What brand BBs are best nowadays? Bang for buck.

[Alex34]

So, I used to run nothing but ASG Blaster Tracer .25 BBs for indoors, and ASG Blaster Devil .28 for outdoors. I still have a few bottles of the tracer rounds but only one bottle left of the Devil .28.

 

I seemed to get on very well with these ASG rounds years ago, especially the Devils but I can't seem to find them in stock in .28 anywhere. Now, I've just gotten back into airsoft after a 5-6 year lay-off, is it that the ASG stuff isn't as popular anymore, or are there now better options? 

 

Any help in finding some quality .28 BBs that aren't silly money would be helpful.

 

Also, what are the really good tracer rounds nowadays?

 

TIA

[Dan Robinson]

Here's a linky to my BB Spreadsheet.  It needs an update, but was accurate as of October.

 

BB Costs.xlsx

My last batch of 28s was DK armaments and seem to be find.

[The_Lord_Poncho]

BLS seem to be well regarded, but I've been absolutely fine with .28 ASG cursed - got through several bags of it in multiple guns, all with good results.

[Alex34]

28 minutes ago, The_Lord_Poncho said:

BLS seem to be well regarded, but I've been absolutely fine with .28 ASG cursed - got through several bags of it in multiple guns, all with good results.

Are "Cursed" the new "Devils"?

[Enid_Puceflange]

I was using “Rebel” beebs this weekend

both me and my mate had no issues at all with them 👍

Edited January 29 by Enid_Puceflange

[Fatboy40]

54 minutes ago, Alex34 said:

Are "Cursed" the new "Devils"?

 

When I was using 0.28g the ASG Cursed line were faultless, so this is up to summer 2023 before I and my son moved to 0.32g across the board for AEG's and pistols.

 

Their price is great, they're easy to get hold off (I'd usually buy three of four bags at a time from Patrol Base along with other consumables), didn't get any in the bag that were damaged or any "dust" in the bottom of the bag. Personally I couldn't find anything better for the price.

[Whats]

Hello Alex,

 

You should be able to find Devil .28's in stock at Bullseye, Combat South, Airsoft Zone & Ammo Drop at least.

 

For your tracers, we do Open Blaster tracers in .28, .3 and .32

 

Cursed and Devil still run side by side and haven't replaced one another per say, the key difference being all Blaster go through our additional steps of QC in Denmark before they're bottled up, Cursed QC is all done at factory. 

 

Hope that helps chap.

Edited January 29 by Whats

[Alex34]

15 minutes ago, Whats said:

Hello Alex,

 

You should be able to find Devil .28's in stock at Bullseye, Combat South, Airsoft Zone & Ammo Drop at least.

 

For your tracers, we do Open Blaster tracers in .28, .3 and .32

 

Cursed and Devil still run side by side and haven't replaced one another per say, the key difference being all Blaster go through our additional steps of QC in Denmark before they're bottled up, Cursed QC is all done at factory. 

 

Hope that helps chap.

Yes, I just found some at Airsoft Zone!

 

Thanks for the additional info. Always got on well with the Blaster range, would like stick to them if I can... especially the Devils. Good to know they are still about.

1 hour ago, Fatboy40 said:

 

When I was using 0.28g the ASG Cursed line were faultless, so this is up to summer 2023 before I and my son moved to 0.32g across the board for AEG's and pistols.

 

Their price is great, they're easy to get hold off (I'd usually buy three of four bags at a time from Patrol Base along with other consumables), didn't get any in the bag that were damaged or any "dust" in the bottom of the bag. Personally I couldn't find anything better for the price.

What made you go to .32?

 

I use to do mostly indoor skirmishes at The Mall and my AEG is 325-330fps on .20's. That was the reason I ran .25's and .28's. Most of my internals were all upgraded a while back so I'm up for trying other weights. 

[Dan Robinson]

Doh - just noticed that link was an editable one.

