Accuracy in paintball

[Badmovies.org]

I have seen a lot of debates about improving the accuracy of paintball guns, but very little info from people who teach marksmanship.

Now, do not get me wrong, I understand the "accuracy by volume" issue and agree that the more balls you throw the more likely one is to hit. I am talking about improving shooting accuracy.

Matching paint to your barrel is very important and most players already know about this. Ditto with consistency of operating pressure.

Qualification: I teach Marines how to shoot, everything from pistols to machineguns.

A great deal of misses are caused by anticipating the shot. Paintball players usually get over this quickly, because the guns are not as loud as a real weapon and do not have recoil (plus lots of rounds downrange as practice). However, keep it in mind.

Next up is probably trigger control. Jerking the trigger most of all. This is something that affects paintball players. If you are whaling on the trigger, trying to hose paint, you are probably moving where the barrel is pointing. Also, if you have your finger positioned incorrectly, you can make the gun heel to one side or the other (usually to the right, with right handers). Learn to pull the trigger smoothly to the rear. And, yes, you can still do this and shoot pretty fast. I can usually do about 4 balls per second with my automag and not heel the gun around.

Grip. Do not hold the gun with a death grip, nor too loose. Firmly seat it in the "v" of your hand and wrap your fingers around the grip. Get used to doing it the same way, every time. That way it becomes second nature. You will grip the gun the same way, every time, without thinking.

You are going to hate me for this one, but I am going to say it: get a stock. A stock stabilizes the gun, even when running and firing. I can put rounds accurately on a bunker, while moving at full speed to flank it. There is a reason that carbines have stocks, the added accuracy is worth making the weapon bulkier.

Sight alignment and sight picture do not apply very well to paintball markers. However, if you like getting that "first shot" accuracy, remember that it is all about "everything I look at is the same." The relation of barrel, hopper, and rear sight must be consistent if you want to know where that ball is going by rote.

Maintain your equipment. Put it away in good working order and you will take it out in good working order (most of the time).

Here is the big one I will push: practice. Without people. Put up a small target and practice running, getting up, getting down, taking cover, coming out of cover, but all the while putting paint onto it.

There is plenty more, some applies, some does not, and I am tired of typing for now.

[Brian68mag]

Good post. I agree with most of what you said.
Practice,grip and trigger control are imo the most important things.
Btw, on a sidenote i also intend to join the USMC out of highschool.
Goood post again.

[TransMan]

IMO an Air tank works just as good as a normal stock but other than that i agree with you

[Army]

Well, as I am too, my battalion marksmanship instructor, I want to remind the fine Marine, that people don't hold markers like an actual handgun. Very little of the grip is actually held, maybe the little finger and thumb keeping pressure on the frame.

So, although your points are very helpful for bullseye shooting, they won't apply to paintball. Think of a marker as a very short trap gun. In trap, and skeet, you mash on the trigger instead of a steady pull. Well, in paintball, you can't think about trigger finesse, you just mash on it as fast as you can. Electros take out a lot of the jerk, but the mechanics are still the same:)

[joeyjoe367]

I just point the gun, and shoot. Too much thinking otherwise. Thinking = bad in this case. IMO of course.

Just point and shoot. Correct from there, or just hose, and hope your jittering sends a ball in the right direction :)

[Ov3rmind]

Actually, I can shoulder my tank much better than I can a stock.

As far as learning to shoot accurately, those will all work well. I have found that playing hopperless, and feeding balls into your gun by hand teaches you to take much more careful and precise shots. For the past few weeks, I have been doing this. I can tell you from experience, there will be a noticeable increase in your accuracy. I naturally learned how my gun points, how to shoulder it best, and the path the paintball makes to it's target. After doing this for a while, aiming accurately fast becomes almost a reflex while playing.

[Scorch]

Practice without people :)

I stress this with my team all the time. Getting players to see that "wasting paint" to improve makes the team better is a hard sell.

