Effectiveness of "beehive" rounds

[Rokmonkey]

'Ello everyone,

Like many spudgun and airsoft enthusiats, I spend alot of time contemplating and designing Airsoft/Paintball mortars. I imagine most people find that part simple enough and the real difficulty comes from the type of ammunition being used during play; most common options being nerf footballs and the so called "beehive" round.

I have been searching around and haven't found a decent video or post that shows the true effectiveness of a "beehive" round, ie. cup full of bb's or paintballs, fired in an arc. I am laid up at the moment due to surgery and the weather has been atrocious as of late so I can't test the theory myself, but I was hoping someone else has done htis before. What kind of performance can be expected out of this type of ammunition, more specifically things like:

-Range
-Accuracy
-Cohesiveness (how tight the groupings were)

I know these all change depending on many different parameters, but if someone has used this ammunition before, then perhaps share what the results were and the set up you had?

[jrrdw]

Davidvaini and Potatoflinger are the members you want to do searchs on...

Long time no see, welcome back.

[Hubb]

Firing buckshot, or "beehive" as you've put it is exactly what you've stated; the ammo is the hardest part. Now, I can't speak for airsoft because my experience lies with paintball.

With a proper sabot, the paintballs will do pretty much what is expected. The spread will also depend on the sabot. I've not measured the spread when fired at an angle, but straight on seems to be about 1 foot per 10 feet traveled.

It's actually quite interesting to watch the paintballs rain down. It can be effective, provided the field allows it, the sabot is built properly and consistently, and the launcher fires consistently.

As I've mentioned a couple of times, the sabot plays a big role in the performance of such rounds. The best I've used is a version of a butterfly sabot. These take a little bit more time to put together than just stuffing tissue down the barrel, but they work fantastic. Check out the link in in my sig. FreePaintballPlans has a plethora of information. Just look me up and I can help you out.

[warhead052]

This may not be much help, but it worked for me. Last saturday, me and a friend decided to mess with his spray and pray combustion cannon, and we ran out of both hairspray and ammo. So we found his propane torch, and got some paper towels and a couple handfuls of airsoft bbs. We put the first paper towel in, then the bbs and then another paper towel to hold everything in place, and then put in about 10 seconds of propane (it was alot, I admit that...) and then fired it. It had enough kick to blast it out of my hands, and the bbs actually ricocheted off his wooden bunker and hit us in the chest... Fun experience, and super effective. I would say, use it if you have a small combustion pistol or something.

[SP00K]

If you've ever seen paintball grenade launchers they use several tubes loaded with paintballs in-line. I incorporated that style in my itty bitty cannon.

http://www.spudfiles.com/forums/paintba ... 16727.html

[Hubb]

If you've ever seen paintball grenade launchers they use several tubes loaded with paintballs in-line. I incorporated that style in my itty bitty cannon.

http://www.spudfiles.com/forums/paintba ... 16727.html

This is similar to the way I load my sabots as well. Taking the idea from standard 00 buckshot, I will stack the rounds in the sabot rather than just randomly place them. This leads to less spread and much more consistent results. With the stacked tube design, as linked above, the spread would be cut down even more (provided there is not too much impact against the rounds within the barrel during launch - which doesn't appear to be an issue with SP00K's launcher) that should surpass those of the stacked sabot.

The main problem with that design, however, is that the cartridges are more expensive and more time consuming to make.

[Rokmonkey]

Thanks jrrdw, I'm getting back into Airsoft, so that includes some spudding. Gonna try a slide-piston design for a linear piston cannon, should be interesting.

Of course a sabot is necessary, I was thinking that firing something like a dixie cup filled with bb's would keep the bb's together long enough to fire accurately. It looks like I'll have to do the testing myself and share. (I'm an engineer, I like my numbers).

Just to say, Launchers for Airsoft and Paintball are almost exactly the same, Airsoft just has must smaller ammunition.

[biged]

Been using artillery at airsoft events for about 5 years now.

I launch Pea stone in dixie cups. Most cups are reusable below 200 psi, and the cups disintegrate after 250 psi. A 5 gallon bucket of stone is less than a penny, and pretty much disappears on most terrain. I do however spend an hour or so picking up the cups/paper/trash later.

Most importantly I have never hurt anyone with falling stone.

If the event has a dense canopy of trees the stone falling has little effect on the OPFOR. So I blast a hole in the canopy with 2-3 shots of stone, then switch to tennis balls to bombard the target.

I always have a safety meeting with the event organizer and field owner. Discuss it's use, include it in the rules, and balance the sides so it's not a one-sided event.



///ed///