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BT-16 Elite
By Bill Mills - Photos By Dawn Mills - Sept 2005

Overview - How it Works - Disassembly - Testing - Raw Test Data

Testing

The BT-16, proved more than rugged enough to handle tough treatment on the field. 

The Locking collar feedneck made fitting a loader easy, and it clamped on to HALO, eVLution, Revolution, ReLoader and Ricochet loaders with no problems.  While the bottom-line setup had the advantage of shoulder bracing shots, setting the CO2 tank on the gun vertically made for easy one-hand shooting. 

With the factory spring pressures The BT-16 Elite did show a preference for operating on CO2 rather than compressed air.  CO2 has different expansion characteristics than compressed air.  On compressed air, the velocity at the full open setting averaged a bit above 250 feet per second.  On CO2, adjusting to field legal 285 feet per second was no problem.  Despite the lower maximum velocity, compressed air from a Crossfire compressed air system was used for velocity and target data collection, to protect against shoot-down and velocity spikes inherent to CO2 use.

To check the valve system for restrictions that would cause shootdown under rapid firing, the BT-16 was setup on the WARPIG Ballistic Labs test stand and 20 shot strings were fired over the chronograph both at 1 ball per second, and 14 ball per second rates, with a microprocessor controlled pneumatic actuator pulling the trigger for precise timing.  DraXxus Hellfire paint was used for testing, with the stock barrel. 

At both rates of fire, the average velocity was similar – 252.8 versus 249.8.  One slow shot at just below 200 fps drug the 14 bps velocity average down.  Because the slow shot was isolated in the string, rather than part of a trend of decreasing velocity, it is likely that it was due to a malformed paintball rather than valve starvation.  At the higher rate of fire, the velocity, while still within similar limits was more widely spread, yielding a standard deviation of 13.2 compared to 5.6 when the shots were taken slowly.

To get a look at target groupings, the BT-16 was fired from the stand, at a target over a distance of 75 feet.  Both the stock barrel was used, as well as a Smart Parts Freak with with .687” insert, which matched well to the paint with a typical breath blow fit test.  Strings of 20 shots were fired at the targets at one-second intervals.  One shot out of the string fired with the stock barrel did not strike the target, instead passing to the left of the target frame.  The groupings created were generally similar to one another. 

The BT-16 Elite combines a proven blowback semi-auto design with all metal billet machined construction to deliver a rugged paintgun tailored for the Scenario and Milsim market.  With additional accessories from BT Paintball it can be modularly converted into its larger counterpart, the BT-16 Tactical.
 

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