Z1 Diamond Grade Precision BB's 0.25g

[ThatblokewiththeScar.]

Like most "softers" I am looking for a good cheap BB for general use. I say general use as like many of you I have different ammo for Pistols and Snipers.

So after asking around it was time to give these a go.

What do you get?

Well you get a bag full of BB's however the bag must forefill one simple task and it didnt. The seem on the lower left side of the bag split after transporting the BB's to a game and back. So one plus point for the bottle veriety!

What do they cost?

Well the bag of 5000 0.25g's cost me £9.99 + £6.99 postage. So I my head they cost £17 a bag that puts them up with Excel, KSC, and Madbull. Yes if you buy loads the price comes down, but I got one bag and that's what it cost to get it to my door.

First impressions!

Not good! I unpacked the bag from it's mutilated but intact box and the first thing I see is a bloody great lump of BB Poo! This was accompanied by a smaller cling-on poo of the same material. In the bottom of the bag was a couple of very small but not very good for your mag, peices of white matter that I am sure will mess with the first mid-cap you dropped them into.

The BB's Themselve's

Well at first I was expecting a whole lot of nuthin. However upon closer inspection the indeviduel BB's looked good and on-par with what I was expecting. This however changed when I looked at the second handfull. Many of the little buggers had a dark discolouration which if I didnt know better (and I dont) I would say looks like a run on from one colour to another during a batch change. Think of it as that swirly pattern you get in rasberry ripple ice cream. This was only evidence in a few hundred BB's so it may be a one-off, but still.

Loading!

The polished surface certainly helped when loading the mags. The BB's almost fell out of the speedloaders with almost no jams. It was like I had sprayed to much silicon onto the feeder! This is of course not very scientific but you do notice the difference.

Shooting.

Four different guns were used running at between 320fps and 345fps with 0.20g's. It should be note'd that I was not intending to do a review when I got these so the range testing was not accuratly measured.

First up: TM P90 345fps standard hop, standard bore, this P90 will shoot anything and normally live's on 0.20g Excel's. The first thing to note was how clearly they could be seen flying down range, it wasn't an overly sunny day but you could keep your eye's on them almost to the ground. The range with this ammo in this gun is consistent with the normal engagement distance of this model. It was hitting a metal construction at a known distance of 50mtrs. What was suprising was hitting the tree behind the shack at a ruff distance of 60mtr's. The shack you could clearly see the BB's hitting a man size target with no problem, with the tree you could hear the rounds landing but not all of them. So some were either veering off or were falling short. However hitting a large tree at 60mtrs with a P90 and being able to here the BB hit! was, I have to say impressive.

Next: ICS MP5 A3 340fps standard hop, extended 325mm 6.03 bore barrel, This was the MP5's first outing so not sure what to expect. As before you can watch these BB's all the way down range with ease, The flight path was flatter than most BB's I have tried. This may be down to the extra weight as I normally only use 0.20g. Again hitting the shack at 50 mtr's no problem however the spread was much wider than the P90. I am going to put this down to a new hop that was not bedded in rather than the ammo.

Next: CA SLR105 A1 Steel standard hop, standard bore. This one was a bit odd the hop seemed to have no effect on the BB's at all. They would leave the barrel fly straight but appeared to have no back spin. With the hop almost fully on the BB's went skyward but no happy medium could be found to get a straight flat flight path. I reverted to some AIM 0.25g's to see what was up and they worked fine (or at least as well as that brand of ammo ever works) I can offer no explanation for the Classic Army's dislike of this ammo.

Next: CA M15 A4 SPC standard hop, standard bore. Now it gets very odd! exactly the same thing happend with the SPC as with the SLR. Neither gun would throw these little sucker's down range properly. The SPC was tried with some 0.2g excel's and naturally they went down range and banged on the shack.

Conclusions!

Well first impressions are not good. Bits of crap in the bag! a split bag, and a dislike for Classic Army Hop rubbers? Cant be sure about the CA problem and I didnt have time to play around but 2 for 2?. However these BB's went like stink out of the always reliable P90 and faired verywell from the A3's 6.03.

Will I buy them again?

Yes. I am hopefull that the bag I got was a one-off (typical always me) and if that is the case then buying in bulk will make these a very good general purpose BB. I would say that if you are looking for a heavy hosepipe type ammo for your 12V CQB Nasty-Boy then these are definatly worth a look. If on the other hand you are a Low-Cap simmer then pay a few more quid and try the realy good stuff.

I will report any different results after their next outing.

Check out the pics!


Best Regards. Phil...

[Ells]

Re: Z1 Diamond Grade Precision BB's 0.25g

excellent review mate, do you reckon it would run well with a tm hop up in a CA or do you reckon its something else just with the CAs that stop it form working to well?

[ThatblokewiththeScar.]

Re: Z1 Diamond Grade Precision BB's 0.25g

I have not had time to look at the Hop's yet, it is quit odd. The first thing that comes to mind is that the polished surface on the BB just does not want to grip the rubber! but I have never had that problem before although I do seem to recall a thread on another forum saying something similar when a gun was fitted with harder compound Hop's, but the two CA's are stock so I dont realy know a this point. I have a number of other hop rubbers I am going to try including some new CA one's and maybe that will throw up an answer or two.

I will definatly get some more of this ammo as it definatly isnt the worst out there by a long way. I was kinda wishing this was going to be the perfect ammo! both good quality and cheap but the search goes on.

Glad you like'd the review! :D