Is .50 still a thing?

[Filthee87]

So many moons ago, as I was fading out of my late teens/early 20's, .50cal was seemingly breaking into the paintball world. It had quite a following with the woodsball/milsim side of our sport. Did it ever really take off into mainstream paintball or did it end up being just another fad?

[Fubarius]

Locally for me at least, it's become mostly a rental only thing. A number of fields offer it as a "low impact" version of paintball, and for those games you have to rent and can't use your own gear. At a pair of indoor fields owned by the same people it's their primary mode of play. One field doesn't allow you to use your own gear at all, the other has very, very limited hours for self equipped players, at least they did while they were open. They seem to have shut down that location at least temporarily.

There is some non-rental use as a scenario game pistol ammo, but that's about it. Pretty much zero reason to buy a normal full sized hopper fed .50 cal gun for personal use.

[Meleager7]

So many moons ago, as I was fading out of my late teens/early 20's, .50cal was seemingly breaking into the paintball world. It had quite a following with the woodsball/milsim side of our sport. Did it ever really take off into mainstream paintball or did it end up being just another fad?

I wasn't playing back when it was introduced, but what I have gathered about the history of it, is that GI Sportz had big plans for it and was pushing it hard. Valken and Kingman got in the manufacturing game too. I believe they hoped it would take off in popularity and as such, cause players to refresh their paintball gear, and create a new income stream for them.

But the end result was .50 cal was a big flop and it did not make a dent in .68 cal !

Those companies basically screwed up their Marketing big time at launch, because they lied about the performance, saying it compared to or exceeded .68 cal performance.

At 280 fps field limits, the .50 cal ball shooting at the same velocity as .68 cal simply has less mass, and physics tells us that it cannot travel as far. The less mass also makes it more affected by wind. Finally, the smaller ball and less mass means it hits with less force on target , end result being a lot less breaks , especially at a distance.

It was also promised to be available at a lower cost per case, but that never happened either. Well , maybe at first it was cheaper, but definitely not now !! At fields I see it at today, it is the exact same price as .68 cal which is a bad move and shortsighted view in my opinion......

50 cal definitely has it's own unique advantages though:

- massive ammo capacity - on gun, those small hoppers included with the .50 cal rental gear today still hold approx. 350 rounds. The .50 cal compatible full size hoppers like the Valken Switch and the latest Pro Toyz Speedster can hold an almost comical amount of ammo, 450 ish rounds. That is a ton of shooting between reloads! In a full size pack and pods, you can bring along a massive amount of paint with you.
- potential as a lower cost alternative. - It's less raw materials to make .50 cal than .68 cal. Also .50 cal costs less to ship than .68 cal, for the same quantity of paintballs, to distributors, stores and fields. It's made on the same encapsulating equipment that already has been invested in ( granted, there was new tooling invested in, to make the smaller ball, i'll give them that). These cost savings were not passed along to the player! Why would any .68 cal player consider switching to .50 cal , if they had to pay the exact same price , and get less performance!?? But, front players , who like getting into gunfights up close and personal anyway, might have tried .50 cal out , if it was less money as they advertised.

.50 cal has found a home though, as a fantastic Low Impact alternative to .68 cal to help get younger players and newer players into the game! There is something to be said, about a kid trying out paintball for the first time, playing .50 cal low impact, experiencing that same adrenaline rush and excitement that we get playing .68, and then leaving the field at the end of the day without a bunch of bloody welts all over them to their parent's horror, potentially never playing paintball again !

[Meleager7]

Locally for me at least, it's become mostly a rental only thing. A number of fields offer it as a "low impact" version of paintball, and for those games you have to rent and can't use your own gear. At a pair of indoor fields owned by the same people it's their primary mode of play. One field doesn't allow you to use your own gear at all, the other has very, very limited hours for self equipped players, at least they did while they were open. They seem to have shut down that location at least temporarily.

There is some non-rental use as a scenario game pistol ammo, but that's about it. Pretty much zero reason to buy a normal full sized hopper fed .50 cal gun for personal use.

