New Paintball Player Tips

The following is a guide to paintball gear, primarily for new players. It contains information on what paintball gear is used, what to wear and should answer many questions about what to bring on your first trip to the field. I wrote this with Texas paintball players in mind, although that mostly applies to the sections on camouflage and the prices reflected in the section about paintballs. Also, this is written with natural fields in mind, not artificial fields like Sup-air or HyperBall. On those fields, camouflage is really a moot point.

This isn't a paintball tactics guide or information about what to expect once you actually step on the field. For tactics and in-game tips, click here.

Even if you've played before, I hope to impart some insight to the gear we use and help you improve your game. There is a lot of hype out there, and its easy to waste money. This guide should help you avoid some of those pitfalls.

What to Wear

Comfort is the key. You want to be able to concentrate on the game, not on pants that are to tight and won't let you kneel, or on shoes that let water in from the puddle you ran through. The secondary purpose for your paintball clothing is making it harder for the opposing team to find you.

Feet: Comfortable, durable shoes that you don't mind getting dirty. Quality tactical/combat boots are preferable for ankle support. Waterproof ones are even better. If you wear low-cut shoes, wear dark socks. Bring extra socks so you can change if your feet get wet. Dry feet are happy feet.

Legs: Camouflage pants, preferably BDU-style with extra pockets. These will come in handy to store extra gear. Clothes should fit comfortably through a full range of motion, as you'll be doing a lot of squatting and kneeling behind cover. Knee pads are very helpful and make spending time in the dirt more comfortable. Inexpensive, durable models ($10) can be had in the roofing section of most hardware stores, and can be quickly covered with camouflage duct tape if they are not the right color.

Body/Arms: Camouflage shirt. See below for information on pattern choices. Dress with a weight according to the weather. Paintballs can sting a bit on impact, so some players wear an undershirt. In Texas weather this may or may not be a good idea. Gloves can be useful, but make sure they are thin enough to give you fine motor skills.

Head: Paintball-approved safety masks are mandatory, including face and ear protection. Your goggles are your eyes, and arguably have the most pronounced effect on your game. Nothing is more aggravating than not being able to see clearly during the game. I highly recommend buying your own as your first paintball investment. Clean, scratch free goggles are a must. Other rental equipment is usually serviceable, but goggles are fairly personal and hard to maintain in bulk, so try to buy your own.

Most paintball goggles have a double-lens "no fog" option. These are well worth the money. No-fog sprays are helpful, especially so to players who wear glasses under their goggles.

Most players also wear some sort of head covering. A hat, do-rag or other cover keeps the brush out. Be aware that many hats with brims will not fit properly under a mask, and may have to be worn backwards.

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Camouflage

Effective camouflage is very helpful in most woods-based paintball games. Although you won't spend much time hiding in a traditional hunting or ambush sense, having as much camouflage as possible can still be helpful. Camouflage makes individual parts of you harder to see. That means if your leg is sticking just a bit out from behind cover, it's less likely to get shot.

Patterns: Hunting patterns tend to be more effective than traditional military patterns, as they are designed to be viewed at closer ranges. Standard "woodlands" patterns used by most militaries are darker than our local Texas brush and are also designed to work at all visibility ranges. This causes them to "blob up" visually under certain conditions. Cheap clothing in a variety of hunting patterns is widely available. The recommendations will vary based on what part of Texas you play in. The Piney Woods are a far cry from mesquite groves, and you should choose your camo to fit your field.

Depending on what part of the state you are playing in and what season it is, recommended patterns are Advantage, Bushlan, Predator and Obsession. Good military patterns are MultiCam and some WWII-era German splinter and Flectarn. Try to stay away from patterns like Woodlands, Mossy Oak "Break Up", Real Tree (original), and Desert patterns. These are all too dark or too light for most seasons in Texas. Think about the "open spaces" represented in the pattern. Usually, you want more of these and want to aim at the lighter side of the color scale.

A word about "digital" camouflage: The latest rage in camo is the "digital" pattern being adopted by militaries worldwide. These patterns consist of tiny squares in a fractal pattern, rather than the traditional smooth blobs or slashes found on other camo. Due to the mathmatical nature of the fractal pattern (its "true" randomness as found in nature), the pattern is designed to have the same break-up quality at near and far ranges, eliminating the "blob" feature we talked about above. This is one area where knock-off patterns are NOT the same! Generating the fractal pattern requires computer design, not just sticking squares in a camo pattern. Without a fractal pattern, the digital camo is just an old fashioned camo made out of squares. Knock-offs will NOT provide the same camouflage feature as genuine digital camouflage. Unfortunately, the widely available US patterns are not quite suited to most of the Texas terrain I've played in. The Marines' MARPAT and the Army's ACU patterns are too dark and too light, respectively. I have not yet seen a digital pattern that really works well in Texas.

MultiCam Blouse by Tru-Spec

Overall, my favorite pattern is the "MultiCam" that lost out to the digital pattern on the new ACU (Advanced Combat Uniform) of the US Army. This pattern was developed for the US Army in competition with the digital ones. I believe it has superior color combinations for our climate and terrain. The only downside is it tends to be available only for tactical-style gear, which can make garments very expensive. A good place to shop for MultiCam gear at a decent price is www.amfo.com. Also, the material can be bought in bulk from Crye a reasonable price, if you are crafty and can sew your own.

Consistency: Cover everything you can. For instance, don't ruin your whole camouflage outfit with a shiny blue anodized gun. Camouflage tape is inexpensive, replaceable solution to most camouflage needs. Black is not really a good substitute. Very few things you will be hiding near are black. Nature doesn't contain a lot of black. Black stands out in brush, and can be seen through most partial concealment. If you have a choice, shades of brown, gray or olive are better. Using the same pattern throughout your gear is most effective, but mixing camouflage is better than none at all.

