16 gram cartridges...Has Anyone Messed With These?

[Drunkscriblerian]

So, recently I was given a collection of C02 cartridges by my parents, because they'd heard I'd gotten back into paintball and for some reason they knew that cartridges were used in the sport. Among them were some Crosman Powerlets (pictured), a couple of 8 gram soda fountain carts and these 16 gram monstrosities. I did not know these existed...so I did a bit of Google research and went down a loooong rabbit hole involving beer, bicycle-charging mechanisms, life-vest stuff etc.

Apparently disposable C02 cartridges have a lot of applications I did not know about. Okay then.



I'm curious...has anyone done a stock-class build with a 16-gram cartridge as the power behind it? Personally I'm kinda intrigued by them as they come in threaded and un-threaded versions and offer a measurably larger amount of C02. As the title says, has anyone on here messed with this?

[XEMON]

I think DocsMachine made a changer for the 8g, and a few less than lethal pistol uses them toom.
The 16 is a bit an oddball in paintball, never passed a rules so stock class ... So to be over, might as well use constant air (any refillable CO2 ...)
The threaded ones might not be sturdy enough to handle being thrown around with a gun without protection (some Walmart special had some small threaded CO2 in the blister pack, but lots of fields won't let you play with them) kinda defeats the purpose of the quick change ...

I've used 16g threaded for testing and in a test fixture, works well, but is expensive to run ...

[Carp]

Kind of related topic here...

https://www.mcarterbrown.com/forum/paintball-news-aa/ask-the-experts/379267-are-there-any-markers-changers-that-can-use-non-threaded-16-or-20-gram-co2-cartridges

[DocsMachine]

As noted in the thread Carp linked, the biggest issue is cost.

There's a ton of CO2 cartridges out there- from 8 gram up to 133 gram, and probably more. I once found a source for .75 gram- yes, 3/4s of a gram- cartridges, that I figured a hyper-efficient pump... might get two shots off of.

12 grams tend to be cheapest because they make the most of them- economy of scale.

That said, yes, I have a Phantom drop-out changer for 8-grams, and one of these days I want to make that screw-in VASA adaper.

Doc.

[JeeperCreeper]

I've made a PGP that uses both 8's and 12's, but not 16's.
8 grams are typically more expensive than 12's, I'd imagine the 16's are also more expensive. Its hard to beat bulk 12 grams for pricing.

Purists would probably argue that its not Stock Class unless its a 12 gram.

[k_obeastly]

I still have a couple of 12gram tire inflators. They seem to be hard to come by now that bike companies realized they can make more money on the 16gram carts or at least they could a few years ago by making the standard something that wasn't available at walmart for $.50.

I think i do have a 16 gram changer laying around that came with my vetgun. It's just a bigger version of the brass eagle changers and nothing too fancy.
correction: 25 gram
AgriLabs VetGun CO2 Adapter 25gm | eBay

[Drunkscriblerian]

Yeah, that's all very much what I was figuring. In looking at various cartridges for sale I saw a substantial price difference between 12 grams and everything else. I didn't consider the "It's not real stock-class" angle but that also makes sense; people can be purists about anything and everything lol.

[JeeperCreeper]

I upset some people when I used 8 grams in my single shot. I was putting myself at more of a disadvantage, but the purists dont like different. Most people don't care though

[Drunkscriblerian]

JeeperCreeper wow man that's crazy! I'd understand if you were using bigger cartridges (more gas on board is a definite advantage) but they got upset over smaller ones?? That's just wild.

[Hp_lovecraft]

I can remember back around 1990, TASO released larger 12grams. One was a 24gram, and the other was a 36 gram? Something like that. They were called the Might Maxx, and Mini Maxx.

They were the same length as 12grams, just wider. They had threaded ends, somewhat like more modern disposable tanks. But used a special adapter.

They existed at a time when larger C/A tanks were not universally allowed. So if you have a field that only allowed disposable tanks, I guess that would give you an advantage. Its kinda like why the turret and 6pak existed. There was a belief that C/A was bad for paintball. But the mighty/mini maxx was so niche, it never found a market. I have at least one someone at the bottom of a gear bag. Same goes for 8oz and 16oz

[XEMON]

there is always teh 90g JT tanks:

https://badlandspaintball.com/jt-90g-prefilled-paintball-co2-tank-2-pack.html

[Drunkscriblerian]

Wow. At that point you are definitely into "just buy a refillable tank" territory. Those screw fittings also look mighty sus, if I was a field owner I wouldn't allow that.

[Psycho91]

Used plenty of these when I started playing, they wernt that bad tbh just make sure the oring on the adapter was good, but then again that was before I was sliding and diving around a speedball field