Many people think that airsoft and paintball are dangerous, but the truth is neither one of these extreme sports produces more injuries than a common club sport (ie. basketball, football, baseball, etc). If you are thinking about joining either of these sports, all the power to you. However, while both sports are safe, airsoft is considerably more intimidating than paintball. The fire rate for airsoft guns is usually around 300-450 fps. Paintball guns rarely reach 300 fps, in fact, most paintball fields have restrictions that disallow players to have a fire rate above 300 fps.

Airsoft bb’s can pierce objects, including human skin. Paintballs are designed to inflict as small amount of pain as possible. Which is why a paintball is wider, and more blunt. Because of a paintballs large surface area, the force of a paintballs impact is distributed over a larger target area. Which causes there to be less pain in one specific area.

So while you will never receive an injury from a paintball making contact with a skin protected body part, airsoft bb’s can, and do, occasionally injure skin protected body parts. The reason for this, is because a paintball will never reach past the skin, but a bb can hit the bone. Airsoft bb’s rarely cause bone injuries, but there is documented evidence that these injuries do occur. Which does not apply to the friendly game of paintball. The most typical injuries from both sports are ankle and eye related. And for both sports, these injuries occur in the same way.

Ankle injuries cannot be avoided in any sport. If a player accidentally twists or rolls in an unnatural direction, an injury may occur. Ankle injuries happen in paintball and airsoft, but they also happen in just about every sport. Nothing we can do about these. For eye injuries, if a paintball or bb pellet contacts an unprotected eye, serious damage can be inflicted. The difference between eye injuries for airsoft and paintball is that paintball will usually leave temporary damage, but an airsoft bb in the eye will almost always cause permanent damage.

An experienced player from both sports knows that eye protection is an absolute must. And when the proper precautions are taken, both sports are very safe. That being said, airsoft will be too painful and scary for many prospective players. If the absence of danger and pain are your main criteria for airsoft vs paintball, then paintball is your best option.

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If you’re trying to become a better paintball player, then there are a few tips to keep in mind before heading out the next time. Every advantage, no matter how small, will help a player and the team claim victory over their opponents.

Attitude

Go in with a winning mindset. This may be the most important tip. If a player lets the other team intimidate them, they have already taken themselves out of the game. They need to develop the mindset of, “I’m going to win.” Of course, it is impossible to win every single game, but it is far better to be surprised by a loss than amazed by a win.

Playing Field

Try to survey the area. It is important to keep on the move when playing paintball. If the opponent finds it difficult to keep up with someone’s location, they stand a far better chance of winning. If players get the opportunity to check out the playing field beforehand, they should do it. Mentally take some notes of paths and possible cover. This will allow them to employ better strategies and tactics on the fly instead of trying to figure it out while taking fire.

No Ammo

If someone runs out of paintballs, they still have a couple of options. Obviously, if they can get more paintballs from a teammate, they should do it. What if that isn’t a possibility? If the rule is in use, which it frequently is, they can attempt to sneak up on their opponents and make them surrender. It’s an option to keep in mind.

Practice

Players should practice shooting. Shooting a paintball marker is not like shooting a rifle, especially with the popularity of double triggers. Players also need to be able to shoot paintball guns in many different positions that may be completely new to them. The best practice is, of course, in a game. However, if for those willing to spend the extra money on paintballs, it is a good idea to practice shooting in various positions, even when they are not competing.

Take care of paintball markers. This is very important. Paintball guns need to be maintained properly. Lots of new players make the mistake of neglecting proper maintenance. Competitors should always oil their guns before using them, and clean them up afterwards. If someone leaves their gun plastered with paint, it will only decrease the life the gun. They should be sure to remove any obvious obstructions when cleaning the gun barrel. Failure to do this can result in a loss of accuracy, or a paintball could simply break before it leaves the barrel.

With these basic tips in mind, paintballers should be able to step up their game and start dominating the competition.

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Paintball has many strategies that can be employed to have a fun and successful match. A traditional paintball strategy would be to place the team throughout all areas of your side of the field. One alternative to the traditional is to overload the line.