A great individual drill to improve first shot consistency is "chasing the tennis ball". Just like it sounds... toss a tennisball 10-15ft ahead of you and single shot it along. A ShockTech Factory player taught this to me.

If you have a safe place to do this, I can assure you that this will help you get comfortable at quickly sighting down your barrel and anticipating the path of the paint.

Certainly longer target shooting is important but this teaches keeping your shooting positioning consistent while the environment is dynamic.

Scorch

[shartley]

Originally posted by Army
Well, as I am too, my battalion marksmanship instructor, I want to remind the fine Marine, that people don't hold markers like an actual handgun. Very little of the grip is actually held, maybe the little finger and thumb keeping pressure on the frame.

So, although your points are very helpful for bullseye shooting, they won't apply to paintball. Think of a marker as a very short trap gun. In trap, and skeet, you mash on the trigger instead of a steady pull. Well, in paintball, you can't think about trigger finesse, you just mash on it as fast as you can. Electros take out a lot of the jerk, but the mechanics are still the same:)
Good points. I too was a marksmanship instructor when in the service, and I find that shooting Paintball Markers isn’t quite the same. Sure, if you shoot your marker one shot at a time, some of the same principles can apply, but most of the time we shoot them in bursts of shots, and thus BRM techniques tend to fly out the window. And almost all Handgun Marksmanship techniques do so as well.

Yes… it is a lot like trap shooting.. just real darn fast. LOL And the sighting (for the most part) is almost identical to sighting with a shotgun.

Also it was a good point about how the marker is actually held as opposed to a standard firearm.

While Badmovies.org’s post may sound good at first read, it does not apply well to actual paintball use. And if you follow standard BRM techniques you will actually slow down your rates of fire and hurt your overall game. Not to mention trying that stuff when snap-shooting will get you in trouble. ;)

Now for stocks…. That all depends on your style of play, and the type of game you are playing. Most people who want a “stock” use their markers without drop forwards. And actually, even WITH my drop, I use my tank OFTEN as a very short stock.

All in all, I would say that although his post may have been well intended, following his suggestions as a whole would not help your paintball game, but hurt it. But that is me. Soldiers, Police Officers, and the like need to remember that Paintball is NOT like the other things they train for. And being both a former soldier and police officer, I know this as a fact. Some things transfer well, while others don’t.

We would not try to use pistol techniques when teaching someone how to shoot a rifle, and vice versa… and the same is true with weapons like the M2 and M60. So I advise not trying to apply a patchwork of standard firearms techniques to paintball markers, while it may sound good and impress some folks, it really does not transfer well on the actual playing field.

[LawFox32]

if anyone hasn't noticed this already;

We have damn-good mods.

good posts guys

very informative

and about jerking the gun around while firing; this isn't a problem with most high end electro's b/c you don't put enough force on the trigger to move the gun; but yeah with my mag I see it happen a good bit;

peace

[Badmovies.org]

I can certainly agree with the trap comparison, it is a good analogy. Though, not certain about "mashing" the trigger. You should still be taking a squeeze. It is like shooting rapids, steady squeeze, but maybe a little faster than normal.

The goal of my post was to make people think about what they are doing. I will hit back on a few points.

My whole point was about improving accuracy without using a horrendous volume of paint. Ever since I first picked up a semiauto marker, my paint usage has been static - about 300 or 400 rounds in a full game. The most I have ever fired was around 600 and that was with my VM-68 EXC in a tourney game (7 on 7, wooded course) about eight or nine years ago.

The grip is what you have become used to. If you have a terrible way of gripping the marker, it is probably because you are trying to rip paint. I do not want to rip paint. I have seen many angel, impulse, cocker, or even spyder players who used FOUR (or more) cases during a day, while I used ONE (or less).

That other $270 worth of paint can be spent on my marker, a gift for my wife, new tools for my woodshop, savings, or paying extra off of my house's mortgage. For this reason, from what I have seen of tournaments lately, I will never be a tourney-level player again. I absolutely refuse to shoot that much paint. Fire less and hit more is the creed.

