Small paint and the industry question

[Raven911]

So do the companies who make paintballs care that their paint is so small that doesn’t even fit most guns? I thought that the industry agreed to settle
on 68 caliber, not 67. Obviously the quality of paint is shit, but is there any change the will start making paint in the right size ever again? What happened that it all
ended up being so damned small to begin with?

[superman]

It ended up being small because they realized they could save the tiniest amount per ball but make a billion gazillion balls and that adds up.

supposedly valken is trying to change the paint to make it more consistent and larger. I haven't tried any lately.

[warbosschoppa]

I can confirm with my field Valken has done nothing of the sort as of yet, Graffiti is small to the point 675 inserts aren't small enough a lot of the time.

[Chuck E Ducky]

As of last weekend it’s the worst I have seen it in a long time.

[TF_Aloha]

Valken paint is made by two manufacturers. One is "ThinkBig" in South Korea. They make Graffiti and everything else without the "made in the USA" label. The other is Victory Gelcaps in Anaheim, CA. Victory is the old APX and is owned by Valken.

IF they are trying to improve their paint, it will probably be with the American label stuff. The incentive to shave pennies off the manufacturing cost really shrinks when there are fewer layers between the customer and the encapsulator.

[ATBen]

Idk what paint you've been using but I've never used any insert smaller than a .684 in the last three seasons. As for quality, I think it's more a question of freshness and proper handling/storage by the field. I've had 3 star that shot like crap and 3 star that was amazing.

In my case, I've mostly used graffiti, graffiti platinum, 3 star, and honor. I've played in all temps, most in Southern Ontario, Michigan, Indiana, and once in Florida (play at OXO if you're ever in the Orlando area).

[iamthelazerviking]

I haven't run into anything under 680 for a long time. Mostly 684-688, and quality all over the place

[packersrule729]

Same here. Last year or so I’ve only been under .680 probably less than 10% of the time and most from the same manufacturer (Empire).

[Chuck E Ducky]

Same empire has been the most notoriously small paint.

[OpusX]

I haven't run into anything under 680 for a long time. Mostly 684-688, and quality all over the place

Man that would be nice. All my closed bolt markers need a 675 and likewarbosschoppa I still get some rollouts with the HK paint at the field.

[Jonnydread]

Finger detents help make small paint useable, not ideal, but useable

[Jordan]

MCB can be something of an echo chamber on topics like this.

Yup, it's small.

Nope, they don't care.

Yup, it sucks you can't use your antique paintball marker.

Nope, I'm not happy about it either.

Yup, there are modern options (gasp!) that you can shoot the stuff through, reasonably successfully.

Nope, I can't afford them either.

Yup, I figured out how to adapt my antique markers to fit small paint.

Etc etc.

[Psycho91]

As stated above they don't care, and I think the main reason why is while we still play pump and mechanical there's no closed bolt guns being made, I mean they are all space guns now, as long as it will shoot the paint they don't care, they make most of their paint sales through tournaments i would think as well where your just thowing it through the air anyway in a lane,

Plus do company owners really read or care about us on the forums hell no 😂, hell if paintball dies they can just invest elsewhere

[Chuck E Ducky]

Agreed we don’t really buy paint from them fields do, and when we do get bad paint at that point we already own it. It only effects a small minority in paintball who don’t use detent system. I really wish a better ball was available I can’t understand why it’s not possible to produce a better ball. If it’s cost charge me more and produce a better quality. But they are not even giving our crack dealers quality stuff to peddle.

[Shaftski]

better balls can be made, that was proven 20 years ago. hellfire or imperial straight off the diablo truck at an NPPL back then was perfection. paint was always round, some shells were good some terrible.

big change is the distances the paint has to travel from mfg to field/store, longer now. temperatures are warmer and refrigerated shipping is too costly. things sit on loading docks waiting to clear customs and are degrading the whole time.

i would like to see date of mfg on each case so i can make informed buying decisions, probably best indicator whether or not paint is going to be any good.

[Chuck E Ducky]

Can the industry even make paint the way they use to tho? The materials they use today are vastly different.

[Brokeass_baller]

Small paint hasn't been an issue for me recently, either. Probably for two years now with mostly Triumph and Graffiti. I think I've stayed around my .685 insert

[ketzer7]

As far as I tell, it's all cost cutting. Smaller paintballs = less material you have to buy to manufacture them and/or the material you buy lasts for longer to produce the same amount of paintballs.

Think of it this way - in 2001/2002, a case of good paint (e.g. Hellfire, the original Marbillizer, etc.) was around $75-$80. Cheaper stuff could be had for anywhere from $65-$70/case.

In 2023, a case of paint is still roughly around the same price, yet if you factor in inflation for the past 20 years, that $80 case of paint in 2002, should cost $135 in today's money. So, how do you keep the cost the same for 20 years? Cut the cost of manufacturing it over that 20 year time span, which means shrink the size, cheapen the fill, move production to somewhere lower cost, etc. etc.

Anyone that's gone to the grocery store lately will see the same thing on just about any packaged product there. Either the cost of that product in the same weight amount has gone up, or the package has been steadily shrinking over time to keep the same price point.

[ketzer7]

I'm sure plenty of people would be, but my guess is the corporate entities believe otherwise or have market research that says most won't. It's strange to me, because I would think if there was enough of a market to go after with higher-quality paint that costs significantly more, one of the manufacturers would have already done so, but my guess is there just isn't enough to justify it or something. The free market has spoken it seems.

[Chuck E Ducky]

Me too Opus but we are the minority not the majority of the Paintball manufacturing market. I think that’s the issue.

[Levi]

This pretty much nails it. Make it cheaper/crappier/smaller instead of raising price. We've been marching away from quality in everything for a long time, and it's so incredibly frustrating for someone with a quality over quantity and buy once/cry once mentality.

[Chuck E Ducky]

I think it’s interesting so much innovation has gone into making the paintball marker better. But the Paintball itself something everyone in the industry uses has vastly been ignored.

I think the FS rounds were a step in the right direction but they could never become an industry standard as they are not backward compatible.

[OpusX]

If FS rounds were biodegradable gelatin and not polystyrene plastic I would agree.

[Grendel]

I honestly do not particularly care about the size of the paint. We have been dealing with that issue from day one I've been playing. I just want some consistency and better quality (roundness) with a reasonably heavy fill. Pick a size and stick with it within reasonable variation, how about we make a paintball 0.68 inches in diameter +/- 0.05% and make it spherical vs. egg or pear shaped.

[Jonnydread]

Like I used to say Brass Eagle paintballs, curvy like a lady!

[Chappy]

Very few paintballers have a clue. The vast majority don’t even think about paint size. If the customer base was more informed they would meet demand and make better paint. But the majority of consumers buy whatever is cheapest and don’t even think about how it affects their game. Everyone I know who plays that I didn’t meet on mcb buy whatever is available and don’t even think about brand choice let alone what the size of the ball is. When I try to explain the importance of decent paint they look at me cross eyed and wander off.