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unfortunatly my home was a target for someone whom more than likely received a paint gun for Christmas and could't wait for a proper place to use it. what i would like to know is how do you clean off the oil residue from vinyl siding? i tried using warm water & dawn dish soap, and spic&span with warm water. it still leaves an oil spot on the vinyl. i could surly use your input on this matter!

thank you
Charles

That is most unfortunate. Sadly for those of us involved in the sport of paintball, acts of violence and or vandalism with paintball gear tend to often reflect more on us in the public eye, than those with baseball bats do on baseball players, or other sports.

There are a couple of types of paintballs. There are oil based paints, used in the forestry and cattle industry long before the game of paintball came around. Those would require paint thinner to remove. They are fairly hard to come by though, so I think it rather unlikely that what you are seeing is an oil residue.

The paintballs used in the sport of paintball are non-toxic and biodegradable. Their fill is made primarily from water and polyethelene glycol. While they don't have oil in them, some formulations use very finely ground pigment powder for their color, and that can get into a porous surface, leaving behind a bit of a tint/stain. You've used the first to things I would try to remove it. Next step past that - perhaps a power washer.

I would highly recommend reporting it to your local law enforcement. Not only is the vandalism illegal, but within many cities, simply firing a paintball marker or other airgun is illegal. With random vandalism like this it's often hard to catch the culprits, but the more cases are reported, the better the chance for law enforcement to see a pattern, and take care of the problem.

Good luck,
-Bill Mills - Technical Editor, WARPIG.com

Hi, I live in Iowa and play Woodsball in the back-roads of the area. My friends and I gather on weekends and play at whatever piece of land that has mass amounts of trees and grass. We also do our best to grab as many people as we can from school. I haven't seen anything about woodsball in specific on your website. I might have missed it though. It seems that since it gets played on the back roads of every country and is hard to photograph, those who spread the news of paintball in general forget to include woodsball or overlook many things about it. I am also wondering if you can inform me on any 12 man woodsball tournaments in and really close to Iowa. Being "Self sponsored" we can't go too far.

Thanks Ben,
W.C.I.D.

We don't generally use the term Woodsball, because SpecialOps Paintball has trademarked it - it is a commercial brand name. That said, there is plenty of info about, and photos and videos of paintball in the woods on our web site - you just won't find many if them by searching for Woodsball as a key word - unless of course it's about something SpecOps is doing.

We would not, however ever recommend or promote playing paintball on a road, or land on which one does not have direct permission to play - as that is often illegal, and almost always unsafe (due to lack of boundary control to prevent someone from walking into the game without proper eye protection.)

As for 12 man tournaments - woods or otherwise, that was a popular tournament format in the 80s, but was replaced by 10 man in the 90s. You might want to look at SpecOps' Scenario Paintball Player's League (scenariochallenge.com) series of tournaments or the Tactical Ten (tacten.com) scenario/woods oriented paintball tournament series to see what events they have that are closest to you. Especially since you're just starting out, tournament wise, regional/local events are a good way to get your feet wet. Check our calendar for tournaments near you (you can have it automatically highlight events by region or state.) Some tournaments will be on concept fields, but many are still played on old-school wooded fields. Five-man is a much more common format for local and regional events, but larger teams like yours will often break up into squads to compete (i.e. GroundZero-Gold, Ground-Zero-Black.)

See you on the field,
Bill Mills - Technical Editor, WARPIG.com

i am very seriously considering starting a field of my owm with a friend, we have everything we need lined out, but i cant get a straight answer about
insurance. is it absolutely legally necessary or can you just go with a waiver? also, is a business license necessary. thanx

David

Hi David,

In most instances, insurance is not required by law, it's for your protection. If a player's goggles fog, and they are stupid and lift them on the field, and lose an eye, you will be facing a lawsuit (amazingly, there have been suits like this where the injured party won, to the tune of over a million dollars.)

Waivers can not provide legal protection from damage lawsuits that claim negligence. So it boils down to whether you are willing to risk having to work for the rest of your life to pay off a debt to someone who might get injured, or are willing to pay about a buck and a half per player per day for insurance.

