Smaller Balls are you ready?

[pillage]

Well, one would think the Brothers Gardner, would be a little more savy with their marketing. Sure they have some decent products, but they have given us the wonderful things like the magic box too, which was marketed with plenty of hype. Now just think about this, their whole new ad campaign could be summed up with this phrase. "Our Balls Are Smaller than the competition." Face it, most of the paintball demographic is male, and what man wants to been known for having little balls?

[211]

There are to many companies producing .68 cal for it to disappear just because SP has partnered with a single company to produce a "new" idea

[insixdays777]

Looks Dye has joined the Empire. Is there any hope for the Rebel Alliance?

Looks like we might have underestimated the power of Emperor Adam and Darth Billy. I bet the meeting went like this.

"OK Dye, you know the patents we have on clamping feednecks, electronic markers, ported barrels ect, ect. Join us now and we will spare your planet and not raise royalties or begin more patent suits. Embrace the .50cal side!"

Poor Dye should have rewatched Star Wars...we all know they still blow up Alderaan....

[cockerpunk]

dye has the spool valve patent, SP and dye made a deal to not sue each other.

[skipdogg]

Looks Dye has joined the Empire. Is there any hope for the Rebel Alliance?

Looks like we might have underestimated the power of Emperor Adam and Darth Billy. I bet the meeting went like this.

"OK Dye, you know the patents we have on clamping feednecks, electronic markers, ported barrels ect, ect. Join us now and we will spare your planet and not raise royalties or begin more patent suits. Embrace the .50cal side!"

Poor Dye should have rewatched Star Wars...we all know they still blow up Alderaan....

I dont like this one bit. At first I casually dismissed the .50 cal idea, and thought like an optimist that .50 could be the beginning of the end for Smart Parts world domination (meaning .50 cal would be such a flop and they would waste so much time and money that other companies could therefore make them much less relevant in the industry). But now I am actually worried. I hope this isnt the beginning of the end to .68 caliber paintball, and therefore AGD.

[snoopay700]

The idea won't hold. Most fields are field paint only, and i can assure you that until there is a vast majority of people using .50 cal guns fields won't pick up this paint for the few that have switched.

As for the current markers, the bolt needs to be redesigned, the bolt stroke, the breech, the barrel. It would be cheaper to get a new gun probably than to try to convert the dang things, not to mention mags would have a hard time converting (probably couldn't) where as stacked tube markers and such would just need a new bolt and sleeve, and detents, a new body would be much easier.

That being said you would require a whole new marker, and not many people would be willing to give up the markers they love for that, so it would likely be limited to the new players that are just joining. I really can't see this taking off.

And as for airsoft paintballs, they dont' break and the shell is gummy.

[Porschesales]

IF ITS A CHANGE ITLL phase in over time but yeah i dont see getting rid of my old guns just to shoot a smaller ball.

i think you would find some people love their guns as much as they love the sport and separating them could have dire consequences. this wont happen over a short period of time by any chan ce

[Shirow]

Ugh.. I hope this doesn't come to fruition. I really don't want to retire my wonderful mag

[drewkroeker]

Now that the word's out about .50 cal, perhaps some of the airsmiths and machinists on this forum should get some .50 cal automags on the drawing board... I would play paintball if .50 cal was all that was available years from now, but I would be much happier if I could still play with my mags.

[snoopay700]

Now that the word's out about .50 cal, perhaps some of the airsmiths and machinists on this forum should get some .50 cal automags on the drawing board... I would play paintball if .50 cal was all that was available years from now, but I would be much happier if I could still play with my mags.

The main problem is they would need a new bolt, meaning a level 10 would be hard as hell to have, and i'l also not even sure it can be done, i'd have to measure the power tube and see how much material could be on the bolt. Then the bolt stroke would still be too long which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it's wasted movement then. We'd also need some sort of sleeve to slide into the breech, and we would need new detents. Like i said, it would be a hell of a lot easier to have a new body and bolt if you were to convert, if a conversion is even possible.

Oh yeah, i also forgot, like tom said it would need a brand new hopper, electric or otherwise, which is another reason i don't see this working. The entire industry is based around that one .68 inch ball, and i doubt it or the players are going to allow that to change any time soon.

[Lohman446]

change = sales. Making all the old guns obsolete gets the used ones off the market and allows sales of new ones.

