Is .50 Cal still a thing?

[DocsMachine]

I was offered a boxful of Spyder Opus parts, supposedly enough to build 3-4 working guns, plus some extras.

I wasn't familiar with the Opus- I'd never heard of it, actually- but I see it's a .50 cal STBB. While I could get them for a couple bars of an off-key song, I realized I hadn't heard much of anything about .50 in... well, a good long while. And what I have heard has been things like Roscoes and other Umarex-type "self defense" guns.

So, in order of importance, is .50 still a thing? I don't even know if they still make .50 paint!

Is there any value at all, even just $20-$30, in a functional Opus?

And, from the pics i can see of it, the Opus looks like a scaled-down Spyder. Is it actually smaller, or is it just a trick of the photos?

Heck, I don't even know if there's dedicated .50 hoppers for these things...

Doc.

[Wicked_Silence]

Waching this as I just ran into 5 of these things today and found this thread looking for info.

[Trbo323]

Very much yes it's a thing

BUT

it's basically rental only outside of the pistols.
The fields rent them as "low impact paintball" so really young kids can play (like 5 years old) out actually has a pretty strong footprint around me anyway as most fields run 50cal for young groups

Doc you know what would be a really cool project is taking one of the eraser or chaser spider pistols and modifying it to accept 50 cal paint. Those were made for .43 and were a pretty cool little design. I had hopes of getting a bunch just so friends and I could play paintball around my house but spyder never produced them in any kind of numbers that people just get rid of them

Sent from my motorola edge 2024 using Tapatalk

[COB]

Sadly. I can say I have 10 or more of the Chaser/Eraser pistols. I had the same idea. Get several to hold a special game with friends. Hasn't happened yet.

[Reflex0283]

My local field uses them for rentals. They definitely hurt less than .68, but either the barrels on their FT-12s are crap or the paint is crap because you can't hit anything further than 15 yards with any sort of accuracy. Part of me is half interested in building a .50cal pump so I could play with rentals for fun, but there's not much of a point to it

There's also still .50cal kits kicking around the the ETEKs, but I'm not about to buy an etek and a $150 kit so I can shoot .50cal

[nak81783]

My two cents:

1. Most markers are not properly scaled down. This makes it hard for smaller kids to handle them. The markers that are scaled down, e.g., Valken Cobra, are harder to keep runnning, harder reach velocity, and break paint more often. When I played .50 cal with my boys, I’d frequently have to stop the games to help them with a break or jam. If I didn’t thoroughly swab the barrel and marker and liberally oil the bolt, it wouldn’t work. Tank output and oring sizes were appropriately set/sized.

2. I think it hurts worse than mid-grade .68 cal paint or better, because the .50 cal seldom breaks if it hits anything soft. I think the paint is all the same - field grade to Marbelizer all felt the same.

I just had a conversation about .50 cal with my local field last weekend when I heard them say they might ditch it to go back to Gellyball. I suggested they try “low impact” as .68 cal with tournament paint at 225-250fps. It doesn’t help the scaled down marker issue, but the marker will function better, it won’t hurt as much, and they won’t have to carry .50 cal paint anymore.

[Ecapnation]

Alive just barely..

TBH, unless they are free I wouldn't touch them. Even then the effort in "fixing them up" will out cost the resale.

These are vandalism grade guns.

[DieManInTheRough]

I hate that term, if it weren't for "Vandalism Grade" my rural ass would have never seen paintball.

[Ecapnation]

Still going to use it to describe everything sold in walmart

[TF_Aloha]

In North America .50 cal is almost entirely used for extremely inexperienced rental customers. It hurts less and the paint is much less expensive at the manufacturing/wholesale level, so fields use it for birthday parties. Fields still charge the same package price that fields often charge for .68 cal rental/party packages, but they increase their margin by using dirt cheap .50 cal.

