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The Parts and Accessories Encyclopedia

AMMUNITION / BB'S

As the innovation and effectiveness of aftermarket upgrades continues to develop for the MK23 platform, so too has the ability for MK23 users to load their magazines with heavier weight BB's, allowing further and more stable BB flight than ever before. The MK23 community has conducted several surveys to try and identify which BB's are most commonly being used. This allows users to identify which BB weight is best suited for their own individual needs.

Please take a look at the survey results below (and vote if you have not yet done so), then feel free to browse through the listed samples weights and a description of their usage based on the communities feedback.

| PRODUCT BRANDING |

Before you continue on to the BB weights, it's beneficial to know that nearly 90% of all BB's on the market are produced from 1 of 2 factories in Asia, these OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) BB producers (suppliers) then re-distribute their BB's on to other labels and brands, such as independent shops, replica manufacturers or even individuals for resale.

The base product that these OEM BB's will be of a certain level of quality (either high or low, depending on the factory and batch), and can be purchased separately under the OEM's own label.

The difference between the OEM and the re-distributed BB's is that the redistributed BB's can be requested to undergo certain post production changes, such as the level of polishing that a batch of BB's might receive. The amount of post production changes that are applied to the OEM BB are determined by the redistributor; as is the price of the re-distributed BB's that are sold to the market. Usually their is little observable difference between brands.
 

For this reason, we will list what we believe to be the highest quality OEM brand BB on the market for our weight samples which will give you reliable results as a MK23 user, and also provide a list of redistributor brands most commonly used in the community for your consideration at the bottom of the page.

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BB weight's will be awarded a score for the following attributes, to help give you find a compromise in performance for different situations or setup requirements.

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| Speed |

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| Wind Resistance |

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| Penetration |

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| Hop |

SPEED

Determines how quickly a BB can travel to the target due to the amount of energy transferred to it versus it's weight. It also determines how quickly the BB can reach it's target before dropping off and staying in flight due to it's ability to resist gravity accordingly to it's weight. The lighter it is, the quicker it is and the longer it can go before dropping off.

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WIND RESISTANCE

Determines how effectively the BB can resist the effect of direct or cross winds during flight time that would cause the BB trajectory to stray off course from the target. The heavier the BB, the more effectively the BB can resist movement and turbulence from wind.

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PENETRATION

This determines the BB's ability to transfer energy to an object, either at the end of the BB's travel when it reaches it's target, or during it's travel to the target. The heavier the BB, the more capable it is of punching through soft material like foliage or twigs, and the more likely it is felt through clothing.

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HOP

Determines how effectively the BB will accept the application of the magnus effect, which applies backspin to the BB to give it acceleration and flight. The heavier the BB, the better it interacts with the hop rubber and receives the magnus effect which provides flight stability and accuracy to the BB.

| COMMUNITY SAMPLES |

| 0.20 |

0.20g, whilst being the lightest, cheapest and most common BB that should be used in any airsoft gun, is still very much usable in a MK23.

Surprisingly, survey results continually show the 0.20 weight to be the most popular BB weight used by MK23 owners, despite all of the technological changes the platform has gone through to allow it to lift heavier BB weights. For stock users, little amount of hop is required to reach a 40m range, however expect any wind or foliage to severely hinder accuracy and penetration whilst using such a lightweight BB.  For CQB or indoor play, you'll have a fast and accurate round, which you can shoot cheaply all day. 

Even in a well upgraded MK23, the 0.20g is a cheap and reliable BB weight to use during colder months when gas has trouble expanding and heavier weights become harder to effectively hop.

 

Keeping a bag of 0.20g BB's in your kit bag is a great backup for a cold or rainy day.

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5 out of 5

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0.20

| 0.23 |

0.23g, is still very much a very lightweight BB, only being marginally heavier than the stock weight of 0.20g. Despite this marginal increase, the additional weight will provide better overall results over the 0.20g, with slightly better flight trajectory and resistance to the elements.

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You may wish to consider using 0.23g as a cheap upgrade over 0.20's whilst still keeping a high cost value versus performance with some added flight stability.

0.23g BB's are are a commonly used as bottom end upgrade BB choice for many beginner AEG users, so their availability is plentiful on a skirmish field if you find yourself in a tight spot and need to borrow a speedloader and need not worry about adjusting your hop up to suit.

