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i have a tippmann smg-60 converted to a 68 special any parts out their? missing the rail between the back bolt and the front bolt loader and i dont know what else. can i still get parts for this and were. thank you for your help.
-Scott

This sounds a bit tricky, as it's been some 20 years since that paintgun was made. The first place I would try would be calling Tippmann's customer support at 800-533-4831. Even though it's long out of original warranty, they really have earned a reputation for going the extra mile in customer support, so if they've still got parts, they'll probably be able to get your squared away. Another place to check would be with Ken Farris or Galen Adams at Drop Zone Paintball - 785-841-1943. They have the online store TippmannParts.com and stock a lot of parts for various model Tippmanns. If both of those sources come up dry, it might come down to having the part custom manufactured or tracking down another 68 special for parts.

See you on the field,
-Bill Mills, Technical Editor

I was given a paint gun from a freind. I really don't know anything about paintguns even though I've played skirmish a bunch of times. The gun has this written on the side, ACI in Fontana, CA. on one side, f4 illustraton on the other. It did not come with a barrel, and i'm having trouble finding one. Is it a good gun? Is it worth getting a barrel?

Kent

Sounds like an F4 Illustrator. Finding F4 parts may be tricky as ACI has been out of business for several years. The F4s were well built though, lightweight and quite reliable. The barrel threads should be compatible with a Tippmann A5/X7 or Carbine.

See you on the field,
-Bill Mills, Technical Editor, WARPIG.com

im a freshman in high school and im doing a research project on paintball...i need to know when/where/how/who paintball was started...can
you tell me what chemicals are in the paint ball markers...what are the ules/regulations/restrictions of an official compitetion...what is the average price for a gun with co2... i really need ur help please email me ur answers...

Thatcher

Please visit this article.
Hayes Noel was one of the three men credited with inventing the sport of paintball. There is a 12-minute audio recording (Real Player format) of Hayes describing the start of the sport.

Also please watch this video.

This is a 1/2 hour video of Bob Gurnsey talking about the birth of the sport. Mr. Gurnsey was one of those three who started things, and he launched National Survival Game, the company that really spread the sport of paintball in the beginning and launched the paintball industry.

Paintball markers are made primarily of aluminum, steel and various plastics. However, I suspect you meant to ask about the paintballs themselves, and not the paintball markers, which are also referred to as paintguns or paintball guns.

Paintballs have a shell that is made of gelatin (usually derived from pork.) They have a fill that is made mainly of water and the thickening agent, polyethelene glycol. Pigments are added to the fill to give it color, titanium dioxide is one of the most common as it is used for white, and to give brightness to other colors. Also, during the manufacturing process oils are often used to prevent the gelatin from sticking to the rollers of the encapsulation machine, some of which can become trapped inside with the paintball fill, or remain on the outside, giving the paintballs a greasy feel. To get more detailed than that you'd need to contact the manufacturer of each specific brand (formulation varies from company to company) and ask for a materials safety data sheet (MSDS.)

That is like asking what are the rules/regulations/restrictions for auto racing. It really depends on what league you are talking about - NASCAR has completely different rules from Formula One racing, even though they are both auto racing. Different leagues use different rules, though it is common for smaller regional leagues to use the rules from larger national leagues like NPPL (nppl.com) and PSP (pspevents.com.)

It's hard to say "average" because there aren't industry-wide numbers to say how many of each paintgun are sold at each price range. However, it is not uncommon to find package deals of CO2 powered paintguns, with a CO2 cylinder for under $200. In contrast markers with a compressed air system included typically cost $50 to $100 more. On the high end of things, for paintball markers with higher quality construction and more advanced features, prices can get up over $1500.

See you on the field,
-Bill Mills
Technical Editor, WARPIG.com

Hi, I just bought a new BT-16 FIELD gun from BT... it seemed like a good deal on a starter gun...
unfortunately I cannot seem to find a source for spares for this gun near my home... Do you know of
an online store that carries BT-16 spares?

