Paintball Guns:Alternative Self Defense Weapon on a Sailboat Against Un-Armed Thieves and Intruders: Tips and Tricks

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Tips from one of our Viewers: Paintballs Guns as Self Defense on a sailboat…Loaded with Pepperballs…

We recently did a controversial YouTube Video entitled “Unarmed Pirates, Thieves and Intruders: Self Defense on Sailboats”

One idea from the video which has been particularly controversial has been the use of CO2 powered paintball guns, using pepperballs in a paintball gun, as a form of self defense, instead of actual paintballs, the legality and effectiveness of them in different kinds of piracy, theft and potential boarding of a sailboat, by both “innocent”, perhaps “opportunist”, fisherman, or criminals looking to steel your money or electronics.

We received a comment from one of our viewers, Travis Allen, which was particularly interesting in regards to the use of paintball guns on a sailboat, as Self Defense, that we think you should know about; About the actual accuracy of paintball guns, the types of gas in a paintball gun, the effects of UV on a paintball gun, the adjustments you can make to a paintball marker, and the care and maintenance of paintball guns and the paintballs or pepperballs, to be sure they are there when needed. Tips and tricks of a paintball gun, if you will.

 

Here is Travis’ email, reprinted, with his written permission, that you may find interesting: The video is located at the end, in case you haven’t already seen it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Written by Travis Allen, September , 2019

 

I grew up as an only child in a remote area of the desert off of Highway 58.  My nearest grade school friends lived 3 miles away.  My father worked graveyard shift at Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex which was about an hour commute one way.  This left mom and me home alone at night.  It can be a dangerous world and some of my earliest childhood memories are of hiding in a dark hallway with my terrified mother because someone was trying to break into our house.  Hitchhikers, illegal immigrants, and sometimes even truck drivers were the culprits trying to gain access to our home.  This part of the desert is in San Bernardino County which had (or perhaps still has) the distinction of being the largest county in the United States.  The problem with this is there has just never been enough sheriff deputies to effectively patrol that much area.  So it’s imperative to learn to defend yourself because by the time the authorities arrive everything has already happened.  After the first of these incidents my parents decided that we needed something more than the fireplace poker as home defense.  As such, I grew up learning how to maintain and handle firearms.  From the various articles I’ve read and videos I’ve watched (and the rest of the world’s general viewpoint on guns), I can see how having a firearm onboard your vessel for self-defense can cause ridiculous hassle and, I’m sure, would simply prevent you from even visiting certain parts of the world.

 

All that being said, I stumbled across your YouTube video titled “Un-Armed PIRATES & INTRUDERS – Self Defense against theft on Sailboats (Patrick Childress Sailing 42)” and found it very interesting.  I actually have some experience that I can draw from and would like to pass that along to you.  Whether or not you decided to purchase a paintball gun as a means of non-lethal defense is up to you and none of my business.  Personally, I think it’s a great idea to have as one of many means to protect yourself and, honestly, one I had not until now considered.  I’m going to continue this from the assumed viewpoint that you did indeed purchase one for use.  You see, I used to play paintball on an official field (sometimes not on an official field) in my hometown with my friends.  This was back in the early ‘90’s and technology has changed since I stopped playing the sport but some of the principles haven’t.  When I began playing, the most common (and my first) paintball guns were pump action.  Slowly semi-automatic paintball guns entered the market and were comparatively expensive.  I drifted away from the sport shortly before the full-auto paintball guns were introduced.  Following are some things (in no particular order) that one learns when playing paintball that are not necessarily common knowledge to the average person out there. 

 

A common misconception is that paintballs and paintball guns behave like a normal firearms and ammunition.  Paintballs are not as accurate as the ammunition used in a firearm and there are a few things that factor into this.

 

1.       The barrel on a paintball gun is typically not rifled.  It’s a smooth bore and imparts no spin to the projectile.  Now, to be accurate, I had seen rifled barrels on the market back when I played but I don’t recall that I ever actually knew anyone that actually used one.

 

2.       The paintball itself does not have ballistics like the ammunition used in a firearm because it’s not a solid piece of metal.  The ballistics of a paintball are a little more like that of a water balloon.  The regulation muzzle velocity limit when I played was 300 feet per second.  (Most official paintball fields would lower that to about 285fps to have a bit more of a safety buffer.)  When the paintball is fired at these speeds it meets the resistance of the air inside the barrel.  This causes the paintball to compress to a degree and at this point the paintball is no longer a sphere.  This will decrease accuracy.  Also, the paintball is not entirely filled with paint.  The paint has a tendency to settle at the bottom of the ball.  This will cause the ball to be out of balance and will affect its flight.  Especially if the paintballs have been stored for a very long time.  And that’s another thing.  They do kind of have a shelf life.  Old paintballs can get brittle and are more prone to breaking when they’re not supposed to.  Such as in the chamber when the paintball gun is fired.  Paintballs also have a tendency to be sensitive to weather conditions.   The paintballs can swell and/or “sweat” depending on heat and humidity.  Swelling can cause accuracy issues and “sweating” can cause them to stick together which can cause issues feeding into the chamber.  This sticking, however, can be minimized and/or eliminated by hoppers that have a battery powered vibrator or agitator that allows for a consistent gravity feed into the chamber.

