It’s no fun when your last ball suddenly falls out of the barrel and your team is on the verge of winning the game. Instead of helping your friends, you became a liability. And that’s not cool.
When paintballs fall out of your barrel, there are only two reasons. It’s either your paintball is too small for your barrel size or you have a defective ball detent.
Now, how do you find out which of the two caused you such shame?
Let us help in checking out your paintball gun problem.
Contents
Why Do Paintballs Fall Out of My Barrel?
We’ve identified two possible reasons why paintballs fall out of its barrel. Here they are:
Too Small Paintballs
If you’re using a closed bolt paintball gun , there’s a chance that you’re overboring. And that’s why your paintballs are easily slipping out of your barrel.
Overboring is when your paintballs are just too small for your barrel that it drops the minute you point your gun to the ground.
But now you’re thinking, your friends and the chaps in online discussion boards say they prefer overboring.
I’m not saying that overboring isn’t good. Some folks intentionally overbore because there are advantages to doing so.
It lets them handle the ball better and clean the barrel easily. The paintballs expanding is also not a problem even if the weather gets warmer during the play.
However, if you decide to overbore, just make sure that you don’t point the gun downward.
Ball Detent Defect
If you’ve ruled out overboring your paintball, then probably the ball detent is what’s causing the issue. Let’s find out more in the next section.
What Does a Ball Detent Do in My Paintball Gun?
If you’re asking what a ball detent does in your paintball gun, there are two reasons for that. These reasons depend on whether you have an open or closed bolt gun.
For open bolt guns , ball detents keep your paintballs in place while not in use.
In closed bolt guns , ball detents are used to prevent double firing. It makes sure your paintballs come out one at a time.
Ball detents are an important part of your paintball guns but, unfortunately, they wear out too.
There are also instances that they break depending on the type of ball detent your gun has.
The good news is, you can replace them! Wording out the instructions in replacing a ball detent can be quite confusing so here’s a quick video on how to replace your ball detents.
Just a disclaimer, replacing ball detents may be different depending on the model of the gun you have. The principle is still the same. You might want to check out your paintball’s manual when doing this.
Your paintballs rolling out of the barrel might not just be the only mishap you’ll experience while in a heated attack. Be prepared to face these challenges on the battlefield.
Why Are My Paintballs Exploding in the Barrel?
Instead of asking “Why are my paintballs exploding?,” you might want to ask, “Is my paintball gun “chopping balls”?. It’s because the only thing that can cause your paintballs to explode is when something inside your gun manages to cut right through your paintballs.
Anyway, there are four reasons why your paintballs are exploding inside the barrel.
- Balls have gone bad
- Broken barrel
- Broken breach
- Chopping balls
Let’s see how each of these can result in a messy, annoying paintball game.
PaintBalls Gone Bad
For some who don’t know it yet, paintballs expire. They are made of biodegradable elements that break down through time.
They are made that way because companies who make them are environmentally conscious. Plus, they also have to make sure that their paintballs are not a health hazard to anyone.
So, how can you tell if paintballs are bad? Fortunately, there are subtle signs to indicate that your paintballs are no longer good to use:
- It’s not round anymore (Oblong or egg-shaped)
- Drop and see if they break. If yes, trash it.
- Some of its surfaces are too soft to the touch.
- It has blotches all around it.
- Your paintballs are over a year old.
If you notice one or more of these signs in your paintballs, better dispose of them.
Broken Barrel
Your paintball barrel might be broken if your balls consistently break.
To check if your paintball gun has a broken barrel, insert a cotton ball inside your barrel then pull it out. If it snags or tears too much, then you have a defect somewhere in your barrel.
You may opt to fix it but more often, problems like these need a barrel replacement .
Broken Breech
It’s much simpler to fix a broken breech than a broken barrel and if you’re lucky, you might not need to spend cash.
A breech may break if the air pressure inside your gun is too high. Too high a pressure can burst your paintball on impact.
To lower the air pressure, just tone it down if you’re using a pneumatic paintball. If you have a blowback, you will need to turn down the velocity.
In some cases, the broken breech is caused by dry paint stuck in the breech. You just have to clean your gun meticulously and the problem goes away.
Chopping Ball
When the paintball gets chopped inside your gun, there are a number of causes why this happens. Your problem might be caused by:
- Incompatible loading and marking speed
- You overloaded your gun with paintballs
- A blowback air in the gun’s breech
- Malfunctioned loading
- Unclean anti-chop eyes
You might need the help of a paintball gun expert to figure out which of these caused your paintball to explode. So, it would be high time to call a friend perhaps.
Wrap Up
Several things can go wrong with a paintball gun. The key is to know your equipment.
Take the time to understand how it works. Research is the key.
For more helpful tips and questions about your paintball guns, you can check out VNC’s plethora of insightful blogs.