Sup fellas
I'm putting this quick blog in the news section, just because of how heavy the questions have been coming in about .50 caliber
If you want to read a good "hard sell" on the .50 caliber, pick up the latest facefull magazine. Richmond Italia definitely does a great job of answering the questions in regards to .50 caliber, and certainly make a great case selling it.
GI MilSim had a shooting range next to their booth, but I wasn't interested in shooting it in an enclosed environment. I wanted to shoot it on the XBall field, where I know distances and range VERY well, due to 6+ years I've been playing XBall
GI MilSim has assembled a very strong "guerilla marketing" effort, in terms of young players, going around and spreading the word
They are not "in disguise", they are definitely wearing GI MilSim shirts, but they are doing a great job promoting the booth, talking to people about it, shooting video, etc
That aside, I got a phone call from Chris Lasoya telling me that he was going to be shooting the .50 cal on the XBall Field, behind the Valken booth. So I walked over there, and saw a small crowd of people, taking turns shooting the 50 cal marker.
This was my first experience shooting the 50 cal marker. The gun they handed to me was a tiny spool valve marker, unfortunately I can't remember the name of it. My first impression shooting the gun, is the gun has zero recoil. You know how your gun feels when you don't have any paint in it, and you're dryfiring it? That's what shooting 50 cal is like. No kick, none. How could it? The ball is smaller
The gun was shooting about 300fps, from the chrono that was brought out to the field by Jack Rice, who took some time away from the Empire tent to come out and test it out, to consider if he wanted to start making parts for a 50 cal Alien. It was actually VERY smart of him to bring out a hand chrono, and he chrono'd the gun before he shot it to ensure the proper speed
Now, I'm not drinking the 50 cal kool-aid. I'm making an unbiased, observation. I have no financial gain or loss from 50 cal succeeding or failing, I have no interested in lying about how good/how bad it works. As a professional "paintball product tester", I went into this with a completely open mind, trying to feel this new shooting caliber out.
With that said, I will say that I was very surprised how it shot. I was expecting the rounds to "flutter", kinda like how a .68 does after 150 feet when shot out of a flatline barrel or apex. You know how the round just goes.... then kinda dies out really quick? I expected that from 50 cal. This didn't happen. The balls came out, and pushed the air in the same predictable arc as normal paintballs. Corner to corner on the XBall field, the balls were still zipping in with good speed.
I asked "How is that possible? That a smaller, lighter ball can travel with what appears... to be the same predicatable arc as a normal .68 paintball?" Richmond answered "Wind resistance. Yes it's smaller, yes it's lighter, but there is less wind resistance for the same speed".
Very interesting....
So after shooting it a few more times, I asked Chris Lasoya to shoot me with it. I wanted to feel against my skin, how the round feels when it hits at 300fps. So I stood a little more than halfway across the field, and Chris shot about 30 balls at me. Most broke, some bounced, but the impact was noticably lighter than the 60 cal. The "thump" followed by the "sting" that you get with normal paint wasn't there. I felt the impact, but it wasn't nearly as bad as .68 caliber in terms of pain.
I actually walked up, took the gun from Chris, and shot myself from point black range about 6 to 10 times on my arm and calf, to REALLY feel how the round from close up. Yes, it left a welt from an inch away, but considerably less pain, less trauma, less sting, and less bleeding than what a .68 would do
Right now, I was a very pleasantly surprised how it performed. Still not 100% convinced, I notified them that I wanted to do further testing, and I was told that at the end of the event, I will be given some guns, some paint and possibly a loader to test this new caliber out in REAL life, on the XBall field and in the woods.
Right now, my gut feeling is more of relief than anything else. Why? Because my first impression is the round performs pretty damn well. It's accurate, the guns don't kick (at all), the range APPEARS to be there at first glance. The paint manufacturing is going to be the challenge. Wall thickness, paint thickness, colors, etc. As far as "marking", the balls indeed left a nice sized paint splat. You can easily tell that you have been hit. Since the hit is MUCH less lighter than a normal round, if the industry goes this way, players are going to need to be ALOT more careful about not playing on. Because when it hits, it's a VERY light impact that could easy be interpreted as a "graze" or a bounce.
So right now, I'm still keeping an open mind on the issue. My first impression is the guns shoot pretty nice. Luckily, Gordon (Cockerpunk) also shot the gun, so I'm curious to see his impressions also.
More details to follow...
