The most important piece of equipment used in paintball is without a doubt the paintball guns. The proper designation for a paintball gun is “Paintball Marker” this comes from the term marking, which is what is called when you shoot someone with a paintball and you ‘mark’ them with paint. This is why paintball guns are also called markers.
The primary use of paintball guns is to shoot a plastic encased ball of liquid paint at an opponent which will pop on impact and mark the opponent with colored paint which indicates a ‘kill’. Not only are paintball guns used for recreation, but they are also used by wildlife services, farmers, and scientists to mark animals and livestock from a distance.
Paintball guns first appeared back in 1981 and had its first prolific application in the forestry service rather than for sport. Paintball guns were not used for recreation or sport until 1985. From then on the sport of paintball and the use of paintball guns has skyrocketed.
Paintball guns are powered by compressed air or gas. Most typically oxygen, carbon dioxide or nitrogen gasses are used. These gasses are stored in a tank that is either attached directly to the paintball gun or worn on a belt with a air hose that connects the tank to the gun. These tanks look a lot like scaled down scuba diving tanks and like scuba tanks are designed withstand the pressures of holding compressed gasses.
In order to propel a paintball out of the barrel of paintball guns, the paintball must be launched at a fairly high velocity around 300 feet per second. This is accomplished by releasing a burst of compressed air or gas into the paintball guns chamber behind the paintball, every time the trigger is depressed. Many markers have adjustment settings that allow the gun paintball gun to shoot at higher velocities, which gives the paintball guns more accuracy and longer range.
Most paintball guns are comprised of four main parts that combined make up the bulk of a paintball marker. These parts are the body or receiver of the gun, the air tank, the paintball hopper (magazine) and the barrel. Paintball guns fall into four different categories dictated by their firing mechanism.