As for business licenses, that depends on the laws in your state, county and or city. In most areas of the US, an occupation license is required to run any sort of business.

I am a college PB club advisor who is desperately looking for a SHERIDAN PGP pump pistol. According to one of the links on your site this Marker is
available again at www.sheridanusa.com This site is vaporware! Where can I purchase a new, used, or even broken PGP ???

Ron Sindric

Benjamin Sheridan was bought by Crosman Airguns a few years back. It looks like they may have discontinued the Sheridan web site, as it has been incorporated into the Crosman web site: http://www.crosman.com/site/catalog/benjamin_sheridan

As for where to find a PGP, I'd say the best bet would be hitting eBay and various classified ad web sites to find a used one.

See you on the field,
-Bill Mills - Technical Editor - WARPIG.com

i played a bunch of guys and one of them had a gun that had these little tubes with like 10 paintballs in them. He put them in his gun and shot the balls then he took out the tube and put a new one in. He had like a hundred of the tubes. I wanted to know what kind of gun it is.

Anthony

That could be any of a hundred or more different models.

That's the way paintguns were built in the early 1980s, before hoppers were invented. It could also be a more modern paintgun built to stock class specifications. Stock class paintball games limit equipment to the type of gear used back in the early 80s (12 gram CO2 cartridge without a quick-change, pump or bolt action cocking, and 10-20 paintball capacity stored in a magazine that is parallel to and touching the barrel.)

See you on the field,
-Bill Mills, Technical Editor, WARPIG.com

Your site is a rip-off. You advertise Mancow pictures and just have a picture of a stuffed three-legged cow. [hang-up]

-Paraphrased Phone call from radio talk-show host Eric "Mancow" Muller

Good morning Eric,

My name is Bill Mills. I am owner and technical editor of the first paintball site on the World Wide Web, WARPIG.com

A few years back, a mutual acquaintance of ours, JJ Brookshire organized a charity fund-raiser in which you, William Shatner and Tom Kaye participated. At JJ's request, I helped spread the word about the event to the paintball community, both through editorial pre-event coverage including an Interview with Shatner, and through publishing press releases about that game and following Shatnerball events, as well as publishing an article about one of the events (story and photos by Joshua Silverman) and the DVD from the first Shatnerball game.

To my knowledge there are only two pictures of you at WARPIG.com - one is a still image from the Shatnerball DVD, which appears in an article about the DVD. The other is in an article about the 2003 Shatnerball game where you and Shatner are on stage in front of a crowd at the event.

This morning, I received a phone call from you which consisted of a complaint that I had advertised WARPIG.com as a place to find Mancow pictures, and misled people, followed by a hangup.

I'm just not sure where you are coming from on this. I've never advertised WARPIG.com as a place to find Mancow pictures. Perhaps it was misrepresented to you by part of your production staff, or some web site or search engine unrelated to mine gave them that impression.. The only lesson I've taken away from this is that any effort to promote charity work in which you are involved is repaid by being lied about and insulted to a national radio audience.

-Bill Mills

I own a Dangerous Power Fusion. In the Owner's Manual, they recommend Dow-55 grease to lube the o-rings in both the high & low pressure regulators.

I do use Dow-55 grease, but when I first got the Fusion, I was told by Dangerous Power recommends Dow-55 lube, but Dow-33 could be used as well.

My question is, what are the differences between Dow-55 and Dow-33 Grease & what, if any, performance differences will I see if I used Dow-33 in my marker.

Morgan Davies

Dow 55 has an additive that causes slight swelling to rubber materials. This is meant to help expand them, forcing them to seal better. Dow 33 does not have this ingredient.

For seals that are moving, as opposed to sitting still, swelling can cause problems because if an o-ring swells too much it can bind the parts together that are supposed to move. The flip side is that many of the o-rings used in paintguns don't have rubber in them - so you may or may not see a swelling effect with Dow 55.

Which means that using Dow 55, you might see problems with inconsistent velocity or FSDO - or you might have no problems at all.
See you on the field,
-Bill Mills - Technical Editor - WARPIG.com

The main difference is that CO2 tanks are designed to hold pure carbon dioxide that is compressed, while compressed air tanks are designed to hold air that is compressed.

