Byrna HD Pepper Ball Gun

[WillBrink]

I addressed the pain compliance factor and know what a pepperball feels like. With a limited capacity launcher such as this, it’s effectiveness against a motivated aggressor is questionable. Multiple stacked hits with the possibility of more to come is the only way pain compliance works with pepperball if the chemical agent isn’t achieving the desired effect...

Yes, I was further confirming that part. In addition the OC, from the welts I saw, it looks like it would get your attention pain wise long enough for the OC to kick in.

[26 Inf]

Yes, I was further confirming that part. In addition the OC, from the welts I saw, it looks like it would get your attention pain wise long enough for the OC to kick in.

From their specs:

Projectile weight 3.2 grams (49.3835 grains)

Muzzle Velocity: 220-300 fps

Energy at muzzle: 13 joules (9.88 ftlbs)

Caliber: .68

So what you have is a sphere which because of it's light weight and comparatively large size is going to bleed velocity and energy very rapidly.

Comparing this OC pistol to a FN 303 P or L and their projectiles is apples to oranges, but lets. compare - the FN 303 projectiles weigh 2.65 times as much, and have 2.53 times the KE, in addition, they are fin-skirt stabilized with a drive band to seal the bore.

Even with the energy/velocity preservation of the heavier projectile, the FN pepperballs don't often deploy the powdered OC enough to incapacitate w/o multiple hits. So the Byrna HD projectile hitting with less energy/velocity is even less-likely to deploy the powdered OC enough to incapacitate.

Then we have the OC itself, which as an incapacitating agent is not that effective against drunk/drugged/mental folks.

Combined with the fact, already mentioned, that the Byrna HD looks like a pistol, there is a danger of the person it is pointed at will respond in kind.

The Byrna HD, appears to be well-built and designed on the video, and in a less-permissive environment may be a decent alternative, but I wouldn't be overly confident in it's effectiveness.

[LMT Shooter]

In my limited experience, the pain from the impact of PepperBall is not effective at all against a pissed off person. I've not seen someone who took more than 3-5 direct hits, however. I am intrigued by others who've posted comments about multiple hits, maybe 10 or so hits can do things that a lesser number of hits cannot do?

[Aries144]

I've had two occasions where OC spray was, or could have been, useful. I neither situation would I have preferred a pepper ball gun. The range was short on both occasions and spraying the OC at a charging rottweiler also created a secondary cloud of the stuff that I think may have helped stop the animal's charge.

Cool idea, but I think I wouldn't use it over pepper spray as a civilian. One thought: I feel like the only thing I want on my person that feels like a gun, is a real gun.

[blade_68]

Aries144 👍 not long ago a female officer mistakingly drew and shot when thinking she was drawing a TASER that's happened more than once. It's hard to confuse a can of O.C. from a firearm.

[tommyrott]

Paint balls/pepper balls have a very limited range of effectiveness, at 375 out of my A5 balls would reliably break out to 35-40 yards past that was iffy. On a sober person getting lit up with 3-4 balls immediately grabs your attention and for me immediately floors my fight response to respond in volume. I would not want to be armed with a limited volume pepper ball gun against a intoxicated/mentally unhinged individual, because about all your doing is getting their attention.

[pointblank4445]

In my limited experience, the pain from the impact of PepperBall is not effective at all against a pissed off person. I've not seen someone who took more than 3-5 direct hits, however. I am intrigued by others who've posted comments about multiple hits, maybe 10 or so hits can do things that a lesser number of hits cannot do?

In our instances, it depended on the state of the suspect. Mind you, we had relatively few pepperball shoots as the following criteria had to be met:
1) Both guns had to be functional (one LL, one lethal cover...but both had the option to switch)
2) If the guns weren't deadlined, it had to be the best tool for the job...which was also rare to see it get picked over our 12ga and 40mm options (which were also supplementary to tasers)

The most effective use with the least amount of rounds fired/impacted were:
- Suspect not on any sort of chemical that would alter perception (drugs, alcohol)
- Suspect in a fight/flight state with adrenaline
- Suspect was surprised by impact and the pain compliance aspect of the impact was optimum

It's going to be difficult to achieve these criteria in a defensive situation; our deployment was in a team environment.

Other problems we faced outside of the launchers were effective distance as being a round ball, they could hook/slice/yaw in funky directions at distance. Also distance and where they would impact may not facilitate breakage (as noted by another user's post).

[1_click_off]

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/...173858673.html

Watch the video and you can see how ineffective these are. Got a few screams out of the reporter, but that’s about all.

[pointblank4445]

Well...definitely got a whole lot more insight into pepperball use after this weekend.... Still say capacity is critical.

[rexster314]

When I was Jail Captain at my agency, I introduced 3 pepperball guns to the jail population. One was a fully automatic rifle, other two were typical looking paintball guns. Had choices of CS and OC. In the first year, we had 3 UOF incidents with the use of the guns. All justified. After the first several uses, in many instances where a pepperball gun was exhibited, the mere sight of the gun was enough to stop the incident. It was amazing how, when an inmate looked into that 68 cal barrel, the incident ended.