Two major areas to camouflage are the loader on your gun and your head. These are two easily recognized shapes, and breaking up these outlines can make a significant difference in your visibility.

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Primary Gear

This is the minimum gear you will need to play a game:

Paintball Guns: The most important principle behind your paintball gun is this:

Pull the trigger, a ball comes out the barrel.

All other things are subordinate to that. Reliability has won far more games than accuracy, speed and looks combined. If you make sure that you are always able to shoot, your effectiveness increases exponentially.

Know how your gun works. Learn how in-game, on-the-field, tool-free maintenance works. Be able to keep your gun running trough a variety of troubles. Make sure your gun works under harsh conditions. Weather is part of the game. Dirt is part of the game. Make sure they don't impede your ability to play.

You will run out of air: have a backup. You will chop a ball in the breach: know how to clean it. In a word from the BSA: be prepared. Prepared wins. Your equipment is your responsibility and one of the few things you have control over in a game.

Gun performance factors, in order of importance:

What does this mean? It means that a shiny new barrel should probably be the last of your upgrades, not the first. If you were to upgrade a stock marker, I'd suggest the following upgrades, in order: a motorized loader, a CO2 expansion chamber, a venturi or other low-break bolt, and then a barrel system of your choice.

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Additional Gear

The following pieces of gear are useful on the field. Some are only used for larger, scenario-type games, some are matters of preference and style.

These items are useful off the field, either before or after a game. These items make your return to the game quicker, and ensure you are playing all day.

These items make a day at the field easier and more comfortable. They aren't directly related to the game, but have a measurable impact on your day.

Carrying paint: Plan on carrying extra paintballs on the field. The average 200-round loader may seem like a lot, but with the fragility and inaccuracy of paintballs, you'll shoot a lot more than you'd expect. Tubes come in 100- and 140-round sizes, and are fairly bulky.

At a minimum, you can carry tubes in the pockets of your BDU-style pants, but this is not very secure, and you'll likely end up with spilled paint and wasted money. If you wear a belt, a simple 2-tube pouch can usually be rented or even bought for under $15 (with tubes). Special loader harnesses come in a variety of sizes and configurations and are a wise investment if you plan on playing more than once.

Cleaning Gear: No matter how reliable your gun or how tough your paint, you WILL break a paintball in your gun at some time. Broken paint in the barrel of a gun will cause extreme inaccuracy and effectively eliminate you from the game. Learn to recognize this symptom to correct and prevent it. Carry a good squeegee in a pocket. Stick-type disk squeegees are quick, but harder to carry. Jerk-type or pull- through squeegees are more compact and usually clean better.

Keep a paper towel or two stuffed in a pocket. Use them to wipe off hits between games, or to ensure you can clean off goggle hits well enough to find your way off the field.

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Paintballs

The use of quality paint cannot be stressed enough. Paint quality has a huge effect on accuracy, reliability, and target effect. Good paint is the difference between spending a day with your barrel in your lap cleaning and a day of wins.

Purchasing: Most fields will only let you shoot off-field paint if you own your own gear. If you are renting, expect to purchase paint at the field. If you do own your own equipment, buy your paint at a paintball store, not Wal-Mart or some other retailer. Big retailers simply don't treat their paint with enough care or move the product fast enough to keep it fresh.

Paint is usually sold in 2000-round cases, and often split into 2 or 4 bags. Whether you buy from a paintball retailer or at the field, have them open up the box and make sure the bags are sealed from moisture and that no balls are broken in each bag. Paint should be fresh (no more than 60 days old) and dry. Some release agents may be present in the bags, (to help keep the shells from over-drying) but there should not be any paint from inside a ball. If the balls appear visibly dented, out-of-round or there is broken paint, do not buy the case.

Retailers will usually offer several "grades" of paint. Basically, these are differences in shell thickness, bore size and the "secret blend of herbs and spices" that company happens to use to make thier fill. Ask for good, general use paint. Don't be afraid to spend an extra $10 for a mid-grade case of paint. It's worth far more than the money you will feel you wasted by having a bad game day because of cheap paint. Be careful with premium or "tournament" grades of paint. Many of these upper-end balls are thin-shelled and very brittle (to break on the slightest hit) and do not work well in many guns. They tend to blow up in the barrel and often aren't worth the extra $20 in terms of performance.

Cost: Low-end paint costs around $35-40. Mid grades are from $45-55, premium grades upward of $60. Field prices will be slightly higher, and fields may not offer the same variety of brand. Remember, if you shoot field guns, expect to shoot field paint.

Usage: Paint usage will vary from player to player and from game type to game type, and usually increases with the experience of the player. A very full day is about a case. Normally, a half case (1000 rounds) per person per day is plenty.

Care: Paintballs are food-grade gelatin, and should be treated as a food product. Keep them cool and dry and handle carefully, and you will do a lot more shooting and a lot less cleaning.

Consider paint that falls on the ground wasted. Do not use paint that is wet or dirty. Do not over-pack tubes so that the paint is compressed and misshaped. All of these will contribute to breaks in the gun.

Size: Paintballs are nominally .68 caliber, but in reality vary from .677 to over .697 caliber. The match of the barrel bore to the paint size has a great effect on accuracy, consistency and barrel breakage. Too small, and the paint bobbles in the bore and either rolls out the end, breaks in the barrel or is unstable in flight. Too tight and the ball is compressed and either tears in the barrel or is deformed and unstable in flight.

A simple way to test bore-to-paint match is to take the barrel off of your gun and fetch out a few rounds at random from your case. You should be able to place a ball in the breech and gently puff the paisntball out of the barrel. It should not roll out, nor should you have to break a blood vessel trying to blow it out of the barrel.

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