I am one of the people who wishes that the amount of paint you take on the field was limited. When playing with the other Marines and military on the base land, we usually set a limit of one hopper and two loaders. Playing stock or pump only games is fun.

If you are using your tank as a stock, that works - it stabilizes the marker. I have gotten used to that line, running from my shoulder, down the stock, and out the barrel of my mag. I put the stock in my shoulder and bring the gun up - on target, start shooting.

The tennis ball idea sounds like a good exercise, Scorch. I am going to try that. Reminds me of "walking the can" with a .22 as a kid.

You might not use pistol techniques for a machinegun, but some things are universal. Like doing the same thing, every time, doing things smoothly, and practicing. If you discard basic technique when doing rapid fire, you are wrong.

Teaching kids to correctly shoot, when they grew up playing paintball, is living h*ll. Believe me.

Finally, I do want to say that playing paintball on a regular basis is terrible for my shooting. The only worse thing I can think of would be getting Parkinson's.

[Xerces]

Originally posted by shartley
Yes… it is a lot like trap shooting.. just real darn fast. LOL And the sighting (for the most part) is almost identical to sighting with a shotgun.


the way i fire my gun is not the same as sighting with a shotgun. with shotguns you have to make sure the barrel is straight, pointed to a place near possible trajectories of the clay and give it the right amount of lead. when i play paintball i just fire off a few and see if i need to go left/righ up/down etc.. and adjust accordingly.

[shartley]

Originally posted by Badmovies.org
I can certainly agree with the trap comparison, it is a good analogy. Though, not certain about "mashing" the trigger. You should still be taking a squeeze. It is like shooting rapids, steady squeeze, but maybe a little faster than normal.

The goal of my post was to make people think about what they are doing. I will hit back on a few points.

My whole point was about improving accuracy without using a horrendous volume of paint. Ever since I first picked up a semiauto marker, my paint usage has been static - about 300 or 400 rounds in a full game. The most I have ever fired was around 600 and that was with my VM-68 EXC in a tourney game (7 on 7, wooded course) about eight or nine years ago.

The grip is what you have become used to. If you have a terrible way of gripping the marker, it is probably because you are trying to rip paint. I do not want to rip paint. I have seen many angel, impulse, cocker, or even spyder players who used FOUR (or more) cases during a day, while I used ONE (or less).

That other $270 worth of paint can be spent on my marker, a gift for my wife, new tools for my woodshop, savings, or paying extra off of my house's mortgage. For this reason, from what I have seen of tournaments lately, I will never be a tourney-level player again. I absolutely refuse to shoot that much paint. Fire less and hit more is the creed.

I am one of the people who wishes that the amount of paint you take on the field was limited. When playing with the other Marines and military on the base land, we usually set a limit of one hopper and two loaders. Playing stock or pump only games is fun.

If you are using your tank as a stock, that works - it stabilizes the marker. I have gotten used to that line, running from my should, down the stock, and out the barrel of my mag. I put the stock in my shoulder and bring the gun up - on target, start shooting.

The tennis ball idea sounds like a good exercise, Scorch. I am going to try that. Reminds me of "walking the can" with a .22 as a kid.

You might not use pistol techniques for a machinegun, but some things are universal. Like doing the same thing, every time, doing things smoothly, and practicing. If you discard basic technique when doing rapid fire, you are wrong.

Teaching kids to correctly shoot, when they grew up playing paintball, is living h*ll. Believe me.

Finally, I do want to say that playing paintball on a regular basis is terrible for my shooting. The only worse thing I can think of would be getting Parkinson's.
I think you hit a lot of good points. The techniques used in Paintball will not help you in shooting Real Firearms. ;)

And one method that has been overlooked as well, is walking the trigger. You don’t do that with real firearms. And it blows the “squeezing” of the trigger right out of the water. This is similar to the “mashing” that I think Army was talking about, where it is not so much a squeeze, but a jerking pull, or motion.

