Bio 😉

 

There are obvious limitations to the test, primarily in that the sample sizes are small, I can't be fussed expanding the test but I'd be more than happy to applaud anyone who wanted to, I am happy to email the full data table with individual measurements, if anyone is that bored on lockdown. Another possible source of error is the measurement equipment, I used my general garage micrometer to do the measuring, it doesn't have a valid certificate of calibration and it has a stated precision of 0.01mm so the variation seen in most samples falls inside the possible error of the test equipment.

 

Thirdly, this isn't a blind test, I knew what each sample was and so there may be subconscious bias but I doubt it.

 

I really hope this lockdown ends soon, I clearly have too much time on my hands.