Equipment Basics

All paintguns use air pressure from an air tank or 12-gram cartridges to fire a paintball. The velocity of the paintball leaving the barrel is usually 250 to 300 feet per second (fps). 300 fps is the maximum allowed at tournaments while 290 fps is the maximum on most playing fields. Air tanks come in different sizes. The bigger the tank, the longer you can play before requiring a refill. Sizes begin at 4 oz. and go up to 20 oz.




Semiautomatics:

Semiautomatic guns have a paintball loaded into the gun automatically after the gun fires. The gun can shoot paint as fast as the player can pull the trigger.

Pumps

Pump-action guns have a manual pump mechanism that loads the paintball into the gun. The player must pump- load after every shot.

WHAT IS A STOCKGUN?

A stockgun is a paintball marker that uses only one 12 gram CO2 powerlet for its power source, and which holds the paint in a feed tube ("magazine") that must be parallel to the breech. The marker must be tilted slightly, either forward or back, to load a paintball ("rock and cock"). The 12 gram holder cannot be a "quick changer" (no levers or cams allowed), and the 12 gram housing must be unscrewed and removed to change the 12 gram. Generally, in stock class competition, players may add shoulder stocks, sights, aftermarket grips, and custom internal parts, and may use barrels of any length, as they wish. Autotriggering (use of an autotrigger) is disallowed for stockgun play, though the marker may have the capability of being autotriggered.

Chronographs:

To check the velocity at which a paintgun is firing, a chronograph is used. The radar chronograph uses a small Doppler radar to measure the velocity of a paintball.The paintball is fired over the machine. The radar picks up the paintball and records the speed of the ball on a digital display. If a gun is firing paintballs at over 300 fps, it is adjusted to lower the velocity. The first chronographs used light. The paintball was fired over the machine. Light entering the machine was broken, starting a timer. The machine measured the time the light was broken and calculated the velocity of the paintball.

The Balls

Paintballs are not made of paint. They are soft gelatin capsules (the same gelatin as in Jell-O) containing a mixture of vegetable oil and food color. They are nontoxic and biodegradable. Paintballs are encapsulated by the same machines that make bath beads and vitamin capsules. RPS Recreational Products, the world's largest encapsulation company, was the first company to produce paintballs. Today RPS Recreational Products has facilities in North America and Europe dedicated to manufacturing paintballs.


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