Big Ball Drop Test

[nak81783]

I just received a case of Big Ball from the UPS delivery man, and the first thing I did was open it up to perform the drop test on it.

I had a terrible weekend with PMI Premiums, and I've read and heard many complaints about it lately. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to do the drop test on the PMI since I either shot (I mean blew it up in my gun), or sold all of it to my friends. (Sorry guys, I wouldn't have sold it to you if I knew it was going to perform as poorly as it did.)

Anyway, I wanted to see if Big Ball is also suffering lately from whatever changes are being made at the factory with the new shell or oil-free process or whatever it is.

I followed Tom's instructions on the test exactly. I measured a spot on the wall precisely 6 feet above a concrete floor in my basement to use as a reference point form which to drop all of the balls. The numbers for the ten balls I used are as follows: 3,2,3,4,1,1,1,3,1,3. That averages to 2.2 bounces per ball. That is awful. At least, I think it is, being that I play rec ball and would rather have a ball curve slightly off target than break in my gun and affect performance for the rest of the game.

Now, Tom says to throw out the high and low ball, so that gets rid of the only fresh ball (the 4) and one of the super fragile balls (a 1). After removing those numbers, it averages out to 2.125. That's even worse than before.

Granted, I did the test with cold paintballs straight off the UPS truck, but that's what the playing conditions are here during a Michigan winter...cold and dry. I wanted to know if Big Ball would perform any better than the PMI Premiums I had such bad luck with this weekend. For now, it doesn't look like it.

I don't know what is going on lately, but I have never broken so much paint before as I have been recently. Even in previous winters, I haven't had this much trouble with paint. My bad days used to be one ball break all day (500-1000 rounds). Now it's more like 1-5 a game. That's just not what I'm used to.

If the PMI/RPS is doing something different in the manufacturing process, I think they should go back to what worked. I am willing to pay a little more money to avoid the frustration and problems associated with ball breaks.

Nathan

[CRiZO]

its like what Tom wrote somewhere... all the ball manufactor's are making for the insanely low pressure electronics. Like... who is it... Smart Parts has "Death Paint" or something which breaks on fabrics. Looks like we all have to find us some new paint that isn't getting out the cheap/easy way.

I dunno, I still say we all use grenades. Rename it paintgrenadethingy

[nak81783]

Good call. I seem to always miss when I throw a grenade though. I might have to try Polar Ice since I play in pretty cold weather now. It would seem pretty stupid for them to make that stuff fragile along with all the others since it is for cold weather play.

Nathan

[ninja9876]

i've also had very bad expierences with PMI premium paint on cold days. the shells tend to be very brittle and break very easily. when i performed the drop test on them most broke on the first drop.

last time i played i uses RPS marbalizer and had no trouble. they were 100x better than the pmi. they are a little more expensive (about 80$ a case) but they are definately worth it. ive never tried polar ice but i've heard some good things about it.

i suggest you try some marbalizer next time you play, but make sure it a good match for your barrel.

[LaW]

I have some 7 month old diablo hellfire that is sitting in my closet in a closed back :) i decided to do a drop test :)

out of 10 balls from 6' up

13
10
5
7
6
2
1
7
9
11


by dropping the highest and lowest I get an average of about 7...I was supprised :) hehe I love that paint through my lapco as

[AGD]

Nak,

Try putting a standing cup of water inside the bag and sealing it back up. That should increase your bounce factor to acceptable levels. Report back here if you do.

AGD

[nak81783]

Thanks, Tom. I had read that cup of water trick in the other post you first mentioned it in. I'm most likely going to try it this weekend. I'll let you know how things turn out.

Not to sound greedy, but could you maybe respond to a previous post I had about the engineering aspects of paintball and working in the paintball industry? I'd really appreciate it.

http://www.automags.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=21669

Thanks,
Nathan

[DaXtremeist]

hrmm must be that cold weather afecting the paint up there. i love big ball in my mag it never brakes. but i do know that if the paint balls get to cold they become fragile (tried to freeze paint to shoot a target) the paint just broke from air pressure.

[nak81783]

Well, I did the cup of water trick and accidently forgot to take the water out before I went to school the next morning. They absorbed way too much moisture. I did the bounce test for the first five though...20,15,24,37,50. After that I checked to see if they still fit down my Progressive barrel. Not even close. My bad. I put another ten in though for tonight and will remember to take the water out tomorrow morning.

Thanks,
Nathan

[SGTKennedy]

i live in minnesota. and its cold. but i am using OLD paint, i think its big ball.. like months old.. and it bounces pretty good. i only broke one trying to get my warp to work right... ball stack yadda. and i dropped about 5 seconds worth at 9v.. hmm. lotta balls from 4 or so feet.

[ben_JD]

Once the Worr Paint hits the market (the second plant is in the works right now) there may be an alternative. Along side the "tournament" paint we all love to hate, there will be a "Bruizer" label of paint which will be marketed at a lower level, but will have a harder shell; hence the name.

[animal]

Anyone ever have some old diablo paint get a white residue on it? I got two bags of it and it's all like that. I tried breaking one with my fingers and I crushed it flat without it breaking. Weird.

[the JoKeR]

It was too in awe of your animal strength to break!:eek:

[animal]

I may have brute strength, but I sure can finesse that emag trigger :)

[rhetor22]

i've seen the white stuff too, but i have no idea what it is. It seems to be on all of them. Maybe the oil they put on there gets funky when cold or something.

[nak81783]

OK, I finally was able to do the drop test on Big Ball paintballs that sat in with a cup of standing water over night, between 8-9 hours. The results weren't what I expected, but if you recall I first did the test on Big Ball right off the UPS truck, and they were very cold.

The balls I tested now were room temperature and had been sitting with water over night. The results were: 9,38,50,30,19,56,19,15,12,55.

Those things will hurt if they hit you! Maybe I left them in with the water too long, and since they're now at room temp instead of straight off the UPS truck, they bounce more.

Considering the temp difference, I took 10 more balls at room temp that never sat in with a cup of water. The results were: 3,3,7,1,5,4,1,1,7,7. Those are a little closer to acceptable, but I know once they get cold, they'll bust easily like the very first test I did.

Two other things I noticed were that the ones that sat in with water, when the did finally break, barely broke and only left about a drop or two of paint on the floor. Most of the non-water paintballs had good breaks, that left the floor a mess.

Now I don't know what to do. I'm thinking my best bet is to lower the number of hours the water is in with the balls, which will raise the bounce factor to possibly around 10-15, and then when I go out to play in the cold, the cold, dry air will bring them back down to about 4-6, which is what I'm aiming for. I think I will do this for one bag of 500 and leave another bag of 500 normal and see what happens.

Well, I hope this data helps everyone, and I hope you get a chance to look it over Tom since you suggested it to me. I will let you know how the weekend goes with the two different bags of paint.

Thanks,
Nathan

[AGD]

Nak,

You might try the salt paste test we did for the data run. That gives lower humidity at about 75%. You are probably doing about 90%. Good info though. With some testing you can probably get the bag of water just about right!

AGD

[nak81783]

Well, I shot a half of a case of Big Ball today, none of which I sealed in with standing water. I had no problems at all, so I didn't worry about using the standing water trick. I wonder why the PMI Premiums shot so poorly. It must be because Big Ball has a thicker shell; at least I think it does. The PMI Premiums were more accurate last week when they actually came out, but I'd rather have a day like today where none break and be a little less accurate. I hate having paint in my gun and barrel.

Nathan

[animal]

Originally posted by nak81783
I hate having paint in my gun and barrel.


You and the rest of the world... :)