[snoopay700]

change = sales. Making all the old guns obsolete gets the used ones off the market and allows sales of new ones.

That's a very valid point. Actually the entire industry can stand to benefit from this if it does become the standard, it's just a matter of whether or not the consumers will allow it, and it's the consumers and the fields that will make or break this idea. However, it's also up to the manufacturers if they want to take the leap of faith that this will take over and create a new marker/electric hopper, because if it ends up being driven in the ground by the consumers then they will lose money on r&d.

And as for mags, i just measured my powertube and it came out to about 7/16 of an inch, so mags are out as far as conversions, unless you want to have a new rail, a much longer bolt, and a much longer body, because it would essentially be a modified version of the bolt we have now only it would have to have the normal back with a new .50 cal front. In short, mags wouldn't be able to follow this trend.

[Automagsam]

change = sales. Making all the old guns obsolete gets the used ones off the market and allows sales of new ones.

Tis true change equals sales, but people also tend to resist change when they have to totally reinvest. Changes in any industry are gradual, if and if this were to happen it would have to be something that gradually changed the industry over the next ten years. This can be seen in any market. DVD players made VHS and VCR's obsolete, however look how long it took people to switch over. Then you got combo players to accommodate those who didn't want to give up the products they already had, just as blueray players play dvds, but still how many of you guys have blue ray players, my guess is not a lot. The comparison is a valid one, but here is the thing, any new gun developed will not accommodate an old product, and honestly there is no need for a change in the industry the change would need to be great enough for people to want to buy into it.

Something that requires adaptation across the whole industry and doesn't accommodate those within will not succeed initially or at all, so all of you guys who are worried, give it ten plus years then look and see if the industry has changed, however you can tell if it fails sooner than that, and my guess is that it does.

On top of all that, we shouldn't look at this as an opportunity to start fresh and with a clean slate within the industry, that simply is not true, if anything these new guns and balls will be patened asap and someone will corner the market there as well, so I wouldn't hope for this to change the market, but like I said I highly doubt this will take grasp and start growing amongst the industry as a standard especially in an economy as such. However if the guns and products were insanely cheap (which they won't be) then it could be feasible, just because it would have to be some extremely cheap alternative to paintball since everyone must reinvest and do to the lack of it's accommodations of the people already playing the sport who must switch over all their equipment.

I think that is really all the talk that needs to be said about these balls, there really isn't much any of us can do or say to predict how they do, it is just simply in the next decade will it take root.

[Maghog]

There's one single factor that is going to determine the outcome of 50 cal., and that is performance. On the day that you guys go to the chrono and you're standing next to some one who's zinging balls like a dart at a target you can't reach with your old fashioned setup, you're gonna gulp real hard.
After you come off the field frustrated because you couldn't get in range of your opponent before getting shot, you're going to think about either quitting or joining the new arms race.
I love the concept of 50 cal., it could breathe new life into the sport if it really works. It's just a real shame that the Gardener boys are involved.
Dan@Triggernomics

[Automagsam]

There's one single factor that is going to determine the outcome of 50 cal., and that is performance. On the day that you guys go to the chrono and you're standing next to some one who's zinging balls like a dart at a target you can't reach with your old fashioned setup, you're gonna gulp real hard.
After you come off the field frustrated because you couldn't get in range of your opponent before getting shot, you're going to think about either quitting or joining the new arms race.
I love the concept of 50 cal., it could breathe new life into the sport if it really works. It's just a real shame that the Gardener boys are involved.
Dan@Triggernomics

This concept has been around forever though, and most people know that it can do this. The thing is there are other things on the market if you want to do that, go spend a bunch of money on airsoft or such. I won't gape and be surprised from simple physics, but I am not going to reinvest in something unneeded in the sport.

I can honestly say that if these things take route and paintball is changed, I don't think I will stick around with the sport, not out of a way of protest, but I've dumped so much money into it, ten years down the road (it will take longer) when and if these things take root, I won't want to reinvest the time and money into it. It isn't improving the sport it is changing it. Shoot plastic bb's and we are airsoft.

If you want 50 cals go buy the cheap spring ones they sell at walmart, they are 50 cal. Have fun.

The thing is, I'm an average consumer and if I don't want to reinvest in all that new equipment, there will be others.