This raises the question, would promoting .50 cal paintball gun ownership for kids, help to grow paintball, or hurt paintball , with these younger players in mind?

[BigRed]

I think the big problem in buying a .50 marker is if a new player intends to keep playing regularly it means they will have to buy a .68 marker eventually. They get kids to try it earlier at birthday parties because Mom's like "low impact" but .50 will stay relegated to a small section of rental fleets IMO.

[Meleager7]

IMO I think it's more a benefit than a problem. Running your own .50 cal gear , is overall going to result in a better playing experience, if you get quality equipment and maintain it. It's no different from the benefits us 68 cal players enjoy from owning our own stuff. And quality .50 cal gear is available, the best performance value for the dollar is the Emek and it can be had in a .50 cal version. Add the .50 cal compatible PAL loader and a little kid is all set for a problem free day, and won't be sidelined early using a rental gun with poor accuracy, or mediocre performance. Taking my Emek example further, when it's time for said kid to move .68 cal , all they need is to buy the .68 cal gamma core bolt, and they're done.

[Fubarius]

Well I know what the indoor fields in my example would say. They sadly only seem to consider two types of paintball as "legit", rental parties and tournament practice.

Heck, their rentals are .50 cal Eteks, even if you had your own .50 cal gun they'd basically insist that you "upgrade" to their "higher end" rental. And they'd legitimately believe they would be doing you a favor.

So it's kind of obvious I do NOT agree with how those particular fields are run.

Now another field has .50 cal as a rental option, and that's cool (also the big scenario game field of the area, so that means more .50 cal ammo for the sidearm guys). But part of the philosophy of the low impact option is also part of the segregated rental groups system. Keep the self equipped players out of the private rental groups so they don't steamroll the renters. Now at this field you can rent to play open play with all the gear owners, but nobody chooses the low impact guns to do this due to obvious performance issues. They would need a second low impact open play, but having a second open play is logistically rather difficult.

[JonM]

This raises the question, would promoting .50 cal paintball gun ownership for kids, help to grow paintball, or hurt paintball , with these younger players in mind?

If I were to guess, I suspect many of them would be cluttering up closets rather quickly as they gained experience and these kids started mixing in with the more traditional players. Once they gain experience, I suspect their fear of .68 cal would fade quickly.

[Meleager7]

After they transition to regular paintball, maybe they could sell that .50 cal gear to the next batch of younglings interested in the sport. Kind of like how the 14-15 year old new players buy gear now, and then dump countless 98 Customs, and TMC's on the market, as they upgrade to something better.

[Painthappy]

So many moons ago, as I was fading out of my late teens/early 20's, .50cal was seemingly breaking into the paintball world. It had quite a following with the woodsball/milsim side of our sport. Did it ever really take off into mainstream paintball or did it end up being just another fad?

I thought we all switched over....

[punkncat]

IMO .50 could be fun for something like a limited size indoor field.

[Dusty Bottoms]

I always hated it from the outset for the same reason alot of people seemed to. The marketing was just a big turnoff. It wasn't being sold as a addition or supplement to the game, and what we already had. It was being sold as "THIS IS THE FUTURE OF PAINTBALL!!!"... It didn't just turn off us old school guys who wanted to keep using our old gear either, the speedball/tourney crowd rejected it too, which isn't surprising. They knew as we did that the ball didn't perform the same as .68 cal, and they didn't seem to go for the "it won't hurt as much" nanny pitch either. That was probably an afront to the whole "agg" speedball bro code of the era.

I still think it could have been marketed for a new generation of paintball pistols and specialized markers, and have been more successful that way. The same way First Strike has carved it's niche for long range play. I personally would love to see .50 pistol play become a thing, even tournaments.

[Tinybear]

I think 50 cal could or rather should be marketed more as a pistol Mag fed option. It makes soo much more sense as a pistol round.

[Arthur]

Id say its as healthy as its ever been.

[BigRed]

Agreed...and as it ever will be

[Target]

I played today and there was a group of 10ish year olds and their parents playing "low impact" . Maybe a dozen kids. They had a good time and were pleasantly surprised that it did not 'hurt".
I was speaking to one of the dads and he tried buying a gun online but very few are available. The selection is few and most were "out of stock".

