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What are the two types of paintball Guns?

Paintball can be divided into the original wood-ball and the small contested speedball. Paintball game forms have a variety of rules.

Types of Paintball Guns

The first thing you need to know about these paintball guns is that the speed of the balls they shoot varies greatly. While some can reach speeds as slow as 30 feet per second, others can go over 300 feet per second which means that one shot could travel almost half a football field!

There are different types of paintball guns in the market that works differently. Out of all types of paintball guns, there are three main types: mechanical, electro-pneumatic, and pumps.

Each Types of Paintball Guns work differently and has varied paintball speed and cost.

The Pump Paintball Gun: Your money’s worth

The pump paintball gun is considered by many to be the ‘backbone’ of the paintball industry.

Often, players new to the sport imagine themselves wielding one of these intimidating-looking beasts before they hit their first game.

Refraining from being intimidated by an enemy with a paintball gun is challenging enough – trying to beat someone at their own game when you have nothing but a semi-automatic marker feels like an uphill battle.

Also Check: Top 5 Best Paintball Guns for beginners

Wielding these types of paintball guns can give you a false sense of power over your opposition. After all, the only thing more imposing than someone who has never held a paintball marker in their life is someone holding not just one but two of them…right?

A pump paintball Marker allows you to keep your opposition on their toes with its lack of timing mechanisms or electronic parts that can fail due to the abuse that comes with intense gameplay. Even if you’re new to paintball, you can use this marker like a pro almost immediately since there is no learning curve involved. A pump marker is genuinely the ‘lone wolf’ of markers;

It doesn’t need friends to make itself formidable!

One might argue that the simplicity of these guns means they lack in performance – but don’t be fooled! As long as you invest in high-quality ammunition (such as Dye paintballs), your shots will travel with deadly velocity and accuracy even without an electronic trigger or regulator. 

COST OF THE PUMP PAINTBALL Markers:

The Pumps were designed with the player who wants to play paintball but doesn’t want to spend a lot of money. These types of paintball guns are affordable and fun, but people may find that it’s not as accurate or reliable as more expensive paintball guns. With this pump, you can expect that it will require constant maintenance, and you’ll need to find replacement parts every so often.

FIRING RATE OF THE PUMP PAINTBALL Markers:

These Paintball markers are standard-issue, magazine-fed paint class guns. There are two types of markers: the electro-pneumatic, which has an electronic solenoid and battery pack, and the gas-operated (where there is no electrical circuitry) that uses compressed air or CO2 as a propellant. The pump paintball gun uses a spring-loaded pump action to draw air out of the reservoir to fire each shot. The number of pumps varies by type and brand between 3-12, with the average being 4-6 pumps per shot.

Mechanical or mechanically operated:

These are the old type of paintball guns that do not require batteries or compressed air. Mechanical paintball guns shoot slower than electronically driven paintball guns, but they can shoot further and more accurately. Most players choose to buy an electronic paintball marker first since it is easier to learn and most fields have electronic shooting capabilities.

There are three kinds of mechanical paintball markers:

  • Blowback

  • Wire feeder

  • Open bolt 

Blowback paintball guns

Blowback paintball guns have an in-line blowback system that uses kinetic energy to power the paintballs. They are relatively fast for mechanical markers but do not have any settings or firing modes, unlike other types of paintball markers.

Wire feeder paintball guns

Wire feeder paintball guns are mechanical markers that use cables or wires to activate the hammer, its main component. The disadvantage is that wires get easily tangled up when playing outdoors; however, they can shoot faster than blowback mechanical paintball guns because they shoot at about ten balls per second (bps). It has adjustable firing modes like a semi-automatic, fully automatic, and burst mode.

This type of gun is ideal for beginners.

Open bolt paintball gun

Open bolt paintball guns have a metal plate that blocks the hammer and does not strike paintballs until the trigger is fully pulled. The remaining kinetic energy from the previous shot will then power up, making this type of marker shoot quickly and accurately at about 15 bps.

However, open bolt markers do not have safety features like closed bolt markers (i.e., Spyders); they also require more maintenance and take longer to clean after playing.

