ChoicePaintballGuns

The recent trend in tactical paintball has produced the market to bear some different fruit!  There has been a recent trend in magazine-fed paintball markers.  Since their beginning, paintball markers have always been fed their ammo by a container that sits on top of the gun called a ‘hopper’.  Recently, however there are now several paintball gun companies who are producing military style markers that are fed by magazines – just like real rifles!  These guns are all the current rage on the scenario/tactical paintball field; there is even a big scenario game now that will allow only magazine fed markers during play (Operation End War, put on by RAP4, October 2-3, 2010.

Not only do magazines give your paintball marker a more realistic look, but it also allows for a more low-profile play.  “Low-Profile” means stealthy and subtle styles of movement during the game, consisting of sometimes a complete non-exposure of the player and his/her gun and position on the field.  Hoppers stick out from the top of the gun and often give the paintball player’s position away while running sneaky takedowns or flanking maneuvers.  The magazines on paintball markers are tucked away underneath the gun, located anterior to the trigger (exactly similar to real rifles that use magazines).  This also allows for players to slyly peak over or beside their bunkers and shoot without a big, bulky piece of hopper plastic sticking out, waiting to be seen and shot by an opposing player.

Magazine fed paintball markers available now are RAP4’s .43 caliber METS series and their ever popular T68, MilSig markers and Tiberius Arms.  Real Action Marker also produces magazine fed .43 caliber rifles and the most realistic tactical paintball pistols (also magazine fed). 

    I was deep in the middle of a woodsball match at Liberty Paintball-NY with two of my teammates, Paul Damiano and Brendan Smith.  During this one match in a place on the field called “ The Crypt,” I was almost certain that I heard and saw a flashbang grenade go off on the opposite side of the field.  It made an extraordinarily bright white flash, along with a loud bang sort of sound.  There was a staff member reffing the game who was standing about 30 feet away from me who immediately began freaking out and then ran through the crossfire of the two teams to get over to the other side of te field and find out if a flashbang actually just went off.

     Flashbangs are grenades meant to stun and disorient their victims by use of the flash or bright light and loud blast.  Although this firecracker-like explosive sounds very dangerous, it does not contain any incendiaries or shrapnel, so it is not deadly.  But the main point of a flashbang grenade is to temporarily deafen and blind the enemy, so consequently, they are almost completely banned from the sport of competitive paintball, in the woods, and in speedball courses.  I guess the powers that be who decide what’s right and what’s wrong in paintball feel this type of gear isn’t fair for whatever reason.

Paintball is totally fun, but perhaps one of the downers of the sport is the constant need for CO2 to power your paintball gun.  If you play paintball, you will soon require a re-fill for your CO2 tank.  If you mostly play at a commercial paintball park or local field, you can get your tanks filled there at any time you want.  However, most players do not have access to these places; there simply aren’t any close enough for most paintballers to use.  Now that Wal-Mart has decided that paintball is not as good as airsoft and quit re-filling tanks - we’re plagued with the dilemna of finding where to get our tanks filled.  Here is a short list of places to try…

Paintball Stores.  If you have a paintball shop in your city, these are the first places to look.  If they don’t fill your tanks, they’re sure to know who will.  You can also stock up on paintball supplies when you’re there.  Find a local paintball supply store via the Internet or your phonebook.
Gun or Firearm Shops.  Many gun and firearm stores will fill up CO2 tanks.  Some gun stores sell air rifles and even paintball guns, so there’s a chance they might also fill tanks.  While few cities have paintball fields or stores, most have gun shops.
Bass Pro Shops.  This is a giant store that may or may not be close enough to you to visit, but they sell and refill CO2 tanks.
Fire Extinguisher Supply.  Find out if there’s a store or company in your area that refills/sells fire extinguishers.  Places that sell or repair fire extinguishers have the tools necessary for refilling a CO2 tank.
Fire Department.  Sometimes your local fire department can/will fill CO2 tanks.  If they do, it’s doubtful they will have the right connections; you will want to purchase a CO2 refill kit before going.  This product includes all the necessary hoses and gauges to refill your tank.
Commercial Air Tank Supply Companies.  Find out where your local hospital gets their tanks refilled.  There is a good chance you will be able to get your tanks filled there as well.

The expenses of paintball can add up quickly!  Constantly re-filling air tanks, paintballs, paintball field/park fees make regular paintballing a bit expensive at times.  CO2 tank O-rings are an essential piece of gear; without them, there is no seal between your tank and paintball gun and air will leak from your tank.  If you aren’t careful, you can go through o-rings like candy and this can add up expenses over time.  O-rings are generally not expensive but if you have to go through a lot of them, it can add up to a lot of money if you play a lot.

