Many people believe that paintball sniper barrels don’t actually work. Well at one time they were right. Due to advancements in paintball equipment you can have a paintball sniper marker that really does work. Here is what you need to know.
First, not all sniper barrels are the same. In the past you could get a longer barrel, but it was basically just a longer tube. Paintballs can be finicky things. Shooting a standard paintball through a long barrel can cause uneven friction on the sides of the ball making it leave the barrel like a knuckle ball. Essentially this can cause the paintball to curve, weave, spiral or otherwise fly way off target. Add the fact that you are most likely shooting a long distance and the problem is exaggerated.
Rifle barrels have grooves running the length of the barrel that slightly twist. This gives spin to the bullet and greatly improves accuracy. This is called rifling. A rifled barrel works great with bullets because they a heave and very uniform in both roundness and balance. Shoot a paintball through a rifled barrel and it doesn’t work! Paintballs are inherently unbalanced and do not have or maintain a round shape. Spinning them out of a rifled barrel just makes them act like they have a mind of their own. You’ll be lucky to hit the same place twice.
So a plain tube or standard rifling doesn’t work, so what do you do? Well getting a better grade of paintball can help, but first lets talk about a barrel. There are now barrels that are rifled in a special way, straight. The straight grooves reduce the friction and keep the ball from spinning. This special rifling improves the accuracy making snipering a reality.
OK, now lets talk paintballs. You can buy top grade paintballs and use them with your new paintball sniper barrel for best performance. There is now a yet little known paintball that will probably revolutionize paintball, and snipering. It’s the Golf Paintball. This paintball is wax. A special wax that will maintain its shape in hot, cold, rain, snow and high humidity. Not only that, it’s filled with powder. The powder doesn’t shift and is better balanced. These paintballs are dimpled like a golf ball. This helps it fly farther and straighter. What you get is an all weather paintball that doesn’t deform and get soft and flies far and straight. If you are serious about being a paintball sniper, you have to have these paintballs.
So, what we learned is, the right barrel and the right paintball equals a real paintball sniper.
