Hey
everyone!
Hope you guys had a great week and
been staying warm as well! Last week I went over some practical tips for
beginners that they should consider when they first start out playing. This
week I’ll be over a very controversial topic that has been in the paintball
community for some time now.
Paintballs originally have a caliber
of .68, it has been like that since the sport first began. The size of this
round is generally considering the ‘perfect’ size. Mainly because the round isn’t
too big to where it hurts extremely bad when it makes impact on a player, and
nor is it too small to were the hit is barely noticeable. Around early 2010, manufactures
began testing different size paintballs to find a way to make paintball more
affordable and a little less abusive on the body when playing. This created the
birth of .50 caliber rounds which is numerically doesn’t seem like a big difference
consider its only .18 deviation. In person however, the size is dramatically
smaller. A few companies have pushed to make .50 caliber rounds the new ‘standard’
size for paintballs. These smaller rounds have several different benefits over
the traditional rounds. First, they make paintball more affordable because more
rounds can be produced at a cheaper price. Second, it will attract more people
to play the sport due to the light impact the paintball will have on the body
because the round is so small. Now these benefits seem to be almost near to the
‘perfect’ idealism of what paintball should be, but there is several down
falls. The traditional .68 caliber has been used for years. Markers were
designed to fire these size rounds, imagine the demand to convert the entire
paintball community over to .50 caliber rounds! Heck, I remember how stressed I
was when this topic first came up because I had just recently bought a new marker,
and conversion kits were not free either, they were almost the price of whole
new marker! Also, players were no longer able to tell when they were hit!
Referees had to be on their A game to make sure players got out when they were
hit. This typically wasn’t the players fault because the hit felt almost identical
to someone poking you!
Now as far as the future for this
issue, it has been well over 3 years since this ‘caliber evolution’ took place.
Yet you still see .68 caliber rounds being used today, mainly because it was
going to be a hectic change for many people. If this change were to be enforced
by tournaments and companies this would probably wipe out half the population
of paintball enthusiast. I know for myself it would of set me back as well, I
just don’t have funds to afford a conversion or a compete new marker that would
accept .50 caliber rounds. Now this doesn’t mean that .50 rounds are no longer
being used. Many fields have started using these rounds with beginners because it
offers a more pleasure experience for people who aren’t use to being shot by the
traditional rounds. Also it makes it more affordable for people who aren’t enthusiast
and are just first time beginners, or recreational players. Now, I don’t think
this means we won’t see another change or a suggestion for another change in
the near future. Companies, tournaments, and even players strive to make
paintball a more pleasure experience for newcomers. Because all enthusiasts
remember how scared or intimated they were whenever they first played. This intimidation
factor is usually the number one set back that keeps paintball from becoming an
extreme sport. So who knows, maybe someday they can develop paintballs that are
made of a different material so it doesn’t coast as much to produce but still yields
to the same caliber size?
Well that wraps weeks post everyone!
I hope you guys have learned more about paintball and see this sport in a
different light! If you have any questions feel free email me or just post a
comment! I’m always trying to get more and more people to at least give this
sport a shot! Because without a doubt there is no other sport like it!