By Cheesehead
Published: March 2005
INTRODUCTION
Recently, I purchased 6 bags of Excel .2g bio bb's from The 6mm Shop. A day after I placed my order I received a phone call from The 6mm Shop to notify me that they only had 5 bags of Excel .2g bio bb's in stock. I was given 3 options, wait till they got more Excels in stock, get 6 bags of Bioval .2g bio bb's, or get the last 5 bags of the Excels and 1 bag of the Bioval. Since I needed all six bags, and hadn't heard anything about Bioval bb's, I opted for the last option. The following Monday my bb's arrived. I eagerly opened the box to inspect the Bioval bb's.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
After cutting the tape, and pulling a small amount of packing paper out of the box, I was able to get to the bb's. I was surprised when I saw the bag of Bioval bb's, they are a grayish brown color, kind of like newsprint. Keep in mind, I had never even seen Bioval bb's before, and was expecting a lower grade white bb. They are very slick, and don't seem to have any seams or burrs. One thing to note is it doesn’t say Bioval anywhere on the bag. Instead they are called Biotech BB or BBB for short.
.20 gram Bioval bb's.
Bioval BB’s are available in 3 colors, Military Brown, Traditional White, and Olive Drab.
All three colors are available in both .20g and .25 g.
Excel bb's left Bioval bb's right.
TESTING
I proceeded to load up my stock TM MP5A4 and fire a couple standard magazines into the woods. I was impressed, they fed smooth, and hit with more force than the Excel bb's I usually buy. I decided to set up some targets. One target would be at 25 feet, the other at 50 feet, each target would be shot ten times.
IMPORTANT: These tests were performed outdoors from the kneeling position. To more accuratley determine which BB's are truly better, one would need a bench vise and possibly an indoor range, both of which I lack. This test is not scientific, nor definitive as to which bb's are better, and represent only my impression.
Some punctures on the target are the result of the bb’s bouncing back through the paper, after hitting the frame the target was attached to. These puncture marks have been marked with blue dots, just ignore them.
.2g Bioval/BBB bio bb's, 10 shots @ 25 feet
At 25 feet, the Bioval bb's were all a tad low and to the left. All the shots hit the target with only 2 in the 7 ring and the remaining 8 either touching or inside the 8 and 9 rings. The furthest distance between any 2 shots was 2 1/2 inches.
.2g Excel bio bb's, 10 shots @ 25 feet
At 25 feet, the Excel bb's were scattered across the target. Some hit left of the bulls eye, some to the right. The furthest distance between any 2 shots was 4 1/4 inches.
.2g Bioval/BBB bio bb's, 10 shots @ 50 feet.
After a few shots at 50 feet, I realized I would need to adjust my hop-up accordingly. after that was done, I managed to get 3 bulls eye's. the farthest
distance between any 2 shots (excluding hop-up adjustment shots) was 5 3/4 inches. I'm guessing this was due to wind, or operatoor error, as no other shots were that far off.
.2g Excel bio bb's, 10 shots @ 50 feet.
Furthest distance between any 2 shots was 5 1/4 inches. The largest grouping was 4 shots. 3 shots managed to stray into the 6 ring.
RESULTS
After completing my tests, I was able to determine, that the accuracy of the BBB’s and the Excels were nearly identical, leaning only slightly infavor of the BBB's. This could be caused by wind or operator error.
So if you are concerned about protecting the environment, just don’t like to have a collection of bb’s on your land, or are required by your fields landowner, or even your parents to have biodegradable bb’s, the Bioval/BBB bb’s are a great choice. The BBB bio bb's run around $13 (U.S.) for 1700 rounds, the same price as the Excel bb's.
POST TEST INFO: Since this test was completed in June '04 I have continued to use Bioval BB's, to date (Dec '04) I have had no jamming, or feed failures of the Bioval bb's in any of my airsoft guns.
ABOUT BIOVAL BB'S
The following is taken from Bioval's website www.bioval.net with permission.
Bioval is committed to providing players with state-of-the-art products that will make Airsoft a more environmentally friendly activity in the eyes of an ever-skeptical public and ever critical legislators.
The new BBB are made of an especially hard bio-resin, which allows us to grind the BBB into perfect spheres. BIOVAL does not use any chemicals to smooth, polish or help in the grinding process and has decided to use a 100% bio-resin with NO additives. The white BBB is more of a "coffee and cream" colour since we do not bleach our BBB to make them white. The manufacturer claims the resin degrades in the environment in just over 1 year depending on the annual average
humidity of your play area.
We do not use chlorine to make them white! We do not add toxic powders to colour or dis-colour them! We do not use solvents to produce the resin! We do not use any sort of synthetic material to smooth them and polish them. BBB are polished using bamboo chips harvested from renewable plantations. These are then composted and used as fertilizer.
BIOVAL would like to make it absolutely clear to those who have not as yet received our message. There is heavy pressure in many places in Europe and North America to use the Biodegradability problem as a tool to attack our sport Airsoft. Environmentalists have produced reports of various animal species eating the normal white pellets and have submitted their findings to many local governments. Wild birds, most notably water foul, have been found eating normal Airsoft bb's and some of the hunted variety have been found with bb's in the stomach! Many Green associations are petitioning their local government to force Airsoft groups to clean up after playing unless a certificate can be produced showing that the bb's used are biodegradable AND non toxic.
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