“I knew I hit you right on your shoulder man!”
“No, you did not!”
“Yes, I did you liar!”
“Practice your aim you $%&*@!!!!”
“C’mon let’s play a 1 on 1!”

I have no idea how many times I heard this conversation breaking the flow of a game. Arguing over a game is kinda lame but sometimes the stakes are too high and the argument is more about than the hit itself.

Gameface Airsoft say they have the solution for this problem and they call it the Verdict which is a regular BB coated with a powder-like substance and this substance will leave a mark on impact. Seems like a simple idea but not that easy to make this work in an airsoft rifle. I was reading forum conversations about the subject and most of the people are asking the same questions: how easy to wipe it off? How it will come out of my gear? Well, I have a different approach because first we need to find out how it will perform before we start arguing about the mark. I mean things like consistent grouping for example.

I know you guys heard it many times but I have to say it again: wear your PPE while testing BBs because tests are often conducted in an enviroment you won’t experience under normal circumstances.

We have received over 7000 BBs of two different colors: orange and white and they are all 0.25g in weight. The white ones arrived in a plastic jar while the orange ones were bagged and boxed. I soon found out that packaging is everything when it comes to the quality of the ammo. Our BB was manufactured and boxed in the US and it traveled to Hungary through the UK and during this trip the BBs inside the plastic jar did what they were meant to do: marked. The jar was full of the white substance of what was supposed be on the surface of the BBs while the ones in the bag (orange BBs) survived the trip relatively intact. Maybe this issue is not present in the US due to relatively shorter mailing routes from point of origin but It would be great to receive these BBs in vacuum sealed bags overseas. I didn’t worry too much because I still had 5000 orange markers to test.

The packaging states that we are holding high precision ammo but this statement is not true with those with damaged coating so we started checking the diameter with our digital caliper. We checked markers with and without coating and at the same time we also checked other brands as well: Guarder, Blaster and Extreme Precision (all .25g). The winner of the “roundness battle” is the Extreme Precision and Blaster comes in second while our marker is last behind the 0.25 Guarder ammo. The roundness data of our marker isn’t really useful for me since I have no idea about the initial state but the ones without coating are 5.83 to 5.87 on the same BB while the numbers for the Extreme BB are 5.91 and 5.92 on the same BB. We get these numbers by holding and twisting the BB (20pcs each brand) in the caliper while slightly keeping it under pressure. I know that this is not even close to a lab environment but the method is just enough to spot the difference between BBs.

Next up is to break the markers to find out a little more about the inner core, hardness and air bubble(s). The Verdict is the softest BB we ever came across but it doesn’t necessarily mean a bad thing. A soft BB is less likely to break on impact and this might be good news for all the guys wearing mesh masks. We even proved this fact by plinking a Pelican Case from about 15 meters (50feet) @ 380FPS and we managed to break only two out of twenty while this number is much higher if you use harder ammo like the Blaster. The ones that break are most likely broken in half while the Blaster shatters to pieces and these pieces are often sharp like shrapnel. Analyzing the broken pieces led to the next test which is cutting up BBs to see where those air bubbles are and it was an easy task since these markers are soft a simple wire cutter can do the job. We found no bubbles offset bubbles and multiple bubbles as well and if you ask I say about 45% of them are close to OK. Please judge the result yourself and compare it with your own favorite brand. I know that it’s impossible to break the BB exactly in half and the only thing I say is I’ve seen better results using the same method. Air bubbles are the next important thing after roundness and probably this is why Extreme isn’t better than Blaster in our tests.

Checking the grouping of your ammo is just a confirmation of all your previous tests. Grouping differences start to come out at 15 meters so this is why we were concluding our test at 20 meters. It took us a while to find a closed room 20 meters long but finally we found an empty maintenance bay so we printed out about hundred of A4 size targets to find out how the markers match up to the regular BBs. The temperature was 32C (90F) during the test but please don’t ask me about humidity and air pressure. :)

We used the following guns (all FPS was measured with 0.25 Blaster):

• STAR FNC @300FPS/260mm barrel
• JG FB6604 @430FPS/410mm barrel
• JG FB6624 @380FPS/363mm barrel
• WE SCAR GBB @350FPS/260mm barrel
• JG 6604 with Systema Revolution @250FPS/363mm barrel

And the following scopes were used:

• Hawke Airmax 2-7x
• Mojji Viper 2-12x
• NC Star New Mark IV 1.5-6x
• China made 3-9x

Ammo Used:

• Blaster
• Guarder
• Verdict

My partner (like always when it comes to precision work) was Attila who was a Junior County Champion with the break barrel air gun. He knows this and that about precision shooting and properly zeroing optics. As you can see we tried to line up pretty much everything regarding FPS or barrel length and the same thing was true when bringing up the internals because we use different parts in each gun. As far as the Hop-Up you can find Guarder, JG, CA, Star and MadBull rubbers with various chambers from the same manufacturers (plastic and metal as well). Our inner barrels are varied: JG, KM, Systema, and Star and most of them are 6.04mm in diameter.

