Help Me Paint Some Balls

December 9, 2006 9:06 PM

What's the best paintball gun to buy with a $200-300 budget?

My innocent, gift-shopping-attempt foray into this realm has lead me to believe that there are opinions therein no less strident than Ford vs. Chevy or PC vs. Mac. So I'm stumped.

Good Gun + Buy These Upgrades suggestions are certainly welcome.

posted by Cyrano to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (6 answers total)

If all you want is a gun, perhaps a Tipmann A5. If you want a whole package (mask, some paint, some tubes and a nice belt, etc...) perhaps a Tipmann 98 Custom. They are reliable, low-maintenance, easily tweaked/customized and have plenty of mods.
posted by farmersckn at 10:09 PM on December 9, 2006

I'll second the Tippman for a good entry level system. There's also the Spyder, which has more cheap geegaws, but I much prefer the tippman guns for tweakability and reliability than the Spyders.
posted by SpecialK at 5:54 AM on December 10, 2006

This is actually funny to me since I was thinking about paintball during breakfast.

To me, there are a few things that I would find essentials in a gun:
Semi-Automatic
Easy chamber access (so you can squeegee it in the field if a ball breaks)
A good leader
A nice barrel
Generally, a barrel between 8'-11’’ should suffice. The longer the barrel the more accurate the shot should be. Yet if you do some basic research on how to treat your paintballs pre-combat, you should always be accurate.

The guns listed above are great or similar forms of them. Don’t buy something plastic or something that looks like a handgun. I am being a hypocrite when I say plastic because I owned a Stingray as my first gun. Then run for about 100 bucks, (or did) but my mods were limited and my technology level on the field was historic.

There are many necessary necessities you should have in the field:
Barrel Plug
Goggles
Squeegee
CO2 Tank 12-20 oz recommended. Please do not buy used.
200 count loader
An elbow for the loader may be necessary
Cleaner (to be used after a day’s of paintballing has been done) But I have used Windex, which has been fine.
A harness that can hold at least 400 extra balls.
I’ve always enjoyed having fingerless gloves with a plastic protection. You’d be surprised how often you are shot in the hand.
Some people I know play with a neck guard. This is in any cloth form, just so the ball doesn’t break the skin.
Having an actual gear bag is nice as well.

Overall, just on getting started you may have to drop a little bit more than 300. In addition, each time I went out to play I spent somewhere between 40-100 bucks on balls and field fees. Is it worth it? Yes, it’s a great experience.
posted by thetenthstory at 7:55 AM on December 10, 2006

You'll have to forgive me for my grammer in "necessary necessities"
posted by thetenthstory at 7:57 AM on December 10, 2006

Look into a PMI Piranha electro marker, for the price range you give. The PMI markers are pretty forgiving and easy to maintain, which is why the low-end PMI markers are usually what you'll find as rentals at the field.

Also, a useful site is pbreview.com
posted by jimfl at 7:07 PM on December 10, 2006

Response by poster: Thanks for all the advice. And special thanks to the non-member who sent me a very informative email.

Cheers mate!
posted by Cyrano at 3:33 PM on December 12, 2006