BBB BBs - ASR Airsoft Reviews

Author

Cheesehead
Review Administrator

Registered: February 2004
Location: Wisconsin
Posts: 2539

Review Date: Wed March 8, 2006

Would you recommend the product? Yes | Price you paid?: $13.00 | Rating: 8

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	Biodegradeable, Smooth Finish, Consistent Quality
Cons:	Cost

Review: Bioval Bio BB
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.

<a href="http://www.airsoftretreat.com/gallery/data/579/0.jpg"><img src="http://www.airsoftretreat.com/gallery/data/579/thumbs/0.jpg"></a>
.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.

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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.

Inportant Note: 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.

<a href="http://www.airsoftretreat.com/gallery/data/579/2.jpg"><img src="http://www.airsoftretreat.com/gallery/data/579/thumbs/2.jpg"></a>
.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.

<a href="http://www.airsoftretreat.com/gallery/data/579/3.jpg"><img src="http://www.airsoftretreat.com/gallery/data/579/thumbs/3.jpg"></a>
.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.

<a href="http://www.airsoftretreat.com/gallery/data/579/4.jpg"><img src="http://www.airsoftretreat.com/gallery/data/579/thumbs/4.jpg"></a>
.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.

<a href="http://www.airsoftretreat.com/gallery/data/579/5.jpg"><img src="http://www.airsoftretreat.com/gallery/data/579/thumbs/5.jpg"></a>
.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.

The 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 Bio 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 BBs
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.

Review Date: Thu November 9, 2006

Would you recommend the product? Yes | Price you paid?: $18.00 | Rating: 7

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	very tight groupings
Cons:	if you're a cheap bastard like me, you can't re-use the bb's with the crappier of you guns (springers)

i purchased these under the title of biotec .20 grams. i only really needed one bag, so i ordered 4. they arrived in a brown, non-descript, box that one would expect to recive thier prescription drugs or disguesting sexual-tools in. i was a little concerned about what my parents may have ordered until i observed the label.

after a 1 clip test, i found that the goupings were marginally beter than the matrix BB's i'd used prior to complaints that we were leaving too many BB's laying everywhere. i was pleasantly surprised that switching to BIOs wouldn't cause cancer in water fowl (like i claimed it would).

so, all-in-all, i not only got some marginally better, more expensive, more socially-acceptable BB's....but i get to feel like a hippy....if you gve a damn about your airsofting area, and want to do it a nice favor, just buy some freakin BIOs. it really is the socially better BB.

FatBob

Registered: February 2006
Posts: 6

Review Date: Fri December 22, 2006

Would you recommend the product? Yes | Price you paid?: $17.50 | Rating: 9

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	high quality, keeps the democrats happy
Cons:	cant buy at the local store, expensive

biotech has been arround for serveral years. i was buying them off of gatosports, untill last march, they ran dry. the site said that they would get more in july. it turned out that biotech went bankrupt, but their american distributer picked up another company to make them.

the reason these are so expencive, is that they contain only fully biodegradeable materials. excell, while highly pollish take about 3-4 times as long to biodegrade. i havent been able to test out the airsplat bios, but considering the price, id say they are just like the excells.

and remember, if you ever get sniped like i have...in the mouth...spit out the bb right away. they have a tendency to swell up when they come in contact with moisture.

remember when you use biotech, you are doing your part to make time magazine and the liberals of the world shut up!