Paintball Economics

Paintball
Economics
101	After you read this you'll save enough money to become independently wealthy. We promise! by Jack Makowski

"Well, there's a
quick $5 down
the drain."

I want to play ball every weekend. The only thing stopping me is the cost of paint. If I'm not careful, I can shoot 1,400-2,000 rounds in a day, easily. Field paint usually costs from 3-5¢ per ball, and with field fees, rentals, air supplies and other expenses, a day of glorious paintball can get on up to $140! That's a lot of money for one day, and playing once a month is hardly enough balling to satisfy anyone's love of the game. BYOP fields and special BYOP days are too rare. Playing Outlaw can drop paint expenses, but you lose on safety features and other amenities such as referees, properly marked fields, insurance, toilet facilities, equipment rentals, and air supplies. There's not always an option for cheaper play.

Really the only way is to shoot less paint. That doesn't seem to add up, does it? You might think that shooting less paint means spending more time in the dead zone, or you may feel that you're there to shoot paint, and shooting less means sitting in the staging area and bull-shitting more. If you 'can't' shoot less, it's because you're getting hung up on 'shooting' instead of 'playing.' Shooting less paint isn't easy. Everything is conspiring against you. All the new guns are geared toward high rates of fire (ROF). The fields are also leaning toward speedball games in Arena-style fields. Arena ball doesn't necessarily mean more shooting, but the targets are usually easier to see than in the woods could.

150-200 feet is Longball range and longballing is an incredible waste of paintballs.
It's like playing a nickel slot machine

Fire Control is vital. Paintball is a positional game and the best way to conserve paint is by being in the best position. Flank around the side of your target so that their cover is less effective. This allows you to shoot less paint, since you'll have the whole side of a barn to shoot. If you do this at mid and close ranges, you'll do some real damage. If you do it as a team effort, you'll own the field. Flanking and playing the front are two tactics that make the game exciting and will actually help you conserve paint because you can win before you empty your hopper.

Longball range is about 150-200 feet, and longballing is an incredible waste of paintballs. It's like playing a nickel slot machine. You keep tossing in the nickels and once in a while you hit the jackpot. If you're going to longball, do it in a concerted push with your teammates in which you occupy your target's attention while a teammate moves up. In general, if you want to save on paint costs, do NOT longball. At 120-150 feet a lot of paint is wasted. If you're on a paint budget you don't want to spend a lot of time at this range, unless you're a really excellent shooter or you get openings that are just too good to pass up. It's a good range, with about 30 percent accuracy in benchmarked tests, but it's a hard fighting zone that favors players who have plenty of spare paint to throw. The best shooting in this range is if you get a good flank and catch your target by surprise. Otherwise it's gonna cost you some nickels. .

AIM. Playing ball is not like some movie where people are jumping to get in the way of your paintballs. Magic barrels are mostly hype, and radar-guided heat-seeking paintballs are even more expensive than tourney paint. So if you want to hit someone, you have to aim. A lot of players use a method known as "walking in your balls." This is adjusting your aim by watching where your balls are flying. This style is very easy to use and makes allowances for the realities of paintball ballistics, but it's a huge waste of paint. Red dot sights are the best way to improve your aiming skills. Set the sight to be dead accurate at 75 feet. OED sights, which essentially superimpose a red dot when you keep both eyes open, work for guns with vertical feeds. It's very good to know exactly where your first shot is going to go, especially if you're in the front line. Don't fool yourself into thinking a sight will make a sniper out of you. Many players disdain sights because they only work if the gun shoots accurately. But make your gun accurate and you'll love using a sight. The accuracy level of most stock barrels is usually pretty dismal. One way to get better accuracy is to buy an aftermarket barrel. Some of the best inexpensive barrels are the 12" Boss by SmartParts, Palmer's unported 12" Brass, Lapco's 10" Big Bore, and PMI's 14" Razzor series. These barrels are all under $50 and will give you an increased shot-to-elimination ratio. You can even get one for a rental gun but don't forget to take it home!

Bag your balls.

Custom pod holder.

