Paintball 'myths' that may be true after all?

[The Jayster]

I'm being told all the time that Egos have a curved shot, "useful if you want to pop someone behind a bunker". Never believed it. Always thought that this impression was derived from the way most people hold a stacked-tubed gun and therefore that if such a gun would be attached to a grip vice next to a spool-valve gun they'd shoot exactly the same (all other things being equal). Yet, this year I'm using my LV2 a lot for certain games and I'm starting to believe the myth. Am I going nuts?

"Pump guns are more accurate". Never believed that one either. I also look at 'accuracy' more in terms of consistency. But could it be that firing from a close-bolt position at a very low rate of fire (compared to a semi) somehow improves consistency? I do know that we tend to underbore with pumps for obvious reasons, which might help with consistency, but could there be something else to it?

Any other 'myths' that you believe might turn out to be true?

[NONOBLITUS]

If some people chill out and don’t be such try hards paintball is actually really fun.

[tyronejk]

If you shoot an old stacked-tube poppet (e.g. ICD Promaster was my first), you might notice even more of that drop-shot effect. I do think it's purely hand positioning and visual illusion.

And I asked the same thing about pump gun (and Autococker) accuracy back in the inceptionforums.com days and the general consensus was that the shorter "lock-time" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lock_time) made those guns seem more accurate.

[mikeds80]

Yea I can totally see there being some kernel of truth to that one. It wouldn't necessarily be "lock time" but rather how much the gun wiggles during firing. If you had two otherwise comparable poppets, one open bolt and one closed, the closed bolt would have less stuff moving before a single shot and during sustained fire the bolt movent might even be slower and feel more controlled. On the extreme, compare a 98 to a phantom and it's clear that the 98 has more wiggle. This wouldn't be measurable by a "test rig" but would be felt by a person holding the gun. This is a known and accepted mechanic in higher velocity airguns. If it happens at 700fps it would be even more pronounced at 300fps.

[RAZRBAKK]

The pump one has always cracked me up because it's built around user error. If shooting slower creates more consistent shot conditions... Shoot slower.

[RPP]

Yet, this year I'm using my LV2 a lot for certain games and I'm starting to believe the myth. Am I going nuts?

Borrow someone's impulse with a drop forward, a real tower of a marker. You will see the illusion even more. All paint flys the same when it leaves the barrel. Except for some Apex attachment...

[Jsc5150]

For years people have asked if my pump gun is more accurate than regular guns. I have two replies:

1. Yes, because it’s actually clean

2. No, but actually yes because you need to actually aim a pump

Strapped to a bench, pumps are the same accuracy as other guns. But pump markers have ergonomics that make shooting single shots more natural.



White pods are bad luck, I had one in 2009 and now I’m fat and not pro

[Jonnydread]

To echo others

The only reason a pump seems more accurate is because it's a single shot. A single shot out of almost any marker is going to be closer to the target than just blasting a bunch

[Sdawg]

“Bore sizing is a waste of time.”

Bore sizing has measurable effects, the question what you do with the information.

[cockerpunk]

when we started punkworks, i didnt want people to get too enmeshed in the details, and forget that the player and the game is why we are doing this. which is why i always carried this tagline. i wanted to make sure the center was still the player, not the tech. even though we wanted to figure out the tech.

"the ultimate truth in paintball is that the interaction between the gun and the player is by far and away the largest factor in accuracy, consistency, and reliability."

[Jsc5150]

“Bore sizing is a waste of time.”

Bore sizing has measurable effects, the question what you do with the information.

People overthink boring so badly.

Grab your bag of inserts, shoot a few at the chrono range and use the one that makes the balls fly the way you want

its that easy

[Sdawg]

People overthink boring so badly.

Grab your bag of inserts, shoot a few at the chrono range and use the one that makes the balls fly the way you want

its that easy

Yeah it doesn't matter that much as long as you are not so overbored that your fps drops by 40 or underbored so much that the paint shreds on the barrel.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[deadmeat3344]

The drop shot nonsense comes from people not accustomed to shooting taller guns placing the barrel in a different place relative to the eyes vs a compact modern spool.

I am not sure how lock time as a concept has any real relevance to paintball to be honest. We aren't talking PRS competition or the ye olde hammer fired vs striker fired handgun debate where disturbance of the gun during the firing process has a real effect on point of impact, we are talking about airguns shooting a inherently inaccurate liquid filled projectile that can literally change course in flight if they are a bit oily or oblong.

Perception is a wild thing.

[flyweightnate]

See, I could imagine a cause for several myths.

Ego hooking shots? Maybe one detent is bad so there's a bit of spin.

Tall poppets dropping shots? A heavy hammer high off the hand can cause muzzle flip, pushing the barrel up against the ball, causing topspin. (Which would disappear in a test vise.)

... or it could be perception.

[gabe]

I'm being told all the time that Egos have a curved shot, "useful if you want to pop someone behind a bunker". Never believed it. Always thought that this impression was derived from the way most people hold a stacked-tubed gun and therefore that if such a gun would be attached to a grip vice next to a spool-valve gun they'd shoot exactly the same (all other things being equal). Yet, this year I'm using my LV2 a lot for certain games and I'm starting to believe the myth. Am I going nuts?

The "drop shot" or "straight shot" thing is what I was going to bring up. Paintball experts debunked this supposedly and I only heard it seriously again in 2020 when I got back into paintball but there seems to be some truth there. Just like you I was using an LV1.1 and noticed it would arc into the ground pretty hard. Autocockers by comparison seem to shoot much "flatter" which is consistent with what the old timers said about giving the back players autocockers and the front guys automags. Could be total garbage but I've definitely noticed different shot arcs with different guns.

[Cunha]

Def no truth. Velocity out of a pipe is velocity out of a pipe. It's just visual perception, basically optical illusion.

Mags are better front man guns cuz they don't have a bunch of shit to futz up when youre in the slop though!