Ultra Elite V2

General
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Got some bags of Ultra Elite V2.
Will test the hell out of them this weekend.
At this stage I only have uncontrolled grow in water. Which will end up being a 6ish hour and a 24 hour test. When I come home from work I will do 2-4 hour grows, with every 30mins being a test.

I don’t control grown normally, I also don’t use slot of ultra gels as they are normally just for gas pistols for me.
I also run mostly 7.5mm barrels as these have been reliable for all gels. I also run the firm belief that the bigger gels have more weight and can carry further. But it’s mostly as my grows are all 4 hours to totally saturate the gel, to prevent the dry skin effect especially present in many ultra hard gels.

Anyway. Off to work. Will update through the weekend!

I was privy to a pre-production sample and they were promising indeed, but the final release is what we really want to know about.

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Would be nice if gel consistency allowed the use of tightbore inner barrels again.

Swapping a 7.5 for a 7.3 was almost a guaranteed 20FPS gain. :+1:

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When CHGBB was open with his store and super quick shipping. Polite service and friendly, they were the best stainless IB lots of lengths to suit yours.

Ah the good old days :+1:

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Got home a bit late, 6.5hour grow time, measured almost all of them with verniers and some autism!
Fair to say, 7.2-7.4mm average of 7.3mm. A few were 7.1mm, and the odd one was 7.5mm.

Ran half a litre through 7.3, 7.4 and 7.5mm barrels. I did not throw away the small or oversize ones.
No jams. None. Which, name an ultra hard gel you could soak for 6.5hours and not get jams in a 7.3mm barrel? Maybe Predator V2s, if you are lucky, but they are meant to be a bit undersize for 7.3mm barrels.
The ran well. There was some lost fps on the 7.3mm barrel, but those gels would have been squeezing through there, and I expected as much.

Testing will continue tomorrow. I will have a 24hour grow, along with a 3, 3.5, and 4 hour grown bottle. I am going to put my money on the 3.5hour bottle, as that was what I used to get the best results from the original batch of Elites. 3 hour used to be good size but dry out, and 4 hour used to get the odd jam. Will these be the same as the original Elites? (not the faulty batch, now identified fortunately.)

The last test will be how the go in a week or two time. All other ultras I believe to be trash after a week, even less the optimal after a day or two. Developing a bit of “dry skin” syndrome. Predator v2s seem okay, but being a bit smaller means they can be totally saturated, and minimal issues if the dry out a bit as they are small enough to carry on.

Goat gels I would say are the exception, and seem to maintain a slimy feel. I personally never found them to be as good as everyone stated, I have reasons but I won’t start a gel discussion in a gel discussion.

I really don’t run that many ultra hard gels. Pretty much just in gas pistols. Always had great results with Ausgel Strawberry Milkshakes, the Ultra that wasn’t really an ultra. But they were hard enough to still perform well upto 400fps, and you got 3 litres in a bag rather than 2. They also didn’t overgrow. Quite a few times I would fall asleep on the couch or forget about them… and they were still good size. And they were still good upto a few months so I could grow way too many. No they don’t exist and I am looking for a new gel.

Are the UEV2 the gel? I don’t know yet, it is looking like them and or Predator V2. Wetech glocks and 7.3mm barrels will likely get predators, and everything else UEV2.

@Maiphut I have one CHGBB barrel still, but it isn’t in a blaster anymore. It was great on the original armourtech gels. Didn’t love my full term milkshakes and ultras though so decommissioned it. Worked amazingly with anything Armourtech or softer.

@Friendly_Fire I think there is a need for two sizes of the same gel. One for normal barrels, and one for the 7.3mm crowd (and wetech glocks).
I would love to see a smaller UEV2 gel alongside the standard size.
7.2-7.4mm is great for a 7.5mm barrel.
But 7.0-7.2mm is great for a 7.3mm barrel.
There is definitely plenty of people and blasters running them that it is a market for both. I have been recommending Predator V2 for a while as an ultra without jam potential, but anyone with a wetech glock they are a godsend to have a gel that is small enough to feed and be totally saturated to not dry out.

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Thanks, did you ever get to faff around with those variable id bruisemaster barrels.

I did with a mate and threw it in the bin, specs were out of whack. Quicker to throw a $100 note in the bin.

:rofl: :+1:

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Fortunately had enough people tell me they weren’t impressed with them that I didn’t. I’ve also always been happyith general alloy barrels. Found usually the fitting, stabilising and hopup has more to do with getting gels all the way over there and reasonably accurately.

So bit more data on the UEV2s.

3 hours.
For a 7.3mm barrel. Get a sorter and this is probably for you. Bit small. Found average was about 7.1-7.3mm. still plenty in the 7.0mm area, not an alarming amount though. And a few around 7.4mm.

3.5 hours.
Not much difference really. A bit more towards 7.2-7.3mm, but enough were 7.4mm that if you had a 7.3mm barrel you definitely should sort them.

