A paintball gun is likely to work for you if you are familiar with real firearms. However, there are a few differences that you should know before using the paintball marker. In this blog entry, I will show you how to use a paintball gun properly to improve your performance. Continue reading.
How Does Paintball Gun Work?
You might be wondering why you should know the paintball gun operation. You need to understand the functions of essential paintball gun parts to be able to use them effectively.
That is why knowing how paintball gun works is important for optimum performance and correct assembly, upgrades, and maintenance.
Difference between Paintball Guns and Real Firearms
Paintball markers differ from the actual guns in the following way:
- Paintball Guns have hoppers that are attached to the top of the gun. Instead of magazines, paintballs are loaded in the hopper.
- The paintball gun uses a gas cartridge (CO2 or HPA tanks) attached to the bottom of the grip frame. The pressurized gas in these tanks provides the necessary thrust to eject paintballs at high velocity. You won’t see such cylinders in real guns.
- Paintball guns are non-lethal and use paint-filled pellets instead of bullets.
How to Set Up Paintball Gun
Here is how you should use a paintball gun:
Assemble the Paintball Marker
Guns are stored in disassembled form for safety reasons. So, you need to attach the Paintball barrel, battery/batteries, and sights before you can use it. Most electronic markers use a 9-volt AA or AAA battery. You can also attach an electric loader to increase balls per second.
Attach Gas Cartilage
The next important step before you get started with a paintball gun is to attach the CO2 or high-pressure air (HPA) tank to the air source adapter (ASA) located at the bottom of the grip frame. Make sure that paintball tanks are refilled to the proper level.
As mentioned above, gas cartilage provides the required air burst that propels paintball out of the barrel.
Most electronic paintball guns have HPA tanks, while mechanical guns work fine with CO2. Overall, it is widely accepted that pressurized air is a better option for keeping the internal parts of guns working efficiently than CO2.
Attach the Hopper
The third step is to insert the paintball hopper into the feed neck located at the top of the gun. These hoppers or loaders hold around 200 paintballs and drop them into the gun breach.
Some mag-fed markers have magazines attached to the bottom of the gun. These magazines host, however, a lesser number of paintballs than hoppers.
Turn on Your Marker
After loading the hopper and gas tank, it is time to activate your marker. Most paintball guns have a cocking knob or power button and safety button. In the case of a mechanical paintball gun, you must push the safety button on the trigger frame. Once the light on the safety button is red, you can play with your marker.
The cocking knob is placed on the body frame of the mechanical marker, while the power button in the electronic gun can be found on the backside of the grip frame. Before shooting, you should turn on your paintball marker by either pulling the cocking handle or pressing the power button.
Now, your gun is ready to shoot. Load the paintballs and start aiming at your target.
How To Load A Paintball Gun
Paintballs are most often stored in pods to protect them from moisture and other elements that can degrade their quality and shelf life. The paintball gun is easy to load; all you need to do is open the lid and pour the paintballs into the hopper. If you’re using a magazine, you’ll have to load the paintballs one by one.
How To Hold a Paintball Gun Properly
How you hold the marker will have an effect on the shooting efficiency. A paintball gun is slightly different from a firearm. So, if you have handled a gun before, holding a paintball gun is a different experience. That’s why you should practice holding a paintball gun before you begin playing.
Here are some tips on paintball marker handling:
- It is important that your dominant hand holds the main grip while your non-dominant hand holds the foregrip
- Place the finger on the trigger
- Press the compressed air tank against your shoulder
How To Aim a Paintball Gun
Like most things, aiming with a paintball gun differs from aiming with a real gun. Firstly, the velocity of paintballs is much slower than bullets. Secondly, paintballs have a larger volume and weight; hence, they are affected by gravity more and can’t travel straight like bullets.
So, aiming with a paintball marker isn’t that easy as compared to actual firearms. Nothing to worry about, as I will give you aiming tips to help you shoot accurately. Let’s get started.
- Make sure your marker’s barrel is aimed toward the target
- Get behind the maker with eyes directly above the backend of it
- Ideally, the marker’s rear bolt should be aligned with your nose.
- Ensure that your eyes have a maximum field of view– if the hooper is blocking the view, you should tilt the gun to see better.
What’s Stopping You?
By practicing, you can improve your Shooting accuracy. The more you play, the more effectively you will use the paintball gun. Go out in the field and start practicing.