What if... Some BBs are made of rubber?
 

First of all, I don't plan to do this very soon. Also I will not use it in game until it is proofed safe AND verified by the game organizer. This post is mostly for a theory-based duscussion, if anyone reading this want to try it in a game, this post will NOT decide whether you can/cannot use it, the decision will be made by the game organizer in most cases.


Possible Pros for rubber (elastic and soft) BBs:
Less impact force at same fps and same bullet weight.
Safer to players.
May allow higher fps/BB weight for DMR/Sniper rifle players, to get longer range without compromise safety at mid-range. (Again, this is up to the game organizer to decide and may vary between games. I am just thinking about the validity of the idea.)

Cons for rubber BBs:
More friction inside the barrel and decrease the performance. (actually not just the barrel)
More expensive to make.
Not sure if it have enough density to make high-weight BBs.
May have feeding problem.
May become rigid in the winter.
Higher chance of "ricochet".


What do you think?

(Oops, looks like I posted in the wrong section...)

I have once tried something that is hardly related to this topic: I once put a rubber pellet into a .177 cal air rifle and shoot it. (Again, no one should use .177 cal air rifles for airsoft game, with or without rubber bullet! This is just for experiment!)
The power of the bullet was greatly reduced (of course). But I don't have a chrono to get a kinetic energy measurement when I did that. As the weight of rubber pellet is much less than the lead pellet for air rifles, this result may not be very useful.

Interesting idea, but I don't know if you could guarantee an aerodynamic surface.

I thought the surfaces of plastic BBs are not really aerodynamic surface anyway... Are they?

fewfwt3

Don't have rubber balls of the right size... And it is very difficult to rate the impact force. Any ideas?

http://www.airsoftcanada.com/picture...pictureid=5083

As the BB being pulled from the back, it will be compressed and become larger in the "equatorial" position and push against the barrel, so the friction inside the barrel will be larger not only due to the different coefficient of friction.

dont you think the BB would in a sense warp or deform in guns that are gas blow back where a loading arm would first strike each BB before firing?

Would not work. The rubber would stick to the walls of the barrel causing it to probably bounce and rip apart.
Not only that, your accuracy is going no where.
I'd stick with plastic BBs.

Already been done, long ago during the late 70's and early 80's they were making rubber bb's for springer precision pistols they were .12 and .20 weights, they were also using it in the really old shell eject Marui (one of the very first airsoft gun I've owned) later on the company got bought out by toytec and MGC after toytec faced some financial trouble, eventually they all went belly up together The last thing that was ever produced was a complete springer pistol kit (Buffalo) but by that time Marui, Maruzen, JAC, an dothers dominate the airsoft market and all rubber bbs and plastic mushroom pellets were replace with plastic which are much cheaper and more consistent product to produce than rubber.

I have a production model of the CL slugshot shotgun, aside from not so CQB friendly and loud, the rubber slugs hurts like a bitch, its not the .12 rubber like the old conical type bullets these are .40 heavy duty rubber slugs similar to the madbull grenade slugs (but smaller) I dont think that rubber bbs will be replacing the plastic version anytime soon but its possible

The earlier airsoft gun use rubber bullet type pellets, not bbs but actual conical type projectile, the distance was probably around 20-25ft. every model from revolver to semiauto 1911 to KG9 were available unfortunately all were springers until the introduction of pump air (marui) and external gas system which by that time made these conical rubber bullets obselete

How about rubberized BBs covered in plastic ? Like a mini golf ball ? These bastards go the distances even with a minimum of force needed.

Higher probability of fragmentation on the receiving end, not to mention the kind of damage seen in a miss feed inside the gun...

Can't be worse than the actual BBs we are using as for damage for a miss feed ? I've seen BBs break the feeding nozzles off GBBRs quite several times, and that only while doing a safety discharge of the weapon.

As for fragmentation risks, how can it be ? Ever seen a golf ball (a brand new one) shatter in pieces after several drives ?

The outer plastic shell over the BB must be quite thick in order for the rubber not to crack it when being fire (deformation because of the G force applied to the rubber, forcing the plastic shell).

I think that would raise the price of ammo with not enough benefit.

golf balls fly far due to the dimpling on its surface, not from the materials it's made from. the materials only contribute to efficient energy transfer from the club face to the ball. with out the dimpled surface, a golf ball would only fly 3/4 the distance it normally would. the dimples create a thin layer of laminar flow over the surface of the golf ball, lowering its aerodynamic drag.

rubber BBs could be very interesting. if they are made from stiff enough rubber, they would not compress in the barrel, but would still survive impacting a hard surface. that could mean reusable BBs, but that economic model would not fly with the BB manufacturers. impact force calculations would stay the same.

a soft rubber BB would not compress laterally, but around the axis of rotation due to the hopup induced back spin. it could amplify the hop effect and make for a more stable BB flight.

one of the other reason why they stop making conical rubber bullets for airsoft is that the older ones are reuseable and very hazardous in high powered gas set up, due to imperfection it was never meant for high powered gas set up and at the tim eall the airsoft manufacturer are switching from springer set up to external gas, pump air or internal gas system

I miss the old MP5K's my cousins and I use to run around the house shooting each other with. The conical bullets were good but a pain in the ass looking for them all the shells, then loading them one by one.

I think by the time you reached a hardness in the rubber that would feed properly from a full magazine and fly through the barrel you would find they were about as hard as a plastic BB.

Danke, they did make them (for a very limited time) that would fit in the modern AEG barrel but because of the imperfection the "bullet" would not travel farther than say 20-25ft anything more than that would require more power to the point where its very hazardous to the intended target, definitely not CQB or gaming friendly in a conservative Japanese market.

Awhile ago RAP4 was flirting around with a rubber/plastic bb with fins but I think the concept died not long after its launch.

All of this is simply incorrect. Plastic BB's fragment or plastically deform when they hit stuff. Plastic deformation is where they don't return to their original shape after deformation. In order for this to happen the BB material itself must absorb a portion of the impact energy.
In a rubber BB (or any other material, really) if an elastic collision occurs the BB returns to its original shape after collision. Yes, it may deform during the collision but the definition of elastic collision means that when all is said and done it returns to its original shape. This means that none of the impact energy is absorbed in the BB, thus more is transferred into the other object involved in the collision (your face, teeth, goggles etc).
Another example of an elastic collision in airsoft would be with BBs made of silica.
That being said, the rubber BBs would subject the target to less overall stress (force over area) due to deformation during impact resulting in a larger impact surface area.
It would still suck though.
The best example I can think of is, two objects same size and weight. One is a pool ball, one is an orange. What would you rather get hit with?
(golf ball core vs crab apple etc...)

This won't work
some mags have a hard enough time feeding perfectly smooth surfaced BBs, now imagine 70 rounds in your mag all applying friction at a 30 degree staggering angle away from your feed lips. Yeah, nothing is moving anywhere lol

Also, deformation will occur when the air nozzle picks the BB up from the mag, during full auto it would cause the BB to distort through the barrel, and if the air nozzle engages partially, it may tear the BB or jam it down the barrel, causing a blockage that may be very difficult to take out.

Rubber on rubber is a bad idea, so you'll need to make a hard & smooth hop engagement, and minor distortion isn't going to just slow the BB a little bit, any ricocheting of a BB with a grippy surface down the barrel will reduce it's speed to almost nothing over an extremely short distance.

And with distortion set up from the hop, I just can't see these things flying very straight at all