Here's the Deal with Paintball Physics:

They stink. LOL.

No, seriously, paintball physics are difficult to predict at best and wild and unruly at worst. But, understanding how physics change a paintball's trajectory can give you ideas on how to have a more consistent outcome.

There are ways to help and these will be covered after the small lesson in physics.

The category of physics that paintballs fall under is called ballistics. Ballistics also include bullets and rockets. Anytime a solid object is moving through a fluid (in this case the air, which behaves in many ways more like a fluid than a gas) there are many forces for which to account.

For instance, some of the more obvious forces would be gravity and wind. You know you've only got so much distance before your round falls to the ground and if there's a lot of wind it will push the paintball off course.

But, even without wind, your paintballs will often fire in a crazy pattern. This is caused uneven high and low pressure areas on the surface of the paintball as it pushes against the air around it.

This same effect comes into play in baseball with the infamous knuckleball. Throwing a baseball without a spin is like shooting a paintball that comes out of a barrel without a spin. The result is a 'wobble' or unpredictable movement. In baseball this can be a good thing, but not so much in paintball.

This same 'knuckleball' effect can happen to bullets too. For this reason gun manufacturers use rifling in the barrel of their guns to stabilize the bullet before it leave the barrel.

Rifling works by allowing some escaping gas (normally compressed behind the bullet) to escape out beside the bullet in a pattern that causes the bullet to spin. This spin causes the bullet to slice through the air instead of 'wobble'.

Bullets have another advantage in their shape. Paintballs, being completely round, do not slice through the air at all but push through it instead. It's the difference between pushing the palm of your hand through water and pushing your hand through water with your palm down.

Enough about bullets... let's talk paintball. Rifling is hard to find in a paintball barrel that has rifling. If barrel manufacturers aren't careful the rifling could potentially be the end of every paintball you shoot through the barrel due to sharp edges. When you do find rifling in a paintball barrel it will be very small and not nearly as pronounced as in a traditional firearm. But, even a little helps.

Since rifling is more difficult and rare in paintball barrels manufacturers have turned to two less effective, but still helpful, ballistic tricks. The first of these is length of barrels. Strictly speaking, the longer the barrel the better.

A longer barrel allows a projectile (in this case a paintball) more time to match the speed of the escaping air. A longer barrel also helps stabilize a projectile by giving it more and more of a direct course as it exits the barrel.

The second little paintball physics trick is to use a ported barrel. Porting does three beneficial things that I know of, and one not so beneficial. For one, porting makes your barrel a little quieter. If you've ever had the chance to use a barrel with no porting, you know the 'ting' sound it makes as the paintball is fired. On a ported barrel you won't get this as much.

Also, ported barrels will allow the compressed air behind the paintball to escape causing the paintball to be more free floating in the air (as it will travel the rest of the way to the target) but still guided (as it is in the barrel). Think about it this way... porting is like training wheels for a paintball.

The third beneficial trait of porting comes in the exit of the paintball. With porting there is not as large of a gush of gas that spews out of the tip of your paintball barrel behind the paintball. This large gush can help push your paintball slightly off course at the beginning of its journey.

And the one downside I know of? Porting does cause you to lose some velocity. As the gas escapes there's less gas in the barrel and less expansion. This will cause a slight drop in speed and distance. However, it's worth it to have your paintballs hit the target.

Each of these things only effects a paintball slightly. Not one of these will 'fix' your problems in paintball physics, but knowing what to do to help and doing it will give you more consistent shots.

As I wrote above...

• Rifling - This is probably the most useful and the most hard to come by.
• Longer Barrel - Get a good quality barrel from a manufacturer that knows what they're doing. A longer barrel will not help you if all your paintballs bust before they exit.
• Porting - This helps much more than hurts. My personal recommendation, though, is to buy one that the porting doesn't start until at least half way down the barrel.

• Adjust Speed - Yeah, it may or may not be cool to make your friends bleed but one of the easiest ways to shoot more accurately is to find your marker's balance of speed, distance, and accuracy. Paintballs shot too fast are unpredictable.
• Oil - Amazingly enough, keeping your marker clean and you barrel slightly oiled can help almost more than anything. A oiled barrel keeps the paintballs from grabbing the side of the barrel and makes the fly more true and farther. (DO NOT oil a Tippmann Flatline barrel or a BT Apex barrel.)
• Tippmann Flatline/BT Apex - The Tippmann Flatline barrel and BT Apex barrels have the same essential design. They both work by putting a topspin on the ball by passing the paintball through a textured, curved barrel (see the paintball physics above to see why this might be helpful). By doing this they add distance and accuracy. This is probably the most effective barrel I have ever laid my eyes on. I've used one myself and as far as I'm concerned, all the claims are true.

I'll add more if more information comes to me about this and how to help the problems paintballers face.

I hope this helps you. Getting an understanding of how paintball physics work will help you become the master paintball player you want to be!

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