.68...Why?

[Smegma]

I was just wondering how the diameter of a paintball came to be .68 of an inch (or there abouts)? I know that wasnt the first size that they used, but why that one. Does it have to do with the weight/flight characteristics, some company started to mass produce barrels/paint in this size? I dont know, and i want to.

Hope someone can help,
Matt

[yurchikcs]

It was probably the physics involved, the bigger, heavier .68 paintball is slightly less affected by wind and carries more energy to the target for more reliable breaks. Not to mention they carry more paint to mark better.

I wish someone did make limited runs of .62 paint though, it'd be fun to play with an old Tippmann SMG-60.

[SGTKennedy]

i wish they made 155mm paintballs.

[cphilip]

You know I do not know the true story and have heard many of them that may be....

But I would almost bet that it was an available capsule size for delivering medicine in a bolus to large animals. Since all gelatin capsules were made for this kind of thing and Pharmaceutical companies did and still do make them for Paintball. And similar such things for delivery of medicine to Animals. I would be willing to guess that was a driving force in this. I would not put money on it though! All paintball stuff was adapted from other existing technologies so it would seem to reason it was at least a part of the factor.

[Thordic]

Bath beads are .68 caliber.

RP Sherer made bath beads, which are basically the same thing, so .68 cal paintballs didn't require all new machines.

Thats the explanation I've heard from multiple sources.

[cphilip]

Sounds reasonable...

RP also made a Cattle Bolus ampule that was round that I used a few times back in the day that was about that size. But I never measured it. It was filled with Antibiotics. So it would even be logical to assume it had more than one use for profitability... Seems logical

[LittlePaintballBoy]

Originally posted by cphilip
You know I do not know the true story and have heard many of them that may be....

But I would almost bet that it was an available capsule size for delivering medicine in a bolus to large animals. Since all gelatin capsules were made for this kind of thing and Pharmaceutical companies did and still do make them for Paintball. And similar such things for delivery of medicine to Animals. I would be willing to guess that was a driving force in this. I would not put money on it though! All paintball stuff was adapted from other existing technologies so it would seem to reason it was at least a part of the factor.

and so they shoot medicene down animals throats?

[cphilip]

Naw they do not shoot em down. They Poke em down with a thing called a "Bolus Gun". Its not realy a gun but a aluminum rod with a rounded hollow end to stick the bolus in and then a plunger runs through the whole thing to release it when you have it back past the tounge. You kind of wedge the bolus in the end and stick it down thier throats and push the plunger and release it down into the esophagas so they cannot spit it back up.

Some of the boluses are in Gelatin and some of them are formed hard powder for more time release.

[lopxtc]

Ah yes one of the more classic and reused sight gags from the old Three Stooges days

Aaron

Originally posted by cphilip
You kind of wedge the bolus in the end and stick it down thier throats and push the plunger and release it down into the esophagas so they cannot spit it back up.

[ShooterJM]

.68 caliber is a standard sized 70 round for a encapsulating machine. That couldn't have hurt.... think there's a detailed answer on tinkerer's guild FAT page...

[Evil Bob]

The paintball has been through an evolutionary process, we are at .68 cal because it's "just right" for what we're doing today.

Mr Peabody, set the wayback machine to circa 1960, where we will visit the time that the paintball marker was created.

The forestry dept had a need for paint marking system that was portable, light weight, and reuseable, that would leave a sufficiently sized mark to be visible from the air or ground from a minimum of 150 feet away. Following these promptings, the Nelson Paint Company sat down and brain stormed on the simplest means possible to mark trees on foot or from the seat of a helicopter.

The fine details on how they reached their final decision are not widely known, I personally have no clue how they arrived at what they did, but I can see one of the engineers involved in the discussion being force to go shopping with his wife/girlfriend and seeing some bath beads in his boredom and having a proverbial revelation...

Anyway, Nelson Paint setteled on a design that was fired from a small CO2 powered pistol using standard, over the counter, 12g CO2 caplets. This design filled the forestry depts reqs for being able to employ the marking system from the air as well on the ground. The .68 caliber ball had sufficient paint to mark the intended target, and sufficient weight that it could be done so fairly accurately. Nelson approached Crossman Arms (a noted air rifle and pistol manufacturer) and they produced the Nelspot 707 for the forestry dept. Sales were below expectations and Crossman backed out of the deal. Nelson then approached Daisy (another big name in the air rifle world) and they produced the 007 which is what all us old timers used "back in the day".

In the late 80's, Crossman Arms produced a 50 cal pistol as well as Tippmann who produced the SMG60 in 60 cal. Both sizes suffered from a lack of weight to hold enough momentum to be usable at range, particularly the SMG60, the first selectfire paintball marker on the market. It was a close quarters dream, firing at 10 BPS, but it had a small magazine capacity with it's stripper clips (3 clips, 5 rounds per clip) and could be emptied in under 2 seconds. The SMG60 was later re worked to take a 68 caliber round and renamed the SMG68. Paint larger then .68 cal would require more air to drive due to its larger mass, and larger mass = more weight = more momentum/impact energy which increases the chances of injury.

So today, we have .68 cal paint because it's just about the right size and weight to leave the splats we like to see without causing permanent injury or requiring more effort to propel it.

-Evil Bob

[Gunga]

Originally posted by yurchikcs
I wish someone did make limited runs of .62 paint though, it'd be fun to play with an old Tippmann SMG-60.

Check this out: http://www.blowgunsnw.com/Merchant2/...e=62paintballs

Dunno if the paint's any good, but it's .62 Cal. I'm gonna have to order some one of these days for my SMG-60.

[yurchikcs]

Originally posted by Gunga


Check this out: http://www.blowgunsnw.com/Merchant2/...e=62paintballs

Dunno if the paint's any good, but it's .62 Cal. I'm gonna have to order some one of these days for my SMG-60.

You better hurry, last I checked they were down to about 30 cases. Be forewarned, the guys that have been shooting that .62 have reported an average of one break PER 5RD STRIPPER CLIP! They must have made them too soft for the SMG-60's action, three to four breaks per 15 rounds in the magazine is not my idea of fun.

I still want an SMG-60 or the fabled, insanely rare SMG-68. For all you paintball history buffs, you should know that the SMG-68 shared about 85% of it's parts with the 68 Special, thus making 68Special to SMG-68 conversions not too difficult. Tippmann offered a conversion service to turn SMG's into hopper-fed Specials, too, so many were lost that way. The SMG-68 was also semi-auto only, but the trigger parts swapped easily with automatic SMG-60 parts... I wonder if the auto parts also fit in a 68Special? Full auto 68Special, here I come!

[Crimson_Turkey]

I have shot bath beads before. Kinda hard so I softened them. Sometimes I put one in a hopper just to make sure my opposition smells pretty.

[GhillieGuy]

Originally posted by PFCKennedy
i wish they made 155mm paintballs.

That would be this long..
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