Choosing the Right Paintball Marker for Your Play Style

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Choosing the Right Paintball Marker for Your Play Style

As a first time or beginner player you should always use a rental gun at the paintball park you at visiting. Paintball USA offers three types of rental guns.  https://www.paintballusa.org/ 

  • Tippmann Model 98 semi auto .68 caliber.
  • Tippmann FT-50 semi auto .50 caliber.
  • Tippmann Alpha Black semi auto .68 caliber.

Sixty-eight caliber guns are standard and you can always find paintballs at any park to use in that kind of marker. Fifty caliber guns are a bit smaller, lightweight, and the loader on the top of the marker is smaller. 

Fifty caliber guns shoot paintballs that are about half the size of the .68 caliber balls. These guns came out about seven years ago. Paintball parks advertise these guns as “paintball soft”. The paintballs used are in no way “soft”. Since they are smaller, they have less impact than the marble sized .68’s.

Alpha black semi autos look like the M-16 military rifle. The barrel is thicker than the standard .68’s and have more power. Their look is more impressive than the standard semi autos.

Fully Automatic Markers

Tippmann makes a fully automatic marker, the X-7. This is a marker used by the more experienced player that is practicing for tournament participation. Paintball USA doesn’t offer fully auto rentals. Players that invest in automatic guns usually purchase higher quality barrels, electronic loaders, and other custom parts for their personal, top notch, markers.

In addition to Tippmann markers, Dye, Eclipse, Luxe, and Empire make high end, fully automatic paintball guns. Not only are these top-of-the-line performance, you can choose whatever color and design you want. Anodizing your gun for a beautiful paint job isn’t expensive. 

Pump Guns

Pump paintball guns require you to pump before shooting which is a slower process than using the semi auto or fully automatic markers. If you want to develop skill, aim, and technique, using a pump gun is the way to go.

Another advantage to using pump is, paintball parks may allow you to play in games with beginners because you will not be able to unload multiple shots at one time. The game will last longer, however, forget about playing on a speedball field using a pump. Speedball requires semi autos or autos. 

Phantom online has some really nice-looking pump paintball guns to choose from.  Pumps can run on compressed air with an HPA tank. Back in the day, pump guns used small co2 cartridges to mark trees by land surveyors when the sport of paintball was first originated.

There are four outdoor playing fields here at Paintball USA. The referees run separate games for the players using standard .68 caliber rental guns, paintball soft games, and self-equipped players using their own markers play together. 

If a player using a rental gun feels brave and requires more of a challenge, they can join the advanced, self-equipped players games. We advise dressing in layers. Covering up so your skin isn’t exposed will save you a lot of pain when hit with a paintball and you will have more fun. https://www.paintballusa.org/location