paintball....

[SnowSurfer]

I am planning on buying a paintball gun soon because some of my friends play, i was wondering what would be the best semi-auto or fully automatic gun to buy for under 200 dollars...thank you :)

[verve247]

Anything would be better than those crappy rental guns. Not too familiar with brands, yet $100 at a toy store or wal-mart can get you a nice one. Are you getting serious into paintballing?

[SnowSurfer]

yeah im serious bout getting into it but i dont want to spend more than 200 bucks

[kei2]

My friends were looking into buying markers a year or two ago... I think the Spyder Shutter was the model they recommended.

Edit: Actually, Shutters routinely go for under $100 on ebay, so you can probably go more high-end than that.

[dsuds]

A lot of the paintball rental places use Tipmann 98's if they know what they're doing. I actually like Tipmanns because the very seldom break balls unlike a Spyder (or similar gun), which can be very frustrating for a new user. And a Tipmann is as reliable as a rock. Add a longer barrel (16" Thunderpig works well) and you can do OK with one.

I know the serious ballers are gonna smack me for this. But I never wanted to spend the serious money for a e-trigger and nitrogen tank anyway.

[Kevster]

I have a heavily modified Tippman 68 Carbine. I still shoot CO2, but my gun can shoot straight and has a range of 200'+ before the balls start to really drop. On top of that, it is very quiet allowing me to snipe well. Another thing is I can break it almost completely down in about 5 minutes.

I get wierd looks sometimes since some people think my gun's a relic - all I have to say is, "it kills people just fine."

If you don't paintball very often and mostly play with friends, get a Tippman. As dsuds said, they reliable as a rock.

Snowsurfer, if you're in So. Cal, I might be able to meet up with you at one of the SO. Cal fields (probably with Nija too if his arm is healed up) and you can try out some of the Tippmans I have. One thing you'll find out quickly is that a good barrel makes a world of difference.

[kei2]

paging Kevster...

And SnowSurfer, just make sure you don't become that one fat guy at every paintball park that just chills in the back with his Angel marker wiggling his fingers as paint flies out at a ridiculous clip and only ducks behind cover to pour another tube of paint into his hopper.

[SnowSurfer]

:( i am on the direct other side of the country lol (north east), i am going to look into tippmans on ebay...:) this is very helpful :) how much do barrel's and other accessories cost?

[dsuds]

I just checked a couple of the paintball websites as I hadn't looked at them in a while. Barrels for Tippmann's run between $40 and $150 for the high end stuff. $40-$50 would get you a good one.

I dunno if Kevster has had any luck with it, but I'd recommend staying away from the "flatline" barrel. My brother had one and we never could get it to work right.

[Kevster]

I just checked a couple of the paintball websites as I hadn't looked at them in a while. Barrels for Tippmann's run between $40 and $150 for the high end stuff. $40-$50 would get you a good one.

I dunno if Kevster has had any luck with it, but I'd recommend staying away from the "flatline" barrel. My brother had one and we never could get it to work right.

I have never used a flatline barrel. The one I have used that worked fantastic for me is a 14" ACI Zero-Gravity barrel that has a rifled-port design that puts a slight spin on the ball as it exits. It turns the Tippman 68 Carbine, Pro/Lite and Pro Carbine into completely different guns.

[oblongmelon]

I have a paintball question...is it illegal to be caught with a paintball gun as it would be to be caught with say a pistol (sans permit of course)..do you need some kind of permit to have one? I've heard that paintball tags hurt like blank bullets...is this true?

[Kevster]

I have a paintball question...is it illegal to be caught with a paintball gun as it would be to be caught with say a pistol (sans permit of course)..do you need some kind of permit to have one? I've heard that paintball tags hurt like blank bullets...is this true?

You don't need a permit to have one. A typical guns' range is less than 300 feet so they don't really pose much of a risk except when they're fired at someone who is not wearing proper protection then they can be deadly if they hit a specific soft-tissue area like the eye or even the ear.

At point blank-range, properly tuned paintball gun will launch a .68 caliber paintball (a gelatin capsule filled with water, coloring and soap) at approximately 290 feet per second. I say 290 fps because that is the maximum velocity allowed at most reputable fields. That speed is approximately 198 mph. The speed drops off considerably as the paintball travels, but at decent range it will break and leave a quarter-sized bruise. Soft-tissue hits hurt less than hard tissue hits (fingers, hands, ankles, etc) hence the reason why I wear gloves with some protection.

Unless you get hit at point-blank range, the pain goes away quickly. You just have some interesting battle wounds for about a week or so. Point-blank hits can hurt quite a bit - depending on where you're hit they may even break the skin a little.

