Starting your paintball tour might feel a bit like passing through a complicated web of choices when it comes to tools. But there’s one really significant thing that can make a big change in how you play, that’s the paintball gun. Knowing about different types of paintball guns is surely important so that you can do your best and have a great time in the arena.
Be relaxed and enjoy our complete guide about various kinds of paintball guns. Here, you’ll get to know deeply about the pump, and automated, and electric paintball markers. We’ll enlighten what makes each variety special, what’s worthy about them, and also some stuff to be careful about. This will aid you in selecting the flawless paintball gun according to your interest and in what way you’re into it. Keep reading to create cool choices for your paintball marker fun!
The Three Types of Paintball Gun Mechanisms
Many paintball guns are available in the market for you but they all fall into these three categories of paintball guns such as pump, electric and mechanical.
1. Pump-Type Paintball Guns
This type of paintball gun is original and works through a pump that looks like a shotgun. This pump is used to raise the marker before every shot. Pump paintball markers are very consistent and available at affordable prices. But they have low gun firing speed which makes players worry during the game. If you’re actually trying to place yourself on the trial, you don’t let your pump gun in a tournament occupied with motorized or electric guns.
2. Mechanical Paintball Guns
The best type of paintball gun is mechanical best for entry-level players. In this type of marker, you will get a mixture of simplicity, good firing rate, and cheapness. Usually, these mechanical markers are half-automatic which means that every trigger causes the firing of one paintball, each trigger pull fires one paintball, and operates with a blowback design.
This means that all time you tweak the trigger, it causes a sear catch to move, which lets go of another part that’s been detained in place via a spring. This free part then smashes something that lets air to rush out, which pushes your paintball forward. When you’re not tweaking the trigger, a spring drives the free part back to where it started till you tweak the trigger again to release it again.
3. Electronic Paintball Guns
In electric paintball markers, the trigger mechanism is replaced with an automatic firing system. They have three kinds of automatic mechanism which is driven by a 9 volt battery (rechargeable). This type of paintball is mostly of high cost but gives a lot of exciting features such as different firing modes.
Electronic paintball guns come in three separate variations, but it’s important to know that their firing tools often have common features, so they may not be gracefully suitable for just one category every time.
3.1 Electronic Sear Trippers
Electric sear tripper markers work like the mechanical paintball markers but with some basic differences. They share parts such as the sear catch, strike, and blowback style. However, in electric sear tripper guns, the trigger doesn’t openly move the sear catch involuntarily; instead, it stimulates an electric solenoid to do the work. This electric advancement is controlled through a circuit board and offers multiple firing modes compared to the mechanical paintball gun, which can only fire one shot per trigger pull.
Models: Empire battle tested BT-4, Proto SLG, and Kingman Spyder Fenix
3.2 Pneumatic Poppet Valves
Pneumatic Poppet Valve guns have the same working principle as electronic sear tripper’s guns. They use a striker system to push the valve and remove the compacted air. But these guns lack a hammer or sear catch. As a replacement, they have a pneumatic ram that rapidly and powerfully fires and retunes. These guns utilize compressed air that’s why they have stable speed. An important thing to know is that they usually are not friendly with CO2.
Models: Bob long intimidator, Planet eclipse Etek4, SP Impulse.
3.3 Spool Valve Guns
Models: Planet eclipse Etha2, GOG Enmey, and Empire mini
Basically, these guns have just one moving component called a spool valve. When you tweak the trigger, it thrusts the paintball into the compartment, lets out a minor burst of compacted air, and then goes back to the same state. Unlike pneumatic poppet guns, there are no hammers and pins striking in there. It is made of just one part of metal. The main benefits of these guns are how quietly they work and the point that they don’t kick back much. Though, they’re not that friendly with compressed air as compared to pneumatic poppet guns.
The Nine Types of Paintball Firing Modes
Besides these three paintball gun types, there are more distinct variants of paintball markers. Although there are numerous variants of the simple shooting modes, they contain a few secret, exclusive modes accessible on circuit boards. We have discussed the 9 most shared types.
1. Semi-automatic Semi-automatic is the simple shooting mode where you shoot one paintball on every time trigger. The only mode works with both pump and mechanical paintball markers. To have the other eight firing modes stated below, you must have a circuit board, which means they’re only found in electric paintball markers.
2. Fully-automatic Fully-automatic nonstop shoots paintballs as long as you keep the trigger pushed, up to an extreme speed of paint per second (bps). Usually, for protection, the highest allowed rate is around 15.4 bps. If you need to stop shooting, just free the trigger.
3. Three-shot burst The paintball guns can also have 4, 5, or 6-shot bursts, but the working principle remains the same. By pulling the trigger, a burst of shots will be released.