Overloading the line is a very aggressive paintball strategy. In order to overload the line you need to have the team all attack from one side of the field and then take your opponents out that way. While the other team has their people strategically placed throughout the field your team is sneaking in from one side to attack the other team. This can lead to a surprise effect in this paintball match.

Why is the surprise effect so valuable in paintball? When you take your opponent off guard you get the strategic advantage. When you have the strategic advantage you know where your opponent is and can attack them from all different levels. Moving quickly is one of the characteristics involved in this strategy. The team has to be quick to eliminate as many of their opponents before the surprise effect wears off.

While employing this strategic advantage make sure to look around to keep tabs of your opponent. If you look and have no idea where they are they may be able to flip this factor and get to surprise you. The team who wins the surprise usually can eliminate the members of the other team more quickly.

Ultimately, eliminating more people early on in the game allows your competitive advantage to increase dramatically. For example, with a faster team the strength starts on that team’s side. However, eliminating more people on the team early on can increase a slower team’s advantage. If you have two fast people remaining versus five slower people remaining the five turtles still have a competitive advantage due to the sheer dominance in numbers.

This whole plan may not work if beginning players are involved. Recognize when you have beginners in paintball and modify the approach around the people involved. This strategy may not work because they have the fear aspect in their minds. Beginners usually do not have the same confidence as veterans to employ such an aggressive strategy. As new players, they typically treat the paint as if the paintballs were actual bullets. It will hurt which adds to the mystique of the game but all in all it is a game and not a true life or death battle using real bullets.

While being hit by a paintball can hurt, in order to fully utilize the overload strategy that team has to be aggressive. If it is done right many times it will lead that team to victory and to their favorite victory ritual. Being aggressive definitely has its advantages in paintball.

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Paintball is a team sport and like every other team sport one weak link can be the downfall for the entire team. Every team has to know what the strengths and weaknesses of each player are so they can perform drills to turn those weaknesses into strengths making them an all around better player. Constant drilling can turn a unprepared team into a unstoppable force on the paintball field making other teams cower behind their bunkers.

Here are 3 drills every team should have in their practice line up!

One-on-One: Have two players face off at opposite facing bunkers. Each player is allowed to shoot one ball then they have to check back into their bunker before shooting another ball. This helps your players practice accuracy with snap shooting instead of spraying paint all over the place. They go until one of the players is struck by a paintball ending the duel.

Run-and-Gun: For this one have some cardboard boxes set up down the course behind a few bunkers. Pick the path you want to run down the course and have your players go through it shooting the boxes as they go. This drill helps to hone accuracy with your shooting while running.

Face-Off: Have two of your players start at opposite end of the course at the breakout zone. Blow a whistle and have them start shooting as they start running at each other through the course. Once a player is hit the duel is over. This drill is great for practicing zoning off the break of a game.

Start putting these drills into effect with your practice schedule and I guarantee you will see leaps in how your players begin reacting in game situations. You will not only begin winning games but dominating your local or national tournament circuits.

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All paintball markers require a minimum amount of regular maintenance in order to give you years of faithful service. You owe it to yourself and your fellow paintball players to keep your paintball equipment in working order. The specifics vary according to what model marker you have, but there are some basics of marker maintenance that apply pretty much across the board.

The first task isn’t that exciting, but you should do it anyway: read the owners manual for your paintball marker. It will tell you what paintball marker maintenance has to be done regularly, and how often it has to be done. You’ll get a good, basic grounding in how your marker works and how to care for it properly.

Regular oiling is an important part of paintball marker maintenance for most models. To oil your marker, remove the tank and barrel and take the paintballs out of the chamber. You don’t want to get oil on the pellets, because it affects their trajectory. Remove the marker’s hopper and elbow and put a drop or two of oil onto the adapter where the CO2 cartridge or compressed air tank attaches. Spread the oil around to cover the adapter completely. Some people use a toothpick to do this. Put your paintball marker back together again, reinstall the tank, then, without paintballs in the chamber, fire it several times. This ensures that the oil reaches the parts that it needs to.

One part of proper paintball marker maintenance is a simple matter of proper storage. The marker and the paintballs should be stored separately, and you should have a decent case for carrying your paintball marker. Ideally, you should carry your marker disassembled but packed in an organized way so that it is easy to assemble once you get to your paintball match.

