This was never so clear as the last time we hit the field in an open skirmish as team. There were all kinds of markers there. Some mid-ranged, some low end. As we looked through the other gear we saw that while we were all using .68 cal paint they were all different.
The flavor of paint at this game was very diverse. There was Winchester, Buzz-Balls, PMI, Evil, Blaze, Dusk, Wild Thing, and Blue Streak. The appearance of each of these different paints went much further than just looks.
The worst performers for the day:
Worst to best:
Buzz-Balls: These were among the worst possible paintballs I have ever seen. They were not even acceptable for just messing around. They were not consistently shaped or sized and the skin on them was weak. The seam looked more like a waist line than a seam. These lovely’s were yellow in color. You could tell who was using them as they would leave a barrel in a huge spray of loose paint that looked like a shotgun blast. These things broke in the barrel more than on anything in front of the barrel. Not counting the spray from the ball breaking in the barrel. I do not know where these were purchased, I do know that I would not shoot them from any marker I have for love or money, nor would I advise anyone to do so. We later found that these at Gander Mountain and they are manufactured by none other than Brass Eagle. I this just wasn’t their day. When we looked for these paintballs on their web site they were nowhere to be found. Could it be that these were so bad they wouldn’t even claim to making them?
Wild Streak: This is the new paint from Brass Eagle sold at Wal-Marts across the country. This paint is here only because the Buzz-Balls performed worse. This is hard to believe. Just running with this paint in your hopper you would have a ball break and leak all over all of the other paint in the hopper making a mess that was not fun and you would use up all of your swear words in one run. Just not good. Plus they look cheesy. Breaks awesome in the gun, just not on your target. Big looser on the marking ability. Extremely thin fill, rather worthless.
Blue Streak: This paint was worse for other reasons. While it did survive a dash across the field in your hopper, the paint was so small that many times one would sneak past a ball detent and drop on the ground. When you could get these to stay in the barrel the would leave the barrel in a pattern that looked a little like a shotgun blast. One high, one low, one left, one right and so on. You could hit your target better if you opted for a slingshot instead of your marker. Looser on the marking ability, this stuff is so easy to wipe off it is silly. Large winged seams. While they were all round the flashing sticking off the seam on these balls would send them just about anywhere but on your target.
In conclusion to these poor performing paints should not really be used for much more than mines or other alternative means of delivering a mark to your opponent. They would probably be best suited messy trip wire trail bombs.
The Best Performers for the day:
Best to worst:
RPS Evil: The top performer of the day was Evil. This paint performed consistently and refused to break in the barrel. Paint to barrel match was perfect and this paint had a very flat trajectory. Seams on the ball were nearly non-existent. Great marking ability, when marked if someone were to wipe it would only make matters more apparent and make a bigger mess. Egg shell skin made this paint sting in particular. Post game you would find pieces of the shell everywhere like broken eggs.
RPS Marballizer: Perfect seams, broke on target, nice flat flight path. Very accurate. This paint also had the brittle egg shell skin like the Evils and performed equally well.
Diablo Dusk: This was the best performing of the soft gelatin skin paint While not breaking like the Evils or the Marballizers it had a good flight path and broke well on target resulting in a mark that could not be wiped. We had problems with certain markers turning this paint into a blended mess. When it worked well it was awesome. When it broke a ball it continued to blend 8 out of 10 shots. This paint requires that your gear be clean, very clean. This one is on the bottom of the list but was really the best all around in all of the various markers and barrel sizes available. The seam on the ball was visible but not sticking out nor was it the waist line the Buzz-Balls were. This paint also did not get a fair run as Spiker was chugging liquid CO2 and frosting all over the place.
If you do not know what paint you should be using then buying small batches of 500 or less to try them out is one way you can get to test the paint without getting stuck with something like the buzz balls and being forced to play with a slingshot. At the very least you can save them for some mad man experiement and dump them in to a blender and make them ready for a rainbird sprinker head mine.
Keep it real, keep it safe