The two main differences to achieve that are that compressed air tanks store air at much higher pressures than at which CO2 is stored. This is because CO2 liquifies, and is both a liquid and a gas in the tank. As CO2 is used, some of the liquid boils to create more gas. In essence this self-regulates the pressure, so that the CO2 gas is about the same pressure from the start of the tank use (the vapor pressure of CO2 at the tank's temperature,) until the liquid is depleted.

With compressed air, in contrast, the tank pressure drops as the gas is used. If the pressure fed to the paintball marker dropped with every shot, so would the velocity of the paintballs. Instead of allowing that to happen, the air is stored at much higher pressure in the tank (3,000 to 4,500 psi) and a regulator is installed in the tank, instead of a simple valve. The regulator restricts the output pressure to usually 400 to 800 psi into the marker. Thus, the output pressure of the compressed air system does not begin dropping until the tank pressure gets below that output pressure level.

Alden Roberts

As for safety - there are a number of potential problems that can go wrong if the manufacturer's safety instructions are not followed, or are bypassed. Two of the biggest concerns are improper valve installation. If a valve is not improperly installed, especially on a CO2 tank, it can come un-screwed from its own valve when removed from a marker, and launch at high velocity . For more info, look here.

This is easily avoided by only using professionally installed valves, and monitoring the valve to make sure it does not unscrew. The other issue is use of grease or oil with compressed air. This creates a risk of fire or explosion. Only use manufacturer approved lubricants with a compressed air system. For more info, look here here.

-Bill Mills, Editor, WARPIG.com

I am doing a paper on paintballing. Can you please tell me how much 1 paintball weighs?

Ruth

ASTM International Standard F 1979 – 04, Standard Specification for Paintballs Used in the Sport of Paintball, specifies in requirement 3.3 that paintballs shall not weigh more than 3.5 grams. There is not a minimum weight requirement.

-Bill Mills - Technical Editor, WARPIG.com

You guys have a great site i love pig tv but i only have a 256kps connection you guys should make a little option bar to select what speed of internet you have.

Thanks.
Shayne Figliola

Unfortunately, that is not possible through the delivery system we are using. We do have older episodes encoded for 56kbps and 28 kbps. Our broadband encoded shows are progressive download though, so if you start a show, and then pause it, then watch the line on the scroll bar. It will slowly fill in from left to right. Once it has filled in all the way, you can watch the show without interruption (actually you could start watching when it's halfway loaded - since your connection is half the speed at which they are encoded.)

-Bill Mills - Technical Editor, WARPIG.com

hello I'm am from California and I want to start up a high school Paintball Club but i do not the legal standards to set one up in the US.

sincerely,
nick

Hi Nick,

That's easy - there are no national standards for high school paintball clubs.

You'll need to check with your school to see what the school's policies are for setting up student clubs. If you want to compete nationally as a team, the National Collegiate Paintball Association usually has a high school division in their national championships. Whether or not you want to go that far with the club, or just play together locally, the NCPA is still a good resource for networking with other students who have set up student clubs facing some of the challenges you may face. You can find more about them at college-paintball.com

Bill Mills - Technical Editor, WARPIG.com

Y'm trying to find an article on your site i remember from some time ago... about a new cylindrical hopper that stored the balls in a helix around the inside surface of the cylinder and force fed the balls into the chamber- i've been using the search features on you site but i can't seem to use the best keywords. thanks in advance!

... and i LOVE your tech section- i've sat for hours on your site just looking at how some of the different markers work.

Trevor

Thanks :-)

Check the right hand column, of the technical page - scroll down to the section on Loaders. I suspect it is the Q-Loader you are looking for. Keep your eyes peeled in the next few weeks for an article about an update to the Q-Loader design and an article about modifying an SP-8 to a left side feedport for use with the Q-Loader.

See you on the field,
-Bill Mills - Technical Editor, WARPIG.com

Hello Warpig!

Just wanted to say... Fantastic website! I recently discovered paintball via an event my brother in another state organized. I started talking to people around here in WA and many of them are showing interest and enthusiasm so I'm organizing some summer events here. Not knowing much about the sport and it's equipment I've been researching and have found your forums very useful. Just wanted to say thanks for hosting and managing such a great resource!

