Table of Contents:
Real Steel History
Ordering
First impressions I
First impressions II
Externals
Performance
Internals
Comparison – GB vs. AE and TSD
Modifications
Pros/Cons
Overall
Real Steel History: (Copied from
Www.Wikipedia.Com)
A bullet is a solid projectile propelled by a firearm or air gun and is normally made from metal (usually lead). A bullet does not contain explosives, but damages the intended target by tissue disruption and impact. The word "bullet" is sometimes erroneously used to refer to a cartridge, which is the combination of bullet, casing (case or shell), gunpowder and primer. See ammunition. The Oxford English Dictionary definition of a bullet is "a projectile of lead ... for firing from a rifle, revolver etc." [1] However, bullets for air guns are not part of a cartridge.
(Copied from Wikipedia.com)
Ordering:For some time now, PointAct Wholesale has carried a brand of BBs not known by many. This brand is called Golden Ball. I was curious how these BBs were compared to their previous version, and how they performed to many other well known airsoft bb brands, such as TSD/Stealth, Airsoft Elite, and AirSplat. So, I gave PointAct a call, and gave them a pretty big order to fill.
The order was filled, packaged nicely, and shipped to me quite fast. It took only 2 days from Utah, to Seattle, and about 2 days to process. Each bag was priced at a very affordable and attractive price of $6 a bag, however, they don’t hold the standard 5000ct, but a somewhat lower 3000ct, which is still very good. PointAct gave me amazing customer service, along with support on this order. Thank you Pointact Wholesale!
First impressions I:After digging though pounds and pounds of boxes, trying to figure everything out, I found the Golden Ball bags. The bags were quite colorful with and can be noticed by the 2 distinct colors on each side of the bag: bright sky blue, along with a vivid orange. The bag is made out of a very nice plastic, airtight sealed, and it doesn’t seem like it would break during shipping compared to their older bags. They are sealed, and it doesn’t seem like there would be any air going in or out of them. On the front, there are some colored bars indicating weight and model you received. There should be a check mark corresponding to the style of bb you purchased.
As with most standard BB bags today, they were resalable and had some serious, but also funny information imprinted on them, such as the usual warning signs, the company's sale email address, the BBs' origin (made in China), and that the company was supervised by a division in Hong Kong. Some funny sayings include:
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“Fly Your Dream for Childhood. Demonstrate your Passion for Youth!”-
“6mm Pro-Grade Bb’s, for High precision airsoft shooting use only. The best quality and design is just for you, you will feel like shooting with it all the time. This is the most comfortable Bb you will ever use."Apparently these BBs are high grade BBs as pointed out by a small graph on the back. They are supposed to be at least 5.95mm’s, with a tolerance level of (+/-) .02mm, (+/-) .015mm, and (+/-) .01mm’s, depending on which specific bag you receive. The bags also show the amount contents, which it also shows how much exactly you are getting with a deviation of (+/-) 0.5% of your total.
First Impressions II: After tearing open a bag, I got exposed to the famliar smell of some BBs. Because the bags are air tight, you get a very specific smell of things. This kind of reminded me of the smell of some Jungle Toy BBs, I have purchased years ago. Overall though, they seemed quite good. I was able to put my hand inside the bag, and the BBs went around it very smoothly, and quickly (no pun intended).
Externals:The external properties of these BBs are amazing for their price. All the properties I’m going to explain do apply for all the 3 weights of BBs. I have used many brands of BBs in the past, and these BBs are actually very smooth, and comparable to TSD’s smoothness. The color resembles a very pure white or a bleach white. The BBs themselves don’t seem to have any seam lines, and have a very nice shimmer, thus proving their smooth surface. This series of BBs is high step up from the previous version’s of BBs that PointAct used to carry. I will compare them to some TSD BBs I have on hand, but later in the review. I think externally that these are BBs indeed “Pro-Grade” advertised on the top of their bag.
