All About Paintballs
By Tim Bach, Mon Dec 5th

All About Paintballs

Paintballs are gelatin capsules filled with a water-solublemarking dye. The dye inside is non-toxic, meaning that if youswallow it, it will not hurt you. However, the taste is not verypleasant.

Paintballs are manufactured by many different companies. As withmost things, paintballs can be either low quality, or highquality. Of course, paintballs also come in a variety of colors.Paintballs can also be bought in many different quantities, withjust as many variations of prices.

Most fields require you to purchase and use theirpaint. This is how they make their money. Therefore, in mostcases, brand and quality of the paint will not be decidingfactors.

The best way to determine which brand/quantity/quality ofpaintballs you should buy is to know how you will be using thosepaintballs. If you are using the paintballs for practice, younaturally will want to go with the cheapest paintballs. Qualitywill not matter much in this instance.

If you will be using the paintballs for rec-ball, again, qualityis not quite as important, and you may want to go with thecheapest price. However, if you will be using the paintballs fortournament play, quality matters a great deal. You wantpaintballs that will not break easily inside your gun or intransit. At the same time, you do want paintballs that willbreak easily when they hit an opponent. Many tournaments willrequire you to use the paint that they are selling. Tournamentgrade balls tend to be resistant to “wiping”, meaning that thepaint is harder to wipe off. This discourages cheating.

You must also purchase the right size paintballs for your gun.Paintballs sizes are measured in calibers. The most commoncaliber of the barrel on a paint gun is .68. However, it isimportant that you check the documentation that comes with yourgun to make sure you know the correct caliber of your gun’sbarrel, therefore enabling you to purchase the correct caliberpaintballs.

Both paintballs and paint ball gun barrels range in sizes from.67 to .71 calibers. Just because your gun requires a .68caliber paintball, does not necessarily mean that this is thebest caliber for your gun. Paintballs are not perfectly round.You will need to experiment with different sizes, close to thecaliber your gun calls for. It may be that a .67 caliberpaintball works best in your gun, even if your barrel bore is.68. An easy test

to see if a will work in your gun isto put the ball in one end of the barrel. If it rolls out on itsown, it is too small. It is a good fit if you can easily blow itout of the barrel. If you cannot easily blow it out, it is toobig.

When choosing the color of your paintballs, it is necessary toconsider the playing environment. If you are playing in thewoods, bright colors may be preferred, as it is easier to seethe paint. Some paintballs glow in the dark. If you are playingat night, this may be what you want.

A few brands of paintballs that are made for cold weatherplaying. They are designed for better performance during thewinter months.

Occasionally, paintballs will break inside the barrel of yourgun. If this is happening on a regular basis, there may be aproblem. It could be the gun. You may have your velocity set tohigh. The ideal setting for your guns velocity is about 280. Youmay also bust balls in the barrel if you do not keep it clean.Having too much oil or not enough oil in the barrel can alsocause the paintballs to break. Often, too much air pressure, oruneven air pressure, can cause the paintballs to break.

If the problem is not the gun, it is the paintballs. The mostcommon problem will be the size of the paintballs you are using.Try using a smaller size. Dirty paintballs can also cause themto break. If your hits the ground, do not use it inyour gun. Take the loss.

Cheaper paint breaks more often than quality paint. Old paintbreaks more often than new paint. Extreme temperatures also havean effect on your paint. Unless your paint is especially madefor cold temperatures, avoid using it or storing it in suchconditions. High humidity can also cause problems, by weakeningand warping the paintballs. You should throw out paintballs thatyou have had for three or more months. Paint may also break ifyou are shooting the gun faster than what your hopper canmanage. This is called over shooting the feed.

When storing your paintballs, keep this in mind. Higher qualitypaintballs last longer than low quality when kept in storage.You will need to store your paintballs in a dry area where thetemperature does not vary too much. Store paintballs in a sealedcontainer or bag to keep dust and dirt out.

It is a good idea to purchase low quantities of differentquality/brand/priced paintballs and try them out to see whichone works best for you and your gun.

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