What are Gel Blasters?

Today in this blog we will cover what is a “Gel Blaster” and a little history about them. Keep in mind this information was taken directly from Wikipedia and slightly changed. It might not be 100% accurate but will give you a really good idea what Gel Blasters are.

STD-SLR toy gel blaster, powered by gearbox and is referred to as an AEG style blaster.

Above: Two gel blasters AEG’s types. The top right one is based on a HK416 while the one below this is based on an ACR rifle.

Text and Image Source: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (Altered) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gel_Blasters

Gel blasters, also known as gel guns, gel shooters, gel markers, hydro markers, hydro blasters, water bead blasters or gelsoft, are toy guns similar in design to airsoft guns, but the projectiles they shoot are 7–8 mm (0.24–0.31 in) superabsorbent polymer water beads (most commonly sodium polyacrylate, colloquially called water beads, hydrogel balls, gel balls, water bullets or simply gels), which are often sold commercially as moisture retainers for gardening and pot/vase floriculture.

Gel blasters are often played in CQB-style shooting skirmishes similar to paintball by squads or local clubs of enthusiasts often referred to as “gelballers”, but follow an airsoft-like honor-based gameplay umpiring system. MilSim games involving players wearing camouflage and dump pouches are very popular, while “SpeedGel” players are more casual with team jerseys and often wear paintball masks. In addition to safety gear such as eye protections, the sport is heavily regulated on the field and players must adhere to safety rules.

What are Gel Blasters: Design

The general design of gel blasters is very similar to airsoft guns, usually comprising a coil spring-loaded piston air pump, with a T-piece ahead of the pump outlet to feed gel beads. The spring-piston pump is either manually cocked (like a spring-piston gun) or more commonly driven by an electric motor-gearbox assembly powered by batteries (mostly identical to airsoft automatic electric guns (AEG)). Whilst the pressure output is identical to most airsoft guns via the use of compressed air, the uneven spherical shape, less weight and greater size of the projectile results in lower muzzle velocity than most airsoft guns.

This nature of the gel ball external and terminal ballistics make them much safer to play with (although protective eyewear is still recommended[1][2]) and very unlikely to cause any property damage. The gel beads are also very cheap, easily transported in packets and only require soaking in water for a few hours prior to playing.

Another feature is the ease of cleaning, since the gel beads are made up of water in over 98% of mass and volume, and will break upon impact and simply dehydrate into tiny biodegradable slush powder fragments afterwards.

Originally, gel blasters used paintball-style top-mounted hoppers (often disguised as fake optical sights) that relied on gravity to load the gel beads when shooting, because the water beads were typically too fragile to withstand even the pressure exerted by a follower spring.

However, in late 2016, bottom-mounted magazines with inbuilt motors were introduced, which draw power from the main batteries (via contact points at the top) to drive a cogwheel that gently pushes the beads up a feeding tube.

This gave a lot more realism than previously and triggered a huge surge in the popularity and market of gel blasters. The recent proliferation of more hardy gel beads on the market has also introduced magazines using the traditional spring follower.