The Main Paintball Gun Parts: Know Your Weapon

kevin asked:


The Main Paintball Gun Parts: Know Your Weapon

If you are involved in the sport it is important to know about the main paintball gun parts. You need to understand the components of your marker to ensure its successful working and to facilitate its cleaning and upgrading. Beginners can be over whelmed by terms such as: bottom line adaptors, quick disconnect feed necks, CP micro drops and magic regulators. Essentially, most paintball gun parts will fall into one of the following main categories; body; hopper; tank or barrel.

The largest of the paintball gun parts is the main body of the marker. This comprises the bolt and the trigger frame. Bolts help to reduce the ammo breakage caused by a slow feed. The body parts can be detached from one another to incorporate upgrades and accessories. Best not to attempt this until you have become familiar with your weapon.

The body of the gun is fairly standard across the models. The main difference is in the placement of the trigger. The further forward the trigger is placed, the easier the marker is to handle with one hand and the lower the profile of the body. Guns with lower profiles are more successful in the field; markers with large bodies provide a bigger target.

The next of the main paintball gun parts is the hopper. The hopper, or loader on a marker stores and loads the ammo. Between 40 to 300 paintballs can be held by different hoppers. The speed, weight and reliability of the gun are greatly affected by the hopper type.

Stick feeds are generally used on pump action markers. They are the least sophisticated and reliable of the hopper types.

Gravity feeds are also a simple and cheap option. However, they are prone to jamming problems causing ball breakage or blockage in the hopper.

Agitating hoppers have a propeller inside the container which prevents the paintballs from jamming. They have a quicker firing pace than the previous loaders.
Force feed hoppers are used by professionals or tournament playing paintballers because they can keep up with the required loading speed. The device is spring loaded, or powered by a belt system. It captures the paintballs and forces them into the marker. They are the most sophisticated, reliable and expensive of the hopper types.

Another of the main paintball gun parts is the tank. Paintballs can be propelled in different ways and the tank contains the propellant. Markers typically use CO2 gas or high pressure air (HPA). The terms “nitrogen tank” and “HPA” tank mean the same thing.

CO2 gas was the original propulsion material. Early guns were powered by small CO2 cylinders which were good for about 15 shots. These evolved to 12 ounce CO2 tanks with a 200 shot capacity.

HPA tanks can be either high or low pressure. The regulator on the tank controls the output pressure. Some tanks have preset pressure outputs, others are adjustable. HPA is generally more reliable than CO2 and does not need an evaporation system in order to fire.

The last of the main paintball gun parts is the barrel. As the barrel determines the speed, distance and accuracy of the paintball, it is a crucial part of the marker. Barrels come in a variety of types distinguished by their length, bore and texture. Generally, the longer the barrel, the more accurate the shot as the paintball has more space to stabilize before leaving the barrel. Longer barrels will fire more quietly than shorter models, but they need a larger burst of air to propel the ball.

There are different barrels for different types of game scenarios. The sniper paintball gun is an example. It can be fitted with a scope to put the target in a clearer line of sight and a red dot laser light to add realism. Some guns allow you to change the barrels to change the whole make up of the gun.

The instruction booklet accompanying your gun will show you the different paintball gun parts and how to change and maintain them. Although paintball guns are durable, small working parts will have to be replaced occasionally. Paintball guns are designed to be upgraded so they can evolve with the abilities of the players using them. This saves the player having to buy a completely new gun as they become more accomplished. Paintball gun packages will include all of the essential paintball gun parts and accessory kits are also useful.

 



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Paintball Guns

Jason Smith asked:


Paintball guns are the primary equipment in paintball game. This is also called paintball marker and they generally use compressed air or carbon dioxide to release paintballs through the barrel. Most of the paintball guns have 4 main parts that includes the body, gas system, hopper and barrel. All these come in a package, you may also buy separate. Paintball guns are usually known as paintball marker as people often think it as a deadly sport.

Description of the Paintball guns:

Most of the paintball guns have a body made of aluminum as this metal significantly lowers the weight of the marker. The body comprises of all the main parts essential for firing, like trigger frame, loaders, valve and bolt.