I just happened to have a 50 cal set up in my truck that can easily be converted to 68 when the youngster wants to move up ( GoG eNMEy). Not all can bounce between calibers which sorta hurts the appeal of buying gear.
Not to mention that the eNMEy is a great marker . It was what I was playing with.

One of the regular walkons had a 50 cal pistol ( not sure which one but it did have a round magazine like a revolver). He also played mag fed.

[custar]

I always hated it from the outset for the same reason alot of people seemed to. The marketing was just a big turnoff. It wasn't being sold as a addition or supplement to the game, and what we already had. It was being sold as "THIS IS THE FUTURE OF PAINTBALL!!!"...

Seconded. IMHO, GI (which a lot of us oldsters already disliked) tried to make our .68 gear obsolete. That was a really bad plan. Someone above also pointed out the lies/misleading claims about performance of .50. Last, a lot of times when .50 breaks, it does not leave a quarter-sized mark.

custar

[vijil]

I did the math. A bunch of us did.

To get roughly the same range and performance you'd need to be shooting 50 cal at close to 450fps. Impact energy would be about the same. I figured 400 world work.

Which honestly sounds like a great idea and would work in many countries that don't have the insurance issues of the US. Here in NZ 400fps wouldn't have made any difference as far as the law or insurance were concerned. But then the US market absolutely determines the ROW market and probably represents 90% of worldwide sales, so 50 was pretty much doomed from day one.

[Meleager7]

I did the math. A bunch of us did.

To get roughly the same range and performance you'd need to be shooting 50 cal at close to 450fps. Impact energy would be about the same. I figured 400 world work.

Which honestly sounds like a great idea and would work in many countries that don't have the insurance issues of the US. Here in NZ 400fps wouldn't have made any difference as far as the law or insurance were concerned. But then the US market absolutely determines the ROW market and probably represents 90% of worldwide sales, so 50 was pretty much doomed from day one.

I forgot this point about the potential to run .50 cal at higher velocities! I know the Joules of energy has been worked out many times over, but I don't think real world performance (range and accuracy tests) has been explored much shooting .50 cal at 400 fps. At least , I haven't found any youtube footage about this.....maybe you guys have?

This is where I think .50 cal gets really interesting again! At 400 fps , at least on paper, a .50 cal player now has comparable range to a .68 cal player, PLUS the massive paint capacity on gun and in their loadout, and a lot more shooting between reloads. Not to mention their equipment is lighter, they'll get more shots out of a tank, and their loadout in their pack or tac vest is lighter too.

I don't think adding backspin to .50 cal shots to further increase range has been looked at either.

Seeing paint break at longer distances is probably going to still be an issue, so it could mean a slight change in rules would have to emerge where bounces count as well as any breaks of any size.

[vijil]

Sure thing, but PB already had an issue with too much paint in the air. Give people twice as much effectively and they'll shoot twice as much, keeping costs the same or higher and not at all solving the overshooting issues.

[Chappy]

The same energy through a smaller diameter paintball equals more impact energy on the target.
So in order to make 50 cal perform like 68 cal it will hurt more even though the joules are technically the same. Whether this is problematic is player dependent, but it is antithetical to the point of the 50 cal in the first place, other than the increased ammo aspect.

[Chappy]

Why was .50 cal a thing in the first place? Because of offering a low impact alternative? To grow the sport? No. It’s a thing because Richmond Italia had a 2 year non compete clause specific to .68 cal paintball. When that ended, so did the support for “the future if paintball”

[vijil]

I sometimes think paintball would be in a much better state globally if Richmond had never discovered it.

[Meleager7]

That is interesting, I did not know about that history about a non compete clause. What was the backstory there, did GI Sportz sell their paint division or something, and the deal had a provision they could not manufacture paint again for 2 years?

[Chappy]

GI was originally GI Milsim and was 50cal only. It was the ray ion to the non compete clause he signed when he left procaps.
Ps the G in GI stands for Gardner. Gardner Italia. Neither are involved anymore at least.