Airsoft Vs. Pep Pieces

I've been messing around with the feasability of making an ODST airsoft loadout. First and formost, I have read all the threads about not mixing armor and paintball and I have seen Dark Fang's video demonstrating why this is so true. However, airsoft is a completely different animal than paintball, and I didn't see a difinitive test about the effects of airsoft guns on armor, so I decided to do my own.



The piece I'm using is part of a WETA ODST shoulder armor. It was resined outside then inside, and then mud-glassed with fiberglass mat. During the test, the piece was secured against a stationary object to make sure it absorbed the full force of the impact. All weapons were fired roughly two feet from the piece, dead on, a distance you will NEVER get shot at during ANY organized airsoft event.



Test 1



Gun: UHC Berreta M9



Muzzle velocity: 260FPS with .12 BBs



Result: The UHC M9 is a popular backup, or backup to a secondary. It is the type of weapon you will likely encounter inside buildings, when most games make you go pistols only. It left absolutely no marks at all on the piece, and did not blow anything off the inside, either.



Test 2



Gun: JG AUG A2



Muzzle Velocity: 330FPS with .20 BBs last time it was crono'd (a few weeks ago).



Result: The characteristics of the AUG are pretty mainstream on the airsoft field; most guns will have similar performance. TMs actually are significantly slower than this gun. The BB left a small indentation on the piece, and did not blow anything out on the inside. You probably wouldn't notice it if you weren't looking for it. Sorry for the tiny arrow, I have a lousy image editng program





Test 3



Gun: KART JAE-100 M14



Muzzle velocity: 407FPS with .20 BBs



Result: This is a very hot gun. More than one field in my area won't let it on the field at all. Others classify it as a DMR, and give it a 100-foot MED (minimum engagement distance). I would have flipped if the piece survived this gun. I fired twice and both made deep dents in the front of the piece and blew out some of the rondo out on the back.











Conclusion



I'm not going to say yay or nay that you can airsoft in armor, as there are other considerations, such as heat exhaustion, and the possibility of falling, breaking a piece, and making a shishkabob of yourself. I will say that under normal airsoft conditions, these pieces will stand up just fine. Even the damaged sustained from extreme conditions fixes up in a matter of minutes. However, this test is meant only as food for thought. It's certainly reinforced some ideas I've had for along time, but we'll see what ever comes of them.



Thanks for reading!

It all depends on the FPS rate really. Most wal mart specials wont even make a mark, whilst your higher grades might just penetrate. Doesnt matter really, any damage would be a pinprick basically. Whereas paintballs I've seen at any velocity tear a piece to shreds.

It does really only depend on the FPS of the rifle, but having done several tests of my own (I am neither endorsing or condemning this) I have found that with 2-3 layers of bondo and fiberglass are pretty near impenetrable from side arms, I would say less than 330 fps, but once you start breaking out the 350+ things start getting dicey. The main issue for me was how much fiberglass was blown into the air, potential hazard there.



But it could work if done properly.

Thank you. Thank you for doing this test. (Nice guns you have, by the way.) Nice to see some good experiments going on testing on all different types of armor. I'd guessed mudglassing would be able to withstand this sort of abuse a lot better than other methods, glad to see someone went out and tested this. Also, for the rest of you, remember, speed and therefore impact force decreases over distance, meaning you're going to take a lot less damage than this in normal play.

A fully-cast or strengthened helmet designed with this purpose in mind would most likely hold up, but the every day craft-props that are most people's helmets are going to be blowing fiberglass around the inside with anything 350+, whereas anything shooting hot is going to be dangerous unless once again - the helmet is designed with this purpose in mind.

Thanks for the comments! I'll bet there's a physics formula that can calculate how far away you have to be to have the BB impact with less than 330FPS; I know at my local fields, you're supposed to maintain a 20-ft MED out of common curtesy (I was testing at 2-ft). The pieces will not be damaged at that range.



Also, I tested the BB resilience of a HJC visor, I'll post up the results later today :cool!

Zacky Panic said:

A fully-cast or strengthened helmet designed with this purpose in mind would most likely hold up, but the every day craft-props that are most people's helmets are going to be blowing fiberglass around the inside with anything 350+, whereas anything shooting hot is going to be dangerous unless once again - the helmet is designed with this purpose in mind.

Click to expand...

This is also a very good point. Perhaps suits used for this stuff need an extra layer of Rondo without fiberglass over the entire interior? Should keep the fiberglass from getting out.

Sangheili811 said:

I'll bet there's a physics formula that can calculate how far away you have to be to have the BB impact with less than 330FPS

Click to expand...

I know it exists in a nice graph format, but now I can't find it for the life of me.

Update:



I tested an HJC visor to see how BB-proof it is. I used the same conditions for this test as I did th previous test, 2 foot distance, dead on shot. Using the UHC spring sidearm (260FPS with .12s), there was no mark at all on the outside or inside of the visor. However, when I tested it against the JG AUG, a sizable crack appeared (I held the visor up to a light to make the damage more visible).





Unfortunately, the visor does not stand up to airsoft as well as the pep pieces do, and I certainly do not recommend using these visors as eye protection. However, I am interested in how well a lexan vac-formed visor would hold up to airsoft. If it's anywhere as sturdy as the lexan rc car bodies I own, it should hold up well. If anyone has info on those, let me know.

My gun is around 450 fps, do you think it would penetrate?