 

Will leave it as that because I'm hoping people here are trustworthy enough not to ruin a resource for everyone else. LOL.

 

Thanks in advance for anyone that does contribute in a positive way.  For anyone that does a naughty..... I have guns.  Lots of guns.  My dad has several real ones too.  

Edited January 29 by Dan Robinson

[rj1986]

1 hour ago, Fatboy40 said:

 

When I was using 0.28g the ASG Cursed line were faultless, so this is up to summer 2023 before I and my son moved to 0.32g across the board for AEG's and pistols.

 

Their price is great, they're easy to get hold off (I'd usually buy three of four bags at a time from Patrol Base along with other consumables), didn't get any in the bag that were damaged or any "dust" in the bottom of the bag. Personally I couldn't find anything better for the price.

I got a box of ASG cursed .25g's from about 6 years ago as a prize in a raffle.

 

They have been fine in everything except if i use an older, opened bag in my TM mk46, but that could be the mag was a bit dirty or fussy as its auto wind. Everything else has been fine with them

[Fatboy40]

1 hour ago, Alex34 said:

What made you go to .32? 

 

Most of our days are spent outside, shooting to very mixed ranges, and my son's and my AEG are upgraded a fair bit so fine hopping heavy ammo and tuned to this weight.

 

So, we get the advantage of a few meters more range (able to hit players further away who can't reach us / they feel the BB hitting them better) and are less affected by wind.

[StoveCap]

Best BBs are really dependant on weight, on the sub .36 range, any reputable brand is pretty much as good as the other. At least that's as far as I've looked into them. Bang for buck I'd go for ASG, any series. And if you can hop heavier than .28 you should probably get heavier - you can buy the best .28 out there, you're still gonna be outranged by a decent .32

[Impulse]

I run .48s (sniper rifles), .4s (DMRs), .32s (most things), and .25s (shotgun and LMG) and for all of them I've always liked Geoffs until recently because they shot up in price and are just expensive now. Now I'm running BLS BBs and they're pretty great and affordable, but ASG Blasters have always been good as well and I've used them in the past.

[Spartan09]

Used to run Valkyrie BBs, but it seems the company has decided to cease trading, so im now in the market for a new brand of BB as my Valkyrie stocks are running out. 

 

I ran .32 in my tippmann, .28s in most of my other guns with .25s for CQB 

Edited January 30 by Spartan09
Typo

[Alex34]

On 30/01/2024 at 09:10, StoveCap said:

Best BBs are really dependant on weight, on the sub .36 range, any reputable brand is pretty much as good as the other. At least that's as far as I've looked into them. Bang for buck I'd go for ASG, any series. And if you can hop heavier than .28 you should probably get heavier - you can buy the best .28 out there, you're still gonna be outranged by a decent .32

So .32 wouldn't be too heavy for a 1 joule HK416 with a Promethus Purple rubber hop?

[Lozart]

2 hours ago, Alex34 said:

So .32 wouldn't be too heavy for a 1 joule HK416 with a Promethus Purple rubber hop?

 

 

I'd say that is too heavy for 1j and a good old prommy purple. 0.28 tops for that (IMO)

[Cannonfodder]

One thing I noticed when using heavier ammo is that if you go too heavy the shot may have the range you want, but as the fps is lower the target is gone by the time the bb reaches it. I found .28g to be the best compromise between having acceptable range and not waiting an age for the shot to land

[Sewdhull]

The time to target for the same energy is marginally slower at first and by the time you can notice a difference the heavier bb is quicker.

 

This is the main reason they travel further, higher average speed.

 

This is because of physics.

 

 

From the airsoft trajectory project.

[Pseudotectonic]

I concur .28 seems to be sweet spot for most pews up to 30 to 40 meters, and good £ per shot

 

source: reddit

https://redd.it/171ugdc

 

[Dan Robinson]

1 hour ago, Cannonfodder said:

One thing I noticed when using heavier ammo is that if you go too heavy the shot may have the range you want, but as the fps is lower the target is gone by the time the bb reaches it. I found .28g to be the best compromise between having acceptable range and not waiting an age for the shot to land

 

It's fun being on the other end though, and doing the Matrix dance around the incoming bbs

 

 

 

Hurts your back a bit when your old and fat like me.