Many thanks, Hector

Hi Hector,

BTPaintball has an online dealer locator which can be found at http://btpaintball.com/dealerlocatorus.php

Additionally, because BT products are distributed by KEE Action Sports, any of your local dealers that carry Empire, Pure Energy, Evil, HALO, Reloader, Vents or Invert products should be able to special order BT spares for you, even if they don't have them in stock in the store on a regular basis.

Due to the fact that a store's orders are shipped in larger quantities (i.e. with everything they order for the month) it's often less expensive to purchase smaller items like a spares kit from a local store, once you consider the shipping and handling charges that will be added on to an online purchase.

See you on the field,
-Bill Mills - Technical Editor, WARPIG.com

Hi,i'm azren from malaysia.I'm looking for a company that can development paintball sport in my
country. As now only few paintball company or organizer in my country and as i know only one
company really active involved in this field.Hope to get any feedback from any party that interested
soon.

Hi Azren,
I would suggest you contact "gunghopaul" through our forums. He is from the Malaysian Paintball Association, that is working to develop paintball in your country, and is affiliated with the United Paintball Federation (UPBF.)

-Bill Mills, Technical Editor, WARPIG.com

I was reading the self annodizing and i was wondering how to do a white/clear color for my marker.
thanks in advance.

Zack Eisenfeld

I trust you are referring to Anodizing at Home by Jim Bowes.

Clear/White anodizing is achieved by creating an aluminum oxide layer, but not allowing any dye to soak into that layer before it is sealed.

It is important to note, that good quality anodizing is not simple to achieve. It is very dependant on metal prep and cleanliness during the process.

It is important to note that for someone capable of safely handling the toxic materials involved, and with a bit of a background in metal finishing, that home anodizing can be an interesting project, it is very un-realistic to expect professional results without developing quite a bit of experience in the process first.

In other-words - it is a process best learned and studied with scrap aluminum first, before something valuable like a marker body. If the end-goal is simply good looking anno work, that can be achieved with far less money and time by sending the marker body to an experienced professional.


-Bill Mills, Technical Editor, WARPIG.com

I was wondering if you could tell me what a basically brand new, never been used splatmaster would be worth. It has a small crack in the front tip and has the original warning labels on it. No other aesthetic problems.

Travis

It really depends on the buyer - you could get more from someone nostalgic who doesn't have access to eBay. I saw an eBay listing today for a Splatmaster in very good shape, with a holder and harness full of tubes that was going for less than $10.

I think a realistic price - for new-never-used would be as high as $20, maybe even up to $30 or a bit more if it has the original box, manual and shop goggles (which should *never* be used for paintball.)

See you on the field,
-Bill Mills, Technical Editor, WARPIG.com

unfortunatly my home was a target for someone whom more than likely received a paint gun for Christmas and could't wait for a proper place to use it. what i would like to know is how do you clean off the oil residue from vinyl siding? i tried using warm water & dawn dish soap, and spic&span with warm water. it still leaves an oil spot on the vinyl. i could surly use your input on this matter!

thank you
Charles

That is most unfortunate. Sadly for those of us involved in the sport of paintball, acts of violence and or vandalism with paintball gear tend to often reflect more on us in the public eye, than those with baseball bats do on baseball players, or other sports.

There are a couple of types of paintballs. There are oil based paints, used in the forestry and cattle industry long before the game of paintball came around. Those would require paint thinner to remove. They are fairly hard to come by though, so I think it rather unlikely that what you are seeing is an oil residue.

The paintballs used in the sport of paintball are non-toxic and biodegradable. Their fill is made primarily from water and polyethelene glycol. While they don't have oil in them, some formulations use very finely ground pigment powder for their color, and that can get into a porous surface, leaving behind a bit of a tint/stain. You've used the first to things I would try to remove it. Next step past that - perhaps a power washer.

I would highly recommend reporting it to your local law enforcement. Not only is the vandalism illegal, but within many cities, simply firing a paintball marker or other airgun is illegal. With random vandalism like this it's often hard to catch the culprits, but the more cases are reported, the better the chance for law enforcement to see a pattern, and take care of the problem.

