Madbull XM995 "rocket launcher" review/preview

[TDS]

 

Pictures of the actual product and such will be up later today!

 

Well as some people know, I got volunteered to prototype some madbull stuff, first up is the

 

The firing system is impressive, pushing down the button allows the angled front end to fall into the body, allowing the gas out, instead of just pushing “out” like a normal 203 round, it pushes at an angle outwards, applying even pressure all the way around the outside of the projectile, slick, its design also allows it to store a lot of gas, not sure how much more, but 4-6 seconds of green it takes like a champ.

 

The foam “shell” isn’t as impressive, but then again its made of foam so you cannot kill someone with it. Its made of some kind of very dense Styrofoam, with an insert of thick cardboard inside of it, I assume to stop the tremendous pressure firing puts on it from eventually blowing it apart. The front end originally worried me by being a little bit on the pointy side, and hard, but in reality the shell weighs so little it does not matter except at point blank range.

 

KABOOM!

This thing is loud, Probably 50-100% louder than normal m203 shells.

 

The rocket tumbled through the air and went about 25 feet

…..right....

 

 

So, I figured maybe I put too much gas into the shell, since MB shells don’t leak, I tried again, again, 25ish feet, Tried HFC134a, still 25, the rocket wants to tumble.

 

Abandoning the Smokeys AG36, I tried a long M203, the results were a little better, ~30-40 feet, obviously the long barrel keeps the round straight for longer. Coming home, I had an email from madbull waiting with some tips, attaching streamers to the shell improves accuracy. Ok lets try that.

 

Through trial and error, eventually I got the thing properly balanced, with two thumb tacks near the rear end of the shell to stabilize it, and a streamer, range gets pushed out to 150ish feet, not really accurate because of the weight of the projectile, but accurate enough to hit a tank or a bunker.

 

Destructive Testing

Of course, since I got it for free, I was obligated to try and break it

1. Firing the shell at near point blank range into a tree does rip at the shell and damage it, however you’d have to do this 10-20 times to actually break the shell to the point where it would no longer work

2. Firing the shell “across” a tree at point blank range. so that it scratches at the shell’s thinner sides deals considerably more damage, after a few times the “fins” on the side of the shell were ripped off, this didn’t effect performance that I can tell, of course remember this was at point blank range at 20 feet ripping past a tree barely scratched it.

3. Firing a point blank range into a person hurts, bruising is about equal to a paintball round, nothing super dangerous, but obviously this shell is not for CQB with a rocket payload

4. Firing at an angle (side of the head) at close range can knock off someone’s goggles (tested on a head-like object) beyond 20 feet this doesn’t occur if the person has goggles with a decent quality strap

 

 

Though it sounds like it isn’t the best product, the possibilities of its uses are work it IMHO.

1. It would be relatively simple to integrate this into a bazooka, with a c02 line feeding it, a nice one piece firing mech that is inherently safe, to fire whatever you put down the barrel (footballs, whatever) and is twice as cheap and infinatly safer than a “a lever fires an entire 12g of c02” bazooka people seem to like to make.

2. With a trigger that gives mechanical advantage these can be loaded to quite high pressure, unlike “normal” m203 rounds it doesn’t rely on O-rings to hold the pressure, fire away!

3. the firing system gives even pressure around the outside of the projectile, improving accuracy (unless the projectile is always loaded perfectly, in that case it’s the same)

 

MISC Information

With the rocket on the launcher, the shell is too large to fit into some M203 pouches, If the pouch has a hole in the bottom like mine, or if it’s a “Velcro” type pouch where the flap extends all the way to the bottom of it, it will fit, barely. Its smarter to put the rocket in one pouch and the shell in another.

 

The rocket sticks out the end of some of the “silly” launchers, like the MM RIS launcher and the flashlight one.

[shadowbane]

Nice review, thanks for writing it up. Madbull has been making some pretty cool stuff lately, especially this! I've seen people fire the mini nerf footballs out of m203's with great success, but an off the shelf, rocket firing (pen missile!) 'grenade' is great.

[TDS]

Pictures!

 

How the rocket fits in my 8 shell dropleg

 

comparison with a normal m203 shell

 

[RSM]

Looks like an XM29 round, interesting product though, nice review

[Greyhound]

I found that if you take 3 to 4 US Nickles and tape them together using masking tape. and insert the wrapped coins (use enough tape to make the fit very snug)...it keeps the rocket from tumbling and the rockets have about an 80yd trajectory. (given about a 30 degree rise on the launcher)...

[TDS]

I found that if you take 3 to 4 US Nickles and tape them together using masking tape. and insert the wrapped coins (use enough tape to make the fit very snug)...it keeps the rocket from tumbling and the rockets have about an 80yd trajectory. (given about a 30 degree rise on the launcher)...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

after trying this, I can confirm it works better than streamers!

[almostcreated]

I wish they had a video on how they work

[Prometheus]

TDS, would you mind making a short video on the product? To show us how to load it and fire it...giving special attention to how to aim and fire it?

 

 

I like this idea and I might just buy one once I recover from my Xbox 360 purchase.

 

 

 

~P

[Minty_Fresh]

Nice review

They actually used your Idea on the site, the tassels/fins/paprey bits to make the foam rocket go further

If you look under the pictures there Is a tutorial for adding the extra paper fins

 

Clicky

Although the layout of the madbull picture viewer thing is a bit messed up (Or maybe because I'm using Firefox)