Trigger frames – are an integral feature of these paintball guns. One can achieve high firing rates depending on the force required to fire from the marker and also the space the trigger moves before the action takes place. Electronic trigger frames are expensive and have different advantages like sensing abilities. It affects the rate of firing and records a very high rate. There are also non-electric guns that use mechanical trigger frame and uses a number of levers and springs.

Valve and bolt – this combination assists to fire the gun or marker. The valve and the bolt control firing and direct airflow allowing the paintballs enter the chamber.

Hoppers or loaders:

These are responsible to hold paintballs before they are fired from the gun. These are several types – force feed, agitating, gravity speed and stick feed. The first three are quite popular and stick feeds are generally used for pump paintball guns. Gravity feed is cheaper and also simpler form of hopper. Agitating feeds use propeller that spins inside the container and agitate the paintballs. Stick feeds are positioned parallel to the barrel and in order to load the next paintball, the marker ahs to be tipped.

Propellers:

The tank consists of carbon dioxide or compressed gas that dismisses the paintballs through the barrel. Carbon dioxide is mostly used in cheap paintball guns. Whereas, compressed air is stored in tanks under high pressure, so it is suitable for expensive markers.

Barrels:

Barrels control the airflow and direct the paintballs out of it. These are generally in three types of configuration – one-piece, two-piece, and three- piece. Barrels are mostly 21 inches long but you can also get custom made barrels of 48 inches as well. These longer barrels are quieter than the shorter ones as they let extra gas pass out slowly. The interior diameter of the barrel is called a bore and it should match the paint otherwise it will give incorrect results.

Trigger mode:

There are different types of triggering modes available, some are pump action markers and some fully automatic. Pump paintball guns are like pump action shotguns that need to be manually re-cocked after every shot. This is a slower version among all the paintball guns and often players choose it for effective shots. It can fire in extremely steady rate if adapted properly. Semi-automatic trigger versions are also equally common for different purposes.



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The Paintball Hopper – Different Types

kevin asked:


The paintball hopper, or loader, is the part of the gun that stores the ammo and feeds it into the chamber. The hopper type will greatly affect the speed, reliability and weight of the marker. Although there is a wide variety of paintball hoppers available on the market, they fall broadly into four main categories: force fed, agitating, gravity fed and stick fed.This article will highlight the differences between the types.

1. The Force- Feed Paint Hopper

These mechanized hoppers use a sophisticated spring-loaded or belt powered system to force the paintballs into the gun. They are mostly used by professional players because these innovative systems can keep up with the speed of play at this level.

Some have digital displays to show how many paintballs are left in the hopper. Others use wireless systems to continue feeding the paintballs before the gun’s pneumatic system has begun the next shot cycle. This system increases the loader’s speed and virtually eliminates misfeeds. Battery life is, therefore, extended as the gun doesn’t have to work so hard.

 2. The Agitating Paintball Hopper

These hoppers have a propeller inside the container and the small fan blades stop the ammo from blocking the neck of the gun. As with the force-feed hopper, the agitating hopper has a quicker firing pace than a gravity hopper. However, if these loaders come into contact with moisture, their more sophisticated systems can falter and fail to perform properly.

 3. The Gravity-Feed Paintball Hopper

These hoppers are ideal for someone wanting a cheap, easy to use hopper for their gun. They have a large container as well as a feed tube. They are able to feed more than eight balls per second, but not necessarily reliably or consistently. They can jam up markers and cause paintballs to pile up above the feed tube, which is placed at the bottom.

4. The Stick-Feed Loader

These are generally used on pump action guns. Their simple tubes can hold about 24 paintballs and run parallel to the gun barrel. You load the paintball by rocking the marker forward. Some stick feeds are vertical to enable gravity feeding, but due to their unreliability, the horizontal types are more popular with stock paintball players.

The paintball hopper is continually evolving and advancing, particularly the more complex types favoured by tournament playing paintballers. Anything from 40 to 300 paintballs can be held by different loaders. There is a hopper out there for every type of player at any level of paintball.

Hawksbill Paintball Hawksbill Sports was established by players, for players. Our goal is to give you the products you need to enjoy the sport of paintball. We have low prices and fast shipping and promise the best customer service you can find anywhere. For further information about different paintball gun types, features and options, go to: Paintball Hopper

 

  

    



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