What You Need To Play

In order to start playing paintball you will need to get some proper equipment. The minimum amount of gear you will need is:

1. Paintball Gun
2. Hopper
3. Air System
4. Mask
5. Paintballs

Paintball Gun

The range of paintball guns you can buy is almost endless. You should really think about what kind of paintball you want to play before making your purchase. If you are more interested in “woodsball” you will find a great deal of guns to choose from. Woodsball style guns look more like actual firearms you see police and military use. Most of these guns are pneumatic but you can also find electronic versions of them as well. If you are more interested in the Speedball style of play you will find an equally abundant amount of guns to choose from. Speedball style guns usually focus on performance with an emphasis on how rate of fire (ROF). Speedball guns are usually the fastest shooting and lightest weight guns available. These guns usually have unique shapes and brighter colors and the majority of them are electronic.

Hopper

The hopper is what you put your paintballs into that feeds them into your gun. There are two kinds of hoppers available. A gravity fed hopper is just a basic hopper made out of plastic that uses gravity to feed the paintballs into your gun. If you have an electronic gun a gravity fed hopper is not your best bet. Many times with gravity fed hoppers the balls bunch up in the feed stem and no balls get into the gun. If this happens to you just shake it for a second and that should break up the jam. If you are using an electronic paintball gun be sure to invest in an electronic hopper. This will allow you to feed the paintballs fast enough into your gun and still keep up with your guns rate of fire.

Air System

There are two kinds of air systems you can choose from when making your choice. You can use an HPA air system which uses compressed air or a CO2 bottle which gets filled with liquid CO2 to shoot the balls. Be careful in making this decision though. Usually you should buy your gun first then refer to the owner’s manual since not all paintball guns can use both sets of air systems.

Mask

This is the single most important piece of equipment that you can own while playing paintball. Make sure to buy a paintball mask that meets all current ASTM standards and ALWAYS have your mask on while playing or around others that are playing. Paintballs can travel at speeds in excess of 300 feet per second and can permanently damage your eyes even causing blindness!!! SAFETY FIRST. Find a mask that fits you well and be sure to read the owners manual all the way and make the proper adjustments as directed.

Paintballs

Not all paintballs are made the same so when buying paintballs do your best to find the freshest paintballs and the most reliable. Simply ask the guys behind the counter at the shop or field you buy at what they have that fits your budget. Most paintball specific stores and playing fields buy their paint every week so it usually is fresh and good for play. Before you leave the counter be sure to open the box and inspect each bag to make sure that none are broken or there are no flat spots on the balls. This usually indicate bad or old paint!!!