As people spend more time playing paintball, they begin to realize there is a huge selection of accessories available for purchase. But what equipment do players really need? For starters:
- A paintball mask. Can’t play without it.
- A paintball gun. Researching this purchase is a must! Many players choose to buy an aftermarket barrel, as well.
- Good clothing for paintball.
- A barrel blocking device (known as barrel plug or barrel sock). These blocking devices prevent injury if someone accidentally fires a paintball gun when not playing. No insured field will let people play without one. People playing outlaw paintball should have one, too.
- An air supply. For pump guns and pistols, this will be 12 gram cartridges. Most other paintball guns can run on CO2 or nitro/high pressure air. HPA is better, but CO2 is a lot cheaper and more readily available.
- A hopper that feeds paintballs into the gun (or a paint tube for people using a pump or a pistol). A regular 200-round hopper will serve if a gun’s rate of fire is 12 bps or less. For faster guns, an electronic hopper is necessary.
Maintaining paintball gear is good shape is just as important as buying. Here are some useful items to have for keeping paintball in good shape:
- Paintball gun oil (not regular gun oil or some other kind of oil) for lubing the inside of the paintball gun.
- A squeegee. Hard to clean barrels without one.
- Extra o-rings. These are the things that are most likely to need replacing, and they’re cheap, so it’s good to have spares.
- Barrel sleeve, stuff bag for the mask, etc. These items are cheap and will help protectl equipment whether it’s in storage or being transported from a player’s house to the paintball field.
Extra safety equipment, while not necessary, is a good idea too. Here is some additional paintball gear worth buying:
- A neck guard. These lightweight wrap-arounds can save a person from painful shots to the neck.
- A cup. While players spend most of their time behind barriers, a shot in the wrong place while running between bunkers could make anyone wish they’d been wearing a cup...
- Shin guards, elbow pads, and gloves. This equipment is especially handy for people who will be doing a lot of crawling and sliding.
It is not always necessary to buy all this gear separately. A lot of paintball guns will come with kits or packages that include one or more of the other things players need: mask, barrel plug, hopper, CO2 tank, squeegee. While this can simplify things and save money, the best equipment often must be bought separately.
Estela Kennen - Estela is a doctoral student in Public Administration and a freelance writer and editor.
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