small bore hybrids that are pushing towards firearm performance are kinda reinventing the wheel IMHO in that an actual firearm could achieve the same thing more efficiently and easier
I would argue that, for the hobbyist who isn't keen on mass-producing and loading his own cartridges, a gas-phase fuel is considerably easier than a solid, which needs to be physically loaded rather than flowing under its own pressure. Also, hybrids can perform much BETTER than "actual firearms", but we've been over this before.
A well designed / built pneumatic can easily exceed 3kj. Hybrids don't have an exclusive on power. People should build the type which pleases / interests them most.
Pneumatics become very expensive to operate at high energies, especially when using bottled gases like helium to achieve better muzzle speeds. Hybrids have, for a given expenditure, better performance in most aspects.
On to the topic at hand: I think that members like myself and Spudblaster have grown in directions which put us out of touch with this community. Sure, there may have been more "innovation" back in the earlier days, but the hobby was so new then that innovation was dirt cheap and achieved without a great deal of thought. Considering how violently opposed the community was back then to anything more energy dense than the norm, I'm very impressed that we've managed to creep up to the level where a 500psi pneumatic or a 10X hybrid is not particularly shocking to anyone who views it.
I posted a launcher which ran >100kpsi a few months ago, and I did not get a single "OMG ur going 2 jail" or "ur goin too die". There may not have been many responses, but at least there was no trouble from those I did get. I imagine that, if society were not so sedentary and legalistic, we would see more development in the "energetic" directions of this hobby. As it is, I don't know of any members with interest in this side of the field who didn't at some point have access to isolated testing spaces. Considering how few people are exposed to the correct conditions, I don't find it particularly surprising that there is little interest in pushing performance beyond what we currently see by switching to an entirely new propulsion method.
It is my opinion that members like myself, SB15, and Zeus, just have to learn to accept that we're part of a small minority in the community, and to realize that it is worthwhile to continue to contribute, regardless of perceived appreciation. I continue to post my creations both to share new information and in the hope that, somewhere along the line, someone may see what I do, realize that it
is possible, and pick up the interest. So long as the Spudfiles community will allow me to post what I build, I'll stick around.
Spudfiles' resident expert on all things that sail through the air at improbable speeds, trailing an incandescent wake of ionized air, dissociated polymers and metal oxides.