Nathan

Thanks Nathan :-)
Good luck on your summer events!

-Bill Mills - Technical Editor, WARPIG.com

Thinking of coming to the states for a holiday would like to know if the paintball expo in California is the best see if so when are they on. look forward to your reply, talk more then.

T&T Spencer (Australia)

Expo (paintballexpo.com) is the largest paintball trade show not at a tournament. It is usually held in early spring (it was in February this year.) The largest tradeshow overall for paintball is usually at the PSP Paintball World cup in the late fall (pspevents.com.) Any of the PSP or NPPL (nppl.tv) tournaments will have an associated trade show as well.

See you on the field,
-Bill Mills - Technical Editor, WARPIG.com

Do you have a picture gallery for Chicago Open 2003 NPPL?

Bill Warner

That's a bit of a trick question. The Chicago Open was an NPPL sanctioned tournament in 2002 and prior years, but not in 2003.

We have 3 photo galleries from the 2003 Chicago Open, one for each format that was played there. They are linked on the left hand side of >this page.


The NPPL Chicago tournament from 2003 we do not have photo galleries from, just the field layout photos that appear on this page.

See you on the field,
-Bill Mills - Technical Editor, WARPIG.com

hi how r u i read a artical on how to anodize alumion parts on ur guns from my friend that plays were thinking of doing this r selves but beofr we start we were wondering after all the steps r dun so we need to liek cleer coat any thing or a type of sealer o keep it cleen or will it b ok to cleen with out the product finish geting dirty or any thing ? plees reply if u can asap we like to start befor a local game we all do on a regler bases thenaks so much

scotty

Hi Scotty,
There is no need to put any coatings on top of anodizing, in fact any coating you can do easily at home (varnish, acrylic, laquer, etc.) is not going to be as strong as a good anodized finish.
Be warned though - in addition to the risks involved in working with hazardous chemicals and fumes, there is definitely an art to anodizing. Trying to anodize a marker in time for a game when you have never anodized anything before is a very bad idea. In fact, it is really wised to learn to anodize on scrap pieces of aluminum before trying to refinish something of value.

See you on the field,
Bill Mills - Technical Editor, WARPIG.com

Hi, I am seeking info as to the rules of the design of the paintball gun. A friend asked me if paintball guns have to run on a air system or can they run totally on electronic. I told him I did not know. I looked at PSP rules and could not find anywhere that said a paintball gun must run on a air source. Could you help clarify this issue.
Thank you.
Dr. Daniel Williams

Hi Dr. Williams,
I'm not aware of any major tournament rules that require a specific propellant. It is important to keep in mind though, that such rules are flexible (they adapt as technology changes) and that tournaments are also subject to any requirements placed by insurance companies covering the events. For example one year at the Paintball World Cup the insurance carrier mandated that all 4,500 PSI compressed air systems use a particular model of fill nipple, though that was not in the rules. Additionally, tournament rules only apply to the tournaments that use them. The closest thing there are to "rules" guiding construction are the ASTM standards. In theory, failing to meet ASTM F2272-03 Standard Specification for Paintball Markers (Limited Modes) could increase a manufacturer's liability - but compliance is not required by any law, and many manufacturers currently do not meet this standard. A bigger issue, if pursuing a commercial venture would be patents - filing patents became trendy in paintball in the late 90s, and as they have been coming to fruition in recent years, who patented a concept first can be more important than who developed a working product first.

See you on the field,
-Bill Mills, Technical Editor - WARPIG.com

i am looking for the california state laws and codes conserning opening and run a filed and cant faind any thing i was hoping you could help me out with where to look.....thanks for you time jason

As far as I know there are not specific laws in any states yet regarding paintball field operation. You would just need to make sure you are in compliance with all the applicable laws for land use and activities at your location (i.e. proper zoning, that discharging an airgun is legal, etc.) and operating a business.

