The small questions you've never asked.

[lew]

On an old-school first-generation Max Flow manifold bottomline regulator, can the second/forward air input port on top of the reg body be blocked off without the manifold pushing out air?

[Jordan]

Barrel kits - entire barrels in different bore sizes instead of inserts.

Or you just shot one specific brand of paint you knew fit your barrel.

[Rusty Brass]

http://www.nelsonpaintball.com/about-us/

Says paintballs first but the gun had to have been part of the concept from the get-go. Like you said - they would have been pointless without one.

[DocsMachine]

-The marker, no question. The markers were around and being used for agricultural purposes, for something like 10-15 years before somebody thought of the idea of making an actual game out of shooting each other with it. (The Nel-Spot dates back to the late 60s, the first known game of paintball was in '81.)

Doc.

-I misread this as 'paintball (IE, the sport) or the marker', and for that, my answer stands.

But THE paintball or THE marker, no. Both were invented at the same time. People needed a way to mark trees for felling or cattle for culling, without having to walk all the way up to each one and slather it with paint with a brush.

So after experimenting with things like high pressure hoses and such (long story short) they came up with a way to make thin wax hemispheres (rumor has it in wooden molds) that could be filled with oil based paint and sealed together. At the same time, they were modifying an air pistol to hold and fire them.

It's kind of like asking which came first, the bullet or the gun? One required the other- to make the gun work, it needed ammo, and there was no reason for the ammo without a way to project it.

Doc.

[DocsMachine]

Piggy-backing a question onto Doc's very informative barrel history; How did players deal with roll-outs on closed bolt (majority) of markers before the days of aftermarket barrels and bore sizing kits? Were people still doing fishing line, tape, and nail polish mods to stock sniper/cocker barrels?

-Those are exactly it. The nail-polish trick has been around since the mid 80s, according to the magazines, and people at the first game I ever played at, were applying bits of black tape to the breech of some of their pumps.

I also find it amusing that Smart Parts (or Philly Americans LLC), still use their threads on their entry-level (GOG) products, and their flagship (DLX) products, but have conceded to using cocker threads on their (upper?)mid-grade (Shocker Paintball "SP") line of modern RSX and XLS Shockers.

-Not surprising. The entry level stuff rarely gets upgraded. Kids buy those, shoot 'em, and forget 'em in the back of the closet by the end of the summer.

The high-end stuff is bought by the tourney players- the guys that don't care what the barrel thread is, cause they're gonna use the stock one (which these days comes with multiple backs) or an inserted barrel.

The midrange guns are the moneymakers, those sell the best. Higher per-gun profit than the entry level, and more sales in total numbers than the high end. And as noted, 'Cocker thread compatibility is a selling point.

I have given the SP guys a lot of heat over the years- and deservedly so- for their questionable business practices, but they're definitely not stupid. Thy know how the market works.

Doc.

[DocsMachine]

what came first the paintball or the marker?

-The marker, no question. The markers were around and being used for agricultural purposes, for something like 10-15 years before somebody thought of the idea of making an actual game out of shooting each other with it. (The Nel-Spot dates back to the late 60s, the first known game of paintball was in '81.)

Doc.

[DocsMachine]

Polished or Patinaed Brass which is better?

-Patina'ed requires less miantenance. It's also less flashy if your game is to hide & sneak. Polished just looks better, though.

Doc.

[Grendel]

Piggy-backing a question onto Doc's very informative barrel history; How did players deal with roll-outs on closed bolt (majority) of markers before the days of aftermarket barrels and bore sizing kits? Were people still doing fishing line, tape, and nail polish mods to stock sniper/cocker barrels? There were still multiple manufactures of paint, and variance in bore size even in the same brand was still a factor. That's one of the only REAL benefits of barrel systems was stopping roll-outs on closed bolt systems.
.

All of these can work with either a breech drop or bore drop marker some are easier then the others and by far the best IMHO is nail polish for versatility and durability.

• Technique - keep barrel pointed up between shots to keep them from rolling out. Super easy habit to get into with the paint fwd of the breech.
• Nail Polish - been using that trick since the late 80s when I started playing
• Tape (electrical, coaches, hockey) - a small patch added just in front of the bolt face when in battery or if you have a removable barrel over the breech end of the barrel
• String/fishing line - down the feed neck into the space between the barrel and bolt extending a little way down the barrel and wrapped over the feed so the elbow will hold it in place

As stated in the olden days roll outs where not as big of a problem as they are now. I can even remember paint so swollen we had hard times loading them they were so large with some markers. There were times though that you did get smaller diameter paintballs that gave you roll outs but that was remedied with a quick trip to the staging area.

[Siress]

Cannot be a "marker" without a paintball, so the paintball came first. Air guns, though, date way back... pre-America, and certainly predate gelatin encapsulation. The 68cal airgun, though... now that's a thinker. 68cal is really just 11/16ths of an inch (though the ASTM spec. for size has a LOT of tolerance. e.g. see the text under my avatar). I'm not aware of any other uses for 68cal airguns. And there are plenty of uses for gelatin capsules of such size (bath beads, medicine, chemical delivery, etc). If I were a betting man, I'd bet paintballs came before 68cal airguns.

[Rusty Brass]

what came first the paintball or the marker?

The 707 is the earliest marker I know of and it's .68 caliber. I think it was purpose built to shoot paintballs so maybe both happened at the same time?

[Rusty Brass]

Yeah, I don't either. Doesn't mean it wasn't a problem but I don't recall it at all.

[The Inflicted]

what came first the paintball or the marker?

Gonna go out on a limb and say the marker, since air-powered .50 caliber tranquilizer dart rifles predate all calibers of paintballs.

[SETHZILLA!]

Piggy-backing a question onto Doc's very informative barrel history; How did players deal with roll-outs on closed bolt (majority) of markers before the days of aftermarket barrels and bore sizing kits? Were people still doing fishing line, tape, and nail polish mods to stock sniper/cocker barrels? There were still multiple manufactures of paint, and variance in bore size even in the same brand was still a factor. That's one of the only REAL benefits of barrel systems was stopping roll-outs on closed bolt systems.

I also find it amusing that Smart Parts (or Philly Americans LLC), still use their threads on their entry-level (GOG) products, and their flagship (DLX) products, but have conceded to using cocker threads on their (upper?)mid-grade (Shocker Paintball "SP") line of modern RSX and XLS Shockers.

I honestly don't remember roll outs at all in the early years. Paint was bigger back then but i can't recall ever having the problem like we see today. Love the interchangeable barrel sleeves now though

[jerryjjackson69]

Piggy-backing a question onto Doc's very informative barrel history; How did players deal with roll-outs on closed bolt (majority) of markers before the days of aftermarket barrels and bore sizing kits? Were people still doing fishing line, tape, and nail polish mods to stock sniper/cocker barrels? There were still multiple manufactures of paint, and variance in bore size even in the same brand was still a factor. That's one of the only REAL benefits of barrel systems was stopping roll-outs on closed bolt systems.

I also find it amusing that Smart Parts (or Philly Americans LLC), still use their threads on their entry-level (GOG) products, and their flagship (DLX) products, but have conceded to using cocker threads on their (upper?)mid-grade (Shocker Paintball "SP") line of modern RSX and XLS Shockers.

[Archdogg]

what came first the paintball or the marker?