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3.       The air that is pushed out of the barrel ahead of the paintball causes turbulence outside of the muzzle.  Now your no longer spherical paintball has to pass through that turbulence.  This decreases accuracy even further.  There is some good news on this point however.  You may have seen that some barrels have ports machined down the length of the barrel.  Usually closer to the muzzle.  This allows the air to be pushed out of the ports prior to the paintball exiting the barrel thus reducing the amount of turbulence that the paintball must travel through at the muzzle.  Additionally, if you have a barrel that does not have ports machined into it, a muzzle brake can be added to a barrel and will have the same/similar effect.  Most, if not all, of these are easily attached with a set screw.

4.       Gas.  There are two options.  CO2 and Nitrogen/Compressed Air.  When I first started playing the sport everything was CO2.  Whether you were using the 12g cartridges or the 7oz. bottles (some people even used as large as a 20oz. bottle carried on their belt or harness and attached to the paintball gun via braided line.) it was all CO2.  CO2 is relatively cheap and more easily available but the drawback is it’s much more sensitive to changes in temperature.  Hot day, higher velocity.  Cold day, lower velocity.  Something as simple as leaving the CO2 bottle in direct sunlight on a hot day can cause the muzzle velocity to increase beyond safety limits.  Additionally, the CO2 will get colder with rapid trigger use.  A rapid-fire situation can quickly cool down your system and cause your muzzle velocity to fall off.  This will reduce your accurate range.  This can be somewhat mitigated by using an attachment called an Expansion Chamber.  As a matter of fact, it looked like the first “bottle-fed” paintball gun (it looked to be a Tippman which, btw, was a pretty solid manufacturer back when I played) that Zain showed you at about 15:53 in your video was equipped with an Expansion Chamber.  Notice there is a gas line running from the bottom of the primary grip to the bottom of the fore-grip.  That fore-grip appears to be an Expansion Chamber.  The Expansion Chamber allows for a more consistent pressure supplied to the system.  It is also worth noting that the CO2 getting cold can and does damage the O-rings in the internal works of the paintball gun.  (Side note: Always read and abide by the manufacturer instructions of course, but we used to put a thin coat of silicon grease on our O-rings.  This seemed to increase the lifespan of the O-rings and minimize catastrophic failure during use.)  These issues probably wouldn’t be experienced with a system that uses the 12g CO2 cartridges as the cartridge will be depleted before anything gets that cold.  But it can and does happen with the systems that use the higher capacity bottles.  The alternative is nitrogen.  Nitrogen is much more stable, is not nearly as sensitive to fluctuations in temperature, does not cool with rapid-fire, and is not or not as harmful to the O-rings.  The downside to Nitrogen is the cost relative to CO2.  The Nitrogen/Compressed Air tanks for paintball guns are much more expensive than their CO2 counterparts.  I cannot speak to the costs of refilling the Nitrogen tanks as I never personally used them.  I was drifting away from the sport as they were being introduced but had I continued playing I would have definitely switched to Nitrogen.

5.       Velocity adjustment.  Every paintball gun I’ve ever used has had adjustable velocity and I don’t see any reason that would have changed.  Some people might think to increase the velocity if they’re only planning to use the paintball gun as a non-lethal method of self-defense and not really for sport.  And, on the surface of it, this makes sense.  Higher velocity, more range.  And let’s face it, in a self-defense situation you do want to inflict pain to deter the assailant.  However, I would advise against doing this.  Or at least doing this too much.  Again, it comes back to the composition of the paintball.  I have seen people increase the velocity in their paintball gun too high and the end result was the paintball rupturing in the chamber.  Not something you would want to happen if when you’re using the pepper balls.  This, of course, wouldn’t be an issue with the solid riot control balls.

Final thoughts… Try to balance price, quality, and ease of use/maintenance.  Get a spare parts kit and an O-ring kit.  Airgun Designs has always made a top of the line product but they can be a bit expensive.  Tipmann (at least back when I used to play) was affordable and solidly built.  The “Spectre” in Zain’s shop… I remember associating that name with cheap and unreliable but, to be fair, it’s been a long time.  And, whatever you choose, get to know it.  Practice with it.  Become comfortable with it.  Know its strengths and weaknesses, its accurate range, how it behaves with high fire rate.  Know what you can and cannot expect from it.  And I sincerely hope you never have to use it.  But, if you do… as the saying goes “It’s better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.”  I still find it amazing how much that applies to so many things in life.