4. PSP Ramping Many kinds of ramping modes are available, but they all pretty much do the same thing. The gun shoots one ball at a time till you shoot a minimum of three balls quickly, typically at a speed of 5 shots each second or more. Afterward, the gun shifts to ramping mode and shoots at or close by to the fastest permitted rate. So, even if you only push the trigger five spells in one second, the gun still shoots up to 15.4 shots per second.
This type of ramping follows the extreme firing rate rules fixed by the PSP (Paintball Sports Promotion) game series. It works the same way as defined above but the maximum shooting rate is 13.3 shots per second. Plus, if you don’t push the trigger for a whole second, the ramping mode turns off. It will drive you back to normal semi-automatic shooting. To turn on the ramping mode, you have to minimize the firing speed.
5. Millennium Ramping The triggering rate of Millennium ramping is 5bps and it is used in certain European game series. But it lacks the other buffer that paintball sports promotions (PSP) ramping has. In its place, if your firing rate drops below 5bps, this ramping mode turns off and semi-auto mode turns on.
6. NXL Ramping In the NXL ramping, the striking rate is also 5bps to activate the ramping mode. But you have to keep the trigger down to hold the ramping mode. The working criteria is the same if you let go of the trigger then default semi-auto mode turns on.
7. Capped vs. Uncapped Ramping A subcategory of the several modes of ramping, capped ramping permits you to utilize the highest striking rate when your gun comes into ramping mode, whether that’s up to 13.5 bps or more. An uncapped ramping mechanism pushes paintballs at the gun’s peak achievable rate, typically decided by the solenoid’s shooting speed or the leader’s ability to stock paintballs into the barrel at a fast pace.
8. Breakout (or Gangsta) Breakout mode is also known as Gangsta Mode for electric guns. It is a modern shooting mode proposed to aid you in firing several shots without any interference from the refs. At first, full-auto ramping mode turns on after you push the trigger. After some time it will shift to semi-auto mode. The principle is that after you have a lot of shots, it will change to regular mode.
9. Turbo Turbo mode stimulates on every trigger event, surrounding both the primary trigger pull and the later trigger release. Subsequently, a single trigger pull outcomes in the shooting of two shots, and the intermission between these shots is decided by the speed at which you perform both the pull and release movements.
Four Other Types of Paintball Gun Features
Enduring more, four other main features that make a difference between the same paintball guns.
Centerfeed vs. Offset The difference between centerfeed and offset structures relates to the location of the hopper upon the gun. In the case of centerfeed guns, the hopper is situated straight above the gun’s core. Conversely, offset guns exhibit a minor side positioning at the hopper, usually leaning to the right sideways. Center-feed guns are favored by a large number of users, particularly those engaged in speedball. However, offset guns provide two famous benefits. Firstly, they simplify the connection of a spectacle on the top for improved accuracy, a feature chiefly useful in woodsball. Secondly, offset guns confirm a smoother supply of paintballs into the chamber, considerably reducing the breakage risk.
Hopper-Fed vs Mag-Fed This discusses paintballs feeding into the gun. These hopper guns keep a hopper on topmost of the gun. Where it releases paintballs in the chamber through gravity or an electric system. We have discussed these features below. Mag-fed paintball guns work with a magazine-design feeding mechanism that resembles real guns, which adds a sense of realism to the gun firing, refilling, and game experience. In addition to their aesthetic feel of real guns, this type of paintball markers normally stock fewer paintballs if related to hoppers. This results in less indiscriminate firing and places a better focus on proficiency and precision.
Gravity-Fed vs. Electronic Hopper As their name signifies, gravity helps in the releasing of paintballs into the compartments and placed on the upper part of your gun. On the other hand, electric hoppers have power-driven paddles that release the paintball into the compartments. The variance arises in the speed of paintball per second. The first hopper has the highest speed about 12 bps and the later hopper has a shooting rate between 15 and 20 bps. However, electric hoppers are more costly and you need to keep an extra battery every time.
Stacked Tube vs Inline Blowback This section explains the differences between blowback styles in mechanical paintball markers and electric sear markers. Stacked tube guns stock compacted air in a tube underneath the chamber, making them shorter, with fewer recoil and enhanced gas efficiency which needs less refills. On the other hand, Inline blowback guns put everything in a solo tube and are generally cheaper with less moving portions.
Frequently Asked Questions
Conclusion
Thus, which of these varieties of paintball markers is the finest? That’s an exciting subject to discuss on paintball platforms to which there’s no accurate response. There are some overall acknowledged favorites, such as mechanical guns are best for novices, but in the end, picking a paintball gun is a very custom-made choice that you need to make by yourself.
Alexa Amelia
Alexa is a content writer and staker who is in the United States of America and working on many famous blogs and also concentrated on staking skills and other surfing spots all around the world. Her one more good thing is, she enjoys the sun, beach and other hard work activities like swimming, boating and climbing.