Jump to content

Airsoft Innovations - Tornado Grenade Released


orca

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 88
  • Created
  • Last Reply
CRUELWORLD.jpg

 

But hey, it only shows that you should use correct grenade chucking techniques with these things, because they seem to be rather effective. :D

 

hehehe no worries guys, i called my hits :P alllllll 20 or so of them.

we didn't have much room to work with and only had one shot so i figured dying would be better than pwning myself on the stove or a shelf :P

Link to post
Share on other sites

I wonder how safe these will actually be on the field. While the BB shower effect is great you still have this big heavy rubber and metal object that could potentially injury someone. Also, it looks like you have to throw it in the air to achieve the proper effect, so it can't be rolled like other rubber grenades.

Link to post
Share on other sites
Also, it looks like you have to throw it in the air to achieve the proper effect, so it can't be rolled like other rubber grenades.

According to reports so far, these work fine when rolled on the ground. There is apparently enough force when detonated to get a very good hemisphere of plastic death. So basically, however you deploy the grenade, it has significant omnidirectional spread of BBs, be it from the ground or mid-air. Which makes this pure win.

 

 

Link to post
Share on other sites

Deployments in varying conditions ordered from poorest to best:

 

dung

-landing in a deep pile of dung (don't throw your grenade in dung)

-dense tall grass (eats up almost all of the horizontal and diagonal pellets, only straight up comes out)

-short grass shorter than 3" (spinning action flings a fair amount of pellets around a decent radius)

-sand (lots of direct line of sight, reflections from ground completely absorbed)

-hard trodden soil (lower energy reflections from ground, lots of direct line of sight fire)

-hard wooden or concrete floor (lots of of direct line of sight exposure, high energy reflections)

-airburst over any surface (take cover, warn your teammates *significant friendly fire exposure*, piles of direct line of sight exposure even over low cover)

AWESOME

 

This grenade was designed to be primarily deployed in a rolling fashion. In indoor CQC trials, rolling/sliding throws were the most controllable and least likely to clobber a friend. The short delay feature was added for both CQC and outdoor engagements. At very close quarters, 3s grenades could be reacted against. It's just enough time to boot back if you detect an entry stack or dive for cover. 1.5s is pretty much unreturnable. Airbursts significantly improve outdoor functionality over less than ideal surfaces. They also look so awesome you have to get over the novelty of standing up like a gopher and watching the spread of pellets before they click off of your grinning teeth.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Can it take CO2? It seems that with a little more power it could defeat some of the brush that might overcome it in cqb, most problems with woodland seem like they are easily overcome by timing it for airburst anyway but just nitpicking. 2 are one my list for sure this summer.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I'll probably get clobbered by AI for saying this, but if you replaced the OPV with either a plug or stiffer spring, then it probably could, although there would be more wear on the valve mech.

KM

Link to post
Share on other sites
I'll probably get clobbered by AI for saying this, but if you replaced the OPV with either a plug or stiffer spring, then it probably could, although there would be more wear on the valve mech.

KM

 

Unfortunately I had to anticipate users wanting to defeat their overpressure valves to hotrod their grenade. Truth is, I intentionally limited the maximum power for both gameplay and safety reasons.

 

First off, extemely powerful grenades kind of break a game if their discharge velocity matched stock AEGs. Being able to wipe out anyone standing in direct line of sight would be silly.

 

I also had to make the grenade dive safe, in case a particularly inspired airsofter dove on a grenade. The current grenade hurts like a *badgeress*, but if you dive on it wearing only a t-shirt, the impact of 90 pellets (90 per side) does not blast a hole in the shirt and bore a hole in the belly. I've done several dive tests myself to see that this is the case...

 

Two overpressure protection features prevent a user from cranking their grenades with HPA or regulated CO2. First is the relief valve which also protects from overheating if you leave your grenade in your car trunk/oven. Second is a rubber plug in the valve cover. This plug blows off if a user defeats their relief valve and exceeds the designed relief pressure. The blowout plug is a failsafe which prevents the pressurization of the bb spiral passages at very high pressures. I don't normally talk about the blowout plug as it's really a failsafe which would only come into play if a user tampered with their relief valve. Basically if I have to stand trial at an injury claim with a superpowered grenade, I could claim due diligence. If you decide to defeat two safety measures to achieve high power then you really take liability for your own and your friends well being.

 

In any case, running very high pressure would also speed up the delay timer significantly. You may find yourself holding a very powerful suicide grenade if you glued down the relief valve and machined a solid valve cover.