See you on the field,
-Bill Mills - Technical Editor, WARPIG.com

Hi, I am doing a college presentation on how electronics has change "something. My "something" is paintball. For this, i am supposed to have one
presention that is at a laymans level, and one that is more technical for the instructor. For the technical one, I am needing schematics of some of the
electronics I talk about. I haven't been able to find much, (Probably not using right search criteria)And the companies I could think of that I contacted,
basically told me to buy their product. I was hoping that you folks might be able to help me out where these other methods have failed. What I am
needing, is the schematics of an electronic trigger assembly/circiut board, as well as the same for a hopper.
I really hope you'll be able to help, as this presentation is just over a month away (april 8th)
Any questions, Please contact me.
THank you
Scott Stewart

Hi Scott,
Well, really for most of those companies, they would consider that information to be trade secret. I think a more productive approach would be learning how they work (see specific product reviews in our technical section) and building function schematics of your own.

For example in an electromechanical blowback marker, like the Tippmann 98 with e-trigger, the trigger switch signals the circuit board that the user has pulled the trigger, and the circuit board sends power to a solenoid that trips the marker's sear, firing a paintball.

You might also find the article on utilizing Basic Stamps (also in the technical section of our site) helpful, as you could use it to draw up a working electronic schematic for a custom paintgun circuit board.

See you on the field,
-Bill Mills, Technical Editor, WARPIG.com

To whom it may concern,

I want to first commend your organization and for your continued support into this very fast growing and popular sport of paintballing.

I have a reason for this letter and a question but feel a brief preface is necessary.

My son and I are fairly new to this phenomenon and rarely miss a weekend to play at our local facility, Sudden Impact owned and operated by
Paintball Headquarters, in Tucson, Arizona. I am forty-six and my son is fourteen. He is a new member of a Young Guns team and we recently
attended our first tournament in Phoenix, Arizona sanctioned by 23BPS. I will mention the tournament was very well run and extremely organized.

However, one aspect that I am disappointed with is the amount of classes that are offered. My friends and I will be developing a five man open team and we will compete against all of the younger kids. We also realize that the chances of us winning will be very limited. Our point for doing this is not entirely about winning but to compete in a sport we all really enjoy. All of us “old men” are athletic and have competed in various sports such as baseball, softball, auto and motorcycle racing. In all of these examples, as well as many more I did not mention, there are always “senior” and or “over 40” divisions from which we may compete. I ask, “Why are there not classes for us almost senior citizens?”

As mentioned, my friends and I will continue to generate an open team but how many other guys or gals will not build a team due to intimidation and
or knowing the lack of their chances to compete for a win? Thus, all organizations involved will share in revenue losses due to the lack of participation.

In Tucson alone I can think of over fifteen to twenty guys that would participate, but will not due to the reasons stated. I can only imagine how many more there are throughout the entire United States.

I hope you can share with me any of your opinions and make any suggestions as to who else I may contact regarding this subject. I sincerely want to assist with making this sport grow with all age groups.

Sincerely,
Hank Winter

Hi Hank, thanks for the kind words.

The player classifications offered are up to the promoters producing the individual events. From their point of view, they need to have enough teams competing in a division to make the event profitable. There's no point in throwing a party if no one will show up.

At the Paintball World Cup last year, the Master's Division (over 40) drew out 7 teams. This being at an international tournament - one of the largest in the world. It think it may be harder than you think to find a lot of people who want to compete in an over 40 player class. Multiple people tried to get me to play at World Cup as they were trying to fill out their rosters, despite my repeated assurances that I am too young to qualify.

That said, I'm sure if you could organize a dozen or so teams, most any regional tournament promoter would take you seriously - if those were teams that weren't otherwise playing in their events.

See you on the field,
-Bill Mills, Technical Editor, WARPIG.com

This is in response to a couple of articles I have read on Ion upgrades...(QEV & Firebolt).Not only are these two of the most awesome articles ive
read on the gun,but the entire site is just amazing.I am 35 years old,and just got back into paintball again after not playing since the days of guns such as the Pirahna pump(wood),Tippman SL68s,and the starter guns called splatmaster pistols,that held 10 balls in a cigar tube.I was clueless to the new stuff,but am so back up on info because of your site.There seems to be something for everyone of all ages on your site.I first purchased an autococker trilogy sport kit,which is now my back up gun,because of the lack of upgrading,but it gave me all i needed to get back in.I now have a custom built Ion Dynasty,with a HaloB,and a compressed air tank(glass).I have found tons of info on both guns on your site,and can proudly say,that because of your QEV, and dwell setting tips,have one of the only Ions around,that is set up to shoot likee its supposed to.It rocks.Just wanted to say thanks,and for you two to keep it up.

