3 Years of Powder Balls

It's now been more than 3 years since powder balls became widely available for paintball players, and I thought it would be interesting to do a brief retrospective. As far as usage, it would appear that powder balls reached their saturation point a while ago and don't seem to have expanded since. Milsim players in Québec use them often, and some fields/organizations still seem to use them exclusively. The combination of them being easier to clean up and MSQ SOP rules stating that all hits count makes them perfect for MSQ events, especially those taking place at less conventional paintball fields.

Kuwaiti Paintball and Some Slow Motion Powderballs

I felt myself cringe when I saw that powderball hit the goggles square on. Interestingly enough, this video looks like it could have been taken anywhere in North America. I was hoping for a decidedly more exotic locale given the location.

Given the amount of time that's passed since I first looked at them, has anyone else seen powderballs used firsthand? Any further thoughts as to their safety and usefulness?

JBern Shooting RAP4 GOLF Balls

I just realized that I completely forgot to link to JBern's video (from NW Woodsball, check it out) of him shooting some RAP4 GOLF Balls even though I contacted him ages ago asking if I could embed his video.

My bad JBern! Anyways, his video does a great job of demonstrating the weird flight patterns these rounds can take. Here it is:

RAP4 GOLF Paintball Review: Water Test

One of the advertising points for the RAP4 GOLF Paintballs is that they are "Impervious to water", so I decided to put that statement to the test. Seen above is one Draxxus Custom paintball and one GOLF paintball, both in separate ziplock sandwich bags filled with a small amount of water.

After 7 hours, they looked like this:

Here's a video of me cutting the ball on the right in half after the exposure to water:

They're not kidding when they say "impervious", there wasn't a hint of moisture in the powder when the ball was split in half. If there was ever a paintball to be used for an Over the Beach Test, it should be these.

RAP4 GOLF Paintball Review: Shooting

So I finally managed to make it out to the local field to shoot some of RAP4's GOLF Paintballs using my Milsig K-Series. I went through about fifty rounds and have formulated a few impressions.



I noticed a definite change in average trajectory between normal paintballs and the GOLF rounds. I verified this by filling a Milsig magazine with an equal amount of interspersed GOLF rounds and paintball rounds. The GOLF rounds seemed to have a flatter average trajectory... when they didn't go crazy. Many of the GOLF rounds seemed to dance through the air when fired. If you've ever thrown a wiffle ball you may know what I'm talking about.

As for getting hit by the GOLF paintballs, two of the four shots broke on me, one hitting my right wrist and one hitting my left forearm. One shot that bounced hit me square in the stomache. The first shot missed. All three shots felt equivalent to getting hit by a paintball at the same temperature (-19 degrees Celsius outside at the time). The powder left a distinct mark on my jeans and sweater. While it wasn't super easy to wipe off, it came off easily using a small amount of water and didn't stain.

I thought I would never say this, but luckily I had break while I was shooting the GOLF paintballs.

This is what my magazine feed neck looked like when a round broke in the receiver:

And here's what my receiver looked like inside:

I found the fill relatively easy to clean from my receiver (have yet to clean my magazine). However, the question that came into my mind when I looked at this was, "Would firing while there was GOLF fill in your marker cause some abrasion on internal parts?"

For my next shooting test for the GOLF rounds, I hope to procure a cheap mask (if you're in Canada and would like to send me one of your old beaters, I'd love to have it), shoot some GOLF paintballs at the lense and see what happens.

Weighing RAP4 GOLF Paintballs

I weighed five Draxxus custom paintballs, and five GOLF Balls, and the results are a bit surprising on one end (sorry for the low quality, didn't look at the setting until it was too late)...



If you can't see the numbers here are the results:

1st GOLF Ball weight (g): 4.20
1st Draxxus weight (g): 3.26
2nd Draxxus weight (g): 3.29
3rd Draxxus weight (g): 3.29
4th Draxxus weight (g): 3.30
5th Draxxus weight (g): 3.30
2nd GOLF Ball weight (g): 2.93
3rd GOLF Ball weight (g): 4.00
4th GOLF Ball weight (g): 3.45
5th GOLF Ball weight (g): 4.02

Average GOLF Paintball weight (g): 3.72
GOLF Paintball standard deviation (+/- g): 0.52

Average Draxxus Paintball weight (g): 3.29

Draxxus Paintball standard deviation (+/- g): 0.02

RAP 4 GOLF Paintball Review: Intro

UPS left me a little present today, a sample of RAP4 GOLF Paintballs from RAP4 (along with some nice promotional bonuses). I will be doing an extensive review of these paintballs over the next little while, including: performance, stress testing and safety. I have a total of one hundred of these little guys, which should be more than enough for everything.

 

I probably won't be able to get out and shoot these guys till at least this weekend, at which point I'll compare them to Draxxus Custom (Gold Formula). If I can I'll try and shoot them through a smooth bore barrel, a rifled barrel, and an apex equipped smooth bore barrel.

Here's a little video tidbit of me breaking one of the rounds in a ziplock bag:

Update - Dec. 8th 2009: Added a video per Fan Dam's request:

Update (Dec. 12th 2009) - Weighing some GOLF Paintballs

RAP4 GOLF Paintball Composition

After hearing a few people ask what the RAP4 GOLF Paintball was made of I decided to do some investigating. I saw that Psiworx from M. Carter Brown stated in one forum post that, "The shell is polyethylene wax, calcium carbonate, and a polyethylene powder. The fill is barium sulfate and silica."

Reading this made me a bit uneasy, as while those are all inert ingredients, inhaling some kinds of silica can lead to disease called silicosis. So, I went straight to the source, emailing APS Paintball (the manufacturer of the GOLF rounds) asking about the composition of the balls. They sent me the complete MSDS sheets for their product.

Here are the details:

Shell material: PE dip plastic powder, Polyethylene Wax, Heavy Active Calcium Carbonate, Plastic Pigment

Inside material: Barium sulfate, Non-crystalline amorphous precipitated silica

Now lets take a look at the health effects of the individual components:

Polyethylene wax - Nothing to worry about, but from an environmental standpoint it's not that great (does not fully decompose for centuries)

Calcium carbonate - Active ingredient found in over the counter antacids such as Tums, perfectly safe.

Barium sulfate - Very insoluble in the human body and is eliminated readily. You probably shouldn't eat it, but there aren't any real issues with it.

Non-crystalline amorphous precipitated silica - Non-crystalline, amorphous silica is not linked to silicosis, so it isn't dangerous in that regard.

All that considered, I'd say the GOLF paintballs are perfectly safe to play with given normal paintball play. If anyone is interested in reading the MSDS sheets for themselves, I'll gladly send it to you.

Update - Dec 7 2009: I have been in further contact with APS, and the weight of the GOLF Paintballs is 3.5g/ball. This does not exceed the ASTM standard.

RAP4 GOLF Paintball Rounds

Yes, you read that right, GOLF Paintball rounds. While they do have a breakdown of the GOLF acronym, it's quite obvious that they were named after the shape of these new rounds. With tiny dimples covering each ball, they are designed to be more aerodynamic in flight.

The composition of these paintballs is also radically different, check this out:



I don't see powder fill balls ever being used for widespread recreational or commercial play, but an interesting design and implementation nonetheless.

Edit (Nov. 25th 2009): There will soon be a GOLF round available with a more traditional paintball fill. Also, it looks like Grey Ops will be able to take a look at these new rounds in the near future, so stay tuned!