Be cautious with the barrel of your paintball marker because if it becomes even the slightest bit bent, it can cause a misfire that can make a pellet burst prematurely and potentially ruin your entire weapon. Keep it away from extreme temperatures, particularly for long term storage. If you were to leave a paintball in the chamber, it could burst when the temperature falls below freezing or when the temperature becomes too hot.

Remember that the sooner you wipe paint off your marker, the easier it will be. While the dried paint on the exterior of your marker is mostly just a cosmetic problem, cleaning burst paintballs from the inside of your marker is a crucial part of paintball marker maintenance.

You should do this after each time you play, thoroughly clean out the insides of your marker before storing it. After you have the routine of maintenance memorized, it’s a good idea to assemble a small tool kit so that you can repair small problems as they happen and prevent small problems from becoming big problems.

Regular paintball marker maintenance is an investment of time more than anything, but it can save you plenty of time and money over the long haul.

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Three man teams are a very good tournament format for younger players to get into as it gives them the experience they need for the larger 7-10 man tournaments without the intensity and complexity of the larger formats. Now just because its not as complex doesn’t mean you don’t have to practice to be successful. Like everything else practice is a necessary for winning consistently and with these drills you can come a lot closer to achieving this.

3 of the Top Three Man Drills

Front Rush: You will have two of your players on one side of the field and the other player on the opposite side. The objective of the solo player is to make it to a key bunker on the field like the 50 or a snake without being hit. The objective of the two players is to zone and attempt to eliminate the other player before he reaches his bunker. This teaches zoning for the back players and for the front player it helps him to learn how to make it to his bunker fast off of the break.

Snap Drill: You only need two players for this drill placing them at bunkers facing each other. They shoot at each other until one of them is hit ending the match. The objective of this game is to reinforce snap shooting with your players and one on one situations in a game.

Bunker Me!: Place a target behind or near the 50. Take two players and place them on opposite sides of the field. One player stands in the back and unloads on the other player as they try running up and bunkering the object. The drill ends when the attacker is hit or the attacker bunkers the object at the 50.

For each of these drills rotate your players around so they get to play each side of the drill. This helps them to learn each spot and be ready for any game situation. I promise no matter what position you play you will find yourself in any of these positions in a game situation.

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Paintball suits are considered as one of the best camouflage suits that are used by a number of military personals and other law enforcement agents. There are a number of paintball players who literally like wearing paintball suits the moment they play his game. In most cases players generally like to construct their personal paintball ghillie suits that very well match with the terrains they are playing in. The way most military personals make their suits certainly does differ a lot in the way civilians design their suits and also the material that is used for camouflaging might also differ. Most military personals attach the camouflaged material directly to the suit and avoid wearing it as a type of net or apron.

Before you can design your own suit it is important that you need to study the details of the terrain and also the type of plantation that is spread out in the region. You also have to keep in mind the type of season as most plant and vegetation always keep on changing with different seasons. So if you have to design your best Paintball Suits then you need to design it on the basis of the plantation and vegetation. It is important to design suits for paintball that can blend very well with the surrounding vegetation. You also have to sew the strips of the material to the main suit. As the camouflage material is directly attached to the body suit so these suits are very much different as compared to normal ghillie suits.

When making your paintball ghillie suits for military purpose also try and select a material that is very much durable and long lasting. You can select a burlap material that is very much durable. You can select materials from different color that can match very well with the surrounding terrains. You can also make an apron from durable piece of canvas and then try to attach the single strips of camouflage material and make genuine paintball ghillie suits. This is one way to protect the Ghillie Suits For Paintball from getting damaged the moment you play the game acting like a sniper. You can also make a few pockets that can be used to cover the equipments that you are carrying along with you. It is important that you try and place the strips in the right position. You can make use of strips that are of random shape and size. These paintball ghillie suits are designed such that they help in breaking down the outline of your body and blend it perfectly with the surrounding. It is important that all the exposed portions of your suit should in fact be covered properly by the strips.