 

Sorry, I'd love to release a line of uberpower grenades, but I have to see that airsofters are responsible enough to handle devices with no safe direction. Most of the games I attend usually have some twat accidentally discharging their AEG in the safe zone. While a grenade pin is harder to pull than a trigger, grenades have no safe direction so I went through some significant pains to make my product very easy to render safe (remove valve cover). You'll also note that the loading procedure first requires the user to remove the valve cover to access the fill valve. This was planned so users could assure that their grenades could not propel bbs while they reloaded their grenades in case of a user error related misfire. With the valve cover removed, gas is given an easy exit out of the grenade so it does not propel bbs out the spiral passages.

Link to post
Share on other sites

AirsoftInnovations

 

Are you guys considering one with a spoon-type assembly?

 

Also, has anybody tested this as part of a tripwire-type booby trap (attach the tripwire to the pin, guy triggers wire and pulls pin, etc.)?

Link to post
Share on other sites
AirsoftInnovations

 

Are you guys considering one with a spoon-type assembly?

 

Also, has anybody tested this as part of a tripwire-type booby trap (attach the tripwire to the pin, guy triggers wire and pulls pin, etc.)?

 

 

While useful, we were'nt too happy with a spoon. Detachable spoons get lost and render a grenade useless. Spoons pinned to grenades got bent.

 

The pin requires quite a deliberate tug to remove. One would have to duck tape a grenade to a tree to mount it against the firm pin pulling force which would prevent it from spinning so the Tornado wouldn't make the best booby trap grenade.

Link to post
Share on other sites

If the norwegian airsoft assosiation even allows them, it's sure as h*ll going to be allowed to throw them around. Great for rolling in doors, but throwing? Can't see how it would be safe to have your head placed where the grenade itself lands.

Link to post
Share on other sites
If the norwegian airsoft assosiation even allows them, it's sure as h*ll going to be allowed to throw them around. Great for rolling in doors, but throwing? Can't see how it would be safe to have your head placed where the grenade itself lands.

Well the idea is, its a grenade, it has a blast radius so you dont have to throw it directly at someone, you throw it /nearby/ preferably where you can see.

 

Just like shooting people at close range, BFG's, ect. a little common sense it needed.

Link to post
Share on other sites
Don't know if this has been answered but if we set to 1.5secs can the timer be changed back ?

I suppose you could, but you'd have to basically push the plunger down far enough to get the second pin in back to the 3sec mark.

 

In using top gas I've found the timer, because of more pressure, even at the 1.5sec mark goes off more like 4 seconds. What I may do is use my drill press to put a hole higher up past 1.5sec, therefore compensating for the increased pressure.

 

Either way it's a blast, literally and figuratively.

Link to post
Share on other sites
Don't know if this has been answered but if we set to 1.5secs can the timer be changed back ?

 

Not easily. Unfortunately we had to remove the easy change feature. We're going to have to edit our vids to reflect that. The easy change feature made the short delay occasionally go "instant" in warmer temperature tests. Design changes to deal with this problem removed the ability to switch from 3s to 1.5s without depressurising the grenade.

 

Too many design changes on the fly. Sometimes I wish I didn't start marketing this product until it was completed with packaged inventory ready to ship.

Link to post
Share on other sites
I suppose you could, but you'd have to basically push the plunger down far enough to get the second pin in back to the 3sec mark.

 

In using top gas I've found the timer, because of more pressure, even at the 1.5sec mark goes off more like 4 seconds. What I may do is use my drill press to put a hole higher up past 1.5sec, therefore compensating for the increased pressure.

 

Either way it's a blast, literally and figuratively.

 

We had to make some changes when we realized that solar heating could crank our grenade temperatures so drastically. On a 20C day we recorded a 40C internal temperature when we left a prototype baking in the sun for hours. At around 35C the 1.5s option started to occasionally go "instant" so we had to make some quick compromises. At room temp (20C) the 3s delay blasts off at around 5s. For hot outdoor summer play this delay should be going off around 2-3s. For cooler indoor play, the 1.5s setting is best.

 

I tried to maximize the operational temperature range of this product without having to provide gradual timing adjustment for users to screw up. Early proof of concepts with gradual timing adjustments were problematic. It was too easy to forget what timing a grenade was set to and it looks just like any other grenade. It really threw a wrench in testing when I had to constantly mess with a timing adjustment. Fixed timing settings made for much fewer user errors and we worked out a factory preset procedure which is much more consistent than what most grenade users were able to provide.

 

Making a product that is tolerant to input pressure ranging from 100psi-180psi is not a trivial matter when the timing mechanism is pressure dependent but I think we pulled it off.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I had been lucky enough to play with a bunch of these before the release at an indoor CQB facility in Toronto. It made my choice to purchase one of these very easy.

 

I remember a round where a grenade had been surreptitiously deployed into a hallway where a 4 man entry team was stacking up. I was in the entry team and remember seeing a door close, everyone pausing and thinking, what the hell is th...PISSSHHHHH!!!

 

All of us got nailed from a range of 2-5 feet and then had a good laugh. These things are deadly in close quarters.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use and the use of session cookies.