Breaks, splatters, chops, and stains are just a few reasons that we head to a field and pay to practice paintball instead of practicing for free in the confines of our home.  Now Reballs may not be the ideal practice tool for your living room but the basement or garage just opened up as a viable free practice area.

 

            I’ve been looking at Reballs for a while now.  Every time I venture into 818 Paintball, I tell Dan, “I need to get me some of those!”  However, I have never wanted to pay the $150 / 1000 balls price tag that goes along with Reballs.  Well, Dan finally cornered me and my shopping habit when he created $10 baggies of 25 Reballs each.  Yah, Reballs are pricey no matter what but I can justify spending $20 on a whim as apposed to $150.  I bought two bags of Reballs with plans of shooting them inside of the classroom at my office….after hours of course. 

 

            Upon initial inspection, I saw nothing special about Reballs.  They were harder than I expected and made out of a high density foam or rubber material.  Dan informed me that I could shoot Reballs at other players but I had to ensure that I was chronoed below 220fps.  Personally, I would go lower than that due to the density of the Reballs.  Dan also informed me that Reballs have small grooves running along their skin.  These groves collect dirt and provide an indication of when the Reballs need to be cleaned.  Reballs are yellow, but after some use will start to turn gray and then black.  It’s when they turn gray that you should clean them.  For large numbers, a standard Wally World zipper topped sock/ditty laundry bag is the best.  The instruction state that you can put Reball in your washing machine and use a little liquid dish soap on them.  Now I’ve never attempted to put dish soap in my laundry washing machine and I don’t have any plans to anytime soon.  I’m not sure if it will cause problems or not.  So I’ll stick with the dish soap and some warm water in the sink instead.       

 

            I decided to test out my new toys on a Friday afternoon once my office had cleared out.  I’m lucky because my clinic has a good sized class room that holds over 25 desks and chairs and can be easily set up for some basic snap shooting drills.  I set up my shooting lain running diagonal through the room by moving some desks.  At each end of the lain I placed one of my podiums to act as bunkers.  They were approximately 20ft apart from each other.  My target…a menacing Division II tourney hardened standard Government Issue trash can.  Hey don’t laugh, this can ended up having more skills than I expected!

 

            The first two things I grabbed were my CCM SS-25 and my Smart Parts Freak Kit.  Trying to find a good paint-to-barrel match was surprisingly very tough.  I have yet to find a paintball that my Freak kit won’t perfectly accommodate, but these Reballs are SMALL!  They are so small that they even role out of my .679 insert with ease.  It really wasn’t a big deal because the CCM SS-25 is equipped with a ball detent so role outs weren’t really any issue.  Being I wasn’t shooting at anyone, I chronoed just for the sake of experimenting.  I shot the Reballs into my gear bag and recorded a range of 122fps to 220fps.  Keep in mind that without a good paint-to-barrel match, you’re going to get a wide range of variation.  Add in a handheld chrono and firing into a gear bag at point blank range and a 100fps variation really is justified. 

 

            Next I set up to do my snap-shooting.  It was then that I looked next to my gear bag and saw my mask on the floor.  I saw no reason to toss one on because I was shooting at a can.  I thought about just tossing on a pair of sunglasses but decided to “practice as I play” and grabbed my mask.  This was the BEST decision that I made all week.  The first shot out of the barrel flew 20ft, hit the can, and ricocheted at high speeds strait out of the class room, about a 40ft ricochet!  The second shot hit the can and rammed into the wall next.  The third clipped a desk on the way down the lain, broke left, hit the wall, broke left again and hit another wall and cam rolling to a stop about 4ft from me.  WEAR GOGGLES PEOPLE!!!  Seriously, Reballs bounce and bounce with a lot of force in them.  To limit these bounces I tossed my wind breaker over the trash can for some dampening and it worked great.   

 

            The addition of my wind breaker to the shooting range actually provided another benefit.  The stripes running up the arm provided a center-of-mass target.  When aiming, Reballs hit their intended target all the time.  One after another, if I kept my same stance, I would hit within and inch or two of my intended target.  This variation was more than likely movement in my stance caused by the act of pumping.  While snap shooting, I staid a couple shots….hey even I can’t be perfect every shot.  Some of those bouncers ricocheted all over the place.  Two of them even came back and hit me.  I told you the can was not to be under estimated.  These ricochets are the reason that I said Reball was good for the garage or basement and not the rest of the home.  Things like china, picture frame, electronics, and pets my not hold up well to ricocheting rubber balls. 

 

            Some may debate if the price of Reballs vs. practicing easy shots, like 20ft snappers, is worth it or not.  Considering that Reballs are reusable and that 818 Paintballs sells them in a more convenient price bracket, I would have to say that they are well worth the money.  If you are still debating them, I ask you this, “How many easy 20ft or less shots, took you more than a single trigger pull the last time you played?”  I know most of us are not tournament players around here, but missing shots within 20ft or less is a waste of paint and money.  More importantly it just makes you look bad too.

 

            So, whether you are teching a marker and need to fire a couple test shots or hoping to GOG your favorite Psycho Clown Posse member, adding Reballs and drills to you player tool kit is a great idea. 

 

See you on the field,

Shakes

 

Special thanks to following companies for supplying the products for this review:

Reballs and JT Goggle system-  818 Paintball  (818) 786-8225

SS-25-  Chipley Custom Machine (CCM)  www.chipleymachine.com

Freak Kit-  Smart Part  www.smartparts.com