Chris Schneck

I’ve spent a lot of money on paintball gear, as most avid ballers do. Perhaps too much? Intentionally I’ve used several online and local retailers to do a general comparison of the level of end user satisfaction during the whole purchasing process. All the pain and teeth gritting anger I’ve had to endure needs to be shared to save some of you your hard earned money. Although I would as much as possible recommend buying whatever you need from a local pro shop, that isn’t always an option. There are some pretty ridiculous deals to be had, on the initial purchase price, that a smaller local shop just cant compete with. However.

 Things that aren’t painful to buy online.

• Barrels.You cant lose here, if you can find a good deal on a barrel or barrel kit go for it. As long as you know what threading you need, how many backs you want, stainless or aluminium and what colour you need you really cant lose. Related to barrels, here’s something I wrote on the Magnus Effect.
• Soft Goods.These include jerseys, pants, vests, pads, sandanas, bandanas, vests, pods, pod packs, swabs, military surplus. Really anything you wear while paintballing. If you know your measurements and the website is clear on sizing and colour availability, go for it. You can save a ton of money buying online and skipping the retail markup. Here are two tactical paintball vests I’ve previously reviewed.
• Air Systems, including remote lines. HPA & CO2 tanks kind of almost break my golden “do not buy online” rule, which ill get to later, but the money you can save by buying online VS. local retail places air systems on the green light list. I’ve already written a series of articles on HPA & CO2 that you may want to check up on as well.
• Hoppers, Loaders and Electronic Agitators. Although a high end loader will contain a little battery powered motor with spring loaded guts, the only way I’ve seen some of these things die is end user abuse. Either souping up some old paint inside like a blender, or landing on them while superman-ing over, or into, a bunker. These will rarely show up on your doorstep D.O.A. if ordered online.

Things that will kick you in the ass later because you thought you could save a few bucks now by buying it online.

Anything with a moving part, O-ring or gasket inside it. Admittedly that is a very general and broad statement, but I honestly think it’s sound advice. Although it does slightly conflict with what’s on the thumbs up list I’ll clarify now.

Paintball markers are an often confusing jumble of parts if you haven’t ever taken a marker apart or you have no brand specific airsmithing certification. If the marker you buy online shows up, for any reason, D.O.A. the only person who will repair it under warranty is the person you purchased it from. In the case of online shopping if you’re in Alberta and you bought something from lets say Ontario, that’s an approximate 8 business days of ground shipping + the time to repair the marker + the cost of shipping. You could be out of commission for two weekends and out of pocket an unknown amount of money.

Anti fog lenses should also be purchased where you can physically see the merchandise before buying it. A well sealed gasket between lenses is key for them to do what they are meant to do, which is ANTI-FOG. Doing what I have done and buying 3 replacement lenses sight unseen only to have them show up all seperated is vein poppingly aggrivating. Again the online retailers response will be, and sure was, “ship them back to us and we will replace them”.

All this can easily be avoided by buying the gear that is prone to break down the most frequently by someone you can 5 minute drive to. Everyone who runs an online store will, I’m sure, whole heartedly disagree with me but this has been my unfortunate experience.

 Now that my rant is over, here are the people in Canada who run websites that I WOULD buy from again.

• PaintballGear.ca
• TacticalPaintball.ca
• GlobalArmySurplus.com
• MyDogTag.ca - Email him first and tell him I sent you
• KJ Sales - Canadas nicest NCStar distributor!

If they aren’t on this list you should wonder why as I’ve bought from many many online sources.

Always phone ahead to see if what’s on the website is actually in stock. Try to avoid at all times cross border shipping, or shipping period! buy locally.

There is an old rough formula for HPA and the number of shots you can expect to get from a fill, all numbers provided below are an approximation.

There are two numbers to take into account: the size of the HPA tank normally measured in CU and the pressure of the HPA tank 3000 / 4500 / 5000

3000 = 10
4500 = 15
5000 = 17

CU * PSI = shots per fill

So, a common HPA size is 38/4500 which translates to 38*15 = 570 shots per fill.

c02 tanks are a little more hit and miss, since c02 is affected by temperature. On a hot day you can expect to get more out of your c02 then on a cold day.

20oz c02 = 700 - 1000
16oz c02 = 480 - 800
12oz c02 = 360 - 600
9oz c02 = 270 - 450
3.5oz c02 = 105 - 175

All the above figures are absolute guesses as there are too many factors that contribute to marker efficiency and propellant usage.

Every field has their own rules, but there are some guidelines that are generally universal.  First lets gets rule number one out of the way.

Rule #1 :  Keep your mask on at all times.

Before you play, make sure to chrono your gun to a speed below 300fps. If you’re using c02 its a good idea to go even lower then that, as through the day your velocity might change.

When playing Rec ball, if you ever come with 15 feet or less of a player on another team, you should offer them a surrender. If you come up close enough to someone to physically touch them, they are automatically out.

Avoid aggressive physical contact, this can result in your removal from the field, permanently.

Never take your mask off. If you’re fogged, call for a ref to get you out of play to defog. If you’re already marked out, it doesn’t mean you wont catch a few stray balls. It’s the #1 rule.

No blind shooting. If you’re pinned behind a bunker/tree and cant stick your head up to see anything, DO NOT just stick your gun around a corner and randomly start shooting. You could end someones day badly, and not even see it.

Some fields follow a 3 break rule. Where if you mark someone out, but they have more then 3 of your paintballs on them, you are also out. This is to try and help prevent overshooting and keep unnecessary welts to a minimum.

Don’t pick up paint off the ground. You never know what you’ll end up putting in your marker. A pebble or a little bark could not only damage the internals of your marker but seriously wound whoever your shooting at.