To make this review the best I can, I have decided to measure the BB diameter, especially for those concerned getting jams and such in tightbores. I am using a brand new Mitutoyo Micrometer, which measures in the following format for millimeters, #.###. This will give very precise BB mesurements.
I was very pleased with the results. My results showed indicate that Golden Balls BBs did not stay within the advertised tolerances. I was very pleased because of the fact that the BBs stayed within my tolerance of being used in a tightbore. Since the micrometer I was using had a ratchet function, it should give an accurate reading without distorting the bb. Without further ado, here is the data!
.20g, 5 Bb’s.1. 5.919mm
2. 5.930mm
3. 5.932mm
4. 5.930mm
5. 5.929mm
Average – 5.926mm
.23g, 5 Bb's1. 5.936mm
2. 5.953mm
3. 5.926mm
4. 5.945mm
5. 5.934mm
Average – 5.939mm (Rounded Up)
.25g, 5 Bb's1. 5.927mm
2. 5.931mm
3. 5.916mm
4. 5.945mm
5. 5.949mm
Average – 5.934mm (Rounded Up)
Performance: The performance of these BBs were quite good, and just as I expected. I ran into a few problems when using them, but I believe that it is just the type of AEG I was using. For performance, I’m going to be measuring the accuracy of the rifle at the range of 75ft. I’m also going to be measuring the velocity differences between each shot, with each bb, trying to give the average FPS rating, a lot like what was used above in the diameter mesurements.
StrikER’s G36 AEG used in testingTo test accuracy, each shot was taken from a prone position, with a bi-pod, a rifle scope, and a rear rest to keep the gun from moving. The target was a bit tacky: what I did was just crossed 2 pieces of masking tape, and fired at the top right corner of where it met, to get the most precise place to hit since there was no definite center. The gun used was StrikER’s, a known member of AS-R. It was a custom G36-E, with a solid hop up unit, and a KN-TN 6.04 tightbore.
Ten (10) shots were fired in semi automatic mode.
Here are the results:
-.20g
-.23g
-.25g
As one could notice, .20g BBs have the tightest groupings, followed by .25g. On the .25g’s grouping tests, see circles with X’s over them. This is because when taking the test, StrikER and I noticed that those two were fliers, and shouldn’t reflect on the overall BBs performance since it could be the gun’s fault. The .23g’s looked a little sporadic; however they were still accurate to some extent. The most accurate as known were the .25g’s.
They hit multiple times in one spot, thus resulting in the bigger circle mass. I couldn’t even count how many hit the same spot, but it was pretty good performance if you ask me.
I did take some FPS readings with another friend’s SRC-416, however, they shouldn’t reflect. I didn’t have enough time to take pictures of the readings, but I did get the number’s themselves. They shouldn’t reflect directly on the BBs themselves, but here are the numbers. I measured the base performance with TSD .20g BBs.
TSD .20g
392
390
389
376
387
Avg – 386.8
GB .20g
382
383
382
385
388
Avg – 384
GB .23g
360
362
363
362
367
Avg – 362.8
[/b]GB .25g[/b]
346
345
342
340
341
Avg – 342.8
Performance Tests: Sources of ErrorsWell, wind is not the friendliest factor in the world of Airsoft. A lot of variables come into effect when you are trying to be accurate with a small bb that doesn’t even weigh a gram. Here is a list of some things that can cause errors.
Hop-Up - Hop up is a great thing, and is adjustable to what your needs are. The accuracy could have been affected by having too much or too little hop, knocking the accuracy off on the Y-Axis. Also, hop up isn't always the same. Hop up can sometimes be very inconsistent and cause a variation of results.
Wind - Outdoor shooting can always some effect on your shot results. Wind affects airsofters’ results very much because we are using a spherical ball weighing not even a gram; which can be tossed around by the wind quite easily. Sometimes if you use the best weight you can have almost no effect to as much as almost 20 feet off your target.
AEG’s – Since there isn’t a for sure seal on a lot of thing, such as the cylinder, the hop up and such, FPS ratings can vary from shot to shot, and how things seal due to the moving parts. This can cause an inaccurate reading for both accuracy and FPS.