No one really gets hooked by .50 cal though. The range and accuracy are abysmal. .50 cal typically bounces due to the decreased energy, so .50 cal fields usually have a "bounces count" rule. When bounces count and most hits bounce, you may as well be playing airsoft. You're on the honor system either way. .50 cal just seems like airsoft, without the range, accuracy, cleanliness, or cost advantages of actual airsoft. Players who just want a 3 hour physical party experience might be satisfied with .50 cal, but they'd also be satisfied with airsoft, laser tag, trampolines, or ultimate frisbee. No one is going to get that addictive rush that got all of us into .68 cal paintball though. We miss full-size paint and hate the .67 cal garbage that companies are selling now because we can see the loss in performance from that shrinkage. .50 cal will always be bad.

As far as the market for .50 cal in North America? It's non-existent. How many people play laser tag and then ask about buying their own laser tag equipment for when they go back? That's how many want a .50 cal marker to compete with other .50 cal birthday renters.

[DocsMachine]

I wasn't necessarily looking to make much- or even any- money on these. It was a case of "almost free", a marker I'd never fiddled with before, and it sounds like they'd be pretty easy to get back up and running.

Hey, I'm a sucker for markers in need, okay?

But, it sounds like there's no interest outside of rentals, so even for that off-key song, I'll pass.

Doc.

[Ecapnation]

Almost free isn't free..... Hard pass

[SeanFro]

Coincidentally, I recently fixed up 5 Valken Cobra's so I could play semi .50 cal with my kids. My local field had a handful of these seized up and sitting around so I offered to fix them up. They actually bounced back well after I rebuilt them and gave us a fun time at the field.
I set them 220-240 fps, and when my kiddos got shot in a softer place, they expressed quite a bit of pain. It was a little disappointing for me as I expected them to hurt slightly more than gel blasters and hoped my kids would gain some experience before graduating to .68 cal. That being said, later that day after some pain went away, they said they’d like to return for more.
If you want to offload those .50 cals I’d be interested in getting them from you. I’ve been strongly considering organizing a youth paintball league similar to the Bowling Green Peewee Paintball League (you can find them if Facebook, and I am convinced they have found the best way to fill the biggest gap in growing the sport). They use .50 cals at 270 I believe, and seem to use the Emek platform.

[hunter47]

The biggest problem imo, which is already highlighted, is that .50 cal has poor range and doesn’t break. We just did a work event with .50 cal and while it was fun to consensually shoot my coworkers the range left much to be desired and while it “hurt less” you still had to light them up to get a break, so it ends up being a similar pain index.

I was really hoping .50 cal would take off, at least for magfed play. But the range and no break issues means that you might as well be playing airsoft.

[Cyberpyr8]

50 cal FSR? Wow that would be some pain if they don't break either! The sting of 50 cal (especially when they don't break) makes me prefer 68. I used to hate reffing 50 cal parties.

[hunter47]

Yeah, that .50 cal game made me think about how much I preferred .68, and actually drove me to return to mcarterbrown and try to return to the game again.

[vijil]

I always thought it would work for pistol and sidearm play, but apparently milsim players won't accept a pistol with less range than their rifle, so, go figure.

Of course the big issue is that it was originally sold on lies.

50 has about the same mathematical range and impact if you crank it up to 450. It's been suggested that 350 works well. That would make for good rental play. Here in NZ and many other countries that's fine, but apparently you all have insurance issues that stop you going high velocity. Given that the US paintball culture defines international paintball, if it doesn't take off there, it doesn't take off anywhere.

For a while fields here at least were using splatmaster 50 cal paint for rentals. It's super brittle as it's designed for the spring powered guns, but by the time it ships here to NZ it's about right for rental markers!

[Chuck E Ducky]

.50 cal paint is terrible it’s really only used for low impact paintball. I think the jell blasters are a better transition play style personally. But I get why fields use the 50 cal markers. 50cal first strikes blow! Like the worst product ever they hold next to no paint don’t fly straight at all. Don’t break and are super expensive.

I did hear that if you pick out the red balls from the mixed 50 cal paint they are larger bore and shoot better. But that requires you to buy a bunch and throw away the rest.

The Valken paint is ok but it still has terrible range and accuracy. It’s like going through the motions of paintball without the best parts. I transitioned my kids from Gell blasters right to pump paintball and my 7year old could handle it no problem with good shot protection.