FS Shelf Life

[Nish]

Pretty straight forward I suppose. We all know paintballs are only going to store for so long and shipping be decent.

How long can you keep your opened bag of zoom bots before they are no good to use?

[netsurferdude2]

No official answer here, just anecdotal, but the zoom dots I use for testing shoot just as well as new ones and they are going on 3-4 years old now.

[JeepDVLZ45]

I also used up an opened back a couple months ago, it was open in my basement for…at least 2 years. No issues with it whatsoever.

i guess they’re “non-perishables”

[SniperPedik]

I'd do the same thing as regular paint, keep them cool and rotate them every so often and they last

[Jonnydread]

Same. I find the paint can "pool" if they're stored on one side for too long. I keep them in 10rd tubes and flip the orientation every few weeks.

[XEMON]

I keep mine nose down in 10rd tubes

[uv_halo]

Sunlight is their major enemy, their shells should become more fragile with more exposure but, we're talking years before anything visibly different appears.

The fill seperates, pretty quickly into an oily substance and, a thicker filler material (insepcting with a high power LED shining through it, I've also noticed a slightly smaller than BB-sized air bubble). I've found shaking them gets them back up to an even mix (and the air bubble remains). Even if they are evenly mixed while in the bag, as soon as you load them into magazines, the fill will start to settle to the bottom (one side if your rounds are facing horizontally),

This is another reason why I suspect rifling is a benefit. If they leave the barrel with the denser material less evenly spread around in the payload section, that would change the center of gravity, and spinning them in the open air would make them behavve like an out of round tire until the fill evened out. If they are spinning in the barrel, this gives them time for the fill to spread out while stabilized by the barrel. Of course, there's really no practical way to confirm this.

I've not seen any evidence of biological activity (spoiling), or polymerization in the fill. So, I suspect that they can just be shaken. If any turned out to be particularly stubborn, those little nail polish / hobby paint vibrational mixers (where you push the bottle down to activate the vibration) would work fine.

[boomersruckus]

I kinda think that this really wont be an issue. If the fins do their job, this thing should be spinning like a top from the time its a few inches down the barrel and that should "mix" the fill up through centrifugal forces before it leaves the barrel. * Maybe should....ish* I have a rifled barrel for my FS blaster and have shot paint that was several years old and never treated with any regard other than it being in my climate controlled house. It performed as well as the brand new rounds that I tested them against. I was curious of the same thing.

[uv_halo]

boomersruckus. I strongly doubt that the fins have anything to do with spinning in a rifle barrel. I say this because the tips of the fins are no wider than the hemisphere joint between the tail and the nose, and there are more fins on the tail than there are grooves in the rifling. Further, the tail and fin design were designed to be fired from a smoothbore barrel. Now, whether or not the fins impart significant spin in a smoothbore barrel, further experimentation is required. I personally doubt it but,acknowlege that it might be possible for something to be happening.

[boomersruckus]

Yeah, I should have clarified that a bit more. The rifled barrel might be a gimmick for sure but I wouldnt know what a FS round through a smoothbore looks like in flight. I never sent any down range without my current setup. As for whether or not the FS rounds are spinning in the barrel due to the fins, Hard to say. I would suspect that it comes down to bore match and if there are ports in the barrel to let the air in front of the FS round out as it travels down the barrel. I would love to see some of these things in slow motion with a clear barrel just for Schipts and giggles

[uv_halo]

I've noticed a couple times now where folks are asking in the Ask The Experts section like they should but, in the long run, it would make sense to move topics like this to the First Strike section for 'archiving' and discovery. Is it possible for a mod to move threads these days?

[Carp]

Yep, we need to do it at least weekly, more often daily. I'll let Nish decide when/where he wants this one. But, if you can identify some of the others you would like moved... Just let one of the mods know which they are. 😉

[Jimmydee]

Better not risk it. Shoot me a pm and sell em to me for a reduced, been sitting and old, price lol

[Nish]

Be more fun to meet up, split them and shoot them at each other

[Jimmydee]

That’s very true Nish

[Jimmydee]

I played yesterday and shot a few hundred first strike that have sat for the last 3 years with no issues

[Frmrspec]

I used a bunch of the OG silver first strikes (sold by the tube) a couple years ago with no ill consequence.... my current lot is from Pre-covid and still shooting great...