Learn how to use a paintball gun properly and impress your friends on the paintball field!

Written by on November 20, 2013

Paintball is a game that requires its players to have excellent tactical skills, be quick and agile, have good team working skills and most importantly excellent paintball gun skills. It is not enough to just excel in one of these areas for you to have a successful paintball team that is going to beat your opponents you must know how to use a paintball gun properly.
This guide includes 4 easy steps which hopefully after you have read them will turn you in to a paintball pro! You can then show off your skills on the paintball field with your mates.

Step 1:

   Holding the Gun Properly:

Although all paintball guns are safe you must remember that when holding a paintball gun you behave in a sensible manner. Press the tank of the gun against your shoulder (it would be helpful to use a side which will allow you to use your most dominant hand such as the hand that you write with). With this dominant hand operate the trigger of the paintball gun. The other hand you should use as support to steady the barrel. Try alternating your dominant hand that way you can practise shooting with both hands, this will give you a huge advantage in the game.

Step 2:

   Aiming the gun:

As you may well be aware your aim is crucial especially when you are aiming to target your enemy. Do not be tempted to close one eye, this often happens and can be a costly mistake as it will affect your peripheral vision which could leave you vulnerable to attack from the enemy who may be in hiding. Ideally you need to hold the gun just below your eye level so you are able to see over the barrel of the gun with both of your eyes, this will allow you to get excellent aim. More often than not you will be aiming at a moving target, a great tip is to aim the paintball in the direction that your enemy is running that way they are more likely to run into them. This may take practise as it can be tempting to fire as many paintballs at the target as you can.

Step 3:

   Firing the Gun:

The average distance a paintball gun can shoot is around 300 feet whilst still remaining accurate. The paintball gun will shoot further however you will lose your accuracy, this is something you need to be aware of and use your own judgement when in a paintball game. Most paintball guns use gravity which feeds the balls down in to the mechanism where they fire out, this releases around 3 paintballs per second. If you then were to pull the trigger a paintball will be released.

Step 4:

   Resolving any Issues:

It would be very unfortunate if you were in the middle of a paintball game and you went to pull your trigger and it didn’t release any paintballs. If this does happen the first thing to check would be the safety trigger, the majority of paintballs have a safety trigger located usually either at the side or on top of the gun. If your safety trigger has popped out simply push it back in and you are once again ready for action. Sometimes you may have an issue that requires the assistance of a marshal say for example your paintballs suddenly stop firing as far as they usually have been. The marshal should happily assist you and provide you with another paintball gun if necessary. Don’t forget to raise your hand as a signal to inform other players that you are out of action and they (hopefully) should not shoot you.

We hope these quick tips on how to shoot a paintball gun have been beneficial. You should now be able to shoot like a pro! If you are interested to put your skills to the test why not visit one of our 11 amazing paintball locations within the UK. Click here to find your nearest location.