A Clean Barrel Is a Happy Barrel. Nothing makes a ball do loops like gack. Old brittle paint, a hard tumble on the ground, and sometimes just simple operator error can turn paintballs into goopy dripping gack. You have to clean it out immediately. Not only will your accuracy suffer, you can lose a whole load of balls if one is broken in the hopper. The usual first sign of gack is a spray of paint coming out of the barrel. Use a squeegee to clean it out. Carry paper towels folded in your pocket to wipe your breech or hopper clean. You may not want to spring for a new barrel to use, but you have to have a stick or pull-through squeegee. It's really the best ten dollars you'll spend, even if you're renting!

Playing Pump. Playing pump these days means you're good or want to get good. Your rate of fire is obviously way too slow to duke it out with most semiautos, so each of your shots has to count. The advantage of pumps is their accuracy. But you have to have the playing skills to match that accuracy. The learning curve is steep, but you can become a very powerful player by playing pump.

Bad Paint Blows. A Paintball is a Paintball is a Paintball. The reality of paintballs is that some balls are better than others. Almost any mid-priced paint is good when it's fresh. But you won't know just how fresh or good until you shoot it .All salesmen are going to say they shoot it and that it works GREAT! Ask a regular player which brand they recommend from the field's choices. Ask what they think about the cheaper selections. Go for the best paint deal you can, gather up the money for your group and see if you can get a break in price for buying a few cases at a time.
If you open your box of paint and it has any broken balls in the bags, return it immediately for replacement. This is an indication of older paint or less than good storage in the shop, so if the replacement case is dimpled or brittle,

The Rocket Filler.

Paintball Jug.

you may have to get another brand.To judge how good a ball is, you can visually inspect it for roundness or dimples. If it's noticeably lopsided, it's probably going to shoot that way. Some balls can have dimples and not shoot badly, but it is usually a sign of an older batch. Brittleness is another indication of age. If you can drop a ball onto cement and it cracks easily, it's probably too brittle to do anything but drive you crazy with gack. Paintballs are adversely affected by moisture, so always close up your bags after loading up so no moisture gets in. This will also prevent spills. Don't leave your paint in direct sunlight (condensation will appear inside the plastic bags).

They always say not to use paintballs you dropped. I've seen whole hopper loads lay wasted on the ground. The reason you aren't supposed to use dropped balls is that in scooping them up and reloading you might grab dirt, rocks and caterpillars. Shooting that stuff can be dangerous and can damage your gun. What people don't tell you is to clean those dropped balls. A hopper load of 200 rounds at a nickel per ball is certainly worth taking the trouble to clean.
Cleaning your balls is easy. All you need are a few paper towels. Wipe them off in batches of 20 or so. You can use this method to clean paintballs that have been gacked up by a

broken ball. To prevent spills from your hopper, use a large rubber band to keep your lid closed. For those not involved in the tourney scene, you don't need to wear a tourney-style harness that holds your pods with the lids facing down. Lids that face down, or even to the side, are more likely to pop open as you jump into a bunker. Lids facing up might pop, but they won't necessarily dump out entirely. In scenario games I usually put a tab of tape on my lid to help keep it closed while I'm crawling around. The other time you'll dump balls is when loading up. There are a few funnel systems out now including the Rocket and the Jug which make loading up easy and efficient. Storing your bag of money.

You can save all the paint in the world, but if you don't store it well, it may become a brittle, out-of-round gackfest when you use it next. Treat your bag of paint as if it's a bag of MONEY. Be sure the bag is sealed up tightly. Any moisture that gets into the bag will ruin the paint, so you must make sure it's air and watertight. Double bag if you need. Place your bags in the box if you can, and store it in a dry, warm place. I leave my unused paint in my work closet so that once a day I remember to flip the paint over. Flipping the paint is a good habit. With great paint it's not necessary for around a month, but with medium-grade paint it will actually help keep the paint rounder with less dimpling. If properly stored, a case of good paint can last up to a few months. Hopefully, though, you'll make a case last a month's worth of playing! Now with all that money your saving you can get a subscription for you and your friend to Splat magazine, not to mention you can invest in high yield bonds, and as we promised you'll get rich....eventually.