Originally posted by Xerces
the way i fire my gun is not the same as sighting with a shotgun. with shotguns you have to make sure the barrel is straight, pointed to a place near possible trajectories of the clay and give it the right amount of lead. when i play paintball i just fire off a few and see if i need to go left/righ up/down etc.. and adjust accordingly.
This is ANOTHER way of firing, yes. It uses more the same type of "aiming" as used with larger cal. Machineguns when on full auto. However, I think you will find that a lot of folks still use the top or side of their markers (like they do with sighting a shotgun) to give them a starting point for their first shot. And even more so when trying to pick someone off when they are moving.

Yes, even I at times just point in the general direction and hope I am close, and then adjust.. this is common. But I think you understand what I am talking about with the shotgun aiming… it IS used, and used often. ;) After all, firing a weapon and adjusting the rounds, and AIMING it are two different things.

[aaron_mag]

Originally posted by Badmovies.org
I do not want to rip paint. I have seen many angel, impulse, cocker, or even spyder players who used FOUR (or more) cases during a day, while I used ONE (or less).


A case a day is still alot. My stepson and I typically get by with one case between us (granted that is with me yelling at him NOT to stand in the back upright in speedball laying down the paint). Four cases is nuts. I have seen an individual player lugging around two cases but never four.

These people shooting so much paint are NUTS. I also put extra payments down on my house/other real estate. I'd love to play more local tournaments IF they were limited paint. Almost all of the local ones, however, follow PanAm rules with the exception of the limited paint rule. I know that paint sales is how a field makes money but the paint slinging volume is sometimes ridiculous.

[shartley]

Yes, I too see what I consider excessive amounts of paint being used as well. Good crossfire will take care of those paint dumpers though. ;)

I usually get 2 cases for me and my Son when we go to established fields, and end up bringing quite a bit of it home with us. And when we have a day of paintball here at my field, we usually use a case (if just over) for the two of us. And our guests bring whatever they feel like. But we are more into having a good time and playing the game.. over showing that we can shoot more paint than the next guy. ;)

My goal in shooting fast is not about throwing a lot of paint, but so that I can get a good amount of paint out in a short amount of time. If you snapshoot 5 balls each time, you have less of a chance of hitting your target than if you can snapshoot 10 balls in the same amount of time. And if you are worried about total “accuracy” and worrying about proper trigger “squeeze”, you actually reduce the effectiveness of snapshooting. IMHO After all, 100 balls hitting the EXACT same spot are no more effective than 2 balls hitting the same spot… you want a good pattern of paint.. sort of like a shotgun blast. You want it to hit a specific AREA, but not a specific POINT. This increases the likelihood of actually hitting what you are “aiming” at. ;)

At least that is how I see it…

[aaron_mag]

Oh I never said I wasn't into high rate of fire. Look at my signature:) . Once I get the Flatline heh heh.....

They are just short bursts rather than sustained paint ropes.

[Mango]

What accuaracy? "Accuarcy by volume"

LOL! j/k of course.

[shartley]

LOL

“Sir, we can’t get these bombs to hit the target.”

- “What is the burst radius?”

“Sir, it is 15 meters.”

- “Get a bigger bomb!”

;) :D:D:D

[TNS2k2]

I agree with you on most parts. i go through maybe 1 case on a recball day. If it is a tourney, we paint pool and if it is 5 man, maybe 10-12 cases in all. It isnt that we cant control our fingers in shooting so much, it is that in tourneys you shoot more paint at a bunker then a person. just keeping them in the bunker while team moves up, or using an odd shooting pattern so he pops his head out, while you are right there for the elimination(suppresive fire) uses alot of paint. Sweetspotting also does that.

peace,
TNS2k2

[AutomagN2]

Excellent post. My father teaches Marksmenship at Westpoint every once in a while.

I agree 99.9% with everything u said.