Madbull Powdershot mini review

[MadMax]

I just got a shipment of these unique things in and I'm impressed.



Very simple design. I really like the way the gas pneumatics work. No balls to reset like the Moscart type grenades.

Initially I was worried that an aggressive stomp would crack the plastic lid. Now that I've seen the thing, I note that the trigger plate/lid is heavy ABS. Once the trigger plate pushes down, four heavy standoffs (4 fins shown in Fig. 3) bottom out on the inside of the bottom half of the mine and support the top.

The brass insert in the centre of the trigger plate is about 5.5 turns deep. Lots of threads to engage on so I doubt it will strip.

I goofed around with three propellants and found some interesting things. I loaded about a moderately heaping tablespoon of flour into the base of the mine for testing.

Computer duster is barely worth using. Not very loud, and the flour cloud isn't particulary big.

Propane makes for a decent pop and sprays out the flour well. Funny thing is that the flour blasts out so diffusely that it almost disappears. If you wear black though you can see it quite well. We're sourcing out red chalk to deal with this. Hopefully we (ASCArmoury) can find a nice intensely coloured chalk.

Enter the Madbull regulated CO2 adaptor:



Cute little integrated regulator and fill nozzle. You can dial up the regulated pressure up to 800psi which is about the raw pressure of CO2 at room temperature. Probably pretty dangerous to jam 800psi into a GBB mag though. They're crappy thin walled cast junk metal unlike the alloy steel or aluminum walls on a CO2 bottle expressly designed for 800psi storage. I sense a bit of oversight here since it would also be very dangerous to fill a GBTech grenade/gas reservoir to 800psi too.

Madbull recommends a maximum pressure of 500psi in their landmine so I go right for 500psi and am rewarded with a very sharp bang. Propane exerts about 1/4 the pressure of 500psi so when you're used to 125psi and you hear 500, you're surprised.

When I fill the mine up with flour and fire it off with 500psi CO2, I'm disappointed to find that most of the flour is still stuck in the baseplate. A few more tries and I found the same thing.

I suspect that since liquid CO2 is not injected into the mine as a liquid (regulated down to 500psi) the propellant charge while highly pressurized, doesn't expand to a very large amount of gas. It's damn loud, but it doesn't carry all the flour out of the mine.

I found a very good compromise:

First fill with computer duster or propane. Then top up with 500psi CO2. The final chamber pressure is still 500psi, but you also have liquid propellant to expand into a big cloud of vapor and carry nearly all of the flour out of the mine. Big bang, lots of exhaust. Actually not a bad workaround since propane is also dirt cheap and easy to get into a mine (heh heh).

There is one part of the mine I found annoying though. The black plastic "safety ring" shown in Fig. 3 can be pressed onto the trigger plate stem rather firmly. The tight fit can be difficult to remove without tools (e.g a flat screwdriver). On close inspection I note that the inside of the safety ring is conical (looks like draft on the injection mould. If you put the ring with the wrong side up, it jams on the round standoff in the trigger plate which makes it difficult to remove. I recommend sanding the hole to a larger diameter with a Dremel tool and a mini drum sander. These safety rings should really fall off when you spin off the trigger plate. They shouldn't even lightly press fit.

In the field, I kind of expect that the fill valve may get clogged with mud or dirt. It's probably a good idea to put a piece of tape over the opening in the bottom of the mine to keep dirt and goo out of the valve cavity altogether. Fill your mines before you go onto the field. Slap on a 2" square of packing tape or duck tape to cover the bottom hole (not just the little fill valve) before entering the field. It'll save you from having to lug around gas cans and the mines can be safely carried around with the safety rings installed as they positively block the trigger plate from being compressed against the base.

Finally, filling a mine with a spoon and a bag of flour sucks. Not very tactical to spill visible dumpings of flour wherever you decide to lay land mines. You're probably better off filling a ketchup bottle with a conical tip (restaurant kind of condiment bottle) with powder to poop powder into the base ring.

Cool product which economically addresses the funny need for an airsoft land mine. We're still working to get them up on the retail site (photos etc). They'll be pretty affordable though. Probably around $45-$50 individually with a price break for package deals of 5 units (probably about $40).

[markedman]

A source of red chalk could also be the same as used in chalk lines by carpenters. You can get that from any canadian tire or home depot

[Kid]

How's that kind of chalk on camo though?

I know that some chalks can be hard to get off clothing and even worse if it gets wet...

Also, I think it mentioned being able to shoot 8mm somewhere before, any idea whether it could be mod'd to shoot 6mm?

I know the safety things with the paintball goggles, etc, but just out of curiousity.

------------------
Edit

Maybe that was a different mine I saw that on....

[MadMax]

Chalk is water soluble. It should wash out pretty easy.

I considered modifying mines to shoot pellets upwards. Unfortunately the designers appear to have tried to prevent shooting significant projectiles pretty thoroughly. Perhaps for safety reasons as these things could be forgotten on a field when people would be walking around without eye protection.

[Kid]

Originally Posted by MadMax

Chalk is water soluble. It should wash out pretty easy.

I considered modifying mines to shoot pellets upwards. Unfortunately the designers appear to have tried to prevent shooting significant projectiles pretty thoroughly. Perhaps for safety reasons as these things could be forgotten on a field when people would be walking around without eye protection.

I think it was mentioned before on arnies that they had done this because many players use paintball masks and alot of them can take a BB from under and go straight up into the mask...

At 500PSI, that wouldn't be nice on the eyes.

[Tankdude]

how is the build on the integrated regulator?

[MadMax]

http://www.airsoftcanada.com/showthread.php?t=29705

Here ya go.

[Kwokwai]

Hmm... just a thought. Would an empty 35mm film cannister hold enough chalk for a single load? Might be quicker/easier to carry multiple re-loads this way.

[666]

KwokwaiWu, mine is actually smaller than it looks on the pictures.
I used two table spoons of flour per load to test these mines. Works good. Powder didn't get on my pants at all but cloud was big enough and sound was loud enough to know that I was "dead". Powder also left white circle around the mine after "detonation". What I found that most of powder ended up on my boot because my foot blocked a lot of holes when I steped directly on the mine. Result was a lot better when I steped on the side and left more holes open.
P.S I only used propaine. It does louder bang with CO2.

[Sonic]

i do not recoment red chalk line. it will stain clothing. if you can get your hands on yellow, that would me your best bet.

[Sonic]

ya it is very small.
heres a video.
http://www.madbullairsoft.com/images.../clip/ps01.MOV

[Bandit]

Wow it is freaking tiny! I thought it was going to be at least 8 inches in diameter, not two!