Good luck,
-Bill Mills - Technical Editor, WARPIG.com

Hi, I live in Iowa and play Woodsball in the back-roads of the area. My friends and I gather on weekends and play at whatever piece of land that has mass amounts of trees and grass. We also do our best to grab as many people as we can from school. I haven't seen anything about woodsball in specific on your website. I might have missed it though. It seems that since it gets played on the back roads of every country and is hard to photograph, those who spread the news of paintball in general forget to include woodsball or overlook many things about it. I am also wondering if you can inform me on any 12 man woodsball tournaments in and really close to Iowa. Being "Self sponsored" we can't go too far.

Thanks Ben,
W.C.I.D.

We don't generally use the term Woodsball, because SpecialOps Paintball has trademarked it - it is a commercial brand name. That said, there is plenty of info about, and photos and videos of paintball in the woods on our web site - you just won't find many if them by searching for Woodsball as a key word - unless of course it's about something SpecOps is doing.

We would not, however ever recommend or promote playing paintball on a road, or land on which one does not have direct permission to play - as that is often illegal, and almost always unsafe (due to lack of boundary control to prevent someone from walking into the game without proper eye protection.)

As for 12 man tournaments - woods or otherwise, that was a popular tournament format in the 80s, but was replaced by 10 man in the 90s. You might want to look at SpecOps' Scenario Paintball Player's League (scenariochallenge.com) series of tournaments or the Tactical Ten (tacten.com) scenario/woods oriented paintball tournament series to see what events they have that are closest to you. Especially since you're just starting out, tournament wise, regional/local events are a good way to get your feet wet. Check our calendar for tournaments near you (you can have it automatically highlight events by region or state.) Some tournaments will be on concept fields, but many are still played on old-school wooded fields. Five-man is a much more common format for local and regional events, but larger teams like yours will often break up into squads to compete (i.e. GroundZero-Gold, Ground-Zero-Black.)

See you on the field,
Bill Mills - Technical Editor, WARPIG.com

i am very seriously considering starting a field of my owm with a friend, we have everything we need lined out, but i cant get a straight answer about
insurance. is it absolutely legally necessary or can you just go with a waiver? also, is a business license necessary. thanx

David

Hi David,

In most instances, insurance is not required by law, it's for your protection. If a player's goggles fog, and they are stupid and lift them on the field, and lose an eye, you will be facing a lawsuit (amazingly, there have been suits like this where the injured party won, to the tune of over a million dollars.)

Waivers can not provide legal protection from damage lawsuits that claim negligence. So it boils down to whether you are willing to risk having to work for the rest of your life to pay off a debt to someone who might get injured, or are willing to pay about a buck and a half per player per day for insurance.

As for business licenses, that depends on the laws in your state, county and or city. In most areas of the US, an occupation license is required to run any sort of business.

I am a college PB club advisor who is desperately looking for a SHERIDAN PGP pump pistol. According to one of the links on your site this Marker is
available again at www.sheridanusa.com This site is vaporware! Where can I purchase a new, used, or even broken PGP ???

Ron Sindric

Benjamin Sheridan was bought by Crosman Airguns a few years back. It looks like they may have discontinued the Sheridan web site, as it has been incorporated into the Crosman web site: http://www.crosman.com/site/catalog/benjamin_sheridan

As for where to find a PGP, I'd say the best bet would be hitting eBay and various classified ad web sites to find a used one.

See you on the field,
-Bill Mills - Technical Editor - WARPIG.com

i played a bunch of guys and one of them had a gun that had these little tubes with like 10 paintballs in them. He put them in his gun and shot the balls then he took out the tube and put a new one in. He had like a hundred of the tubes. I wanted to know what kind of gun it is.

Anthony

That could be any of a hundred or more different models.

That's the way paintguns were built in the early 1980s, before hoppers were invented. It could also be a more modern paintgun built to stock class specifications. Stock class paintball games limit equipment to the type of gear used back in the early 80s (12 gram CO2 cartridge without a quick-change, pump or bolt action cocking, and 10-20 paintball capacity stored in a magazine that is parallel to and touching the barrel.)