The most common cause of damaged CO2 tank o-rings occurs when the CO2 tank is removed from the user’s paintball marker.  Most paintball players simply unscrew the CO2 tank from the paintball gun, allowing all the air in the paintball gun to spill out and freeze the tank o-ring causing it to swell.  The tank adaptor’s threads often cut the swollen o-ring as the tank is unscrewed, ruining the o-ring and preventing that tank’s use until you can replace with a new o-ring.  The way to avoid this is… once you’ve unloaded all the ammo from your gun, fire your marker slowly but continuously while you’re unscrewing the tank.  This will slowly release air from the gun through the barrel rather than rushing out at the tank connection.

Here’s a short list of things you should practice to become better at paintball.  This is the boring type of practice - not necessarily the practice that comes with just playing and playing paintball; we’re talking about training specific movements and skills to help sharpen your shooting skills and physical ability to move.  There are physical skills you can’t become a great player without. Here’s a short list:

– Shooting with your off-hand (left handed shooting for right handed people and visa versa).
– Snap shooting.
– Learning how to crawl.
– Learning to shoot while moving.
– Sliding into bunkers, trees, and other assorted coverings.

Shooting with your off-hand: This is probably the most important skill a player can develop. Why? If you’re playing the left back bunker and shooting down your left tapeline, you will expose a lot of your body if you shoot right-handed.
How to practice:  Training to develop this is simple…. just do it, over and over again.  Go to the backyard, paintball field or wherever, and practice shooting off-handed.  It will seem awkward at first, but you will get better at it quickly.  Even if you never become as good a shooter off-handed as you are shooting naturally, it’s still better to shoot at seventy five percent accuracy from behind your paintball bunker, than one hundred percent accurate with half your body exposed.

Snap shooting: This is when you can pull your gun up and immediately sight in your opponent, while firing off a string of accurate shots. Snap shooting is a great tool to have when you come to a stop while running, or when playing behind big bunkers, especially when you’re playing in close quarters to your opposition.
How to practice: Set up some coffee cans (or equivalent) about 125 feet from you.  Run 25 feet (to the 100 foot point from the targets), come to a dead stop while bringing your paintgun to the shooting position.  Snap shoot the targets.  Do this until you drop or run out of paint.  If you have several targets, try timing yourself from the start, to the time you hit all of the targets.

Crawling: This is a skill you need whether you play arena type of ball or in the woods.  In the arena (airball, Hyperball, etc.) you will need to crawl, especially if you play the snake.  If not in the snake, from low bunker to low bunker, at least from time to time. 
How to practice: Get on your belly and practice.  You’ll want to learn to stay low and move quickly.  Also practice shooting on your belly.  Practice drills where you’re crawling, shooting and then get up quickly and immediately snap shoot.

Shooting on the move:  The game has gotten too fast and the playing field is too small to not have this skill in your toolbox.  There will often be times where you are shooting on the move - with the initial runout, at the game’s end and in one-on-one situations.
How to practice: Practice this like the snap shooting drill, but shoot during the run.  This is one you’ll get better with quickly; you should see an improvement within the first hour of practicing this.  Realistically, you’ll wonder how you ever got by with your average skills.

Sliding into bunkers:  This is actually not that easy; it’s common to slide right out of bounds, lose your feet or get hurt sliding.
How to practice: There’s no trick to sliding, but practice doing it at first without your gun.  Practice sliding feet first and head first.  Add the gun later.  Be careful, these movements can be dangerous, so stay within your physical abilities.  Paintball jerseys, pants with padding or at least baggy clothing will help protect you from getting hurt when sliding, diving or crawling.

If you’re sick of speedball and you’re looking for the ultimate in tactical scenario play - I mean a real tactical scenario event.  The most realistic games have restrictions on paint - this forces you to use tactical stategy and real war tactics.  There’s an event called Operation End War coming up in California that requires everyone on the field to have realistic magazine fed paintball markers.  Rap4 is running it and it looks like it’s going to be an awesome event.  Don’t worry, if you don’t have a magazine fed gun, with your admission fee for the game your rental consists of a brand new T68 Gen6 with 3 additional mags and a MOLLE Vest to hold it in..  it’s the perfect game.  My team and I are so looking forward to this game and just know it’s going to be the greatest thing since sliced bread, we’re already bugging RAP4 to do it more than once/year and in more places than on just the west coast.  So if you want to see more well-run big tactical scenario paintball games, go to the event and also help us encourage RAP4 to please the nation and all of us true tactical paintballers by running this event more often.
Matt Kresch Team Trinity

What’s the difference between the Apex Barrel and the Flatline Barrel?

