If .50 calibre takes off....
- Thread starter NitroBall
- Start date
Embrace the future.
Read the Richmond article in the latest Face Full.....this is going to happen, and only good things can come from it. Most people on here upgrade their markers every year anyway, and with sizing kits coming into play I can't see any downsides.
For new and young players; even 'punters', the upside is huge - less pain (5.1 Joules compared to 14 for the .68 as stated in FF), and this is undoubtedly a huge factor for some people when considering playing paintball, and with marking capabilities almost identical and improved ball flight all round, its a win win.
As for the price.....who can argue that this isn't going to keep more people in the sport and attract more players if cost of playing is lowered.
Read the Richmond article in the latest Face Full.....this is going to happen, and only good things can come from it. Most people on here upgrade their markers every year anyway, and with sizing kits coming into play I can't see any downsides.
For new and young players; even 'punters', the upside is huge - less pain (5.1 Joules compared to 14 for the .68 as stated in FF), and this is undoubtedly a huge factor for some people when considering playing paintball, and with marking capabilities almost identical and improved ball flight all round, its a win win.
As for the price.....who can argue that this isn't going to keep more people in the sport and attract more players if cost of playing is lowered.
allthough with less pain you kinda lose the thing that stops people playing laser tag, but i reckon its a good idea anyway, all though its a bit of a problem to those of us who have just got their kit or dont have loads and loads of money to throw at it. If it does catch on then hopefully it will be more gradual, then everyones happy and if you wanna be differnt you can use the "old school" 0.68 kit as im sure thats what it will be called by then!
The accuracy of any paintball comes from the spec it's manufactured to not from the velocity it is fired.
I had better declare an interest here inasmuch as I am working with Richmond as a consultant, nothing major, it's just helping out every now and then with this 50 cal project.
The .50 calibre ball is fired at exactly the same velocity as .68, the fact it has less kinetic energy (by virtue of a reduced mass) is a bonus when it comes to legislation in certain countries.
The accuracy however is an emergent property of consistency of fill and quality of roundness.
One thing to factor in tho is the effect of turbulence which of course will tend to affect the ball because of a reduced momentum.
Basically, because the ball is lighter, it takes less of a force to move it during its trajectory.
On the other hand, to offset this, you also have to factor in the reduced surface area, the force (for the same wind effect) will be less than .68 because of the reduced surface area; from rough calcs, it's about a 50% reduction in surface area.
Richmond has done an awful lot of testing on this product and it has been done under rigorous conditions but I suppose the acid test in anything new like this is when you try it ... you can have stats coming out yer ass but picking the marker up and firing the damn thing beats all them stats.
I spent about half hour on the phone with Chris Lasoya a month or so back, he has been involved in the testing and development and he told me he would use it in a heartbeat when playing ... 'bout says it all for me really.
I'm interested to find out how large hits appear to be from .50 balls. By my reckoning the internal volume of a .50 ball is less than half that of a .68 ball (0.06545 cu in compared to 0.16464), which could make for some interesting paint checks during tournaments.....you know you're in a financial recession when you start checking for 5p size hits rather than 20p.
Apparently (again taken from what I can remember of the Richmond interview from FF, which now has a place in my prime reading spot ), a percentage of the paint from a .68 cal explodes back towards its path, as seen in a lot of photographs, due to the energy it carries. With the .50 cal, as it carries less energy, less paint bounces back from its target......or something like that
), a percentage of the paint from a .68 cal explodes back towards its path, as seen in a lot of photographs, due to the energy it carries. With the .50 cal, as it carries less energy, less paint bounces back from its target......or something like that
ive broke a .50 cal ball on the floor before and it wasnt as small as i thought it would be. i think it would make marshalling a little harder obviously but still very possible
Have to agree with you there, I've broken the .43 cal Kingman training paint on the floor and there's more there than you'd imagine.
I'd think they wouldn't be pumping this if it wasn't going to be viable.