What Are Paintball Markers?

You must have heard the term paintball marker a lot recently. A paintball is a shooting game in which a player has to defeat his opponents by shooting paintball bullets at them. To shoot these gelatinous capsule bullets, you must have a gun. A paintball marker is an air gun used to play paintball and shoot dye-filled paintball bullets at opponents.

You might think it is an actual gun, but this isn’t true. Though a paintball marker works like an actual gun, this air gun uses compressed air or compressed gas to move the paintballs out and hit the target, which makes them safe to use. You might be wondering why it is called a paintball marker. Well, it is because people used it for marking trees and cattle. The following are further details about paintball markers and their types.

What Are Paintball Guns?

A paintball marker is one of the essential tools for playing paintball. Though it looks like a real gun, it is an air gun that uses carbon dioxide or HPA to shoot paintball bullets. Its muzzle velocity, which is the projectile’s speed concerning the muzzle when a bullet leaves the barrel, is 90 m/s or 300 ft/s. Paintball guns are of mainly three types.

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Types of Paintball Guns

Pump Paintball Markers

As I stated earlier, this equipment is known as a marker because, initially, people used it for marking trees and cattle. These guns use carbon dioxide as the compressed gas to propel the bullet through the barrel. Like many other adaptations in various products, the paintball guns have also been through a few changes, and because of this, people now consider pump paintball markers old.

The working of a pump paintball marker resembles a single-action revolver. All you need to do is cock the gun, which will load the next paintball. Pump paintball markers aren’t trendy because they are slow compared to fast-paced guns that fire quickly. In short, pump markers are slow-paced guns that make them unsuitable for firing quick shots. Though they are slow-paced, many paintball players prefer these over fast-paced guns.

Mechanical Paintball Markers

Next comes the mechanical paintball marker, which is the most reliable and affordable marker on the market. Besides its affordable price range, this equipment is easy to maintain. Furthermore, a mechanical paintball gun is semi-automatic, which means it fires one shot per trigger pull. One of the most prominent features of this marker is that it operates on both compressed air and gas.

Some paintball courts do not have compressed air refilling options, so the players use paintball markers that use compressed gas. With this equipment, you can switch to either compressed gas or air according to their availability. Moreover, mechanical paintball guns are semi-automatic, which means that they fire one shot per trigger pull.

Mechanical markers are also known as blowback-designed guns. When you pull the gun’s trigger, it moves the sear catch, which is a lock that holds the hammer or firing pin cocked. This phenomenon releases the hammer controlled by the sear catch. The released hammer hits the valve directly to open it and propel the bullet through the barrel. The pressure released in this procedure throws the hammer back to its position, and the next paintball falls into place.

Electronic Paintball Markers

Electronic paintball markers were initially the most expensive guns on the market because of their advanced technologies, but now, you can find many high-quality electronic markers at affordable prices. These markers consist of the electronic solenoid, a cylindrical coil, to fire the shot. Most electronic guns come with a 9-volt battery.

One of the features of these guns that make them different from mechanical markers is that they do not contain heavy trigger pull. As you know, a mechanical paintball gun uses a heavy trigger pull which can be hard to handle, but electronic markers have an electric trigger pull that clicks a micro switch or emits a laser beam. In short, you don’t have to apply more effort in pulling the trigger because it is effortless.

An electronic paintball gun consists of a circuit board that plays a vital role in controlling the commands to the solenoid. Most electronic guns can add additional shots if you pull the trigger more and for a long time. In addition, these guns are less noisy compared to other paintball guns. The following are the three basic types of electronic paintball markers.

Electric Sear Trippers

They work almost the same as mechanical markers. The only difference between both is that the electric sear tripper consists of an electronic solenoid that helps to move the sear catch and release the striker or hammer for prowling the paintball through the barrel. Besides this one difference, both share the same features and are easy to maintain, which makes them the most reliable paintball markers.

Pneumatic Poppet valves

The primary feature that makes them different from others is that they do not use a hammer or a striker to propel the bullet. Instead, they use pressure-powered ram. This feature results in quick shots and makes these guns fast-paced markers suitable for paintballing. The major drawback of these guns is that they only use compressed air, and using compressed gas such as carbon dioxide can adversely affect your shot and the equipment.

Spool Valves

Last but not least, I present to you the third type of electronic paintball marker. These guns are the most common electronic paintball markers on the internet. Many factors play a vital role in their popularity. A bolt is the only moving part of these guns, which makes them reliable because of easy and low maintenance. Furthermore, they are comparatively quieter than other guns. The only drawback of these guns is that they don’t use compressed gas. Therefore, you must use compressed air to fire your shots fast.

