The Best Paintball Upgrades
After a trip or two to the field with rental equipment and then using a beginner package a few times, most players dream of upgrading their equipment from the bare basics.Here’s what to look for as you proceed to move up in the paintball world.
Basicpaintball guns such as introductory Spyders and Tippmanns are great forbeginners, but eventually many players want something a little nicer. You don’t need to spend a thousand dollars to get a good gun, andinstead you can look towards more advanced paintball guns such as theGOG eNVy, the Tippmann A-5 or the Dangerous Power Fusion. Thedifference between the most basic guns and these updated ones include ahigher rate of fire, more consistent firing and, for many of the nicerguns, an electronic trigger with multiple firing modes. Guns in the$200-$300 price range are generally very accurate, reliable and fun toplay with. While they aren’t quite as nice as the high-end guns, theydo provide much of the quality and cost hundreds of dollars less.More »
Beginner masks are extremely functional.They protect your face, ears and eyes from paintballs.Other than that, though, they are pretty unfortunate pieces of plastic.They are not very comfortable, they have a limited field of vision, they don’t sit snugly on your head and, most importantly, they have a tendency to fog up and become almost impossible to see through.Upgrading masks starts with getting a thermal lens.While normal lenses just have one piece of clear plastic to see through, thermal lenses have two pieces of plastic with a thin air pocket between them which helps prevent fogging.With higher quality lenses you can also increase your field of vision, improve comfort and insure a snug fit on your head.More »
Most beginner players start playing paintball with CO2. Carbon dioxide is cheap, easy to find and the tanks are cheap to use. The major issue with CO2, though, is that it isn’t very consistent and can severely damage electropneumatic paintball guns. The answer for consistency is to upgrade to a high pressure air (HPA) tank. These paintball tanks can hold several thousand pounds per square inch (PSI) of pressure and are basically miniature scuba tanks that you screw onto your gun. While they do cost more to purchase and there are fewer places to fill the tanks, HPA tanks provide a better paintball experience.More »
1. Paintball Gun
Basicpaintball guns such as introductory Spyders and Tippmanns are great forbeginners, but eventually many players want something a little nicer. You don’t need to spend a thousand dollars to get a good gun, andinstead you can look towards more advanced paintball guns such as theGOG eNVy, the Tippmann A-5 or the Dangerous Power Fusion. Thedifference between the most basic guns and these updated ones include ahigher rate of fire, more consistent firing and, for many of the nicerguns, an electronic trigger with multiple firing modes. Guns in the$200-$300 price range are generally very accurate, reliable and fun toplay with. While they aren’t quite as nice as the high-end guns, theydo provide much of the quality and cost hundreds of dollars less.More »
2. Mask
Beginner masks are extremely functional.They protect your face, ears and eyes from paintballs.Other than that, though, they are pretty unfortunate pieces of plastic.They are not very comfortable, they have a limited field of vision, they don’t sit snugly on your head and, most importantly, they have a tendency to fog up and become almost impossible to see through.Upgrading masks starts with getting a thermal lens.While normal lenses just have one piece of clear plastic to see through, thermal lenses have two pieces of plastic with a thin air pocket between them which helps prevent fogging.With higher quality lenses you can also increase your field of vision, improve comfort and insure a snug fit on your head.More »
3. Hopper
The basic gravity-fed hopper does a pretty decent job of holding a lot of paintballs but it struggles to feed them as fast as higher-end guns can shoot.While a mechanical gun like a Tippmann or a Spyder generally has enough kick to shake the paintballs and keep them feeding, most electropneumatics don’t kick hard enough, leaving the balls to form a bridge over the feedneck and slowing or stopping balls from sliding down.To remedy this situation you can get an agitated or force-fed hopper.An agitated hopper simply bumps the balls , making sure they don’t form the unwanted bridge while the force-fed hopper will physically push balls down into the gun.A fast hopper is able to deliver paintballs over 20 balls per second and is a necessary investment if you want to shoot your gun’s potential.More »4. Price of Upgrading
The old adage that “you get what you pay for” in paintball is very true. To get a complete setup of mid-range equipment, expect to spend $200-$300 $50-$100 on an HPA tank, $40-$60 on a mask and another $40-$80 on a hopper. Upgrading is not inexpensive but, depending on what you are trying to do with paintball, it can be worth the price.More »5. Tank
Most beginner players start playing paintball with CO2. Carbon dioxide is cheap, easy to find and the tanks are cheap to use. The major issue with CO2, though, is that it isn’t very consistent and can severely damage electropneumatic paintball guns. The answer for consistency is to upgrade to a high pressure air (HPA) tank. These paintball tanks can hold several thousand pounds per square inch (PSI) of pressure and are basically miniature scuba tanks that you screw onto your gun. While they do cost more to purchase and there are fewer places to fill the tanks, HPA tanks provide a better paintball experience.More »