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5 out of 5

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0.23

| 0.25 |

0.25 gives us our real first performance milestone, as it is the factory recommended weight to be using in the Tokyo Marui MK23. The hop up in a MK23 (both the rubber and arm design) is best suited to interact with a 0.25g BB, which is exactly why the supplied bag of BB's is also of this weight.

 

Using 0.25g BB's should allow the user to set the stock hop wheel to half or three quarters setting and still achieve a range of around 40-50m without over-hopping the shot and still gaining the added benefits to shot stability, wind resistance and penetration without any discernible loss of speed to target.

 

This is the recommended weight a stock MK23 user should use for almost all situations and conditions, regardless of power source for optimal performance. This weight is cost effective and the most popular weight used by almost all platforms, so is widely accessible.

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0.25

| 0.28 |

The 0.28 weight is particularly relevant to stock MK23 users, as its the heaviest weight BB that the stock hop arm / wheel combination can effectively lift (with 0.30 being the upper limit anyone should really use on a stock setup before the effects become adverse) before significant loss of range and speed is noticed and modification to lift heavier weight BB's should start to be considered.

With the 0.28, you will start to notice a slower  time to target, but in exchange, you will start to have more confidence that your shots will be felt and will penetrate light foliage.

Finding other users with 0.28g BB's may be less common on the field, as they sit in a point between where they are not used by stock weapons nor upgraded weapons as often.

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0.28

| 0.30 |

With the 0.30g weight, the physical limitations of the stock hop unit will have a noticeable problem effectively applying hop to the BB as the tension required to apply enough back spin is not available using the hop wheel.

 

This is seen to the point where drop-off will occur quickly as the BB loses energy whilst fighting against gravity. To effectively use the 0.30g weight, the hop arm should ideally be modified using the "Wire Hop" mod to apply more downward pressure to the bucking, or by installing a TDC aftermarket part. Once measures have been taken to use this weight, it is considered one of the most popular heavyweight options on the market, both for its price point vs quantity (usually sold in packs of 3000 BB's) and for providing the best "all round" performance for any setup. It is commonly found in high end AEG setups, so is easily sourced.

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Using this weight without modification to the hop can result in the hop arm bending out of place and the hop wheel automatically adjusting itself under tension.

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3 out of 5

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3 out of 5

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3 out of 5

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0.30

| 0.32 |

Departing from 0.30g and lighter weights, using 0.32g assumes that the pistol has been modified so that the hop arm is capable of lifting heavyweight BB's either through direct modification of the hop arm or through installation of a TDC aftermarket part.

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You should expect similar properties to the 0.30g with only marginal performance increase gained and a slightly slower travel time to target. Consider using 0.32g as an near match alternative if you do not have easy access to 0.30g BB's.

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3 out of 5

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3 out of 5

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0.32

| 0.36 |

Before the wider availability of heavyweight BB's, 0.40g BB's were for a long time considered the heaviest "white" BB's on the market, and were also priced quite highly for that fact over the slightly lighter weight, the 0.36g. The 0.40g BB's were and in many places, still are, only available in quantities of 1000 BB's per package, whilst the 0.36g BB's could and still can be obtained in 3000 BB packages.

This difference makes 0.36g the last mid-weight BB that is still sold regularly in large quantities at an affordable price, with the 0.40g being the first to be sold in 1000 BB packages.

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0.36

| 0.40 |

Until the release of the aftermarket TDC dust cover, which provided the means to lift super heavyweight BB's without causing stress to the stock hop arm; 0.40g BB's were considered the heaviest BB weight a MK23 user could reliably use in their pistol without a TDC.

With the TDC part installed, it meant that users could now lift 0.40g BB's with never before seen ease, effectively overwriting the recommended weights a player could or should use.

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0.40g BB's are now reasonably priced on the market, and should be considered the most effective weight to be used with a TDC that offers the best all-round performance compromise, with the 0.30g to be considered as the minimum and fastest weight to be used in most TDC installed setups.

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0.40

| 0.43 |

The 0.43g round is oddly placed between the lightest heavyweight and the middle heavyweight options (the 0.40g and the 0.45g). It will provide an improvement over the 0.40g, but one that will be less easy to observe versus the jump to a 0.45g BB. The round will not travel as quickly to the target as the 0.40g, but it will be slightly more stable getting there.

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The 0.43g offers players an option that is more attractively priced over the very popular 0.40g and 0.45g BB weights and is a trade off between the two of them with only slight gain to performance.

