Stupid question

[Lohman446]

Ok, this is a stupid stupid question, but I don't know the answer...

Is a paintball propelled by the bolt hitting the ball, or the force of the air around the bolt?

PS - This is only starting as a technical question, follow ups to the answer will lead this to be proper in this forum

[BajaBoy]

air

[Ov3rmind]

The bolt positions the ball in the barrel so no air can get up the feedneck (or atleast a lot of air). The ball itself is propelled by air exiting the bolt face.

[Lohman446]

I kind of figured that...

Anyways, the idea was different, I was thinking if the bolt hit the paintball, why not make an electric bolt, and do away entirely with the air supply, meaningless though, I assume anything hitting the paintball hard enough to bring it up to speed would also break it.

[Ov3rmind]

Originally posted by Lohman446
I assume anything hitting the paintball hard enough to bring it up to speed would also break it.

Yep. On top of that you'd need a looooooong bolt, seeing as how the ball gains speed in the barrel, so the bolt would have to travel down the barrel. I'm sure that would also heavily limit BPS if a ball could make it out without breaking. It would also take a pretty high voltage to get a bolt that large up to speed (and you think the E-Mag battery pack is big?).