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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…