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The Tippmann A5 paintball marker is one of Tippmann’s hottest sellers, and probably the main reason for that is the patented Cyclone Feed System. The way it works is that a sprocket is located at the bottom of the hopper and between the spokes are 5 balls. Just left of the sprocket is the hole where balls go from the sprocket into the chamber. When you pull the trigger, the ball in the chamber is fired. Excess CO2 is re-routed from the barrel to a smaller chamber that forces the sprocket to rotate, which puts a fresh ball into the chamber. This all happens in a fraction of a second. The faster you can fire, the faster a new ball enters the chamber. This feature gets very high marks from users.

The Tippmann A5 paintball marker has what it calls “no tool” field strip capability. This makes it easy to disassemble even in the field and makes it easy to maintain and clean when you’re off the field. It can be stripped and reassembled in just 60 seconds without the need for tools.

Users of the Tippmann A5 paintball marker generally praise its great looks and solid feel. In fact this is one of those cases where the appearance may be a little too realistic because it looks an awful lot like a Heckler Koch MP5 9mm sub-machine gun. You probably ought not drive around with it laying on the front seat next to you!

While most users emphasize that this paintball marker works great right out of the box, there are plenty of enthusiastic users who have upgraded to the Flatline Barrel System and are even more impressed. The Tippmann A5 paintball marker is compatible with CO2, nitrogen, or compressed air and has impressive accuracy.

The complaints about this paintball marker are few. Some people think the hopper is slightly bulky, and several users have pointed out that it goes through CO2 quickly because of the cyclone hopper, but then the cyclone hopper is one of the things that people love most about the A5. The flatline barrel makes the A5 pretty loud, and using nitrogen makes it even louder. Players with large hands say that the front grip is a little small.

Overall, the Tippmann A5 paintball marker gets raves. In fact, you can read through a number of reviews and lots of them will conclude with a statement like “Just get one. You’ll love it!” The A5 is a favorite for a lot of good reasons, and it’s priced right as well.

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The paintball barrel is just as crucial as the paintball gun itself used to propel the paintball through the barrel. Without a proper suitable paintball barrel, a player, regardless of his experience and good aim, will find it very hard to hit the target within time. A high quality barrel and paint to bore match will significantly increase the accuracy and the ball on ball precision, very important in the world of paintball. With this article we will offer a few tips regarding how to choose a paintball barrel.

1. Set up a budget and stick to it. You need to know that barrels can be bought as a single barrel or as a kit. The first ones cost around 40-50 dollars while the kits go from 75 dollars up to 175 dollars for the complete models.

2. Now, choosing the barrel type. You need to answer yourself the following question: do you need a single barrel or a barrel kit? The kit will allow the player to match the size of the barrel bore. The bore is the distance inside the barrel. The paint size varies from.683 to.696 which means that the correct paint to match the barrel will give you the much needed maximum accuracy.

3. Choosing the length of the barrel. A shorter barrel will give the player more mobility while the longer barrels will provide more accuracy. Most of the paintball players use 12″-14″ barrels. Of course, there are some players that enjoy using a 16″ barrel in woods, but you need to know that these types of barrels require more gas to propel the paintball. More than 16″ is overkill, at least in our opinion and there is a great drop in accuracy in a 10″ barrel. The choice is up to you of course.

4. Barrel kits. Such kits allow the paintball player to chance back bores and front lengths. The more experienced paintball players use these kits as they provide the best accuracy with any given paint. Here are some recommended barrel kits that paintball players use on a regular basis:

a) Powerlyte Sceptor (2000 series);

b) JJ Edge;

c) Smart Parts Freak (stainless steel inserts);

d) Dye Ulralite;

e) TI Longbow.

5. If you consider that a barrel kit is out of your price range, you need to start looking for a reliable single barrel. Here are a few examples of good single barrels:

a) J&J Ceramic – has a Teflon/ceramic coating to help the barrel clean better through ball breaks;

b) Lapco Bigshot – a rather loud to some but a great barrel for the price;

c) CP.689 – a rather popular barrel by a good company.

6. If by any chance you find someone that has the barrel you are planning on purchasing, give it a try on the paintball field. You must check for accuracy and marker balance.

7. The last obvious step would be to purchase the desired product. Check at your local paintball store, online shops and in paintball forums.

Good luck.

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