 

As much as the sailing community such as yourselves, Sailing La Vagabonde, Sailing Nahoa, Sailing Uma, and Emerald Steel have given me by sharing your stories, knowledge, and advice through articles, podcasts, and videos…  Well, consider this my small way of giving back at least a little bit by sharing what I have learned through my own personal experience.  And, who knows, maybe my luck will change and I’ll see you out there someday.  Until then, safe travels.

 

Kindest Regards and Thank You,

 

Travis Allen

 

Here is that video:

Self Defense on Sailboats, against Pirates, Intruders, Thieves…

 

 

Vietnamese Pirates as seen in Blue Water Sailing, Cruising Helmsman, magazine

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The boat that accosted us was like this one but much larger.

 “Rebecca, QUICK, I need another flare from the hanging locker!”

The jib alone was just barely pulling Brick House southward at a pace slower than a lame lamb, but there was no hurry, we were saving diesel fuel. The south west coast of Vietnam was 100 miles to our east and the coast of Thailand, 125 miles to the west. Here at the southern edge of the Gulf of Thailand, the hundreds of traditional wood fishing boats have thinned to a very few.

From several miles away I monitored our approach to a group of three anchored, fishing boats. Depending on the type of fishing they do, some boats anchor during the day and fish at night.

With the slight wind out of the north west, I adjusted the Monitor self steering to sail a safe quarter mile off their sterns, so to pass the boats on our starboard.

As Brick house slipped by, I could see that the 65 foot long mother ship had the two smaller fishing boats tied by lines, streaming off its stern.

But soon there was a puff of black smoke from the mother ship and the boats began to move in a counter clockwise circle. This soon put them on a perfect broadside collision course with Brick House.

There were at least four fishermen on the forward deck of the mother ship who were watching closely as our tracks converged. There were no friendly smiles or hand waves. Shining my high intensity green laser at the people on deck and at the wheelhouse did nothing to persuade them to change their course.

The mother ship was straining from its tow causing it to list hard to starboard as it struggled to turn into us and narrow the distance. In the fluid maneuvering, they had now set up an approach to bring their port to come along our starboard side.

One towed boat was actually attached to a long line fastened forward of their port midship and, possibly because its rudder was turned, was being thrown out to the side like a water skier in a turn. If they continued what looked like a docking maneuver, or if Brick House slowed down, that tow line would soon rake into our backstay creating all sorts of havoc.

Quickly, I hit the starter key on our diesel and throttled up. This lamb suddenly shed its sheepish coat. Certainly these guys were out to cause us harm. It was a very serious chase in slow motion like a conch after a sea urchin.

Because of the drag of their tow, we held our slim distance, but then very slowly we pulled further ahead. This gave me time to have Rebecca hand me an expired parachute flare. With our boat on autopilot, I pressed my legs against the stern rail for support.

Aiming the parachute flare, I pulled the safety pin and let the hammer mechanism fly. Nothing; the expired flare was a total dud. I dropped it into the ocean to insure it did not decide to ignite unexpectedly.

We had one more flare close at hand. Quickly the end caps were unwrapped, I then aimed toward the boat which was following behind and pulled the trigger.

There was a loud kabang, that rung Rebecca’s ears and sent our ships cat flying to shake in a dark bunk. An eight foot diameter explosion of gray smoke obscured the stern of Brick House. The recoil was not much in my left hand but the disappointment was great. Holding the flare slightly higher than horizontal, the drop rate was so great, the flare only went 50 feet before boring into the sea. It needed to fly an additional 100 feet to hit where I hoped. But the effect put a smile on my face. The pirates on the foredeck went running to the wheelhouse and, at the same moment, all forward movement of the fishing boat stopped.

I would loved to have fired another flare landing it with greater accuracy but our supply is very limited, plus, what if they decided to ignore the warning, drop the drag of their tows and come after us again? We had to think ammo conservation.

We continued to quickly motor sail south. Rebecca kept a binocular watch on the fishing boats. It was a relief to see them circle into the wind and reanchor as they had been a short time before.

And all was back to normal.

LESSONS LEARNED

There is a superstition among fishermen in S.E. Asian countries that a fishing boat can wipe away bad fishing luck by passing close across the bow of another moving vessel. Cruising sailboats become an easy mark for this dangerous maneuver. To dissuade boats I shine a powerful green laser light at the wheelhouse. Four out of four fishing boats hit with my laser made an abrupt turn, figuring it would be better luck to pass astern of our sailboat.

