Ammunition FAQ
Written and researched by Arnie - last updated Friday, December 17, 2004 6:50 AM

Images used are courtesy of RedWolfAirsoft and DEN Trinity (all used with permission). Thanks to Andy Fairbanks aka BB Magnet for the section covering BB's composition.

Introduction
Weights
Range
Composition
Price
Quality
Obscure ammo
Reuse of ammuntion

Introduction: In general when participating in Airsoft, you'll only be using equipment designed to propel 6mm BB's, although there are some obcsure ammunition types that we'll cover later. [top]

Weights: There are various weights of BB ammunition out there, weights available range from 0.12g upto 0.43g (higher are weights are available, but are for specialist use, such as IPSC). The conventional Airsoft weights include: 0.12g , 0.20g, 0.23g, 0.25g, 0.30g, 0.36g, and 0.43g.

So what's the point in differing weights? Well there are 2 main advantages, extra mass will mean that with the added momentum wind has less effect, and bursts of fire will be more likely to cut through obstacles such as leaves on trees.

NOTE: It is recommended by all manufacturers and retailers that you use high quality ammunition in your AEG, (most people recommend Excel) and use only 0.2g up to 0.3g BBs in anything other than highly modified Airsoft weapons.

With higher power equipment, such as sniper rifles that have been tuned up to 500fps (2.31J) or whatever the local limit is, heavier ammo is used to help counter the hop-up spin. Light ammo used in high velocity equipment tends to curve skywards as it obtains far too much lift from the hop spin it obtains.

There are also issues where manufacturers build Airsoft equipment with fixed hop-up, meaning that to obtain an accurate and level fight path, the correct ammunition should be used.

Now the other point worth remembering is that with a fixed energy, increasing the mass of the round decreases the theoretical maximum effective range. This brings us onto... [top]

Range: Okey dokey, before we get into the "hows and why's" just a little explanation. Weak pieces of equipment, such as springers and the new EBBs (Electric BlowBacks), which are normally the very cheap items you find in shops, tend to use lighter ammo. This is simply because with the low power, anything other than 0.12g BBs would have a rather pathetic range.

Now if you'e interested in working out your theoretical range for your equipement, check this page here. [top]

Composition So what are these little rounds balls made of then? (this section kindly submitted by Andy Fairbanks aka BB Magnet)

Non-Biodegradable BBs: So far it appears that NON Biodegradable BBs are made from a combination of rockdust and plastic.

Biodegradable BBs: From the information available found it appears that these are made from a combination of plastic and wheat!

Plastic composition and toxicity: I've not been able to confirm what the plastic is made from as it's proven extremely difficult to get any details of the BB manufacturers let alone any contacts to ask them.

However from my travels around the web I can tell you that the common consensus from the Airsoft community is for NON-Biodegradable BBs it takes around 4-5 years for the BB's to breakdown when exposed to the elements. For Biodegradable BBs it takes anything from 2 months to a year for the BBs to breakdown.

But what about the animals! Again no info on toxicity however, the common consensus is that the BBs pass right through the little critters. If they were harmful I'm sure we'd see lots of small animals dead throughout the UKs Airsoft sites.

Biodegrading - things worth bearing in mind: I also found the following info about how long it takes for common house hold items to breakdown. I must say though... how do the science guys know it takes 450 years for 6 pack holders to Biodegrade?... have they found an old case of Carlsberg in Shakespeares back garden after a BBQ?

Presented with the above BB's don't fair badly at all! If BBs were that toxic surely they'd be banned from Europe etc. by now?. [top]

Price: BB's tend to come in bags of about 1000-3500, for rounghly $10 a bag. The price tends to be directly related to the quality and the obscurity of the ammo. For example tracer ammo (we'll come to this type later) is less used, and made of a more obscure substance, hence is more expensive. [top]

Quality: Now here's where the serious recommendations come in. As mentioned before it's highly recommended that you use high quality ammo, such as Excel/Marui/Maruzen. Cheap ammo tends to be of poor quality, and hence not perfect. BBs are made to tolerances such as how spherical they are (oval BBs will jam), and how perfect they are internally. BBs with off centre airbubbles inside them will spin wildly when they come out the barrel.

Best case you end up with ammo going in all directions, worst case the BBs will jam in your replica and cause untold damage chewing gears or jamming barrels.

In general you should use:

• 0.12g for cheap springers
• 0.2g in your AEG or GBB pistol
• 0.25g in your upgraded AEG / GBB
• 0.3-0.43g in your upgraded single shot sniper equipment

Obscure Ammo

If you happen to pickup a Classic Airsoft piece you may come across some early blade rounds (such as those that came with the early Sun Project M700), and some of th original Daisy gear (and derivatives) use small 6mm cup shaped hollow plastic rounds. Although they are Airsoft early derivatives, it's not really recommended that you shoot these at anyone.

There are also foam grenades and slug rounds available for the gas moscart system (as projected by the some M203 replicas and other grenade launcher replicas). The foam grenades are fairly useless, as grenerally speaking they are wildly inaccurate and have a poor range. The CAW slug rounds are NOT recommended for any use where an individual could be at risk of being hit by one.

Reuse of ammuntion I've put this as a separate topic as it seems to be a very frequently asked question, and is one that should be answered correctly.

In theory no ammunition should be re-used, unless it's in a cheap piece of equipment like a simple springer, but again you are taking a risk.

The reasons for this should be obvious, but it isn't possible to visually inspect BBs to see if they are suitable for re-use. Is it really worth risking a £300 rifle for a £10 bag of ammo?

To quote RedWolf's Bite the bullet Issue june 8 2000: "Number one rule: Don't reuse BBs no matter how good they look. BBs may deform when fired out of an AEG - and will definitely deform and sometimes chip and crack when colliding with targets. Using BBs that are not completely round or that have chips and cracks may rip the hop-up rubber seal and damage the hop-up mechanism. BBs that you pick up off the ground may also be coated with a thin layer of dirt - which again may scratch the hop-up seal and barrel."