While playing paintball, you should be prepared for all kinds of conditions, especially when you are playing outdoor paintball and you already know that there is a possibility of rain, or you plan to play in the rain. So today we will see how useful it is to play in the rain, how much you will enjoy it and what damage it can do to you and your accessories, and we will share some safety elements with which you can play safely.
You can play in light rain, heavy rain with high wind speed makes it difficult to play and the accuracy of paintballs deteriorates. Playing in lightning storms can be more damaging and most paintball fields prohibit play in such weather. There are some tips that will inform you about the challenges and help you prepare yourself to play better.
Tips for Playing Paintball in The Rain
These tips help you throughout the game, when you are playing in the rain, you need to show more protection than usual.
Faster Paced Games
There are major challenges you need to faced is following:
Play Another Day
It often happens that after the start of your game, heavy rain and wind comes, in which case the players cannot continue the game and have to stop it. In this case, each paintball field gives you a free pass for one day, on which day you can come and play again.
It is a good idea to play on another day when the weather and field is clear, rather than putting yourself at risk and spending extra paintballs in the rain.
Be Prepared to Shoot A lot of Paint
A lot of shots are lost due to poor accuracy and this is common, when playing in the rain you need to take 20 to 30% more paintballs to win.
Be Careful When Running
You need to be careful when running in the rain, as the ground will become muddy and slippery and you may accidentally slip while running. Opponents may attack you at this time, so you should keep an eye on the field with your opponents before taking any steps.
How to Keep Safe Our Equipments
Protecting Your Paintballs From The Rain
Paintballs are the most important gear that needs to be kept dry to play well in the rain. Here we learn the importance of keeping them dry and how we can do it.
Why
How
Keep Your Gear Covered
Keeping your gear safe is necessary, but what do you do if there’s no coverage? Not all fields have a canopy or only limited space under the canopy.
If the table you’re putting your gear on is solid, you can place your gear under the table to quickly get it out of the rain and buy time to get what you need.
If you brought garbage bags, put your things in them, If you haven’t, check the field to see if someone has any spare, ask him to share.
Don’t Use Speed Feeds
It is not recommended to use speed feed to fill the hopper with paint on rainy days as it is not able to provide protection against dirt. Good practice is to use a standard lid for your hopper instead of speed feeds, it will help keep the rain and moisture out of your hopper, protecting your paint and the electronics within the hopper.
Protect Your Paint When Reloading
If you don’t want to stop your game during the rain, you have to be careful about everything especially if you need to refill your hopper with paint, otherwise the water in the hopper can spoil the paint.
What You Can Do
- Cover the hopper and pod with your body to protect them from the rain
- You can run over to a covered structure on the field and reload there
Cover Your Barrel Porting
If your paintball barrel has too much porting, water will seep into your barrel and completely throw off your accuracy. So what do you need to do? In the next paragraph I shared a simple and effective solution that everyone can adopt.
Many professionals, including myself, like to keep a roll of scotch tape in their gear bag for various needs. You can also adopt this habit, and cover your barrel with the same scotch tape to protect it from water.
Protect Your Electronics
Everyone knows that using electronics in the rain without protection is harmful, there is no proper method that is 100% recommended that it works well. Below are some tips to minimize the damage, but the best way is to play with the batteries removed.
Use Tape To Cover The Electronics
The easiest way to protect paintball gun circuit boards is to cover the grips with Scotch tape. Make sure there are no cracks or cuts in the screen on either side of the grip, and then install the grip cover. You may need to push the grip panel screws through the tape, but it should be well sealed to prevent water ingress.
Add More Conformal Coating
Conformal coating is a protective coating that protects electronics from moisture. It is usually very difficult to completely cover the boards with an automatic sprayer and some gaps may be missed in manufacturing. Therefore it is recommended to use a brush on coating and not a spray on coating unless you are experienced with coating boards.
Be sure to cover all connectors and contacts with scotch tape before applying the coating. The coating will need to be applied a few days prior to the actual game to ensure the coating is fully cured before placing the board back into its hopper or gun.
Prepare Your Mask
Let’s face it, your mask will fog up both during the rain and after it stops. There’s going to be so much moisture in the air that it’s almost inevitable.
There are a few things you can do to help reduce your chances of mask fogging or the amount of fog that builds up inside your mask.
Use a Hat or Visor
In rain games, one of the biggest factors that can affect your vision is your mask, which eliminates due to rainwater or moisture, which causes damage to the focus. So a solution is this:
It is good to use a mask with a visor installed on the top of the mask. If you do not have a visor, you can wear a hat instead.
Use a Spray On Anti-Fog
Anti-fog spray is a great alternative to using thermal lenses, the spray can help you prevent fogging from lens and give you clear vision, we have covered a full article on the best anti-fog spray, if you want to buy you can choose from there and a complete method of using them is also given.
Use a Poncho for Self Protection
Self protection is necessary, use a poncho for yourself. The biggest drawback to using a poncho is that it restricts the air around your mask, causing it to fog up. Personally, I like to keep a camo poncho because I do a lot of outdoor paintballing in woods and large fields. I can quickly and easily put on a poncho in the middle of an event without worrying about getting too wet. I also wear waterproof pants and the poncho really comes up to my thighs.
Bring Extra Clothes and Shoes
It is good practice to have extra clothes and shoes that you can use on your return from the game. It is good to adopt this habit whether it rains or not, because clothes often get dirty in the field. And wearing clothes used in the rain for too long or wearing the same clothes back home can cause you to catch a cold or get sick.
Common Questions
How to Keep Lens From Fogging In The Rain?
Some things are following you can use to keep lens from fog in the rain:
- Dual pane anti-fog lens
- Use paintball mask with visor
- Use hoodies
- Anti fog spray
These things can help you out to play safely in the rain.
Are Paintball Guns Safe to Use In The Rain?
Paintball guns need to stay dry inside, so try to keep your paintballs in the loader on top of your gun or in your ammo pouch with the lid closed. If the inside of your gun gets wet, take your gun apart and dry it with a cloth and barrel cleaner.
Is It Dangerous to Play Paintball In The Rain?
Playing paintball in the rain is always a little more dangerous than usual. This is because you are more likely to slip or make mistakes when the ground is wet and muddy and your lens will be obstructed by fog.
Are Paintball Fields Open When It’s Raining?
Yes, Paintball fields will remain open in rainy days, some will stop play in heavy lighting or high winds as it affects the players
Power outages, hurricanes, tornadoes or earthquakes are some of the cases when paintball fields are closed.
Can You Make a Paintball Gun Waterproof?
It is not possible to make a paintball gun waterproof but we can make it more water resistant by following the method below.
- Apply a conformal coating (water-resistant coating) to the electronic board inside your marker
It is good to adopt safety precautions before doing applying, precautions are:
- Wear gloves and a Respirator
NOTE: It is also important that you cover all connectors and contacts with tape before applying the conformal coating to your electronic board.
Recommended for you
Jessica
Hey everyone, this is Jessica here. I live in London, United Kingdom and I am passionate about the paintball game and I also love researching and buying different paintball masks. In Fact I may have a tackle addition that is a deep part of why I created this site, as you hear “ is a healthier and more affordable outlet ”