Ammunition is often overlooked by beginning snipers, but picking the right ammunition is very important for the airsoft sniper. Using low-quality bb's can damage your gun, and using light bb's, like .12's, reduces your effective range drastically. Let's start with a few general pointers.
First, and most obviously, avoid those low-quality seamed bb's. You should always use high-polish seamless bb's in any gun, except for perhaps a low quality gun, or in grenade/claymore shells, or occasionally in a shotgun. You should also avoid coated bb's.
Second, choose your weight carefully. For velocities under 300 fps, you should probably stick to using .2g bb's. For 300-349 fps, .2's or .23's are usually a good choice, although you may choose to use .25's if you're doing close-in work (within 100 feet, for instance). Many people prefer to use .23's for lower velocity sniper rifles, since they provide a good balance of accuracy, without sacrificing too much range. For 350-400 fps, .25's are usually a good choice. Higher velocities require at the least .28g bb's, although choosing between .28's, .29's, and .3's is usually a matter of personal preference, and how strong your hopup is. Some hopups cannot properly handle heavy bb's. I usually default to using .28's or .29's. In my experience, if you're shooting at around 500 fps, they're heavy enough to give you decent accuracy, and light enough to give you range. Besides, at range, a few more fractions of a gram doesn't make much of a difference, since at long ranges, the bb's are generally traveling slow enough to be highly affected by air pressure differences. For very high velocities, you may choose to use .43's or even .88's (although you shouldn't be skirmishing with a rifle that can use .88's effectively).
Third, pick your brands carefully. There are a number of different brands of bb's. They vary from high-quality, to medium quality, to low-quality. A good airsoft sniper will use only the best quality bb's. Here's a list of manufacturers that are usually considered high-quality.
- KSC
- Excel
- Tokyo Marui
- Airsoft Elite (AE)
- Systema
- Marushin (Usually 8mm bb's)
- G&P
- AIM
- SRC
- Matrix
- Stealth
- Maruzen
Within these high-end brands of bb's, there are certain brands that are more reliable than others. Bb's are judged according to the consistency of size, weight, and shape, among other factors. Airsoft Elite bb's are commonly considered the best quality bb's around for .28 gram bb's or lighter, and have been proven to work the best in a series of tests. TM Superior bb's and Maruzen bb's are typically considered the best extremely heavy weight bb's. Many people are fond of Excels also. I personally would not use another brand, although TSD Tactical bb's appear to be the same as Airsoft Elite, or of similar quality. I'll include a brief review of those bb's.
If you're really really anal, you can also make your own bb's. You can do this by setting up something that drips out a precise weight of bb material (aluminum is the easiest to work with for me) into a bucket of water. This will typically give you a good sphere shape with no seams. You can then hand-polish them. This can take a lot of time and practice, and is generally a waste of time unless you want to get a very specific weight of bb to shoot with.
For the most part, I suggest sticking to AE .28's, Maruzen Super Grand Master .29's, or TM Superior .3's. Airsoft GI typically has very good prices on bb's. So far, the TSD Tactical bb's have proven to be very good. You may also choose to use bio-degradeable bb's, which limits your choices by quite a bit. You should never reuse bb's, although if you absolutely MUST, be sure to thoroughly wash them. The easiest way is to put the dirty bb's in a sock, tie it closed, and put it through the wash, and then rinse them several times in a colander.
useful links: http://www.airsoftretreat.com/manual/index.php?topic=264
http://www.lonestarairsoft.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3956
source: http://groups.google.com/group/asgar/web/the-ammo-guide
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