Pepperbal / Paintball Gun

[Nyandeni]

Hi Guys
Our department recently acquired 7x paint ball air guns, It seems to be the same kind as used by the paint ball games clubs, with the exception that it utilizes pepper ball and UV Ball
I am quite familiar with the effects of teargas and pepper gas in the canisters, but to be honest, I simply do not have the nerve to shoot myself with a pepper ball.
Is there anyone out there that have used these in the line of duty, and could you tell me what is the effectiveness of them, especially if used in open air on a suspect or group of protesters?
I would hate to use it in a riot situation, only to find that the crowd only gets more upset with the blue marks than the effects of the pepper balls.

The Balls are a brown color, looks like it has an eye on one side, similar to an olive. not to hard thou.

[LA DEP]

I have been in one near riot where we used the pepperball system....worked great........the pepperballs are filled with a powdered version of OC....

A couple of things to consider....

The real pepperballs are &*%&%^& expensive!!! Like around $800 for a quart sized can.

If you do use them on someone, I would suggest bagging their clothes after they are booked....the powder will come off and re-contaminate the area....had this happen several hours after the incident, when we were transporting a couple of prisoners in our radio car......everybody in the car started choking and gagging because of the powder....

I volunteered to get hit with one before this incident, when we first got the system....stings like ****....and then you start gagging from the pepper dust.....(I know....I'm an idiot....I also have taken the full five second ride on both the M26 and X26 tasers....)

[Mabbottusmc]

I've seen 2 types of pepperballs also. One has a thinner shell, the other has a harder shell for going through windows.

[LA DEP]

I've seen 2 types of pepperballs also. One has a thinner shell, the other has a harder shell for going through windows.

Are you talking about the off white ones?.....glass breaker rounds.....probably would leave a good mark if somebody got hit with one

[Mabbottusmc]

Are you talking about the off white ones?.....glass breaker rounds.....probably would leave a good mark if somebody got hit with one

Yeah, they are usually separate in their own small tube in an off white ball.

[barr151]

ohhhhhh, those white ones are for that. Well that explains a lot. Just kidding, they also have rubber ones for pain compl.. I used a mix of OC and PC with great success.

[scuba4321]

The pain of the impact hurts 10x more than the effect of the powder. We got shot with them..in the arse than they shot several rounds on the wall above our heads to let the "dust settle" burned your eyes, throat and coughed alot! I asked if I could take some home for a paintball game i was going to they said HELL NO Overall neat tool!

[NoBody312]

Hi Guys
Our department recently acquired 7x paint ball air guns, It seems to be the same kind as used by the paint ball games clubs, with the exception that it utilizes pepper ball and UV Ball
I am quite familiar with the effects of teargas and pepper gas in the canisters, but to be honest, I simply do not have the nerve to shoot myself with a pepper ball.
Is there anyone out there that have used these in the line of duty, and could you tell me what is the effectiveness of them, especially if used in open air on a suspect or group of protesters?
I would hate to use it in a riot situation, only to find that the crowd only gets more upset with the blue marks than the effects of the pepper balls.

The Balls are a brown color, looks like it has an eye on one side, similar to an olive. not to hard thou.

I have Used and been hit by the Pepper Ball system.......

First off, they are NOT paintball guns. They fire at a MUCH higher velocity. If you were to put a paint ball round in a pepperball gun it wouldnt even make it out of the barrel before exploding. The rounds are made of a hard but thin plastic and are filled with either OC, Training Powder, Marking rounds and glass breaking rounds. The Glass Breaking rounds are NOT to be use on humans as they can be considered dealy force.

The standard pepper rounds are effective, but can be fought through. Im a big guy and 7 rounds direct to the chest hurt like hell, but if I really wanted to I could have fought through it.

The PAVA (OC) rounds are kind of nasty and do get a good burning going. It depends on where you hit them though.

They make a BUNCH of different products now. check out their web site for more info. www.pepperball.com

[NoBody312]

Oh and that new SA-4 Model looks like it would be IDEAL for use inside of jails/prisons. They finaly scaled it down to be the size of a large handgun and can be carried in a holster.

[FiremanMike]

They are paintball guns, they just have the regulators turned way up. Most of the ones I've seen were Tippmann A5's and Tippmann 98Customs.

I'd like to use my own tbh, 15 balls per second of pepper goodness

[SoCalSheriff]

I have had extensive experience with them. I have been shot by both the OC and Water (pain compliance) rounds. There is a new foam rubber yellow round that is supposed to replace the water round. A buddy took one at ten feet and said it hurt like hell. Left a raised quarter sized welt for 4 days. While I have not used them in an open air environment, I have seen them used in the large open dayrooms at our jail. If you get enough of them in proximity to your target, they are an effective coughing agent. We use a mixture of direct hits (chest works best) and proximity shots (near or just above head level) to gain compliance. I have rarely had to fire more than 20 rounds or so to get compliance from inmates that are actively fighting.

[Robert JUdson]

Rifled Pepper ball barrels

This is my first post, but I am trying to communicate with officers that might have a need for a rifled pepperball barrel. Your post was the first pepperball post I found. We have developed Rifled paintball barrels since 2002, and in June 2008, we are soon to release a rifled barrel designed just for pepperball. We are making a ball sizer that allows the barrel to be adapted to most any gun type, the barrel is rifled , and the barrel has a screw-on muzzle. The muzzels can look like M-16 and we make another type with reverse porting to minimize sound transmission downfield. We are a known supplier of rifled barrels for paintball, and we are interested in finding the right officers that would be interested in trying our barrels out to get their feedback. The barrels are designed to perform best with pepperballs that are 0.683" in diameter and made by "Perfect Circle". Does anyone know of any agencies that would be interested in checking our barrel out? I will commit 20 barrels for Free. The only committment I ask is we get real life feedback from the guys in blue in the heat of the battle. We are seeing more distance and the ability to shoot darts versus a muzzle loader with our pepperball tests. (Civil war rifle kills were significantly higher than the muskets). In June 1, I have 20 or barrels so I would like to get feedback from. I would sincerely appreciate anyone's sincere interest. (I am not an officer, but a father in law of one..and an uncle of a Texas Ranger and very, very,very proud of both of them). The barrels work. Everyone told us you can't rifle a paintball. We showed them wrong. These Pepper-balls even do better.