How To Choose The Best Paintball Gun

The sport of paintball is physically challenging and has become one of the favorite pastimes of many young people, as well as grown men and women. Once you get past the initial stage of just doing it for fun and decide to turn it into a more regular hobby, I would suggest really taking some time to learn how to choose the best paintball gun for your particular circumstances. And of course you will also probably want to pick up some reliable paintball safety gear.

Picture yourself holding your first ever $250 Tippmann series paintball gun. Then imagine that you accidentally break it, by running into a tree as you attempt to provide cover for your teammates. Now that doesn't sound like much fun, does it? The very first paintball gun you buy should be one that you can afford to lose, as well as to upgrade whenever the need arises, such as when your skill increases.

The "best paintball gun" doesn't actually exist. As a beginner, the most advisable thing that you can do for yourself is to just play the game a lot -- maybe paintball isn't your thing, or you may be able to figure out that that you would need a gun that fires more rapidly, or perhaps you can tell that you want to be more of a sniper and will need to buy a gun that has a scope.

Nevertheless, if it turns out that you truly enjoy the game, you will want to purchase a paintball kit. Otherwise you're going to be duking it out in the woods empty handed and without a protective mask, unless you actually buy the items separately that is. A paintball kit will provide you with a mask, gun, gloves, some paint and a hopper for a paintball marker.

As for the guns themselves, there are quite a lot from which you can choose. One of the favorites on the market for beginners is the Tippmann 98 Custom. The cost of it varies between $100 to $150, depending upon the place of purchase. The Tippmann 98C's popularity comes down to the ability to replace or upgrade basically any part of the marker. Overall, it is really quite cheap and cost effective, making it a great choice for paintball beginners.

For those of you that prefer a gun that costs even less, the Piranha GTI Plus Mechanical Paintball Marker is a good choice. It will cost something between $60 and $80 and is a reliable lightweight gun. The low velocity issues it has aren't very noticeable, and you can actually make it even more accurate than some of the guns from the Tippmann series by replacing the barrel for a few bucks more. The GTI Plus can also be used for just about any kind of game, and it is especially effective at capture the flag scenarios.

Generally speaking, the more experienced one becomes, the more one will understand what's best for him or herself. After you eventually discover kind of player you think you want to be, you can buy a new gun (like the Tippmann 98C) or buy and upgrade something like the Piranha GTI Plus. Picking out the best paintgall gun for yourself isn't that difficult. And if you're a beginner, the only thing you have to worry about is not getting anything too fancy and expensive; just enjoy the game!