 

 

[Sewdhull]

16 minutes ago, Pseudotectonic said:

I concur .28 seems to be sweet spot for most pews up to 30 to 40 meters, and good £ per shot

 

source: reddit

https://redd.it/171ugdc

 

 

That's an interesting graph, but man it's hard to read.

[StoveCap]

14 hours ago, Sewdhull said:

The time to target for the same energy is marginally slower at first and by the time you can notice a difference the heavier bb is quicker.

 

This is the main reason they travel further, higher average speed.

 

This is because of physics.

 

 

From the airsoft trajectory project.

 

The physics behind it is fairly simple, Heavier BB's conserve their energy better.

Assume you have a Mini cooper going 100mph and a Truck going 60 down an infinite straight road, If you just let both of them go - no accel no braking - the mini stops LONG before the Truck, even in spite of the speed advantage, because the Truck is way heavier. Same principle for BBs, Light 'mini' BB may be faster at first, but that Heavy 'Truck' BB is still gonna be at a solid 30-20mph by the time that mini stops. 
(This is an Analogy, i dont actually know how accurate my waffle about Trucks and Minis is here)

Edited February 1 by StoveCap

[ParHunter]

It’s called the momentum of mass. It is calculated as

p = m*v (m is the mass and v the velocity).

 

A 0.2 Gramm BB shot at 1 J will travel at about 100m/s. A 0.3gramm BB will travel at about 85m/s. 

0.2 BB -> 0.2g*100m/s = 20 m*g/s

0.3 BB -> 0.3g*85m/s = 25.5 m*g/s

[DerDer]

Have a stockpile of G&G 0.28g which I plan on using for support gun in the future. Have also used Azimuth BBs, with good results.  Although they seem to be a thing of the past.  Have a few bags of Bushido which I plan on using at some stage this year.  

 

Also have a few bags of Geoffs 0.32g. Will eventually find something to feed them to. Unfortunately some magazines don't feed reliably with heavier BBs. Okay if you can use PTS midcaps, less so if it's a unicorn gun. 

[Sewdhull]

2 hours ago, ParHunter said:

It’s called the momentum of mass. It is calculated as

p = m*v (m is the mass and v the velocity).

 

A 0.2 Gramm BB shot at 1 J will travel at about 100m/s. A 0.3gramm BB will travel at about 85m/s. 

0.2 BB -> 0.2g*100m/s = 20 m*g/s

0.3 BB -> 0.3g*85m/s = 25.5 m*g/s

It's not about momentum. It's energy. As you can see above they aren't the same.

 

0.2BB at 100m/s drag is X Newtons.

0.3BB at 85m/s drag is .72X N.

 

FDrag prop to v²

 

.2 v² is 10000

.3 v² is 7225 or .72 of 10000.

 

Drag (force) is directly proportional to the square of the speed, other variables are the same.

 

 

0.2BB acceleration is -Y ms²

0.3BB acceleration is -.48Y ms²

 

a prop to F

a prop to 1/m

 

.3BB has .72 of the FDrag of the .2

.3BB has 1.5 of the mass of the .2

 

.72/1.5 = .48 of the acceleration of the .2, a deceleration in this case.

 

Acceleration is directly proportional to the force on the BB (less on the .3), and inversely proportional to mass (more on the .3).

 

You can see that the decceleration is less than half for a .3 at the same energy than the .2 .

 

The .2 will slow to match the .3 velocity but even thenen the .3 will lose velocity slower because of its 1.5 times more mass.

 

Only when the FDrag on the .3 is 1.5 times the drag on the .2, about 1.25 times faster than the .2 will they deccelerate at the same rate.

 

I think