Last updated on October 15th, 2023
Paintball is one hell of a fun game when all your shots hit the target. However, it can get frustrating if your paintball does not hit the correct spot. You would know this feeling if you kept shooting one after another paintball and did not get the accurate shot after 10 to 15 tries. That just kills all the fun.
Possible Things That are Causing Trouble
Now, if we look into the problems due to which this is happening to you, the foremost thing that must be checked is the paintballs and not the gun. There is a high possibility that the problem is with your paintball and not with the gun. Many times we use paintballs that are out of shape or have dents. Don’t get those low-quality paintballs because these problems are going to highly affect your accuracy.
Paintballs go bad quickly if they are poorly stored, because not storing them at a certain temperature and humidity can cause dimples on them which is a bad thing for accuracy. Thus, it is better if you buy high-quality and fresh paintballs, otherwise no matter how good your gun is, you would find yourself in difficulty.
Which Paintball Marker is Best ?
If the paintballs are of good quality and you still cannot shoot your shot accurately then the next step is to look into the gun. There’s a fact that a lot of people do not understand well, that all the paintball guns have the same working process consisting mainly of three components that are your paintballs, the gun’s propellant, and the barrel. So. your gun will shoot as accurately as any other gun if these components are similar.
We have now established that one paintball gun is not better than the other and if you have everything right in place and still have issues with the accuracy then there must be some underlying technical issue which I’m going to discuss below. Look into these and hopefully, you will have a better experience.
Using Good Quality Paintballs is essential
As we have discussed before, out-of-shape paintballs will see a difficult time flying in a straight line. It is better to get good quality and fresh paintballs because storing them for a long time also increases the risk of paintballs being misshapen and bad. Using such a paintball not only negatively affects your accuracy but also can cause breakage in the barrel of the gun.
It is important to get fresh paint also because long-stored paint will have excess oils. I prefer buying my paintballs and paint from a local field seller or online rather than sports shops because there is a chance that these shops have stored the paintballs for a long time.
Look into the Bore Size Barrel
Regarding this you must have heard three terms; underbore, overbore, and paint-to-bore match. Underbore is when the barrel bore size is under the bore size of the paintball, and overbore is when the barrel bore size is over the bore size of the paintball. Paint-to-bore match when the bore size of the barrel and bore size of paintballs are equal. You can do either of these.
The majority of people including myself believe that the best accuracy comes with the perfect match of barrel bore size and paintball bore size. You can ensure that by placing a paintball in the barrel. If it stops in the barrel but goes by with a blow of air then you got a perfect match!
Getting the bore-to-barrel size match improves the accuracy effectively. However, some people argue that overbore and underbore are better. Too much overbore can lower your efficiency and too much underbore can cause the paint to break in the barrel.
Upgrading the Barrel can Improve Accuracy
When you talk about the paintball gun barrel is an important component and its quality also matters. When you upgrade your barrel you might see a big improvement in your accuracy or sometimes no change. This is because your gun’s barrel was good enough.
It is easy to detect whether your barrel is of low quality and if its time to change. The texture of the honing on the inside tells about the quality of the barrel. If it is smooth then your barrel is good but if it is rough then you might want to replace it with a better one. It not only messes with the accuracy but also causes barrel breakage.
Another thing to look at in the barrel is its size because short and long barrels have different effects. It is not like the longer barrels are more accurate than the short ones, although shorter barrels are more effective in the shooting. Longer barrels are difficult to handle however they have more porting than the short barrels and thus make less sound. I have found that low-quality barrels are often short in length.
You can get a barrel kit with different bore sizes and can choose according to your need, or you can buy a single good quality barrel with a bore size equal to the bore size of a paintball
Deep clean your Gun
Like any other thing, your Paintball gun requires cleaning from the inside which includes its barrel, breach, and hopper. There is leftover paint, dirt, grime, oil, and other stuff which comes in the way of the paintball as it travels out of the barrel. You might notice sudden inaccurate shots.
It is not a difficult task to clean these components, you can simply take out the part for example the barrel, and can wipe it properly to clean any residue on it. After cleaning you can lubricate it with the oil and fix it again.
If you feel that the barrel requires cleaning while you are on the field, you can use a barrel swab or a squeegee to do the cleaning for the time being. Make sure that the squeegee that you are using is clean itself because if it is not then that would make the barrel dirtier with the stuff on the squeegee.
If you want to clean the insides of the barrel, you can wash it thoroughly with hot water and dish soap but soaking it in the mixture first and then rinsing it off. This method can also be used for the loader after taking off its shell. Pods can be cleaned similarly.
Velocity Plays an Important Role
Paintballs can change their shape when they are shot out of the gun and in this case faster is not better. It is important to shoot at an appropriate speed because too fast can cause hindrance. So, a velocity between 270fps to 280fps is ideal.
Check All the functions
A malfunctioning gun can be the biggest cause of the inaccuracy in your shots. However, it is easy to detect when something is wrong inside the marker. For example, if you have a faulty regulator then the speed of the shots would vary more than normal.
After you have checked all the functions and everything seems to be working perfectly, you are good to go. Just clean the insides of the marker regularly, do the oiling and replace things that need to be changed like the O rings and enjoy playing paintball!
CONCLUSION
If your gun is not giving you the accuracy that you desire, it doesn’t need to be time to change the gun. You can do simple things like use fresh paintballs, get the correct bore size of the barrel, or replace the barrel if you feel that it is not of good quality. Cleaning the gun from the inside can also improve the accuracy and last but not least fix any component that is not working properly. These steps can make the whole experience more pleasant.
However, if the markers accuracy is still not getting better you may consider changing the marker, You can read the our Best paintball markers guide here which will help you with all the decisive factors of choosing a paintball gun.