Human Effect – At the time of taking the accuracy shots, the AEG could have moved around. This is a source of error because we were never sure of if the gun was on the EXACT same spot as it was the time before. We tried to keep movement to a minimum to keep results accurate.
Internals:Regarding the internals for these BBs, there isn’t really much to go over except the actual insides. In this case I’m going to go over the weight of the bb too, to count it as an internal section also. Since there isn’t much to cover, lets start on it.
To measure the weight, I randomly chose 5 BBs and put each of them in a bowl
that resides on a zeroed scale. The best scale I could find was one that went out
two (2) digits.
-.20g
1. 0.20g
2. 0.20g
3. 0.20g
4. 0.19g
5. 0.20g
Average – 0.198g
-.23g
1. 0.22g
2. 0.22g
3. 0.22g
4. 0.22g
5. 0.23g
Average – 0.222g
-.25g
1. 0.25g
2. 0.25g
3. 0.25g
4. 0.25g
5. 0.25g
Average – 0.25g
As you can see, the mesurements were pretty accurate. However, some troubles I ran into when using the scale is that it kept on going down 1g after about every few seconds. This got annoying, because I had to tare, or zero, every time I would take the picture to get a good reading. I found that the .20g’s, and the .25g’s were the most accurate, laying in, or exactly on its weight it was supposed to be. As you can see, every .25g went exactly on .25g’s. Keep in mind though that the scale has only the capability to measure up to 2 decimal places, which means it might round up or down, depending on the placement.
As for the internal view on of the BB, I have decided to take a pair of pliers, and cut them in half. What I saw compared to some other BBs, is that there is NO bubble, or small dimple inside the BB. This helps by keeping the trajectory of the bb in a line because there isn’t much of a weight difference that would cause the BBs to wobble. Here are the pictures I took.
.20g:
.23g:
.25g:
Comparison: GB vs. AE and TSDThis last segment of the review will to go over the comparison between Airsoft Elite (AE) BBs, and Team SD BBs (TSD), which are 2 of the leading airsoft bb providers here in the US. I am only able to compare the .25g BBs due to the fact that I didn’t have any other comparable weights. What I did was to compare color, and slickness of the TSD’s, and also get a cutout of all 3 BBs.
TSD BBs on the left, Golden Ball on the right.As you can tell by the picture above, the Golden Ball BBs were as stated earlier, “Bleach White”, while the TSD’s were a slightly slimmer white. The slickness is about the same
Above is a cut-away view of every single bb. They go from left to right: Golden Ball, Airsoft Elite, Team SD/Stealth. You can see that Golden Ball is the only bb that I found that does not have the small air pocket, which is slightly more noticeable in Team SD BBs then Airsoft Elite, however, it is still present. As stated before, an air hole isn’t a good thing for accuracy because the irregular weight distribution will cause the BB to wobble. Please note I did take multiple cuts in each bb to ensure it wasn’t purely coincidental
Modifications:The modifications that you need to do to these BBs aren’t really available. There isn’t really much you can do. For those who are very paranoid, you can use some silicon oil/spray to allow the bb to go smoothly though the barrel, and feed better, however it isn’t needed.
Pros/Cons: -Pros:
• Slick Surface
• Precise molding
• No Seam/injection lines
• Pure white coloring
• Close-to/Exact weight
• No Bubble
• Attractive Price
-Cons:
• Low bag capacity count
Overall:I think these BBs are a start of a new lead for a small brand no one has really heard of here in the US. I think that most retailers should think about stocking them considering their attractive price of only $6.00 per bag Retail! Currently, PointAct is the only online store to carry these BBs, maybe others will follow because PointAct is a wholesaler. All I know is that Golden Ball BBs have become my primary brand of bb from now on.
Special Thanks To:-Wikipedia.com
-Pointact Wholesale
-Kentridge High School – Mrs. Brinkman
-StrikER
-Penn Wright
-Prasith ("Jaws") Kim-Aun
-Chaos_1.0