See you on the field,
-Bill Mills, Technical Editor, WARPIG.com

Your site is a rip-off. You advertise Mancow pictures and just have a picture of a stuffed three-legged cow. [hang-up]

-Paraphrased Phone call from radio talk-show host Eric "Mancow" Muller

Good morning Eric,

My name is Bill Mills. I am owner and technical editor of the first paintball site on the World Wide Web, WARPIG.com

A few years back, a mutual acquaintance of ours, JJ Brookshire organized a charity fund-raiser in which you, William Shatner and Tom Kaye participated. At JJ's request, I helped spread the word about the event to the paintball community, both through editorial pre-event coverage including an Interview with Shatner, and through publishing press releases about that game and following Shatnerball events, as well as publishing an article about one of the events (story and photos by Joshua Silverman) and the DVD from the first Shatnerball game.

To my knowledge there are only two pictures of you at WARPIG.com - one is a still image from the Shatnerball DVD, which appears in an article about the DVD. The other is in an article about the 2003 Shatnerball game where you and Shatner are on stage in front of a crowd at the event.

This morning, I received a phone call from you which consisted of a complaint that I had advertised WARPIG.com as a place to find Mancow pictures, and misled people, followed by a hangup.

I'm just not sure where you are coming from on this. I've never advertised WARPIG.com as a place to find Mancow pictures. Perhaps it was misrepresented to you by part of your production staff, or some web site or search engine unrelated to mine gave them that impression.. The only lesson I've taken away from this is that any effort to promote charity work in which you are involved is repaid by being lied about and insulted to a national radio audience.

-Bill Mills

I own a Dangerous Power Fusion. In the Owner's Manual, they recommend Dow-55 grease to lube the o-rings in both the high & low pressure regulators.

I do use Dow-55 grease, but when I first got the Fusion, I was told by Dangerous Power recommends Dow-55 lube, but Dow-33 could be used as well.

My question is, what are the differences between Dow-55 and Dow-33 Grease & what, if any, performance differences will I see if I used Dow-33 in my marker.

Morgan Davies

Dow 55 has an additive that causes slight swelling to rubber materials. This is meant to help expand them, forcing them to seal better. Dow 33 does not have this ingredient.

For seals that are moving, as opposed to sitting still, swelling can cause problems because if an o-ring swells too much it can bind the parts together that are supposed to move. The flip side is that many of the o-rings used in paintguns don't have rubber in them - so you may or may not see a swelling effect with Dow 55.

Which means that using Dow 55, you might see problems with inconsistent velocity or FSDO - or you might have no problems at all.
See you on the field,
-Bill Mills - Technical Editor - WARPIG.com

The main difference is that CO2 tanks are designed to hold pure carbon dioxide that is compressed, while compressed air tanks are designed to hold air that is compressed.

The two main differences to achieve that are that compressed air tanks store air at much higher pressures than at which CO2 is stored. This is because CO2 liquifies, and is both a liquid and a gas in the tank. As CO2 is used, some of the liquid boils to create more gas. In essence this self-regulates the pressure, so that the CO2 gas is about the same pressure from the start of the tank use (the vapor pressure of CO2 at the tank's temperature,) until the liquid is depleted.

With compressed air, in contrast, the tank pressure drops as the gas is used. If the pressure fed to the paintball marker dropped with every shot, so would the velocity of the paintballs. Instead of allowing that to happen, the air is stored at much higher pressure in the tank (3,000 to 4,500 psi) and a regulator is installed in the tank, instead of a simple valve. The regulator restricts the output pressure to usually 400 to 800 psi into the marker. Thus, the output pressure of the compressed air system does not begin dropping until the tank pressure gets below that output pressure level.

Alden Roberts

As for safety - there are a number of potential problems that can go wrong if the manufacturer's safety instructions are not followed, or are bypassed. Two of the biggest concerns are improper valve installation. If a valve is not improperly installed, especially on a CO2 tank, it can come un-screwed from its own valve when removed from a marker, and launch at high velocity . For more info, look here.

This is easily avoided by only using professionally installed valves, and monitoring the valve to make sure it does not unscrew. The other issue is use of grease or oil with compressed air. This creates a risk of fire or explosion. Only use manufacturer approved lubricants with a compressed air system. For more info, look here here.

-Bill Mills, Editor, WARPIG.com

I am doing a paper on paintballing. Can you please tell me how much 1 paintball weighs?