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Features

Design

As you know, the main parts of a gun include a trigger, bolt, and valve. The same is the case with paintball markers. You might have noticed that most paintball guns have an aluminum material. It is because the manufacturers try to make the gun lightweight and easy to handle. Moreover, one can customize some features of the gun to enhance its performance and durability.

The most highlighting difference between a regular gun and a paintball gun is the positioning of various parts. Paintball guns have different positions for their triggers and barrels. The manufacturers place the trigger frame forward toward the center of the marker’s body. This positioning plays a prominent role in increasing the density of your gun’s compressed air tank.

If your paintball marker lacks this feature, you can modify it to improve your tank’s position and enhance your performance. Furthermore, some people purchase such guns whose barrels are farther back. Although it enhances the external structure of the gun, a backward barrel adversely affects your performance in the game. You can modify your equipment according to your requirements.

Trigger

A trigger is an essential part of a gun. The performance of your equipment mainly depends on the trigger. You can fire a good shot if your throw is good, but if it is the other way around, you can’t perform well in the game. Although most paintball markers have electronic triggers that are easy to handle and improve your shot, you might find heavy triggers in some mechanical paintball markers.

The micro switches, laser beams, and many other features cause strong yet short throws. An electronic paintball gun has a solenoid that holds the striker and releases it when a person pulls the trigger. On the other hand, mechanical markers do not have a solenoid. Hence, a sear catch holds the striker and releases it when you pull a trigger.

Loaders

It is the most common part of a gun. A loader is also known as a hopper. The primary function of a loader is to hold a bullet in the gun until a person pulls the trigger. In the case of paintball guns, a loader keeps a paintball until you fire the shot. The following are the three main types of loaders in paintball guns.

Stick-Feed

It is one of the oldest forms of loafers and is present in pump paintball guns. It lies parallel to the barrel and can hold up to ten to twenty paintballs. Stick-feed is the easiest loader to use. All you have to do is tip your marker’s tip to load the next paintball.

Gravity-Feed

A gravity-feed loader is the most affordable and simplest loader on the market. It has a large container and a feed tube at the bottom. When you add the paintballs to the loader, they slide down through the tube and enter the marker. In a gravity-feed loader, the maximum rate of paintballs is around 11.6 balls per second. Though it is popular, this loader can get jammed if the paintballs are stuck in the tube.

Force-Feed

A force-feed loader has an impeller, which is a rotor that plays a vital role in increasing pressure. The impeller in the force-feed loader captures the paintballs and puts them into the marker. It plays a significant role in maintaining pressure across the tube. As a result, the rate increases up to 50 balls per second. Most players use these loaders because of their reliability. Paintball players use different types of force-feed loaders according to their requirements.

Bolts And Valves

A bolt and valve play a significant role in firing the shot. Therefore, they are also the primary parts of the paintball markers. A valve’s primary function is to determine the marker’s performance by checking if it is firing the shot. On the other hand, a bolt manages the entrance of paintballs into the chamber and directs the flow of air or gas. Although they both have different functions, a bolt and a valve are interrelated to each other. With many adaptations in these years, you can find various kinds of bolts in paintball markers.

Propelling System

As I stated earlier, a paintball gun uses compressed air or gas to fire the paintballs. In your paintball marker, you can use carbon dioxide as a compressed gas and HPA as compressed air. The following are further details about these chemicals.

Carbon Dioxide

Many affordable markers use carbon dioxide because it is very reasonable. The carbon dioxide tank in paintball guns is smaller than the HPA tank. Moreover, it can cause various problems during vaporization and cold weather. That’s why many paintball markers don’t use compressed gas.

HPA

HPA stands for high air pressure and is used as compressed air in paintball markers. Its tank is attached to a regulator that regulates the pressure in the tank. HPA is more reliable than carbon dioxide because temperature changes do not affect it. Moreover, a compressed air tank is comparatively denser and larger than a compressed gas tank. In short, HPA is the suitable propellant system for paintball markers.

Finalizing

The above article contains the details of a paintball marker and its types. A paintball gun works like a regular gun, but its parts are in different positions than regular guns. Mechanical markers are the most reliable tools because of their easy maintenance and affirmation price range. On the other hand, electronic markers have a solenoid that holds the striker, and the trigger has switches to help you fire the paintballs. I hope this article played a significant role in enhancing your knowledge about paintball markers.

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