So why .68 Caliber?

[Magglerock]

Why are paintballs .68 caliber?

[quik]

because thats the best!

[Magglerock]

because thats the best!

Is it? They're kind of big.

[cougar20th]

im guessing when the sport of paintball started it must have been a size that was already being made. that way you used current balls and not need to make new sizes. after awhile it must have just stuck becuase of availiblty.

Thats only a guess.

[minimag03]

My guess is the same as cougar20th. Another reason it would be hard to decrease the size is because cheating. If they made paintballs smaller, wiping would be evern harder to catch since less paint would be on the person.

[VFX_Fenix]

Paint guns of the time were used to mark trees, cattle, and a bunch of other things like that and many were in .68 Cal. About the only other popular calibers I know of for Paint historically were .50 and .60 Cal.

I speculate that another reason might have something to do with weight and volume of fill. Weight would help the paint go farther and be more resistant to being blown around and fill volume just so a mark could clearly be seen. Again, those are speculations.

[Bahhumbug]

I've heard that paintballs are 68 caliber because that's the same size as those bath bead things. They were manufactured on the same machines.

[warbeak2099]

Yes they are made with the same type of dye encapsulation machines.

[mr. right-wing]

Donno, all the theories here sound good, but why mess with a good thing eh?

[buzzboy]

It also, I think, has to do with how hard they must be shot to break on target well.

[Teamslayer76]

I've heard that paintballs are 68 caliber because that's the same size as those bath bead things. They were manufactured on the same machines.

I've heard that somewhere. I can't recall when or where. Also I think the .68 caliber allows for significant paintball marks.

[TheAngryDrunkenRussian]

If I can remember paintballs use to be .62 caliber then when paintball it self was strong enough to support it self they switched to .68 caliber due to tournement because a hit was the size of a quarter. Thats if I could remember

[hitech]

I've heard that paintballs are 68 caliber because that's the same size as those bath bead things. They were manufactured on the same machines.

Yep, thats it. There were small sizes made, but they didn't tend to break as well and left a smaller mark; therefore they weren't popular.

[Jaan]

For the record, a Nelspot 007 ... the first mass produced marker that was used to mark trees and cattle and eventually played with was made in .68. There were, as stated above, other sizes made for a time but never caught on.

Everything said above is pretty much what I know too.

As a side note, one of the nice things about this size is that you can use tools made for shotguns ... like cleaning mops and hones.

[MoeMag]

The ORIGINAL paintball marker...
1956

(marker is on top, the pellet gun it was derived from is on bottom)

Good reading an theory about first paintball, link to site...

http://www.pettypb.com/707/

"Supposedly, the first paintballs were made in wooden molds with wax shells and oil based paint. I have heard rumors it just happened that the mold was approximately .68 cal because that's the size of ball-end mill he had sitting in the tool box. "