Ruth

ASTM International Standard F 1979 – 04, Standard Specification for Paintballs Used in the Sport of Paintball, specifies in requirement 3.3 that paintballs shall not weigh more than 3.5 grams. There is not a minimum weight requirement.

-Bill Mills - Technical Editor, WARPIG.com

You guys have a great site i love pig tv but i only have a 256kps connection you guys should make a little option bar to select what speed of internet you have.

Thanks.
Shayne Figliola

Unfortunately, that is not possible through the delivery system we are using. We do have older episodes encoded for 56kbps and 28 kbps. Our broadband encoded shows are progressive download though, so if you start a show, and then pause it, then watch the line on the scroll bar. It will slowly fill in from left to right. Once it has filled in all the way, you can watch the show without interruption (actually you could start watching when it's halfway loaded - since your connection is half the speed at which they are encoded.)

-Bill Mills - Technical Editor, WARPIG.com

hello I'm am from California and I want to start up a high school Paintball Club but i do not the legal standards to set one up in the US.

sincerely,
nick

Hi Nick,

That's easy - there are no national standards for high school paintball clubs.

You'll need to check with your school to see what the school's policies are for setting up student clubs. If you want to compete nationally as a team, the National Collegiate Paintball Association usually has a high school division in their national championships. Whether or not you want to go that far with the club, or just play together locally, the NCPA is still a good resource for networking with other students who have set up student clubs facing some of the challenges you may face. You can find more about them at college-paintball.com

Bill Mills - Technical Editor, WARPIG.com

Y'm trying to find an article on your site i remember from some time ago... about a new cylindrical hopper that stored the balls in a helix around the inside surface of the cylinder and force fed the balls into the chamber- i've been using the search features on you site but i can't seem to use the best keywords. thanks in advance!

... and i LOVE your tech section- i've sat for hours on your site just looking at how some of the different markers work.

Trevor

Thanks :-)

Check the right hand column, of the technical page - scroll down to the section on Loaders. I suspect it is the Q-Loader you are looking for. Keep your eyes peeled in the next few weeks for an article about an update to the Q-Loader design and an article about modifying an SP-8 to a left side feedport for use with the Q-Loader.

See you on the field,
-Bill Mills - Technical Editor, WARPIG.com

Hello Warpig!

Just wanted to say... Fantastic website! I recently discovered paintball via an event my brother in another state organized. I started talking to people around here in WA and many of them are showing interest and enthusiasm so I'm organizing some summer events here. Not knowing much about the sport and it's equipment I've been researching and have found your forums very useful. Just wanted to say thanks for hosting and managing such a great resource!

Nathan

Thanks Nathan :-)
Good luck on your summer events!

-Bill Mills - Technical Editor, WARPIG.com

Thinking of coming to the states for a holiday would like to know if the paintball expo in California is the best see if so when are they on. look forward to your reply, talk more then.

T&T Spencer (Australia)

Expo (paintballexpo.com) is the largest paintball trade show not at a tournament. It is usually held in early spring (it was in February this year.) The largest tradeshow overall for paintball is usually at the PSP Paintball World cup in the late fall (pspevents.com.) Any of the PSP or NPPL (nppl.tv) tournaments will have an associated trade show as well.

See you on the field,
-Bill Mills - Technical Editor, WARPIG.com

Do you have a picture gallery for Chicago Open 2003 NPPL?

Bill Warner

That's a bit of a trick question. The Chicago Open was an NPPL sanctioned tournament in 2002 and prior years, but not in 2003.

We have 3 photo galleries from the 2003 Chicago Open, one for each format that was played there. They are linked on the left hand side of >this page.


The NPPL Chicago tournament from 2003 we do not have photo galleries from, just the field layout photos that appear on this page.

