"detonate" on impact airsoft ammo

[Eddbot]

i've been trying to figure out an ammo for an airsoft rocket launcher that spreads bbs on impact with a target or the ground or whatever, so far the only one i could find when i researched was cutting a tennis ball into fourths the glueing 3/4 of it back together, filling it up with bbs and then glueing the last fourth, if anyone has any ideas it would be a great help, i am open to all sizes of projectiles as i am going to design a launcher around the ammo instead of visa versa, any help is greatly appreciated


edit: w00t!! 50th post, don't know what that means but everyone is always celebrating about getting some number of posts, i felt left out so i chose to "w00t" about 50 (wow it counts w00t -2 zero's- as a real word but woot -2 o's- as a misspelling)

[Hubb]

Two problems come to mind when wanting to design something like this:
1) safety - the round need not cause damage to a person if they are accidentally hit
2) detonation in the launcher - the round needs to be strong enough to withstand the concussion of the launcher but still need to break open on impact (a round placed in a sabot could fix this problem)

What kind of "detonation" are you looking for (kill zone)?

[singularity]

i tried to develop such a round a long time ago for an early version of the AT-4 rocket launcher i made. it did work but the insane power of the launcher made me have second thoughts about using it. i made a mold the same diameter of the barrel (1" in this case) put some wax paper on the walls of the mold, filled it with .12g bbs, then poured some diluted wood glue into it. i only poured enough glue to coat the bbs, not enough to make a solid block. the final step was to put an aluminum disc on the back of the round (aluminum flashing or something) so the process of firing the round would not destroy it. initial tests were very impressive worked just as intended, however i halted the project when i realized it could take the bark off of a tree at 50ft

[spudgunnerwryyyyy]

explosive rounds are against the forum rules check it out as to not get banned

[Eddbot]

@hubb probably like 5-10 feet

@singularity i'm not gonna make it really powerful, it's gonna be designed specifically for airsofting, so i'll try that, plus i could just hot glue a foam nose on the end for added safety

@spudgunnerwryyyyy not literally explosive, just when the round impacts something it spreads bbs

[grumpy]

have you tried loading the bbs into a latex tube under some presure so that when it hits it will spray the bbs out, much like a paint grenade in paintball.

[Eddbot]

what? fill a balloon with bbs, inflate it a little then shoot, i've seen that everywhere but i think it's too fragile even in a sabot

[Hubb]

Assuming you are going to be shooting at a hard surface, and that you are aiming for 5 to 10 feet, you could probably make a solid sabot (one that does not break away). When the sabot impacts, it will break open and the force should be enough to accomplish your goal.

[Eddbot]

well what do i make it out of, a plastic cup? oh wait, that might work tape tp on the top of a plastic cup full of bbs, shoot it , the force of impact crumples the cup, there's no more space for the bbs and they go outwards, i think i'm gonna try that, but idk

hubb, what do you mean a sabot that doesn't break away but the impact breaks it open? do you mean it doesn't break away mid flight?

[Hubb]

That's what I meant.

As far as making them, I use construction paper and paper cups. To keep them from falling apart in flight, simply tape them together.

[Eddbot]

cool, i'm gonna try both, see what happens, might end up using both because they could have a different shaped spread, i'm assuming the wood glue one would have more of a sideways spread, the solid shell would probly spread behind the shell

[grumpy]

what? fill a balloon with bbs, inflate it a little then shoot, i've seen that everywhere but i think it's too fragile even in a sabot

a latex tube is not a balloon, and they launch very well with a simple paper sabot.

[BigGrib]

explosive rounds are against the forum rules check it out as to not get banned

Unfortunatley I do not believe they were talking about anything that uses explosives, merely something more along the lines of a shotgun mixed with a tennis ball or latex tubing. Don't remember seeing anything about RDX or TNT or hell even gunpowder for that matter.

Anyway now that I'm done being a smart ass I think that if you were to use that Latex tubing idea it would work but might be a little too solidly built and might hurt if fired at a distance of 5 - 10 feet. what kind of cannon are you gonna fire it from, pnuematic i'm assuming so you can turn down your volume and pressure and what size barrel are you using

[Hubb]

I don't think the latex grenade is going to work for the airsoft bbs. It probably will not break open on impact, which will cause the bbs to spray in one direction. They are not going to shoot very far either. The latex grenade is more suited for liquids.

[Eddbot]

never seen a latex tube before, looks kinda like a condom tied at the open end
pneumatic, 2-3" barrel probly 2, now that i think about it 3 seems really big
and that latex tube is gonna split on the side and spray in one direction like hubb said