Weird thought of the day: 50 cal Freak Barrel

[ChoSanJuan]

As much as I believe 50cal is pretty useless, is there a market for a 50 cal Freak system?

[OpusX]

I thought there was one?

Answered my own question pretty quick: https://www.baccipaintball.com/ren237.html

[ChoSanJuan]

Daaaaamn your Google Fu is stronger than mine. I did a few searches and only came up with the Green eNMEy bodied mechs. But that's Bacci... Is there anything retail for 50cal play recently? (Totally not invalidating that you found one!)

[OpusX]

I actually went to Bacci recalling that specific marker and barrel combo. It may be the only one.

[Meleager7]

As much as I believe 50cal is pretty useless, is there a market for a 50 cal Freak system?

I think .50 cal is only less desirable in the context of shooting it against players who are shooting .68 cal back at you....the range advantage , and paint breakage advantage of .68 is just too great

However, even saying that, if .50 cal was a substantially cheaper per case, it could actually be a viable choice against .68 if you were willing to trade off shooting distance , and move up closer accordingly to engage, in exchange for the cost savings. You’d also gain the advantage of massive capacity, your hopper is gonna hold minimum 350 rounds. The problem is, at least where I play, it’s being sold at the same high price as .68

Finally, in the context of younger players, and new players to paintball, .50 cal is an absolutely fantastic option that helps to make paintball more approachable!

[Arthur]

It seems like .50 cal has some variance in size. Have a little thread goin here.

I don’t personally play .50 but I’ve seen others be really successful with it in CQ or on peoples lenses. Also seems to work better in the summer when your shooting more skin.

[ChoSanJuan]

I think .50 cal is only less desirable in the context of shooting it against players who are shooting .68 cal back at you....the range advantage , and paint breakage advantage of .68 is just too great

However, even saying that, if .50 cal was a substantially cheaper per case, it could actually be a viable choice against .68 if you were willing to trade off shooting distance , and move up closer accordingly to engage, in exchange for the cost savings. You’d also gain the advantage of massive capacity, your hopper is gonna hold minimum 350 rounds. The problem is, at least where I play, it’s being sold at the same high price as .68

Finally, in the context of younger players, and new players to paintball, .50 cal is an absolutely fantastic option that helps to make paintball more approachable!

Nah, .50 cal is just less desirable, all the way around, from my experience. Every time I've used it it's been junk. Not accurate. No Range. Barely any breaks. However, I do really like the idea of .50 cal. Execution was pretty much junk. To your point, I've played CQB in big games and had great results with my homebrew .68cal sidearm. I can only imagine how screwed I would have been if I had 50s against 68s.

Our field shoots 50 and Gellyball for the yougins and uninitiated. They also do a cool Valentines Couples Night with 50. It lets spouses come out and not walk away with giant cheerio welts like their SOs. (Although my wife says .50 cal is BS. Yes, she has played .68 and would rather play that. LOL!)

[Meleager7]

Funny, you should mention gel ball, I literally just learned it existed with video YouTube served up a couple nights ago! Looks like an interesting mix of paintball and Airsoft. Most spectacular was the price. $10 for 20000 rounds, yep, that’s correct. Only thing is similar to fifty, i don’t think it shoots very far. Like you said might be best reserved for younger players.

[ChoSanJuan]

It seems like .50 cal has some variance in size. Have a little thread goin here.

I don’t personally play .50 but I’ve seen others be really successful with it in CQ or on peoples lenses. Also seems to work better in the summer when your shooting more skin.

So with variance... Isn't it just better to overbore instead? Similar to 68?

[Arthur]

The JT .50 cal Splatmaster paint couldn’t fit down the barrel. It would get stuck about 3/4 down and explode.

The FS Spherical and Shaped projectiles all worked great.

[Hp_lovecraft]

Some fields around here used 50cal as "low impact paintball". Geared towards younger, and newer players, especially private parties.
In that regard, I think it makes lots of sense. Sometimes used as an alternative to milsim airsoft, where the quality of the simulation is more important than the game itself.

But all the hate comes from the industry attempt to REPLACE 68 with 50 because its "better in everyway, shoots farther, faster, more accurate, etc".
The performance claims were so absurd... especially since many of us remember .50 in the 80s. Especially the claims of accuracy and range. It was insane.

Turns out, it was just a scam. The industry was faced with a problem. Guns today have not really progressed in 20 years. Any gun you buy today, should last practically forever, and work well enough to compete with anything else (generally.... you know what I mean). How can they get someone to buy a new gun for no reason? They tried "limited edition" crap... rare colors, etc. But that didn't work. So the plan was to push for 50cal as a way to get everyone to have to buy a new gun...

And it was close to working. The industry pushed so, so hard. But the wall they ran into was that to get the performance benefits, you had to run the 50 at "400fps". Lol. and the insurane industry was firm. Very firm on 300 on the limit for everything. It was basically dead on arrival for anything other then "low impact"

[Meleager7]

I’m really curious how .50 at 400 fps performs.

Is it on par with .68 , or does it get more distance?

[Meleager7]

As much as I believe 50cal is pretty useless, is there a market for a 50 cal Freak system?

Forgot to mention, TechT makes their ifit barrel sizer kits for .50 cal , but only for 2 specific threads, the spyder opus .50 cal thread, and the Gi Milsim thread, whatever that thread is.

speaking of threads, i\m not sure what thread the planet eclipse emek kit has, nor the tippmann tmc .50 gun?

[ChoSanJuan]

Forgot to mention, TechT makes their ifit barrel sizer kits for .50 cal , but only for 2 specific threads, the spyder opus .50 cal thread, and the Gi Milsim thread, whatever that thread is.

speaking of threads, i\m not sure what thread the planet eclipse emek kit has, nor the tippmann tmc .50 gun?

Emeks are Autococker and the eNMEy is Ion/Smart parts/Luxe

Interesting... There are more kit options out there than I thought. Only 1 actual freak though.