Back in October, KAK released some new 40mm nosecones/windscreens in a variety of colors. Got some to try out and this is what I found.

The color choice is nice(Red, Blue, Orange, Green, or Gold) and the price is reasonable $1.50 each. The original ones are available for $1 each in blue only from Eastern Bloc Arms/MAST. The KAK shipment arrived quickly and very well packaged. My initial impression is they look good and seem to be the same as the original ones although slightly beefier.

After gluing up some with color coordinated chalk and test firing them, I was feeling disappointed. Every single one broke coming out of the barrel, all of them. Tried different launchers and barrels with the same result. Grrr. Tried emailing the sales and tech guys at KAK to see if there was any issues I need to watch for and they never bothered to reply anything, nothing. Poor customer service or did I just slip through the cracks?

I started measuring and looking at what is really going wrong. My method of gluing the nosecones has always been about 4 or 5 drops of superglue around the pusher and snap the chalk filled nosecones on. Tried new pushers, used pushers, etc with no luck. My solution was to use some much thicker gel style glue and putting a bead of it all the way around the pusher and twisting the nosecone around slightly when it was seated to spread the glue more around and wiping off the extra squeezed out. This appears to correct the issue, just a little more time and materials. They now do not break coming out the barrel and break on impact.

Pushers have been released now from KAK. I just received 250 of them, paid $3.89 each, think they increased in price. They arrived nicely packed, each one wrapped individually. The actually look like they machined a raw casting instead of the original ones.



The fit is nice on the original nosecones as well as the original ones. Some quick measuring shows the ones I opened to be just slightly larger where the nosecone goes and just a hair bigger on the driving bands that ride on the barrel rifling.
Weight wise they are 5.46 oz compared to the original ones at 5.52 oz so very close and probably not enough to make a difference in velocity or aim point. Total weight on a KAK pusher n nosecone, no chalk is 5.81 oz.

Total weight on an original pusher n nosecone, with chalk is 6.01 oz. So with chalk would really be about the same

Test firing the KAK pushers has been successful, they appear nicely made and it is good to have alternatives to just the originals and used range pickups. The original ones cost ~$3 each when available or used ones from about $2 each on up.

Got chalk?

Thanks for the write up.

Yeah, they originally had the pushers at $1.50 or $2.00. I’m disappointed in the price increase.

It is what it is. $4/each is still better than zero regular availability at any price.

Personally I'm happy to not have to cast my own anymore.

So the super glue was making the nosecones brittle and that's what was causing it to break?

Do they fit pretty good on their pushers where you even need to glue them?

How was the pusher fit to the casings you have?  Did they snap in good with the lip?

Damn I guess we know where the entire first batch went

Out of curiosity, what's inside the crates? Just rounds stacked side by side, or some sort of organizer/divider?

I have one of those crates collecting dust in my basement.

Doubt glue had any thing to do with it. I have never seen any that fit tight enough to not need glue besides the screw together ones from Bonetti Ordnance. These from KAK seem to contact the rifling a bit and maybe the spin was separating them.

They all seem to fit the different pushers and they all fit nice in the standard nylon cases.

As far as the crates, these are just leftover 8mm crates we repurposed for chalk rounds. They fit good with a bit of carboard for spacers and the stencil makes it fun!


My helper likes to label the nosecones with dots of color matching the chalk she put in the nosecones. Mixing the different colors and types of powder makes for some fun effects. The heavier marking chalk will splat on a hard surface and the light fluffy stuff we use will waft away in a cloud. You know where you hit for sure.

That looks really fun. Can you tell us more about the chalk that you put inside?  Thank you

The chalk or fill I use mostly is just marking chalk from Irwin. They offer several different colors n degrees of durability. Some are very prone to staining.

If I was going to make bulk rounds, I would get a big bag of white chalk from the hardware store that they use to mark sportsball fields n lines.

The more fun brilliant colors are from amazon. These are for the color festivals they have where people throw the powder at each other and it washes off without much fuss. We have tried various colors and styles, this brand seems to work well.

Be careful with a lot of those "color run" powders. They aren't actually chalk, usually a corn starch powder and flammable when dispersed in the air. Could turn your launcher into a flamethrower. Probably not dangerous, but definitely something to be cautious of

I put a bag of it on some tannerite to create a nice big cloud of "smoke"

It instead created a large fireball, which is uncommon as tannerite doesn't usually light stuff on fire. So it shows you how flammable it can be

I wonder if Carolina Reaper chili pepper powder as filler would make a good homemade barricade round?

In minecraft, you'd probably want to add some fumed silica (or in real life, if a DD).

It's not a glitch, it's a feature.

Lol. On another note, KAK is sending me a box full of components to review.  Including a box of their pre-loaded blanks and assembled projectiles that they will be offering.  I'll be collecting some velocity data and overall review their stuff.

Seems promising

Awesome! Would be nice to have a source of assembled projectiles. Having a source for components is slick too.

DEFINITELY wouldn't want that.  Which ones should we avoid.............and please be very specific

I was just talking with a friend about the possibility of using flour in a mortar round for a similar effect.

Sounds like a feature, not a bug to me.

Never planned for that but now that it was mentioned, that may add to the fun. I have seen sugar and flour do just this before. Lots of surface area of a barely flammable powder burns rapidly.

Funny, same powder we have been packing into the grenade rounds, none have added to the fireball or boom, yet. Off to do some testing. I know I have some road flares around here somewhere. Maybe needs a little kicker charge to light up the puffy cloud? Sprinkle of BP to get the fire going.

Full disclaimer for the nice BATFE agent watching this: Yes, I have a number of registered 40mm grenade rounds I am using.

Tried loading some with that holi powder. One downside I noticed is that it'll destroy a super glue brush. Regular chalk was no problem if a little got on the brush, but this starch based powder turns rock solid.

KAK sent me a bunch of their stuff to test. I didn't have any of the cones burst like you did. But I did notice that theirs lack the thicker front portion. I was just using a few drops of Harbor Freight super glue. I just buy the big packs of tubes because I can't ever trust a big bottle to not dry out. Got tired of opening expensive bottles of gorilla glue brand to find them solid.

I tested them with kak pushers and with mil-surplus pushers without issue.