Both the Apex and Flatline barrel are upgraded barrels for your paintball marker. The Apex is an interesting little attachment; it has a switch on the side that will allow you to curve your shot one way or another. It’s supposed to also increase the distance of your shot somewhat. It has to be used on a rifled barrel though for it to work best. The barrels that come standard on most paintball markers aren’t rifled, so you will first need to upgrade to a rifled barrel before adding the Apex. The Flatline will not curve your shot but compared to the Apex, it should shoot farther and straighter. Whereas there’s more tricks you can do with the Apex, the flatline seems to have a larger ground swelling of testimonials behind it saying it’s the best. The Flatline barrel, however is made specifically for Tippmann paintball guns and may not fit on any others.  Between the two, if you already have a rifled barrel on your gun, you may want to see what the Apex can do.  If you have a Tippmann paintball gun and you’re just looking for more distance and a straighter/more accurate trajectory, try the flatline.  Tippmann markers can use either barrel (the Apex dependant on having a rifled barrel to attach to first of course).

There are lots of people who are interested in the competitive spirit and camaraderie inherent in paintballing. They find friends or clubs that they can join and have target shooting or war games. You will need your own weapon if you want a high caliber weapon and don’t want to rent.  There are pistols, rifles, and even shotguns that are powered by CO2 cartridges.

You will need a variety of paintball accessories to be able to enjoy the sport. Some of the must-have accessories include:

~rifle slings
~shooting gloves
~scopes
~lasers
~flashlights
~mask

There are two main ways to learn and refine your techniques.  First, by trial an error.  Second, by other player’s trial and error.  There are several different medias for learning from other players.  It can be from watching your own teammates, to reading articles from the experts.  The following tips will help you get the most out of your marker and your plays on the field.

 1.  It is most important to keep your marker clean.  Enough so that you should stop what you’re doing right away and clean it out.  Make sure you do a thorough job though; the bolt, bolt face, and the barrel must all be kept clean or the marker will malfunction.
2.  When a paintball breaks in your marker, make sure you not only clean out all of the paint, but anything else that doesn’t belong there as well.
3.  If you are still having problems with paintballs chopping inside the marker, you will need to take the gun apart and check for damage such as chips and burs.
4.  If the bolt face or o-rings are damaged, you should replace them as soon as possible.
5.  After playing all day with the problem of paint chopping in the machine, you should take it apart for a more thorough examination of the parts.  Look for scratches, fraying, or any other damage.  Check each part individually.  It’s a good idea to check the sear and hammer first, because these two parts must be in good condition to operate correctly.  The hammer and sear should be sharp.  The edges should be clean and no major wear should be visible.
6.  Make sure all of your paintball clothing is clean and in good shape. 
7.  Keep your camouflage jerseys and paints in good condition.
8.  Wear camouflage jerseys and pants that match each other. Mixing camouflage makes you easier to spot.
9.  If you are in an open woodsball field and a player has not spotted you yet, STOP.
10.  Keep the oil away from your compressed air tank when you are lubing up your marker.  The mix of oil and high pressure can cause a spark and pretty much blow you up - making for a crappy day.

Paintball started off as a simple game of elimination where each player shoots at everyone else until there was only one individual left.  Well, the ‘Last Man Standing’ game has gradually become more complex; although this is a fun game if you just want to get out there and shoot at each other.  Now there are all sorts of senario games and props used to make things more interesting.  Some of the props that have become popular are Armored Paintball Vehicles, electronic bugs, grenade launchers, and the smokescreen.  Some scenario games now even include hundreds of players, played over several days and are designed to simulate famous real-life actual battles that have taken place.  Some of the team positions involved in these scenarios include generals, infantry units and special operations units.  The point of the scenario game is to complete your objective - which could mean any number of things depending on the mission.  Sometimes your team will have several different objectives to complete before the game is over.  With each completed objective, a point is scored for your team.  The team with the most completed objectives in the end wins.  The multiple objective games are usually played in the larger scale scenario games - the ones spanning several days to play.  Players in these games often use tactical paintball guns, camouflage clothing, grenades and paintball landmines to add to the experience.