Golden Bear Artillery shells

[thibs99]

Does anyone have some first hand knowledge of Golden Bear shells???

The vids aren't very helpful....they look like the same vids under different names.

Does GB have anything in a cannister close to X-cals or mamba's??

or

A ball shell close to the quality of Beihai IR's??

[pyrology]

Yep the vids look the same to me too (couldn't be right). PPS-8 is a not a ball shell - it is shaped like a rambo Kids shell. However, I have not compared the breaks side by side to tell you how they compare. They are good shells though.

[heavy d]

I have shot both the pps-8 and the secret weapons. I shoot Colin’s fiberglass and a few excal tubes and I have shot excal's, mamba's, snm's and many others out of these tubes and the G.B.'s fit way more snug than any of the others. The effects of pps-8's were not that good and they look like they were made by a 2 year old. On some of the shell's the fuse would pull out of the bottom of shell and some of the shell's are crooked. {see pics below}. The secret weapons are a double break shell and the effects were nice but like I said they fit real snug and I had to tare the foil wrapping off the shell and try and find a different tube in my rack so the shell would fit in. also when you shoot them they left a sleeve in the tube. If I can’t find a better double break shell then I would get the secret weapons again but I would not get the pps 8's again. I have some video's some where and will try and upload them later.
hope this helps, heavy d

http://www.pyrouniverse.com/gallery2...500&ppuser=426

[thibs99]

Very helpful heavy d,

I didn't have any PPS-8 to test after new years (only had one case and it sold out). I appreciate any feedback from serious pyro's. I do remember a guy saying the secret weapons were no good and he only carries x-cals, but that's really comparing apples to oranges.

I see (on a hales pricelist) Best of Bear 6/24, this kit has me curious on its performance?

[SizzBoom]

Nothing touches excal and Black Mamba. I shot PPS-8. IMHO not close. I am stocking Excal, Mamba, and smoke N Mirrors canister.

[pyrology]

the SE shoot provided an opportunity to test a few GB shells.
Here is a rack of 30 GB happiness messenger shells from the SE shoot. They are bulk PPS-8 type shells, with a plain kraft wrapper.

http://www.pyrouniverse.com/gallery2...php?photo=2239

As you can see, they are not bad. The complaints I have are minimal, given that they run about 1/2 the price of Excals.
My issues are:

1. There is no way to tell what the effect of each shell is.
2. The fuses are held in with tape, and on occasions need more tape to secure them. We reattached one, and secured one more a little better out of 144.
3. The PPS-8 kit box is not sturdy enough for the way the shells are packed.
4. One or two fit snug in a SDR-9 tube, but I doubt they would be a problem in SDR-11. They fit, but took a light poke with a tap stick to drop them to the bottom.

I really don't care about the aesthetics of the shell, if they break decent.
If they fix the packing, add an effect id, and affix the fuse more securely, they would be better though.

[pyroRN]

I bought the PPS 8 shells last year. When I went to fire the shells the first 3 shells I fired didn't go off. The lift fired and the shell went up and came back down. That was enough for me, after a safe time I picked up the shells and returned them for something else. Not a great first impression for me. Rob