4hours.
This is probly gonna be my time for grows.
7.2-7.4.mm average. An odd one here and there at 7.5mm, and a few more than that at 7.1mm. but on the whole 7.2-7.4mm.
Really not much difference between this and the 6.5hour batch I tried, maybe a bit less in the 7.5mm size, didn’t see any go 7.6mm in the couple hundred I went through.
There were more undersize but it’s pretty few compared to the bulk that were 7.2-7.4mm.
Perfect for 7.5mm barrels.

I ran some of the 4 hour ones through a WETech Glock with no issues oddly. But usually it is on game day as they get a dry skin in open air in a mag for a while this is a real problem feeding.
They rocked out of my workhorse JG. Nothing like 26rps at 330-340fps belting up the garage wall! Got a nice comment from the neighbours!

Might be time to get a sorter for the best results but at least I am yet to see a jam.

I’ll try some more “real life” sort of results tomorrow… leaving them in open air, a speed loader, loaded in a pistol etc… you know the neglect you give them at a game after sorting and growing for 2hrs and 18mins and claiming perfect size gels! Lol.

I am gonna be hard to convince that I should run ultras in aegs. But it is looking more promising than I thought it would.

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Consistency in size is what we’re hoping for with these… easy to size an inner barrel to a brand of gel if they’re consistently sized within a tight band.

I’m getting in the habit of using medium hardness gels again, just keeping UEs for pistols. Ones that grow a little on the larger size like pinks, Armoutech greens, Iceballs, etc. Less hassles, easier to live with if the size varies wildly, and I only really run 7.3mm barrels minimum anyway. :man_shrugging:

But then my target FPS is back to the old school 270-280FPS these days.

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I am with you there. I have still yet to be swayed to use ultra hards in aegs. Gas pistols yes. Seen WAY too many gearboxes stuffed, only to discover a barrel stuffed with ultras. And I’ve gotten just as good accuracy, if not better from various balls that aren’t ultra hard in aegs.
The strawberry milkshakes were fine to me. No good in gas pistols but great in aegs.
Xforce snowballs and pinkies were good too.

Consistency in size is the ultimate key. It seems harder to get with harder gels.

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Cool, was curious. I replaced the IB with an AG 7.5mm alloy and away it went.

I looked at the BM and there was no way a gel would survive no matter what brand after being drilled with a HSS drill bit on a Ozito cordless drill I could have done way better. Certain shop would not replace it as there were no more available at the time. I said screw this $15 bucks and get it going forget this pooop.

Thought you may have with your knowledge. Some were good I was told but the one that came my way definitely was not. For the price it was sub par. Must have missed a QA check who knows. I couldn’t care anyway.

Cheers

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On the grow time, for Low Guido’s review of these he grew his batches of V2s overnight, so minimum 6-8hrs and according to him, the average size was between 7.2 and 7.3mm, with only a few bigger than that.

Interesting stuff.

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Nah I am lucky, neighbours know what I am upto, and have their own gel blasters. Mine just have a bit more fps and rps than his!

@Friendly_Fire there is a bit of a suspicion there is a little difference between the pre-production sample that Low Guido and others tested and the first production batch. I have grown a whole packet.
There is very few over 7.4mm in my pack. Considering there is thousands of gels, and I have only tested maybe one of those thousands with verniers, I am not worried. 7.6mm gels would be a massive red flag, and I seen none at that size.
Also worth noting I used tap water not demineralised or distilled water. That is an expense and extra step I can’t be arsed to endure.
I just run the tap until it is cool “ground water temperature”, fill a bottle and jam gels in. Once grown, empty water. I then fill the bottle and empty the water 3 times to wash them. The rinse step is just something I have always done, not sure if needed or beneficial but some gels have a bit of a detergenty smell and feel to them and this rids that.

I have a load of testing tomorrow with a mate to do, and I know Dan at Ausgel is listening to and taking on feedback from the community, so they will only improve over time. For now, I am happy enough with the 4 and 6.5hour grown gels that I would run them at a game.

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I was lucky in the sense that I had two of the very first edition Bruise master barrels and they were faultless… but then they disappeared for a while because their quality went to shit :roll_eyes:

Quite a while later I ordered another barrel from their “newly crafted” improved version, but here I am about 6 years later without a new barrel and my money is still sitting in their bank account somewhere as they were never released and the company went the way of the Dodo :dodo::rage:

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Indulge me for a bit while I get all Dr Karl on your arse and throw some science your way…

The size differences between hydrated gels would have to be due to some degree to the size differences between the unhydrated gels in the packet… that’s logical.

It’s fair to assume that they all come from the same batch of manufacture so it’d be fair to assume the water absorbtion rate would be the same within that batch… same constituents. If hydrated the diameter increases from about 3mm to say 7.3mm on average, that’s an increase of roughly 240%

Applying that growth percentage to the size variance of about 0.3mm to 0.4mm in diameter when hydrated, it’s logical that the inverse of that applied to the unhydrated gels would be proprtional and give a size variation of about 0.001mm.