John Whelan

Thanks John,
We started playing back then too. My first marker was a Splatmaster and my wife's (the webmaster for WARPIG) was a PGP.
Glad we could be of help. We've been playing paintball for more than 20 years each now, and involved in WARPIG for 15. Some projects get addictive.

See you on the field,
-Bill Mills - Techncial Editor, WARPIG.com

yes i am sorry to take up your time but i have 2 questions i me and my friends are starting a piantball team and we are woundering how we could maybe get like sponsers i mean anything at all and also i would like to know of a paintball tounament quality gun for $100 or lower

thank you for your time
Fred Smith

Hi Fred,

When it comes to finding sponsors it is basically a matter of figuring out what your team can provide to a potential sponsor in exchange for the support you are asking for.

For some ideas in this area, see http://www.warpig.com/paintball/articles/hookups/index.shtml> this article.

As for a tournament grade marker for less than $100, there are many entry-level markers in that price range, and many that you could do well with in a rookie (starting level) tournament. Typically if someone is referring to "tournament quality" they will be talking about a high-end, much higher performance paintball marker - something in the $400 to $1200 dollar price range.

See you on the field,
-Bill Mills - Technical Editor, WARPIG.co

Are the warp feed hose and the qloader hos compatiable with each other or are they seperate widths? Im trying to make my own modification to my gun and I would like to know before I go ahead and by those parts.

Thanks

Darek

Internally they are close, if not the same, but externally the Q-Loader hoses are slightly wider in diameter. It would not be a problem to tape Warp hose to get it to feed in a Q-Loader, and you probably could bore out a Warp hose fitting enough to accept Q-Loader hose without a too much of a problem.

See you on the field,
Bill Mills - Technical Editor, WARPIG.com

My friends and i have just started a paintball team in Brunswick, GA. We intend to make it to some tournaments but we don't know where to start. Can you please fill me in with the requirements, information on events, dates and times? Like i said we have just strted so we don't know much about it, but we are really interested.

Thank you.
Josh Jones

Hi Joshua,
The place I would recommend starting is our calendar. You can select events to be highlighted by state or region, and tournaments will start with a T. As a new team, you will want to look for Rookie, DIII or DIV class tournaments, or tournaments that offer one of those classes - that is the starting level. From there it is a matter of contacting the promoter of the event to find out about costs and what game format and rules they are using, then signing up and going.

See you on the field,
-Bill Mills

hi quick question, i am going to get a large c02 tank to fill my own tanks do i need a tank with a tube that goes to the bottom of the tank or a regular tank?

thank you for your time

sincerly jesse young

For trans-filling CO2 tanks, a siphon tank (one with an internal tube) is required as the source. This article (one of the original articles from back when WARPIG was an ftp site and wasn't even called WARPIG yet) explains how a fill CO2 fill station works:

How to fill CO2

The article also makes a very important point:
"Before proceeding, order pamphlets "G-6.3" (Carbon Dioxide Cylinder Filling and Handling Procedures For Beverage Plants, NSDA TD01) and "P-1" (Safe Handling of Compressed Gasses in Containers) from the Compressed Gas Association."

It is important to learn proper fill procedure in order to minimize the risk of serious injury.

See you on the field,
-Bill Mills

should a anti-siphon be used with the ion even with the expansion chamber?

Tyler Moore

Anti-siphon should be used when a CO2 tank is mounted horizontally.

To understand why, see:
http://www.warpig.com/paintball/technical/gasses/antisiphon/

An expansion chamber would be difficult mount on Ion, because the Ion must have a regulator in order to operate, and the regulator is mounted in the vertical ASA, where expansion chambers are typically mounted.