Field51 Paintball Articles

Paintball Articles & Information

By paintball god Tom Kaye Pres of AGD

http://www.automags.org/resource/tech/tomstech/04_paint_testing.shtml

How to Test Paintballs and Adjust Breakage

Have you noticed and increase in complaints about paint breakage in the past few months? Do you know that pros with the super tuned guns are dealing with it too? Like to know if it's your gun or your paint? Well read on because this is my fourth installment of Tech Tips designed to inject your brains with knowledge.

Paintballs are made in a 100 year old crude but finely developed process that no one thought would work. The fact that paintballs are as good as they are is really amazing. They are made by pulling two sheets of gelatin, sort of like the Jello stuff, through two pinch rollers. The rollers have holes in them which act like cookie cutters and stamp out the round shape and seal the edges. This is equivalent to taking a piece of round pipe, heating it up the end, press it into a plastic bag laying on the table and trying to seal and cut the plastic at the same time. Now you have to also fill it with goo. We'll try the same thing again but this time you stick a needle between the bag layers, then press the pipe into the bag and seal the needle in the process. Here is the tricky part, you now fill the bag full with goo but don't press hard enough to cut the bag just pinch it closed and seal it. Right when the bag gets completely full you yank out the needle and finish cutting and sealing the bag. Your left with a flexible bag of goo, maybe it leaks maybe it doesn't.

In paintball manufacturing the balls come out of this process all rubbery, flexible and oversize. They really look more like water balloons than paintballs. In order to get them stiff and round they are dried carefully in a tumbling process that takes the moisture out of the gelatin. This is the key point, getting the moisture out. You all know that humidity affects your paint and if you get it wet it goes to hell. Perhaps you have seen paintballs sitting under a bush at your field that look huge and rubbery, that is the extreme example.

In the past couple years or so it has been fashionable for pros to demand more fragile paint that will always break on impact. This idea of more fragility has spread around the industry and a lot of the paint appears fragile now. I am concerned about this because it is putting a lot of blame on all the guns and pressure on us designers to fix it. Besides that, paint that gets old or is not properly stored tends to get more fragile. So now you can have bad paint being passed off as tournament quality because "that's how they like it"

So how do you know what you have and how do you test it? That is the subject of this tech tip. It is actually a tried and true process called a Bounce Test. We have used it for ten years to determine what type of paint we have and how it will work in the guns. In order for this test to have significance you must do the same thing every time and don't cut it short. Start with 10 paintballs, take one paintball and drop it from about 6 feet and let it hit a hard concrete surface. Catch it on the first bounce, do not let it bounce twice in one drop. Now with the same paintball drop it again from six feet, catch it and repeat until it breaks. Mark down how many bounces it took to break that paintball and then repeat with the other 9 balls. Throw out the high and the low numbers and average the other 8. This gives you the "bounce number" for the paint. Simple but effective. Make sure you use a hard surface not a wood floor etc.

So what does this bounce number tell you? 1-2 bounce paint is super fragile and will break down the barrel in most guns just from the air blast. It will also break in your tubes if you don't pack them tight. 1-2 bounce is pretty worthless paint, you can get it at Wall Mart. 2-3 bounce is considered fragile tourney paint, breaks on people and in the guns too. We are now seeing some field paint at this level. 4-6 bounce paint is good all around and considered fresh. It goes through most guns very reliably but will bounce more often on long shots. 6 and higher used to be considered the best tourney paint in the early 90's because it would go through the guns and never break. Nelson paint was very notable at 8-9 bounces. This paint is hard to find these days but still fun to shoot. Great for big games and when you just want to shoot a lot and not worry about anything. The best thing about high bounce paint is that as it gets older it still works pretty good. 2-3 bounce paint goes to unusable 1-2 bounce pretty fast.

So now that you know what you have, what do you do about it? Well we have a fix for that too. Back to the idea of moisture, by controlling the moisture in the paint shell you can adjust the bounce level but only to a certain extent. If your paint is too fragile you can generally move it up one category by setting the bag on a table, opening it up and placing a standing glass of water inside the bag and closing it back up. Let it sit overnight and your paint should move up one bounce category. If it's too bouncy (not likely lately) then you can leave the bag open over night and unless your in a humid area the paint should get a little more fragile. All of this is true for standard gelatin paintballs, we have NOT tested the new dry paints so we are not sure if the same thing applies. Test it yourself and let us know.