To make sure you get your hands on the best mechanical paintball gun, here are some tips you should consider:

Timing:

Timing is important. Make sure your marker fires right between the break of your barrel and the top edge of the ball.

Accuracy:

You can improve your accuracy by paying attention to how you hold the marker and making slight adjustments to your body position. Moreover, using the correct paintballs will help you achieve better accuracy.

Weight:

The weight of your marker is also essential because it can affect your accuracy and stamina.

If you choose a marker with too low or too high of weight, it will be harder for you to adapt. It is a good idea to find a marker to adjust to your play style, so feel free to try out different weight markers when looking for your paintball gun.

COST OF THE MECHANICALLY OPERATED PAINTBALL GUN:

For those who enjoy the sport of paintball but do not want to purchase costly mechanical paintball guns, you will be thrilled to know that it is possible to buy and build your own with household items. For painting projects, one can use an air compressor or bicycle pump as a pressure source. The cost for this project is roughly around the same as a store-bought paintball gun, and it is so much fun to construct your own!

FIRING RATE OF MECHANICALLY OPERATED PAINTBALL GUN:

OBTAINED FROM TEST FIRINGS

When in use, a paintball gun is often held by one group at a time. These guns are designed to fire only when the trigger is pulled to ensure fair play. This study obtained the firing rates of paintball guns by measuring how many times they can be pulled and fired in an hour.

The paintball gun was mechanically operated (by hand) to fire as quickly as possible, with the trigger pull down. The number of times the trigger was pulled and fired in one hour were counted so that the firing the rate could be derived, and The results showed that the firing rate of all the paintball guns were similar, ranging between 3.4 and 4.2 times/hour. Although this rate is much lower than the firing rates of other types of guns, there were no significant differences in firing rates among the three brands of paintball guns.

Electro-Pneumatic:

The Electro-Pneumatic Paintball gun operates with a combination of pneumatics and electronics, which makes them very similar to electro-mechanical markers but instead rely on a push/pull solenoid trigger system rather than gears & cams. This allows the marker to fire faster shots in a semi-automatic fashion rapidly one after another, because there is no advancing mechanism; you can shoot as fast as possible by simply pulling the trigger. Unlike electro-mechanical markers, the marker only needs electricity to power the electronic solenoid and a battery for the board so it can display information on your LCD screen. This means that electronic markers need a separate gas tank & regulator to run off of CO2 or HPA, which is how they get their high rates of fire and efficiency.

Electro-Pneumatic paintball guns have been around since 1998 when Smart Parts introduced the ‘Impulse,’ which was pretty popular but plagued with problems, in early 2000, Tippmann released their version called The Pro-Am which came stock with an E-Grip; Tippmann later released the 98 Custom which was a Pro-Am with an electronic board and eyes. In 2002 Smart Parts discontinued their Impulse and replaced it with the Shocker; the Shocker has been one of the most popular and successful electronic markers in paintball ever since.

Two years after SP released the Shocker Smart Parts dropped their line of markers and had gotten out of paintball for a while, not re-entering the market until 2010 with the Shocker SFT.

COST OF ELECTRO PNEUMATIC Types of PAINTBALL GUNS:

As with most products, paintball guns come in various shapes and sizes. At the lower end of the scale are electro-pneumatic paintball guns are usually used for marking targets by referees at paintball fields. Electro-pneumatic technology is also used in precision shooting and tournament-grade markers in paintball guns. These are the most expensive types of paintball guns but tend to be very durable with high rates of fire, making them ideal for target practice at home or commercial shooting ranges. The cheapest type of electro-pneumatic paintball gun can cost as little as $ 200.

FIRING RATE OF AN ELECTRO-PNEUMATIC PAINTBALL GUN:

There is a common misconception in paintball circles that electro-pneumatic markers fire at an adjustable-rate (for example, they can fire at 20 balls per second to 40 balls per second). This is not true.

That’s because they’re all binary. They either fire or they don’t. Of course, they can fire fast or slow. But they always fire exactly one ball per trigger pull.