Beginner Info And What To Buy

Okay, now since your here you must be interested in paintball. Great! Now, whether your new to the sport, a weekend warrior, no-shirt guy (you’ll get this later if you don’t already), or Ollie Lang himself, it’s my personal goal to ensure this site has something for you! Now, where to start?

The beginners guide to Paintball!

Okay, let’s get started!

Rules : Paintball has a decent amount of rules to ensure your safety, some of these rules are general rules for all of paintball, while others are set by the fields, but don’t worry, those rules will be listed at the field you choose to play at.

General rules: Chronograph your gun. This is very important, a chronograph measures the velocity of your gun so you can make sure you are shooting at your fields preferred velocity, this can be anywhere from 275-290, but should never exceed 300.

How to use the chronograph: most fields have a hard-chrono, ask someone at the field where you can find the chrono, they will point you in the right direction and may even help you if you let them know you are new!  Now, once at the chrono you should see one button, set your barrel on the rubber grove, press this button, and fire your gun, then look at the screen and adjust your gun from there to get to your fields limit. (We will get to adjusting your velocity next)

NOTE: There is no need to chronograph your gun if you are renting, the field will have already done this for you.

Adjusting your velocity: adjusting your velocity can be done several ways and it all depends on what kind of gun you have

Okay, now you know how to chronograph and adjust your velocity, you only have a few more things to learn before you’re ready to play!

Mask: Your mask is your most vital form of protection, keep it on at ALL times during a game, if you take it off people will yell at you to put it back on or a ref will call the game, tackle you if you’re in immediate danger, and remove you from the game. Yes. It’s that serious, so if you don’t want everyone staring at you, keep it on. If your mask fogs up, wait and see if it goes away, if not, call yourself out, and go clean it or buy some anitfog from the field.

Hit: if your are hit with a paintball, and IT BREAKS you are out, this includes on your mask, your gun, your hopper, or anything else that you brought onto the field with you, raise your hand in the air, stand up, and walk to the dead zone/pits, however if you are hit with a paintball and it does not break on you or leave paint then you just got a bounce and you are not out, keep playing!

Blind firing is frowned upon and in 99% of fields is not permitted.

Barrel socks- if you are not in the playing area your barrel sock must remain on, this is for the safety of you and those around you who may not be wearing masks if your gun went off, you may think it doesn’t ever happen, but take it from someone who has seen someone shoot themselves in their eye trying to see if they needed to swab their barrel, it isn’t pretty, and he lost 90% vision in that eye, I am not trying to scare you by any means, I am just trying to get across to you how important it is to follow all safety procedures. They are there for a reason; YOUR safety.

Bonus balling – bonus balling is anytime you or someone else shoots someone who is already out and walking off the field if you do this, people WILL get pissed at you, if you do this on purpose you will be removed from the field, you wouldn’t want to get shot after you were already out, other people don’t want to be either.

The last rule is more of a suggestion, be respectful of others players, chances are, if your nice, they will be nice to you too and teach you some things, help you fix your gun if it goes down. Paintball is a fun sport, but like any sport, some people can get carried away, if you notice someone acting out, or breaking the rules, let them know, if they don’t stop, tell a ref, they will do what is needed to ensure everyone’s safety.

Now that you know the basics, and you’ve played a couple games, you’re really getting into the sport, so what do you want? Your own gear of course, let’s talks about what you should get!

So what’s the first thing you should get? I know what you want.. You want to get yourself a gun! Well, since your here, that means you’re looking for advice, so, take mine, the first item you should buy is a mask. Rental masks are often scratched up, the pads are torn up, and don’t want to stay on your face, you don’t want that; after all as I stated earlier this is your most important form of protection, so don’t skimp here, this is the one item i would never buy used. save up and get a mask that you like, If possible, go into your local pro-shop (Wal-Mart is not a pro-shop!) and ask to look at masks, if you see one you like, try it on, make sure it fits you and is comfortable, after all, if you’re worried about your mask, how are you going to play?

So you got yourself a mask, now you’re ready for that gun right? Wrong. The next thing you should worry about is either a loader, or an Air tank.

If you’re going to be playing more than once or twice a month, get a HPA tank, these are expensive, but pay for themselves relatively quickly, let’s do some math,

Dicks Sporting Goods charges about $5 to fill a 20oz Co2 tank.

One 20oz Co2 tank will last about 800 shots, one 68/4500 tank will shoot about 1200.

One case of paint is 2000 paintballs, you will need to fill it three times if you want to shoot a case, that’s $15 just to shoot the paint you bought, if you play 10
times then you spent $150 just to fill your tank.

Now, you would need to fill your HPA tank twice to shoot a case, thats going to cost about, oh wait, air is free ladies and gentlemen, so getting an HPA tank means you get more money in your pocket, and more time on the field, which sounds pretty good to me.

While HPA tanks are expensive at first, most players would agree they are a lot better than Co2, they are more consistent, they are free to fill, and don’t freeze up your gun, after all, would you open up your computer, hold a can of dust off upside down, and spray it into your PC? Of course you wouldn’t, but that’s what co2 can do to your gun if it has a board in it.

After you have your HPA tank, get a loader, a gravity loader is okay if your just using a 98, but for anything else I would recommend getting an electric hopper, the reason being that if you get a gun your hopper can’t handle, you’re not going to be able to play because you will be chopping paint, but if you get a hopper, you can just rent a 98, put your HPA and Hopper on it and you will be good to go and will be ahead of anyone else renting a gun. Good hoppers can run anywhere from $40-$200, but you can pick them up used off a Buy/Sell/Trade paintball forum for about half of what they go for new.

Now, it’s what you’ve been waiting for, your gun!

If you’re on a budget, and want a good, reliable gun, get a Tippmann, they are durable, you can make them look like a real gun ( if that’s your kind of thing) and are pretty accurate.

Tippmann 98′s go for about $125 – $150 and will take a beating while not compromising reliability, and do not require a lot of maintenance. They are the most common gun for beginners because of this.

If you want to splurge here and get a nicer gun, but want to keep with the milsim look, Tippmann has the A-5 with an e trigger for about $175; this is a nice gun that has several firing modes similar to a military rifle.

However, if you find yourself wanting more of a speedball gun and can afford to spend a little extra cash, you can pick up the new planet eclipse etha for $400, or the invert mini, they run about $300 and will be all you need unless you find yourself competing in a lot of tournaments and even then should do just fine, I will warn you however that these guns are smaller and someone with large hands might not find them as comfortable, but as with any piece of equipment you’re going to spend a lot of money i would inspect it in person at your local pro-shop to ensure you’re going to like it.

Thanks for choosing us here at The Ultimate Paintball Blog for your paintball addiction needs, now that you have read my guide you should have a general idea of the rules, what to expect,  and what equipment you’re going to want to buy when you’re getting started, so good luck, have fun, and i’ll see you in the War-zone.