The best grouping (regardless of the ammo) was produced @430FPS with the 410mm barrel partially better because of the long barrel and because this speed is ideal for the 0.25BB (based on our experience with 0.25). All the guns fired at least two magazines with each ammo before we even put the targets on the wall. Each rifle was fired from prone position with the help of various bipods just to receive the best results possible plus we left the Verdict to be the last one so we could avoid false results caused by residue left on rubbers and barrels. The only gun fired unsupported was the WE Gas Blowback SCAR because the whole idea of that is the recoil and no one will use it as a bipod supported sniper rifle. After the initial tests of 10 rounds were fired on a dummy target and another ten on an A4 size paper with a typical 1-10 target circle on the middle, it was time to conduct the tests. Average time between each shot was about one second but this is enough if you are using a 9x or 12x zoom at 20 meters.

Results of a test like this are highly dependent on the consistent FPS of a given airsoft gun and we made sure that the fluctuation is not bigger than +/- 5 FPS but also keep in mind that nothing is perfect and our guns aren’t highly customized übergunz.

At 250FPS our Systema Revolution Gearbox had a pathetic performance with the heavyweight ammo, and it wasn’t powerful enough to push the markers through the Hop-Up so this AEG got disqualified. We’re not trying to say anything with this other than it didn’t work for our purposes of this test.

300FPS combined with a short barrel isn’t ideal for this weight so we received terrible groupings but we felt we need to include it in our test because many people are using this FPS barrel combo for CQB games, stock condition, never modified or tuned in any way. The only way for us to get any results out of this part of the test is to count how many times Attila missed the A4 sheet. These misses could indicate faulty BBs or anything worse than average. Blaster came in first with barely 10 out of 10, Guarder scored 9 while Verdict did 7. No conclusion here other than don’t use 0.25g
BB with a stock airsoft gun. The STAR FNC has a 3 burst function so we figured we give it a try and the results were a lot better than we expected. Blaster and Guarder both produced an average of 3” grouping while the marker did almost the same thing with the exception of one loner in the group. Either the first or the last BB in the burst fell 5” from the other two no matter how many times we tried.

Our new WE SCAR at 350FPS produced roughly the same groupings but remember the recoil and unsupported firing position. Blaster 9 hit, Guarder 8 and Verdict 7 out of 10. Our Mojji Viper is almost longer than the SCAR with stock folded. It’s an unreal combination and won’t work in a CQB game but it does the job on the range. Grouping isn’t noticeable, shots were all over the papers.

380FPS and standard carbine barrel legth brought life to the paper targets. I thought all them will be boring but I really enjoyed watching how BBs impacted one by one on the paper. Blaster scored a ten, Guarder got in second with nine hits and at last but not the least Verdict with seven hits. With the Blaster Attila produced two 3” groups with four members each plus two loners. The two goups were 4” from each other and the loners were on top of the paper. With the other two ammo brands the grouping isn’t noticeable, just random holes on the paper.

Here comes the real fun: 430FPS with a 410mm barrel. I think it’s worth to include the scan of the target sheets and those will tell the story. The barrel length and the muzzle velocity is not ideal for CQB games but the point here is to see how the different BBs perform on the same platform. Blaster ten out of ten again and all of them on the spot which isn’t that bad from twenty yards. Guarder also scored ten out of ten but here the grouping is noticeably worse than Blaster’s. Verdict scored eight this time and if we want to call the middle four as a “group” then we have a 3” grouping.

It’s about time to analyze the damage now that we had enough fun. Let’s look at the marks for starters. Please check out the pictures where I tried to grab different materials to demonstrate the main goal of the Verdict BBs. The marker is close to useless on pale or desert camo and you have to look real close to recognize the marks left by the Verdict. On the other hand the Verdict BB is awesome on blue, black, woodland camo and olive colors plus on rough materials like Cordura. The shots were fired from ten meters @ 350 FPS.

Now let’s see other marks what the Verdict BBs leave behind. The following photos were taken after spending 100 rounds using orange Verdict and a STAR mid-cap magazine. The barrel is an ACM so as the rubber while the nozzle is a plastic one from CA. I used a piece of black 550 cord to stick it inside the barrel and you can partially see what’s inside that copper tube. The magazine parts are awfully shiny because I use Silicone spray to avoid feeding problems.

Final thoughts

The Verdict Marker BB has a long way to go since for now it causes more problems than it solves. Internals must be cleaned after each game and that includes magazines or it requires a dedicated gun which not everyone can afford. It works better in “dry” magazines without lubrication and it leaves greasy residue when mixed with Silicone. Probably this is the reason why we lost the Hop-Up effect after 10-15 shots. All our guns were set to maximum settings but still no effect and Attila had a hard time to produce even those results during the accuracy test.

I like the fact that it is a relatively soft ammo and won’t “explode” on impact like Blaster does. It could be ideal for real close ranges (under 15 meters) using GBB hand guns because you don’t need too much Hop-Up at this distance plus the accuracy issues won’t show at this range. I really don’t know how much the packaging issues will be addressed after our tests and I hope that Gameface Airsoft will overcome the problems, especially the “messy” issues. All they have to do is to vacuum seal the bags and break it down 1500 pcs per bag.

I had fun using it inside the buildings if not counting the feeding problems and loss of Hop-Up. Too bad that I was using it on practice sessions only and my guys acknowledge every hit. There was one case where it helped but I only called the person out because we were testing the functionality of the Verdict, otherwise I won’t stop the game for one hit. Oh, I forgot to mention one thing: it’s easy to wipe off and it comes off your gear easily if that’s any consolation for you.