That’s a ridiculously tight tolerance for the diameter of an ungrown gel, and if they are acheiving that, my hat’s off to them. If this theory is correct, and size consistency does come down to the size of the unhydrated gels and not the water absorbtion factor, I don’t see how any manufacturer could make them any more consistent than they are now. :man_shrugging:

Enough… Saturday morning, and way too early to brain in any kind of adult fashion… :joy:

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Very true and fair point! My guess is the current tolerance is at the peak of the bell curve of diminishing returns to value. To get that extra bit of consistency would drive the cost and waste exponentially beyond where we are.
Sodium polyacrylate absorbs 100-1000 times its mass in water. I’d wager there is a bunch of other chemistry going on, but I am not going to brain this level of science, well… ever. I am way to stupid for that!

As you say, ludicrous level of tolerance required. My main enjoyment is building blasters, followed by lobbing thousands of gels all the way over there at a moving target that returns the fun in kind.
Everyone desires airsoft levels of distance and accuracy. Around 3500 BBs for decent quality and weight is about $20. We are getting double the ammo for half the price. So really, if one in four is decently accurate we are on par! And who doesn’t like sending more gels down range than you need to!

NOW, the last bit of grow test. The 24hour soak… that is actually 26hours as I slept in.
Same as the 4 hour grow, but many more in the 7.3-7.4 range. Less undersize, a few in the 7.2mm, only found one at just over 7.5mm out of a large handful.

In honesty, only need a sorter to take out anything above 7.4mm, which would not be alot out of a packet and a 7.5mm barrel user is good to rock these. If they don’t jam today with some “real world” neglect and testing, I would just send it without sorting.

I have made the suggestion to Dan at Ausgel, there is a market for Predator v2 style gels that are for 7.3mm barrels, the same as these, but 7.1-7.2mm. See if that advice comes on board.

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Lots of great stuff coming out of this post @RokSolid …

Gotta be of huge value to any newbies wanting info on which gels to use. :+1:

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I’ll always share anything of any value.
It is still my opinion, from experience, newcomers should not be using ultra hard balls in aegs. End of. Too much risk if you are paying someone else to repair, and haven’t learnt the quirks of growing balls!

I think the biggest misconception in gel balls is that the hardest is the best. And it simply isn’t always correct.
The other is that the hardest must hurt the most cause I need people to call hits. Also inaccurate.

It’s a use case scenario. It’s better to use what is right for your blaster and you.

I conducted a blind test with a heap of different gels in the same blaster doing 300fps against a 8 people (myself included). And every single person, all said “ouch that’s the ultras!” And everyone was wrong, the ausgel $7 pinks were the ouchiest! I have since changed my presumed stingiest to the rubber White pearls.

My theory, Transfer of energy requires the gel to stay intact, a softer more rubbery ball is better than a harder more brittle ultra. Anyone who has played paintball know well the hits the suck the most are when the paint doesn’t break!

Me personally, I want value and consistency over the “stingiest”. No point having it hurt more if you can hit someone or run out of balls trying. Also I’d prefer fun over causing others pain. Just being courteous makes it fun for all.

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Bastards loading paintballs they found in the field are really fun :rage:

100% on the money with your comments and definitely agree that Ultra Hards are more GBB suited that AEG!

I ALWAYS achieved higher FPS in testing with “OOTB” Green/Blue Gels than quality hard gels… which I simply put down to more defamation in the barrel for a better even seal and more even surfaces area dynamics in flight :thinking:

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Well, you name it my mate and I have probably shot an Ultra Elite V2 out of it!
If you hate reading, and just want results. Not much difference between a 4 hour grow and a 24 hour grow. We reckon 6-9 hours yields the most consistent overall results, but 4+ will work in anything and there won’t be too many small undersize style gels.

We have shot them through many 7.5 and 7.3mm barrels. Long, Short. ranging from 120fps manual blasters up to near 400fps monsters with bastard fast rate of fire. Nothing jammed. NOTHING. We at no point had to jam a barrel cleaner in anything.

That is fantastic news, and results.

Even the WETech glocks that are notorious for not feeding full size gels had no issues. We even left mags loaded for an hour sitting in the sun to dry out a bit, still fed no problems.

The sizing might be important to blasters with 7.3mm barrels and “stock” power levels, it will shoot but you lose some fps. Otherwise everything chooched no problem all day.
Thats a win for my books.

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Sounds like they’re going to be the go to gels for just about any application. :thinking:

That’s very good news… cudos to you for putting in the hard yards on the testing, many thanks. :+1:

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That sucks, I got no reply either. Sounds like about the time I had my 1 time experience. Not much you can do when the company disappears off the face of the earth.