The Ammo of Fun - Paintball

Paintball refers to both the game/sport itself and the bullet used for the sport. It is usually made of gelatin and filled with paint. Paintball games have different variations using the basic rules of paintball. These include woodsball, speedball, and scenario ball, among many others. There are different paintball guns and accessories used for each type of paintball game.

A paintball is a small rounded gelatin capsule that contains paint which is non-toxic and washable with mild soap and water. The materials used for a paintball are similar to those found in food. They are edible but do not taste good. Earlier forms of paintballs were made of glass that contains oil-based paint that could not be washed and were first created and used in the 1970s to mark trees and cattle. Later in 1981, Paintball was first played by a group of people from different walks of life but with a shared passion for hunting. The game’s goal still remains a test of your skills in hunting and survival.

Paintball games have different variations but use the same set of basic rules. The most common is capture the flag, where one team must be able to take the other team’s flag and take it to their station to win. On the other hand, the Elimination or slayer game is where a team or individual player’s goal is to eliminate all of his opponents. Some other variations of paintball games include: woodsball (also called bushball and played in any natural setting with large boundaries), speedball (where the playing field is small and composed of bunkers; most widely played extreme sport in the USA; usually involves 3, 5 or 7 players per team), and scenario paintball (played using a predefined storyline such as reenactments of historical battles; played for 6 to 48 hours).

Paintballs are used with paintball guns and accessories. Paintball guns or markers are used to tag and eliminate an opponent. These are loaded with paintballs which are pushed through the muzzle of the markers by high-pressure air contained in propellants. Accessories used in playing paintball aside from the paintball ammunition are masks or goggles (covers the whole face; variations include thermal lenses, fogging masks), hoppers/loaders (used to feed markers with ammunition), clothing (camouflage fatigues/battle dress uniform, footwear such as walking/hiking boots, sneakers or cleats) and other common accessories such as drop forward, remote line, pod, harness, and squeegee, among many others.