Quality Paintballs can Improve Your Accuracy.

Getting a good quality paintball is probably the easiest thing that you can do to increase your accuracy. Now sometimes good quality comes with a higher price…but not necessarily. Good quality doesn’t always mean a particular brand either. Good quality means round and consistent. Good quality means probably buying from your local paintball shop and not from Walmart or other big chain stores. Not necessarily because of the brands they may carry either. One of the biggest factors is “freshness”. At your local paintball store, paintballs are constantly moving off the shelves and being replaced. This is good. When paintballs sit around for a while and get old, they begin to lose their round shape. This happens a lot at the big chain stores like Walmart. Sometimes the paintballs are sitting in the warehouses forever. This causes a problem. Recently my local paintball shop was closed and so I thought I’d gamble and pick up some paintballs at Walmart. That was a huge mistake. I got a box with 1000 balls. When I took out the bag all the balls on the bottom were completely flat and the ones in the corners were pretty much square. It was crazy. I don’t know how old those balls were, but they must have been sitting around for a long time. Even the ones on the top were not that great. I tried to pick out some of the more round ones, but they were flying all over the place and I had tons break in my barrel. When paintballs get smashed so they are not round then they are bigger in one direction than the other, so then sometimes they don’t fit well through the barrel and they break. Anyway, it was just a terrible experience. So moral of the story, buy your paintballs from your local paintball shop; even if you buy the cheaper brands. The box of paintballs that I bought at Walmart was about $25.00 for 1000 balls. The local paintball shop’s lower end paintballs are $10.00 for a bag of 500, which is cheaper than the ones I got at Walmart and they are way better.

Paintball Masks

A paintball mask is designed to protect your face, while still allowing you the best possible vision. When purchasing a mask, aside from looks, there is really only one consideration to make, the goggles. One of the main problems that people have with their masks is that the goggles fog up. To help prevent this you want to get goggles with thermal lenses. Paintball goggles come with two types of lenses, single lenses and thermal lenses. The single lens is just a piece of plastic. The thermal lens is actually two pains of plastic with a space in between. Goggles with thermal lenses do not fog up as bad as the single lens types goggles.

Paintball Accuracy

If you would like to be more accurate with your shots, the single biggest thing you can do is to get good paintballs. If they aren’t perfectly round, have high seams, or don’t fit in your barrel properly, they will not go straight. The next thing you can do is to get a longer barrel…maybe. I have to qualify this by saying, “longer” than what. Anything longer than 14” is not going to improve your accuracy and will slow down the paintball. Research seems to show that the optimum barrel length is probably between 10”and 14”. So, if you have a 6” barrel, a longer barrel will probably improve your accuracy. If you have a 14” barrel, a longer barrel most likely won’t help.

Barrel Upgrades

One of the first upgrades/modifications that people often do to their guns is to get a new barrel. There may be several reasons for changing the barrel ranging from accuracy to looks. A barrel is very easy to change. You simple unscrew the old barrel and then screw in the new barrel. However, not ever barrel will fit ever gun. There are many different brands of paintball guns out there, some of them use the same threading for their barrels and some different. Here is a chart that can help you tell what gun barrels are compatible with each other.


Make; Model; Thread

Alien Paintball: Remains, Interceptor, '09 Independence- Autococker threads.

AKA: Excalibur, Viking, Merlin- Autococker threads.

Ariakon: SIM 4, SIM 5, etc- Specific barrel thread.

ATS: AT-85, AT-10, etc- Specific barrel thread.

Autocockers(General): ANS, KAPP, etc- Autococker threads.

Azodin: Blitz, Kaos, Zenith, etc- Autococker threads.

Bob Long Technologies: Intimidators, Alias, Defiant- Autococker threads.

Brass Eagle: Raider, T-Storm, Talon, Striker, Raptor, etc- The Raptor is the only one that has specific threading. Most of the others either take Spyder threading or the barrels are not removable.

BT: BT-4, BT-16, etc- Tippmann A5 Threads except for TM-7 which uses Autococker threads..

Carter Machine: Buzzard, Comp, Sniper, etc- Autococker threads.
Note that Ducks have non-removable barrels, so no thread.

CCM: T2, S6, SS-25, etc- Autococker threads.

Dangerous Power: Fusion, Threshold, G3...- Autococker threads.

Diablo Paintball: Slayer, Wrath, Reaper, etc- Autococker threads.

DLX: Luxe - Ion/Impulse threading.

Dye Precision and Proto: They all take Autococker threads.

Eclipse/Planet Eclipse: Ego, Etek, etc- Autococker threads.

