A Beginner's Guide To Paintball Guns
By Steve Timmeson
Here you will find detailed information on how guns operate and a brief review of some of the top models available.

The popularity of has sky-rocketed over the past few years. If we have to be completely accurate, is the fastest growing sport in the country. According to insurance reports, is amongst the safest sports, and that's because of all the latest advancements in the production technology of equipment. The two most important elements of a player's equipment are the goggles (protecting your eyes and ears) and the gun.

Here is how a marker works. The entire principle of operation is founded on the power of expanding gas used to propel paintballs through the barrel at the speed of 91m/s. This speed is imposed by manufacturers for safety limits. The paintballs are produced in such manner that they break when colliding with something, releasing red paint and causing slight pain, like a sting.

The construction of a marker consists of body, hopper, tank and a barrel. To allow a player to carry around the marker freely when funning, they body is fabricated from light materials such as aluminum or carbon fiber. The small tank holding the paintballs is called hopper.

The following types of hoppers are available - gravity feed, stick feed, agitating, and force feed. Gravity feed is the most basic type of hopper, having a limitation of only 8 balls per second. Stick feeds are able to hold up to 20 paintballs. The agitating hoppers are the best type, because they don't jam and use propellers to agitate the paintballs. Force-feed force the paintballs into the marker using a spring, belt-fed system or a propeller.

The

tank is the container which holds the paintballs to be fired. The barrel directs the shot. Barrels come in different styles and lengths.

Generally, markers are classified as mechanical or electronic. The electronic ones are embedded with a microchip which regulates the release of paintballs into the barrel. They also require some type of compressed gas. The high-end models have a display showing the number of balls left in the hopper, shooting rate and game time.

Currently you can buy stock glass, pump action, semi automatic, electropneumatic or fully automatic markers. With the semi automatics, you have to pull the trigger every time you want to produce a shot. Fully automatics will keep on firing until you release the trigger. The stock glass markers are pump action pistols holding between 10-15 paintballs at a time, which need to be tilted in order to feed in the next paintball.

RAP4 is probably the best marker ever made. Identical to the legendary 4 rifle used by SWAT Teams and the U.S. Military, the RAP4 is an automatic marker that shoots 40 or 43 caliber paintballs wrapped in metal or plastic shells. Another great model is Tippmann's M98, probably the most dependable and rugged gun available on the market today. It's strong, durable and affordable.

Custom Mask are also known as goggles. Author - Steve Timmeson.
This article is available as a unique content article with free reprint rights.