Wtf was in those grenades all those years?

[BrickHaus]

I'm cleaning up my hoarder hole this weekend, and I just went to move this grenade that has to be old enough to vote. I got this in a lot about 16 years ago, and it was semi dried out then squishy, but shriveled. I hung it on my wall and haven't looked st it since.

Today I picked it up and it was rock hard and felt like it had aggregate inside. I had to cut it open.


It looks like powdered laundry detergent and asbestos.. or fiber glass. Figured you would find it interesting

[Fossilhead]

😆

[coyote]

The ones that went "boom" had baking soda and vinegar in them.

Lockdown called them "douchebangs".

[mueller]

i don't LOL a lot on this forum but that did the trick

[Painthappy]

Now that's a science experiment!

[Ecapnation]

I recall the Tippmann ones using milk powder for some reason

[Araphel]

Explains the rancid smell

[The Hobbit]

I recall the Tippmann ones using milk powder for some reason

That looks like the old tippmann ones from back in the day.

[$L!mBo]

looks like it works way better like this

[Psycho91]

You had to throw these like a major league pitcher and hoped they went off, iv thrown some point blank at trees and all they did was bounce off, they were essentially a rubber tube filled with paint and sealed off with bbs, the bbs would rust and the paint would dry around them and they were hard as hell to get them to go off at that point, or they would explode as soon as you threw it and you'd get your self out lol

[Snowpuff]

Still good as new

[Grendel]

We used to make them at an old local field [Vanguard Paintball] and everything that went into them was a liquid other then talc as a thickening agent. I assume that is what this is the crystallization of the liquid parts onto a thickening agent (my case talc) as the liquid evaporated. What we would use was all water based so I bet if you dropped that into a pail of water it would go back into solution.

[uv_halo]

Ahh, the old Squadbuster. I lost all faith in those things in around 94 when I threw one that landed at the feet of someone and, it sprayed only around them, neither the target nor myself could find any trace of paint on him.

My favorites were the original, commercially produced grenades that I cannot remember the name of (I know I posted way back on the old forum). They were in a carboard tube, used a pyrotechnic charge (pull cord/ring initiation) to obliterate a plastic baggy filled with thick (as in non-flowing), yellow paint. This was superior in every way to the paint grenades that came before, and even the ones that followed (i.e. the Atomic OrdnanceBig Boy). The bang was loud enough to alert refs (and everyone else) that one had been used, the puff of smoke revealed the precise location, and the paint was thick enough to feel it when it hit you. As I understand it, what ultimately killed them as a product was changes in commercial shipping regulations that meant that these could no longer be shipped across state lines.

These days, it seems that Enola Gay has brought a spiritual successor back to the market with their Wire Pull Paint Grenades. Using cast pulp paper in the shape of the old, real deal, instead of a cardboard tube. It's unclear to me if they are available for paintball game use. Their website gives me the impression that they can be purchased and used by a field but, not consumers.

[uv_halo]

Link to Enola Gay's product https://enolagaye.com/products/paint-grenade/

[BrickHaus]

On this note. The ONE time a squad buster worked, it was on me..

Another scenario I frequently play has rules for tanks. The only two ways you can eliminate a tank is with a paint grenade painting them, or a law rocket. Almost no one tries the grenades as they rarely work, and you pretty much gotta suicide to get a chance to throw one at a tank.

One day I was gunning for honeybadger, and Cowboy ( team lead) was driving. A squad buster grenade came flying from behind a building we were trying to take. It hit the ground left of our wheels and bounced back up to waist height, and made a perfect 720* spin painting the netting two times well. Our tank ref didn't see it, but I did from my POV. I asked Cowboy if he had seen it. He did.

At this moment we realized the only people who noticed it was me, Cowboy, and the guy who threw it. Cowboy and I both agreed that a grenade toss that great deserved the Kill, so we flipped our white flag and went to respawn. We talked about how awesome that was the rest of the day.

[Hp_lovecraft]

The field I worked at in the early 90s, boy we sold a ton of those. I would tell the newbs that it would easily wipe out a whole group of attackers. Greatest thing, every player needs them. etc etc.

what I didn't say... in my 35 years of paintball, I'd never seen one ever used effectively. Usually, it doesnt go off, and gets thrown back. Sometimes it hits a branch, and goes off someone in the middle. If you someone throw it perfect, and it goes off exactly where you want it to..... it doesnt spray evenly. It spits out a "line" of paint that may, or may not hit anything useful.

My favorite was when someone has a bunch, and they are trying to lob them into a fort..... and can just never hit the target. Those were the glory days

[MrKittyCatMeowFace]

Threw a grenade over the hill at Living Legends for the final battle. I like to imagine it hit someone but it just bounces off them and rolls away. XD

One year I threw one back that bounced off the grass and then into me BT M8.

I want to try and get a grenade elim now.

[MrKittyCatMeowFace]

Anusgear still has some for sale it looks like.