Our 1,000mW laser is far more effective than a mere 5mW “pointer” . There are 5,000mW lasers that can set fire to combustibles 18 inches away.

When the pirate mother ship picked up anchor and maneuvered in our direction, it became obvious they could not reach us in time to pass across our bow so I assumed they would turn to cross our stern. All my innocent misunderstandings of their true intentions allowed the tense situation to suddenly develop. As they tried to come alongside, it was immediately more important to avoid a collision.

With that problem solved, the priority became protecting ourselves and stopping the pirates in their pursuit. If we had a gun on board, a couple of shots across their deck or into the wheelhouse would certainly have scared them away. If these pirates were able to gain a proximity so close they would then board our boat, that becomes quite a

different level of anxiety and heightened defense on our part.

The Gulf of Thailand is not known to be a “pirate” area. In hindsight, these were fishermen who became pirates of opportunity and did not appear armed. If someone in our situation decided to wound or kill these unarmed pirates, while they were still on their own boat and someone was left in condition enough to tell what happened, there could be serious consequences awaiting the cruiser in their next port.

It is not unusual for victims in many countries to then become the criminal for defending themselves with excessive force. Plus, it is highly illegal to possess firearms in many countries.

In our situation, what if I had burned their boat or harmed these pirates with my flares and they were able to claim to officials they were simply having mechanical problems with their steering, or they wanted to sell us fish? I do not want to deal with corrupt foreign court systems and predatory lawyers. Our goal was to stop the piracy without causing further problems for ourselves. We could ratchet up our defense as needed. Hopefully these pirates have gone away learning that not all sailboats are easy targets.

There are known pirate areas like the waters between the south eastern Philippines and the north east coast of Borneo. If a high speed powerboat full of men, in dark T-shirts with the word “Police” across the chest, approaches a cruising boat in this area, a cruisers best option is to immediately cut loose with rocket propelled grenades.

Waiting for clarity in these waters can prove disastrous as it has for the crew of commercial shipping and cruisers. This past November, a German couple were attacked on their sailboat. The wife was killed and the husband who was held for ransom was then beheaded. Such attacks have become a pattern. Obviously, most cruisers find it prudent to steer wide of known pirate areas.

Using a yacht’s distress signaling equipment, like flares, to ward off the bad guys, has proven effective for a number of world roaming cruisers. Twelve gauge, pistol-fired flares like the orange colored Orion flare launcher will fly 90 meters with the proper trajectory. These flares will burn underwater so if one should land on the deck of a boat, it cannot be easily extinguished.

Parachute flares launched from a tube can fly 300 meters. In a defensive situation, the first flare launched should have a trajectory of 45 degrees for ranging purposes.

The expired handheld flares used in our pirate encounter expired on February 1996. So far, we have a 50 percent failure rate with that vintage. In a tense situation, to pull the pin on a flare being gripped in your hand, only to have nothing happen, is a real “Oh sh..” moment.

 

 

Fishermen Punk

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For our friends on the west coast of Malaysia, we stopped for the night at Pulau Bidan, 14 miles north of Penang (Lat 05 44′.6N Lon 100 17′.4E). In the morning we woke up to a fisherman anchored across our anchor and with a fish line draped along our hull with a float about to tangle in our rudder or prop. Of course this is the often used ploy to say we caused the anchoring problem and now we owe the fisherman money. In no uncertain terms I told him to move, which he did and then we were able to leave. The strange thing is, an hour later when we were about 7 miles on our way to Langkawi, he showed up along side us well out to sea. He motored along, motioning with his arms like we needed to give him something. I won’t bore you with the whole story but after 45 minutes, I tired of him and his unsafe maneuvers across our bow and off our stern so I fired a flare into the sky. That pretty much solved the problem for a while…..but he came close again. When I started taking pictures with my telephoto lens, that seemed to have the best effect and he disappeared for good heading back to Bidan. He burned up a lot of gasoline for nothing. I am attaching some pictures in case someone in Penang keeps track of these things. The Red Bull insignia on the side of his boat is distinctive.

After arriving in Langkawi, we made a report to the Marine Police. They were very interested in the situation and it seems they are not fully aware that this sort of thing is common place against peaceful cruisers. More cruisers need to take pictures and make a report. The big learning point from this experience is to take pictures early on and from all angles. I should have taken a picture of the bow of the fishing boat where the registration numbers are for Malaysian boats. Without such definite evidence, the police can do little. We have one cruising friend here in the marina at Langkawi who has dealt 3 times with this sort of thing. He has never paid anything but they keep trying.