bb weight in pistols

[syrus]

Ok. So to some this may be a stupid question but i don't understand. Why do people/groups use a heavier weight bb in their pistol over their primary. Everyone talks about trying to get great accuracy out of their g17/g18, 1911 or m9 and they use heavyweight bbs (0.3 and up). But i always thought side arms are more of a cqb or last resort weapon.

[Danke]

When you have a last resort weapon with only a few shots you need to be sure that it's accurate.

[Bakasaur]

I run 0.32g in my pistol, with a ML bucking a bunch of other mods to the hop up. I'm accurately shooting past 100feet. Also, the reason I run 0.32 is because since I'm only using 16 rounds a mag, it's not really "expensive" per se to use.
I have two reasons for this:
1) When my rifle goes down (out of gas, ammo, cooldown, etc etc) , I need to know I can still get people from a distance

2) Pistol sniping is a lot of fun.

[Ricochet]

BB weight depends on the gun. Realistically you want to run the heaviest weight BB you effectively can out of each platform.

For example, my Tokyo Marui PX4 Storm can shoot 0.28g but not very well, so I run 0.25g rounds. If I upgraded it to a more aggresive hop-up then it would likely handle the 0.28g rounds better. Anything else out of it, like 0.30g or heavier moves too slow or just drops to the ground. In order to utilize a BB weight that heavy if need to increase the FPS.

When people think CQB they commonly equate it with short distances. Although that's what in essence it means it's not always the case. Pistols in themselves are usually only effective for short ranges, 100 feet or less. No matter what BB weight you use, assuming it flies effectively, will arrive to its destination quickly, so who cares what weight your using? Well, as Danke pointed out you should always choose stability, accuracy.

There are a few reasons to run lighter rounds put of your primary but very few. A heavier round will stay stable in flight longer, if the gun can effectively propel it, so you'll likely want to go with as heavy as reasonably possible. There are instances where the hop-up in a gun is aggresive enough to get a heavy BB going, but they travel so slowly that it's painful to watch. Players at distance will easily move out of the way before they are hit. In that instance you may choose to lower you BB weight by one size.

Some guys like the fun button (full-auto) and revel in spraying their enemies. Although this isn't an all around effective method of shooting and is definately not refined, some players with weaker platforms or inexperience may use it. On the other hand an LMG with a high ROF and high FPS, and used in a support role, "can" benefit from lighter rounds. Holding 3000 0.20g rounds and spraying then wildly down range makes it incredibly difficult for your enemies to lift their heads from cover as they are always covered in a cloud of fast moving rounds. You may not get a lot of kills that way though.

[lurkingknight]

I started using .3s in my pistols. I use .32s in my aegs that are close to 1.48J.

The trade off in velocity is worth it vs the gains in consistency shot to shot. Even the difference between 400fps with a .2 and 315 with a .32 you're talking less than a quarter of a second difference at 400 feet. Since most airsoft guns shoot accurately at 200ft or less, you're looking at less than 1/8th of a second travel time difference between the 2 weights at effective ranges.

Standing off and lobbing shots at 200+ feet doesn't make a whole lot of difference if you know the direction the shooter is shooting from. People try it anyways cause they have no idea how to range their shots. But anyone standing downrange of those shots can clearly see them coming and easily sidestep, regardless of what velocity they come at you.

I use .3s in my TM 5-7, it outshoots a lot of stock aegs even only shooting whatever god awfully low fps results from a pistol that would be lucky to hit 320 with propane.

[Hectic]

most things have been said so ill keep it short.
indoors, yes just use .20's its much safer. For outdoors youll wanna maximize range and accuracey at range so for most of todays pistols (shooting in the 320-380 fps range) with a decent hop up rubber .28-.32 is ideal. I run .30's in ally guns (aside fromy bolt action i run .43's)
as for the flight times. I cant recall the actuall numbers, but in a gun that fires a .20 at 400fps. if u fire a .20 and a .30 from the same gun at about 50fert tj
hey will be going about the same velocity, at about 100feet the .30 will be flyimg faster, and will have retained alot more energy (ie it will be much easier for your target to feel/hear when it hits them.

[redneck12]

I run .28's in both my GBBP, and GBBR to avoid carrying around and mixing up different weights of bb's.