It makes a great weight to consider if trying to adopt heavier rounds in your setup without too much of a noticeable leap from the performance of the 0.40g whilst gradually getting used to the more expensive heavyweight options. 

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0.43

| 0.45 |

The 0.45g is the half way point of the super heavyweight BB's. It shares most of the attributes that heavier weight BB's have, but retains more flight speed (FPS). The foliage penetration is excellent, but not as brutal as the 0.48 or even 0.50.

Wind and rain resistance is also very reliable, but in strong gusts it will veer off from target more easily than its bigger brothers but still stand above anything of a lesser weight.

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As the middle ground between 0.40g and 0.50g, it is an expensive round but is at least priced more affordably than the heaviest weight and is often chosen for its compromise of speed and price versus the heavier weights. You should expect players who have opted to use heavyweight BB's, such as snipers, to be using this weight over anything heavier or lighter because of its performance and price compromise; so availability on the field should be good.

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0.45

| 0.48 |

0.48g BB's are currently the heaviest BB weight on the market that uses a white or off-white color in the plastic, with the heaviest BB being that of the 0.50 which is found mostly with a dark grey tone.

Because of the coloration, many players wanting the heaviest BB weight option available to them will opt to use a 0.48g BB and forgo the additional 0.02g difference between the 0.48g and 0.50g BB's in favor of the lighter color of the 0.48g. This is mainly because many players rely on visibly tracking their shots over distance in order to adjust for follow up shot if the needed; doing so with a dark grey or black BB is much harder to do.

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However, putting color aside, the 0.48g BB's offer excellent flight stability, wind resistance and penetration due to their ability to carry energy over a longer time and distance. Using this weight will see a drastic decrease to FPS and travel speed to target due to the lack of excess energy to accelerate the increased weight.

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Expect availability of this weight to be scared on the battlefield, as most weapon systems will not have the means to lift such a heavy weight round, nor the wish to pay the cost of using them (they are not cheap!).

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0.48

| 0.50 |

Whilst there are heavier BB weight's available on the market (such as 0.69g), none are as accessible, safe, nor affordable as the 0.50g BB. For this reason, the 0.50g is currently the heaviest commercial BB weight available to airsofters and the MK23.

Despite the liklihood that an upgraded MK23 could physically lift a heavier round than the 0.50g to good effect, we're not so certain a user might actually want to due to the loss of speed the round would incur and the impracticality of a slower round on something like a moving target. With the 0.50g, rounds will get to the target slower than any other weight category, simply because more energy is required to move the round from a stationary position and out of the barrel before the remaining energy can be used to accelerate the round.

The advantage of such a heavy round is that in all other areas of performance, it's the most formidable. With the round carrying far more absorbed energy than any other BB weight, it is able stay on target and resist wind and rain far better than others as well as also being able punch through most foliage with ease. You should expect that same energy to be felt far more effectively on any receiving target, making 0.50g a strong option for heavily clothed targets.

 

Using 0.50g will require a fully upgraded pistol, relying heavily on a high quality hop bucking to apply enough backspin and airseal to provide stable flight. All efforts to improve FPS and consistency should be made before using 0.50g rounds as FPS (speed) will suffer severely using this weight, making quick shots on longer range targets difficult. The main other disadvantage that holds people back from using 0.50g over 0.48g BB's is that they are currently only available in dark grey, due to their metal content in the BB's makeup, which makes using them difficult to track at distance but a far more stealthier option to avoid detection by the recipient.

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0.50

| BIO BB CONSIDERATIONS |

Bio

Some countries and sites around the world insist on the use of Biodegradable BB's during games, and for some players, the use of them is a conscience and environmental decision. However community results of Bio BB's are not as concrete as they are in comparison to non-Bio BB's, and for this reason have not been listed per weight category above.

However, based on feedback from Bio users in the community, the Bio BB offerings in each weight category from the previously mentioned brands are suitable and reliable for use in the MK23. For a brand dedicated to providing Bio BB's for all weight categories, check out:

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| COMPATIBLE BRANDS |

The following BB brands have been and are consistently community tested. They have proven to be generally compatible and effective all year round, and are therefore recommended for use in the MK23. It is recognized that there are plenty of other worthwhile brands of BB's, and as community results for these brands increase, they will be considered on this list in the future.

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