Evil: Minion, Pimp, Omen (II), etc- Autococker threads or Impulse threads.

First Endeavor Paintball: The Quest- Autococker threads.

Indian Creek Designs: Freestyle, Promaster, B2K, etc- They all use a specific 4 Helix Fast-Pitch thread or something along those lines. Some also use Autococker threads..

Inferno: Field, MK, etc- Spyder threads.

Intimidators: Bob-Long variety, Russian Legion, Olders, Dragon, Lasoya, etc- Autococker threads.

Invert: Mini- Autococker threads.

JT USA: Tac 5, Excellerator, etc- Spyder threads.

MacDev: Cyborg, Conquest, Droid, etc- Autococker threads.

PGI: Osiris, Mayhem, etc- Autococker threads or Spyder threads depending on model.

Phantom: Specific Phantom threads.

PMI/Piranha: E-force, GTI, etc- Spyder threads.

Psycho Ballistics: Silver Bullet, Lightning, Superbolt, etc- Autococker threads or Spyder threads.

Pump Markers: Phantom, etc- Research specific pump barrel. Phantoms have their own threading.

Sheridan: PGP, PG, etc- None - It's one piece.

Shockers(Misc): Dark, Evil, Shocktech, Hybrid, etc- Autococker threads. And all "Old-School" Shockers, SFT, and most PL Shockers take specific Shocker threading.

Smart Parts: Ion (XE), Epiphany, Nerve, NXE/Dynasty/RL Shocker, etc- Ion/Impulse Threading.

Stacked-Tube-Blow-Backs/STBBS/Spyders/Spyder Clones: All Spyder Guns, 32 Degrees, Evil, Draguns(Except Drallion), Kingman, and many more- Spyder threads.

Tippmann Pneumatics: A5, 98 Custom, X-7, 68 Carbine, Pro-Lite, Pro-Carbine- Depending on year/model they either take the A5/Classic threading, or 98 Custom threading.

US Army Paintball: All Tippmann 98 Custom Threading.

Viewloader: Orion, High Voltage, Trition, etc- Spyder threads. 

WDP: Angels- Specific threading based on year made. Classic Angel threading for models before G7 Fly, then the G7 Fly and '06 Speed take G7 Fly thread. The G7 Fly threading CAN be used on Angel A1s, and vice versa. Theyll screw in partways, and they wont fit perfect, as in they wont connect with the breech completely, but you can add a "beauty ring" to get a better fit. Note that the lack of perfect connection can cause barrel breaks and the like.

WGP: Trilogy, Autocockers, etc- Autococker threads.

This list isn't perfect.  If you have any updated or different information, leave a comment and I'll update the post.

Barrels by Barrel;Make/Model

Autococker threads:

Aliens
Autocockers
Azodin
Bob Long markers (Marq's, Intimidators, Vice, Protege)
Bushmasters 03 and up
Cyborgs
Dark Shockers
Dangerous Power markers (Threshold, G3, Fusions)
Diablo markers (AR-1s, Slayers, Wraths, Reapers)
Dragun Drallion
Dye markers
Egos
Eteks
Evil Shockers
Excaliburs
Freestyles
Gen E-matrix
Hybrid Shocker
Invert Mini
Legends
Micromags
Minions
NME
Odyssey
ONYX
Omen
Promaster
Protos
Python Impulse
Quest
Shocktech shockers
Tremor Shockers
ULE mags
Vikings
Wrath

Spyder threads:

All Kingman/Spyder markers
Most blowback markers
Most ACI markers
Ariakon
Armotech
Arrow Precision markers (The Inferno, Sterling pump and Soveregin III)
Brass Eagle
Dragun(Except Drallion)
Grey Ghost
JT
Mongoose
PMI
PC5
Viewloaders
32 Degrees

Angel threads:

All WDP markers before 06 are old style
All WDP markers made in 06 are new style thread
A1 offers spacer to fit "new style" threads

Impulse (Ion) threads:

Base NXT shockers
Dynasty Shockers
EOS
Epiphany
Impulse
Ion
Luxe
Nerve
PIMP
RL shockers
SP-8
SP-1
Strange NXT
Vibe

Shocker threads:

Old-school shocker
Most PL shockers
SFT shockers

Bushmaster threads:

Pre 04 ICD guns

Tippmann procarbine (A5) threads:

68-Carbine
Pro-Carbine
Pro-Lite
A-5
ACI Illustrator
X-7
Ben Tippmann (Battle Tested or BT)
TPX

Phantom threads:

Phantom

Tippmann 98 threads:

98
98 Custom
US Army markers

Tracer Threads:

Tracer/ACI Maverick

Paintball Gun Reviews

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