Paintball Differences

[KornKamp02]

Hey, I was wondering what the difference in paint is. I usually buy the cheapest crap I can find. I was wondering if it would be a better investment to buy Evil, Anarchy, Diablo etc. Thanks!

[Branchvillian]

Find out what size barrel you have, then get some some to match. Look for a good paint to barrel match, or get the freak, pipe, and a few other good setups, and never have to worry about it.

[KornKamp02]

I buy .68 caliber because that's my size. But I am wonderin about the paint quality.

[brett]

.68 caliber is just a general turm.
paint ranges in sizes from about .684-.694, hence the need for barrel kits

[KornKamp02]

I just want to know what makes this paint more special than that paint, thanks.

[Methylphenidate]

a couple of variables that can make paint more expensive are things like the shell or the fill. Example, the fill inside Evil is really thick which makes it pretty darn hard to wipe. also the shell of expensive paint tends to be more brittle. result, less bounces.consistancey is always crucial as well. things like this are important to the tournament player. if you are just playin rec ball my suggestion would be to stick with what your gun shoots well.

[KornKamp02]

Originally posted by Methylphenidate
a couple of variables that can make paint more expensive are things like the shell or the fill. Example, the fill inside Evil is really thick which makes it pretty darn hard to wipe. also the shell of expensive paint tends to be more brittle. result, less bounces.consistancey is always crucial as well. things like this are important to the tournament player. if you are just playin rec ball my suggestion would be to stick with what your gun shoots well. Thanks :D

[FalconGuy016]

Better paint = CONSISTANT, round, generally good fill, generally more brittle
Not as good paint = Inconsistant, not as round as good paint, pretty much always bad fill, and sometimes horribly bouncy

Consistancy indirectly and directly gives you more accuracy (unless its consistantly bad :))

[Skoad]

i bought some cheap stuff today called "white lighting". the first thing i noticed on them was that the seam was total crap. they were more oval than round, they curved pretty good but it was cheap so wasnt expecting much.

[c2l1k]

well, better paint is consistantly more round, making a tighter fit to the inside of you barrel and therefore more accurate. depending upon the barrel you have and the paint you are using, certain brands like evil may not work despite being a great tourny ball. (ie: if the ball can roll completely through your barrel, ball after ball, you've got paint that is too small for you)

cheaper paint tends to bounce more and tends to hit your target less often b/c of imperfections in manufacturing.

like the other people are saying, better paint usually has a thinner shell for less bounces and a thicker paint (or even gel) to make it harder to wipe. thicker paint also makes for a more accurate ball, b/c when you shoot a thin fill paint, the paint inside shifts, causing it to fly to one side or another unpredictably.

if you're playing rec ball, i wouldn't get anything better than the stuff they sell at wal-mart (NOT BRASS EAGLE), like PMI, or maybe proball if it's on sale at your favorite web site. if you play tourny, i would use evil.:cool:

[speedyejl]

In conclusion as a rule of thumb

You pay for what you get, so dont laugh at those guys shooting ultra evil @ 70 a case.

[Lohman446]

White Lightning as I understand it is a very light paint. Something like an average of 2.6 grams. (Im calling these statistics from memory, not remembering where i found them). In contrast PMI marbalizer's are a heavier paint - something like 3.5 grams. Aside from the consistancy, heavier fill of better paints, weight increases range (though marbalizer is thought to be a "harder" paint than most premium paints - I have had no issues with it)...

AHHHH.. did I just say you could increase range, what the... are those elves doing now. Think about this, a 3.5 gram projectile moving at 300FPS will go farther than a 2.6 gram projectile shot at the same speed.

[cgrieves]

Think about this, a 3.5 gram projectile moving at 300FPS will go farther than a 2.6 gram projectile shot at the same speed.

No, dropped from the same height a 1 gram paintball will hit the ground at the exact same moment as a 1 ton paintball therefore they will have exactly the same range when fired at the same speed. The only difference is the lighter paintball will use less gas for the same fps.

[Lohman446]

I need to agree with your statement, disagree with it, and leave myself an out... how do I do that. Ok, first off, I am not into physics really heavy, I may be very very wrong here.

When you drop two things and they both move at the same speed (and they do) it is because of the point of terminal velocity - things just don't go any faster??. I don't understand how this works, or if I'm using the correct phrase, but let me say that I accept it works - people smarter than I have shown me, explained to me, told me it works this way - I don't have the ability to understand it (ok, thats the easy way out, I AM TOO LAZY TO UNDERSTAND IT) so I just accept it.

I do not beleive in firing paintballs that we are approaching that maximum speed, and we are not dropping things straight down - I beleive the weight of the paintball matters. Now, before I get hit on the other side of the spectrum I think, intuitively, that the heavier projectile will go farther - I may be wrong here because we are dealing with a balistic trajectory. Anyways, now Im curious, and would like to know... the lazy way out again - anyone know which it is?

[MarkM]

Two paintballs regardless of the weight when travelling at the same speed will both impact at the same force....differing manufacturing tolerences will mean that one paintball will bounce and one will break but the maths cannot be confused, there is NO out, you can't argue with Newton.

[kutter]

Lohman I think what you may be thinking of is the formula F=MA, where force=mass x acceleration. The heavier object will impact with greater force, ie. greater likely hood of breaking, but both will travel at the same speed.

Now if I remember a little about balistic tables a heavier projectile will not bleed off speed as quickly as a lighter one, so may it actually travel further?