[CornMonkey]

ok...here we go...

tippmanns are built like tanks, i'll give em that. you can drop em over and over again and they'll stay with you. but they're not that great in terms of shot consistency.

now, snowsurfer, if say you want to really get into it, you're going to end up spending much more than $200. many say that beginners should purchase spyders and i agree...kinda. spyders are definitely one of the most common markers out there due to their specific firing design. it's called a tubestack blowback design which is one of the most popular and most basic designs. unfortunately for spyder, for this type of design, there are better paintball markers on the market.

for a beginner's marker, i suggest the piranha line of markers. i suggest you purchase from http://www.rjskateworks.com/markers.shtm the owner of this site is a real good guy...and looks after his customers in case anything goes wrong. he'll pricematch any price you find on the internet...but he also makes good aftermarket parts for the piranha marker. if you buy a piranha, you'll want to get the Boss Bolt along with it.

also, aside from the marker, you will need to purchase three other critical pieces of equipment.
1) air source. for any tubestack blowback design, you can use any CO2 tank...though it is recommended that you visit a paintball store and have them anti-siphon it. price should be ~20 + 5 for anti-siphon. the higher end option would be to go with a high pressure air tank. but these cost about ~$180+ a piece.

2) paintball loader. i HIGHLY recommend a motorized loader. i suggest an empire reloader (not reloader B). they should cost 35-45. it's sound activated as opposed to an eye that reads whether or not the paintballs are loading. the reason you would want this is for a consistent paint feed. if you don't have this, you're more likely to chop paint in the breech...which would be very bad.

3) you will want a good goggle system. for this, you can start out with whatever you can afford and what is comfortable. personally, i like the vforce goggles because it's very easy to clean. if you play long enough, you'll know that it's a hassle to clean your gear after a day out in the field. the last thing you want is to take apart about a dozen parts just to clean your lens. with a vforce system, the lens just pops out. VERY convenient.

well, that's pretty much it...for now. but this is only the tip of the iceberg. i'm not going to make this into a super long post so i'll post more info later, if you want it.

oh, and here's another site for good paintball gear:
www.pbgear.com

[Kevster]

You may also want to get a good set of knee-pads. The reason for this is most of the time you're on your knees or dropping to them and in rough terrain this can really hurt. I wear a set of roller blade knee-pads that work great.

[dsuds]

I knew somebody would take me to task over recommending a Tippmann. :)

Seriously though, shot consistency is a bit overrated for any gun running CO2. It's pretty easy to get liquid CO2 in the chamber and cause pressure changes (which causes speed variation). That's why most people running CO2 get an expansion chamber as an early upgrade. The very short barrel on the 98 & 98 custom, to me anyway, contributes a lot to the inconsistent shots. After my brother bought a 16" barrell, he was picking off people left & right on our small speedball field. I do know that when we played outside on a cold day (approx 40 degrees), the Tippmanns were the only markers that weren't chopping paint like mad. We had Tippmanns (2), Piranhas (3), Spyders (4), and some cheaper Wally-world markers there (3-4).

Kevster,
If you haven't seen a flat-line. they are bent like a banana and designed to put bottom-spin on the paintball, making it fly flatter. The problem is the sharp angular change right at the breech end of the barrell. It's like 20 degrees up angle. I don't know how anyone gets a flatline to work. BTW, kneepads are a great idea.

Obby,
I have heard of people getting in trouble for even walking around with a paintball marker, even though they are not "real" guns. My guess the reason for this is because of the few idiots who did drive-bys on pedestrians. If I was carrying my marker it would either be in its case, or at least have the tank off and barrel plug in. Better yet, carry it in a duffel bag so the cops don't see it at all to avoid the problem entirely.

[tupacboy]

i would get a tippmann... or if you can budget $500 (you'll be spending that much sooner or later) you can get a used angel on ebay with tank.... or for 200 a used autococker... is my recommendation... where do you guys play in so cal?... i'm at hollywood sports a lot cause of the lights

[BrewMaster]

i have been so tempted to get into paintball but I don't want to drop the cash. this thread is bringing back the temptations.

[CornMonkey]

just say no to tippmanns. :) trust me, if you want a balance of cost and quality/performance (for a beginner's marker) get a piranha.

and i agree with tupacboy. if you're gonna get into paintball, get ready to drop about 500 pretty quickly.

i usually play at paintball usa, simi valley. my paintball buddy lives in chatsworth so that's the closest/best field in the area.

oh, and you can also try visiting www.pbnation.com . it's a paintball forum filled with over-reactive teenagers but there are some knowledgable ppl on there too...like me. :) i usually post in the odyssey forum.

[Kevster]

I usually go to Tombstone or SC Village myself. I'm in the South Bay so everything is far for me. Then again, I haven't gone in about 9 months so now that I'm healthy again I'l probably be going out again soon.

[seksiexboy]

i have an upped tippmann for sale
=D
aim me if interested.. i'm pretty reasonable, i dont want to make money, i just wana get out without losing too much money..
if you have any questions about pb/guns contact me, i'm pretty knowledgeable but i dont like to brag =P
always down to help a newbie out
-vince

[Burzhui]

for 200 you won't get anything good. As of right now i have 2 guns, a heavily modified, pretty much just the body left Spyder and a heavily modified automag, all accessories included i probably downed about $1500-1700 into it.
Tippmans are not consistant at all, you will get drop offs like crazy.

I'd say just buy a automag or cocker on ebay, like a basic model you'll probably land in about a 250-300 range without a tank that is.

[CornMonkey]

for $250, buy the new smart parts ion.

[tupacboy]

i would still get a used angel...

[SolidSnake]

2pacboy has a point there if you are just gouing to spend time going once or twice a month to play with your friends...