See you on the field,
-Bill Mills - Technical Editor, WARPIG.com

hi how r u i read a artical on how to anodize alumion parts on ur guns from my friend that plays were thinking of doing this r selves but beofr we start we were wondering after all the steps r dun so we need to liek cleer coat any thing or a type of sealer o keep it cleen or will it b ok to cleen with out the product finish geting dirty or any thing ? plees reply if u can asap we like to start befor a local game we all do on a regler bases thenaks so much

scotty

Hi Scotty,
There is no need to put any coatings on top of anodizing, in fact any coating you can do easily at home (varnish, acrylic, laquer, etc.) is not going to be as strong as a good anodized finish.
Be warned though - in addition to the risks involved in working with hazardous chemicals and fumes, there is definitely an art to anodizing. Trying to anodize a marker in time for a game when you have never anodized anything before is a very bad idea. In fact, it is really wised to learn to anodize on scrap pieces of aluminum before trying to refinish something of value.

See you on the field,
Bill Mills - Technical Editor, WARPIG.com

Hi, I am seeking info as to the rules of the design of the paintball gun. A friend asked me if paintball guns have to run on a air system or can they run totally on electronic. I told him I did not know. I looked at PSP rules and could not find anywhere that said a paintball gun must run on a air source. Could you help clarify this issue.
Thank you.
Dr. Daniel Williams

Hi Dr. Williams,
I'm not aware of any major tournament rules that require a specific propellant. It is important to keep in mind though, that such rules are flexible (they adapt as technology changes) and that tournaments are also subject to any requirements placed by insurance companies covering the events. For example one year at the Paintball World Cup the insurance carrier mandated that all 4,500 PSI compressed air systems use a particular model of fill nipple, though that was not in the rules. Additionally, tournament rules only apply to the tournaments that use them. The closest thing there are to "rules" guiding construction are the ASTM standards. In theory, failing to meet ASTM F2272-03 Standard Specification for Paintball Markers (Limited Modes) could increase a manufacturer's liability - but compliance is not required by any law, and many manufacturers currently do not meet this standard. A bigger issue, if pursuing a commercial venture would be patents - filing patents became trendy in paintball in the late 90s, and as they have been coming to fruition in recent years, who patented a concept first can be more important than who developed a working product first.

See you on the field,
-Bill Mills, Technical Editor - WARPIG.com

i am looking for the california state laws and codes conserning opening and run a filed and cant faind any thing i was hoping you could help me out with where to look.....thanks for you time jason

As far as I know there are not specific laws in any states yet regarding paintball field operation. You would just need to make sure you are in compliance with all the applicable laws for land use and activities at your location (i.e. proper zoning, that discharging an airgun is legal, etc.) and operating a business.

See you on the field,
-Bill Mills - Technical Editor, WARPIG.com

Hi, I am doing a college presentation on how electronics has change "something. My "something" is paintball. For this, i am supposed to have one
presention that is at a laymans level, and one that is more technical for the instructor. For the technical one, I am needing schematics of some of the
electronics I talk about. I haven't been able to find much, (Probably not using right search criteria)And the companies I could think of that I contacted,
basically told me to buy their product. I was hoping that you folks might be able to help me out where these other methods have failed. What I am
needing, is the schematics of an electronic trigger assembly/circiut board, as well as the same for a hopper.
I really hope you'll be able to help, as this presentation is just over a month away (april 8th)
Any questions, Please contact me.
THank you
Scott Stewart

Hi Scott,
Well, really for most of those companies, they would consider that information to be trade secret. I think a more productive approach would be learning how they work (see specific product reviews in our technical section) and building function schematics of your own.

For example in an electromechanical blowback marker, like the Tippmann 98 with e-trigger, the trigger switch signals the circuit board that the user has pulled the trigger, and the circuit board sends power to a solenoid that trips the marker's sear, firing a paintball.

You might also find the article on utilizing Basic Stamps (also in the technical section of our site) helpful, as you could use it to draw up a working electronic schematic for a custom paintgun circuit board.

See you on the field,
-Bill Mills, Technical Editor, WARPIG.com

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WARPIG's webmasters can be reached through our feedback form.  All articles and images are copyrighted and may not be redistributed without the written permission of their original creators and Corinthian Media Services. The WARPIG paintball page is a collection of information and pointers to sources from around the internet and other locations. As such, Corinthian Media Services makes no claims to the trustworthiness or reliability of said information. The information contained in, and referenced by WARPIG, should not be used as a substitute for safety information from trained professionals in the paintball industry.