It's been some time since I was exposed to physics so one of you braniacs chime in, come on I know that ya'll are out there :D

[BarryTolar]

So an object weighing 1 ounce traveling at 100mph has the same energy as an object weight 1 pound traveling at 100mph ?

And generally speaking a heavier projectile will be more stable at long distances than a lighter projectile. (take firing a .223 and a .30 caliber at 1000+ yards for an example- not a real good example cause I know that AR15s are now pretty much the norm at Camp Perry and other long range matches but still a 55 grain bullet is going to be less stable at 1000 yards than a 150 grain one)


Barry

[kutter]

Barry, I thought the formula was pretty clear, of course your example will not have the same amount of energy. The mass is different so force will be different. I was pointing out that at equivalent speeds the heavier one will have more force and thus be more likely to break. Maybe you meant something like a 1gr object traveling 1t 1000kph will have the same force as a 1kg object traveling at 1kph?

As for the second part, I tried, very feebly I must admit, to find the formula for objects of differeing weights traveling at the same speed and how much they will each slow down, but I could not. I know that a 155gr bullet does not speed nearly as fast as a 55gr bullet, so it would seem to my, admittedly uneducated mind, that it would travel farther. But I know that there are a lot of variables in the formula eg. mass, speed, resistance, to just name a few. I know that some of the braniacs on here know the answer, come on guys, 'Throw me a freaking bone here.'

[Lohman446]

It seems to me that we have taken speed out of the equation - I mean, we will just increase our marker pressure until we get the heavier projectile to 300fps, the same limit we set for the lighter projectile. It would seem to me... that if we had a heavy and a light projectile (with basically all other charateristics being the same) travelling at the same speed, that the heavier one would go further.

[Skoad]

throw a baseball as hard as you can, then throw a ping pong ball as hard as you can.

[Kid_A]

I'm not sure if my explanation is going to be correct but I thought I'd give it a shot.

Assuming that 2 paintballs of big mass M and little mass m travel at the same speed are shaped exactly alike and are traveling under the same conditions (spin, drag of wind, gravity and what not) they will each feel the same retarding force due to the drag of Air. Since force = mass * acceleration, the ball of mass M will decelerate less than the lighter ball of mass m, meaning that the heavier ball will travel further when they both feel a retarding force (drag) and are NOT in a vacuum.

[rx2]

It is true that of two objects of the same size and shape, the more massive will be less affected by the resistance of air. Just as it takes more energy to accelerate a heavier object, it takes more energy to decelerate it, as well. Of course, this is not to say that the difference in distance will be appreciable.

[kutter]

I just thought of something weird though. It seems plain now that a heavier ball will be more likley to break since there is more force involved, but, and here is the thing do you want to carry a pack that weighs 35% more? I mean I play back and 13 pods weigh enough as is, so with that much more weight, it could be an issue.

The real irony too is that the back players need the extra mass more than anyone since their paintballs have to fly further. Am I way off base here, maybe it does not make a difference? Anyone else have a thought?

[c2l1k]

Which one takes more force to stop, a train, or a volkswagon? the train obviously takes more. it's an exaggerated scale, but the point is clear: a heavier ball will fly further because (given the same variables) the retarding force has to slow down more mass. >>>> F=MA <<<< (see skoad's comment for another clear picture)

now, the balls WILL hit the ground at the same time, b/c as we alllll remember, the X and Y equations are seperate in trajectory. assuming you're not using a flatline barrel, if i drop a ball from the same height and at the same time you shoot one, they will both hit the ground at the same time (also assuming a level surface).

however, like rx2 said, the difference in distance is probably so little that this whole topic is really just re-discovering high school physics. have fun :):cool:

[ratmonkey]

allright assuming the balls are exactly the same except for the differing weights. the heavier ball will exit the muzzle of the paingun with more kinetic energy than the lighter ball. therefore it has more energy to dissipate than the light one.
we'd need to use kinetic energy theory to get into specifics, you have air resistance that will apply a varying force upon the ball depending upon the speed of the ball but that air resistance translates into a negative application of energy to the ball. therefore the ball with the higher initial energy will have more energy to dissipate.
conclusion. the heavier ball WILL travel further than the lighter ball before impacting the zero height plane. both balls are falling at the same rate but are decelerating at different rates.

[sbpyro]

Are we talking inertia here ???
From my experience (generally shooting team colors right now)
There are some differences in paint in terms of brittle paint or bouncy paint (I've never looked at the fill weight though ) Being a rec player myself I've generally never had too much problems with Team colors, pmi, and even powerball (way back in the day). I've seen proball bounce like crazy (platinum was nice though). I'd avoid BE stuff but that is just because it always looked like garbage and I've held that belief since.

[BarryTolar]

Kutter

It would seem that is would take longer to get a heavy projectile up to speed. The question is does it also take longer for the heavy projectile to bleed off that speed. Yes I took physics. If you look at ANY ballistic chart you will see that a heavier projectile has more energy downrange than a lighter one traveling at the same speed.

Does this mean it's going to go farther than a light one ?


Where this comes into play with paintball is the fact that no matter what weight paintball is shot the speed is still 300 FPS.

So a heavier paintball will have more energy at range than a lighter one. From personal experience I can say that in the old days Diablo Inferno DID hold true and have a straighter trajectory than other paints I tried. Still don't know if it actually went farther but I can say it had a longer "useable" distance. I'd say ratmonkey pretty much has this spot on in his description.

Rambling as always
Barry