How to Choose the Right Paintball Gun or Marker for You

How to Choose the Right Paintball Gun or Marker for You

The main types of paintball gun (otherwise known as markers) are the: pump, semi-automatic, automatic, stock, pistol and electronic.

Pump Action Paintball Guns:

Pump action paintball guns work in a fashion similar to that of the pump action shotgun, paintballs are ‘pumped’ manually into the paintball chamber by means of pumping the guns mechanism, pumps action paintball guns do not require the air used by other types of paintball guns in order to load the chamber. Pump action paintball guns tend to have a higher accuracy rate over other types of paintball gun, and in addition tend to be less wasteful with paint pellets. Some pump action paintball guns also feature a ‘constant trigger’ this enables the user to keep the trigger held whilst pumping to increase the rate of firing when required.

How to Choose the Right Paintball Gun or Marker for You

Semi-Automatic Paintball Guns

Next up are the semi-automatic paintball guns or markers, these tend to be a bit more expensive then the pump action models but have a much faster rate of firing and are the most commonly used paintball today. Firing a paintball pellet with each pull of the trigger the semi-automatic paintball gun is ideal for either single shot sharp shooting or for laying down heavier suppressed fire when required.

A semi-automatic paintball gun is designed to give top performance with a 20 ball per second firing rate and includes features like: fast strip bolt, vice grip and feed neck, top-speed air ram, a foregrip regulator and ported barrel.

How to Play Paintball : How to Choose a Paintball Gun

Automatic Paintball Gun:

For when you absolutely positively gotta kill every other player on the field then you should consider the fully automatic paintball gun. With the trigger held down the fully automatic paintball gun offers sustained fire raining down pellet after pellet upon your enemies until the trigger is released. The fully automatic paintball gun is a favourite of many paintball players but is often shunned by more traditional players who claim that the fully automatic paintball guns reduces the skill required to play the game. In addition fully automatic paintball guns are banned from use in some tournament games.

Stock Paintball Gun:

Usually only used within stock gun specific paintball matches the stock gun holds only 10 or so paintballs in a top mounted chamber at a time. Often known as the ‘Rock and cock’ the stock paintball gun utilises a 12 gram carbon dioxide ‘powerlet’ which is a small disposable metal container containing a mix of CO2 and oil. The stock paintball gun holds the paintball pellets in a linear fed tube that runs parallel to the barrel and each pellet is fed individually into the barrel via the distinctive ‘Rock and cock’ method of manually loading the weapon by tilting.

Pistol Paintball Guns:

Smaller hand-held versions of the paintball gun the pistol is usually only used as a secondary back-up weapon for when the player’s main paintball gun is empty or damaged during play. A paintball pistol is run by a 12 gram CO2 cartridge and can usually hold and fire little more than 10 pellets before manual reloading is required.

Electronic Paintball Guns:

The most expensive and functional of all the paintball guns is the electronic paintball gun, utilising the power of an electronic computer chip the electronic paintball gun features a wide variety of firing modes. An electronic paintball gun can switch between firing modes, with the flick of a switch you can cycle between single-shot fire modes for stealthily picking off competitors to laying down a wave of pellets (15+ per second) upon the enemy.

Electronic paintball guns are without doubt the ‘Daddy’ of all paint ball guns and are fast becoming the most popular weapon on the field, however electronic paintball guns are more expensive to purchase and due to the fully automatic capabilities of most they are often banned from use within tournament matches.

Paintball : NPPL Buffalo 2008 - Finals

Tips for helping you choose the right paintball gun for you:

• Decide upon your budget; remember that your paintball gun is not the only piece of kit you will require in order to play. Different types of paintball gun will also cost more to operate, semi and fully automatic paintball guns will use far more CO2 to operate and will get through many more paint pellets then a pump action paintball gun.
• For the first few times you play it is advisable to borrow or rent a paintball gun if possible, try out different models and types in order to gain an idea of what type of paintball gun best fits your style.
• Seek advice either from friends and club members if possible or search for online reviews and advice within forums.
• Take into account the size of the paintball guns loader, a larger loader will hold more balls requiring less reloading time but may well make for a heavier paintball gun.