My opinion is that the pendulum has swung too far the other way right now and paint is too fragile. This fragility is masking poorly stored paint and millions of rec players are dealing with broken paint when they shouldn't have too. When doing the bounce test note the variation in how many bounces it takes to break the ball. If it ranges from 1-8 then it's inconsistent and will give you problems. Good fresh paint consistently breaks between 4-6 bounces and is worth what you pay for it. As with many things in paintball this test is under utilized to diagnose problems. Take it to heart and show your friends, a little knowledge goes a long way. I want to hear about you guys putting this info to use!

How to Properly Store and Maintain Your Paint

Close your eyes and try and imagine this scenario: you’re in the middle of an epic firefight; you know it’s nearing the end and you’re feeling like you might just have a shot at victory. You hunker down behind a safe spot to top off your hopper only to find that your paintballs are swollen and won’t exit the barrel anymore - and then… SPLAT!!! You’ve been hit while your back was turned! If only your paint had cooperated, you could be the one celebrating right now.

Congratulations, you’ve made the biggest rookie mistake there is, you’ve allowed the natural elements to effect your paint and ultimately, your game. When paintballs aren’t stored properly, they can easily lose their round shape and no longer fit the bore size of your barrel. Or worse, they can lose their accuracy.

Don’t worry though; this is a situation that can be easily avoided. All you need to do is remember some simple guidelines when it comes to storing and caring for your paintballs and they will never fail you again.

The Fragility Issue

A paintball is very delicate. They are made of a thin, gelatin-based skin which is easily permeable and filled with a special type of non-toxic paint. Because they have such a thin skin, they can easily warp, swell or dent if not stored properly. Also, because they have little moisture content, they will easily absorb water in a humid environment or dry out when the air is too dry. The ideal humidity level for storing paintballs is at about 50%.

Temperature, Humidity And Where To Store Your Paint

The most important things to keep in mind when storing your paintballs are temperature and humidity. Too hot, too cold, too humid or too dry – all of these will have a negative effect on your paint. The ideal temperature for storing your paintballs is 60° to 70° Fahrenheit or 15° to 21° Celsius. This is basically room temperature or a little bit cooler. At home, you should always keep your paintballs in a cool, dry place, like an out-of-the-way cupboard. Don’t ever put them in the refrigerator or freezer or near a warm appliance. You should always keep your paintballs completely sealed-up in their original container or in an air-tight bag. Don’t open the container or bag until you are ready to play. The less they are exposed, the better they will perform. Also, make sure you don’t ever leave your paintballs sitting out in the sun or in the cold.

Since humidity also has a huge effect on your paint, you need to make sure they don’t get wet, or even exposed to humid air until you are loading them into your hopper. The best way to keep your paint in perfect shape on game day is to store it in a regular drink cooler with some ice packs. This is especially important on a hot day when your paint is waiting for you in the car. Be careful to keep them well-sealed in the cooler so no moisture gets in. Also, be very careful that they do not freeze, because a hard, frozen paintball is basically like shooting a small sized rock. It’s not fun anymore once someone gets seriously hurt in a game. Make sure you throw out paintballs that have been or are still frozen.

Top 5 Quality Paintballs

Draxxus
PMI
Nelson
Evil
Diablo

Things To Remember...

Do's

Always store paintballs at room temperature
Keep your paintballs sealed until you’re ready to use them

Don't

Let them get wet (or exposed to humid or dry air)
Let them freeze
Expose paintballs to the elements

Always treat your Paintballs with care and they will treat you well back. You would never just toss your marker around, so why wouldn’t you be just as careful with your paint? Remember these guidelines and you can stop worrying about your equipment and start focusing on the game.

Most importantly, have fun and good luck, soldier!

About The Author

Niko Brain is a freelance writer and offers sound advice on the sport of Paintball. He runs his own personal paintball site and enjoys writing reviews on Paintball Guns Paintball Supplies and Cheap Paintball Guns. He's your "average Joe" paintball player and is an up and coming industry resource that loves to help newcomers to the sport.