Beginner's guide to equipment. Subject: Paintball Guns
article by Alan Nagata

If you are reading this you are in the market for a good beginner gun. I’m going to assume you had a fun outing at a recent weekend from your local paintball field with a bunch of your buddies. Right about now you can’t get the images of paintball out of your head. That’s right, you are addicted and you want more. Where do you start out? Well you probably already read the first installment to the beginner's guide to equipment and have already realized that getting a high quality mask is a must, if not go back and read that first before you go any further. The next logical step is to buy a good entry level gun. Obviously, you don’t want to be shelling out money every time you go to the field to rent equipment. That’s just not the cool thing to do. I mean, no one wants to be seen at the field using a beat down rental gun? There are so many choices for paintball guns available now that many of you beginning players may feel a little overwhelmed. Throughout this article I will be going through a few well known guns that are ideal for a player just entering the world of paintball.

Things that make up a good beginner gun are reliability, ease of maintenance, weight, and cost. All the guns in this article will be scoring very high in these categories, if the gun you are looking into does not score highly in these categories you generally shouldn’t be looking into it as a beginner. Some other things I will be going over that are not as important are anodizing, balance, speed, style, barrel, and trigger. I consider these aspects of the gun not as important while choosing a new beginner gun because generally you can always upgrade or adjust these parts or aspects to your liking as you get more involved in paintball. Once you have narrowed down the type of gun you want these aspects will generally sway you towards a certain gun.

Guns under the $100 range are generally mechanical with no extra added features. Just enough to get you out into the woods or field and get you playing. These guns are very good for the budget minded player or the player wanting to buy a basic gun and customize it to his liking.

*All ratings are 1 to 5, 1 being the lowest and 5 being the highest.*

Kingman Victor II

Weight- 5
Anodizing- 4
Balance- 5
Speed- 3
Style- 4
Maintenance- 4
Barrel- 2
Trigger- 3
Operation Type- Blow Back
Barrel Thread- Spyder

Stock Features:

Double trigger
45 grip frame
Mini drop forward
Rubber grip cover

Kingman Spyder Xtra

Weight- 5
Anodizing- 4
Balance- 5
Speed- 3
Style- 4
Maintenance- 4
Barrel- 3
Trigger- 3
Operation Type- Blow Back
Barrel Thread- Spyder

Stock Features:

Vertical feed system
45 double finger trigger with guard
Bottom-line set-up with micro-line hose
Rear cocking second generation Venturi bolt
Field strippable pin Sight rail with beavertail
Anti-double feed
12" micro-polished barrel
Low pressure chamber
TL velocity adjuster
Removable gas-thru fore grip
Mini expansion chamber
Deluxe drop forward

Guns in the $100-$200 dollar price range are normally a good choice for beginner players. They are still very affordable but with that extra little money you have the choice of buying an electric marker, which are normally a lot easier to shoot at faster rates of fire.

Tippmann 98 Custom

Weight- 4
Anodizing- 4
Balance- 4
Speed- 3
Style- 3
Maintenance- 5 (known for being indestructible)
Barrel- 2
Trigger- 2
Operation Type- Blowback
Barrel Thread- Tippmann 98

Stock Features:

Bottomline
Quick breach access for cleaning

Kingman Pilot w/ Anti-Chop System

Weight- 5
Anodizing- 5
Balance- 5
Speed- 5
Style- 4
Maintenance- 4
Barrel- 3
Trigger- 4 (adjustable)
Operation Type- Blow Back
Barrel Thread- Spyder

Stock Features:

Adjustable straight trigger
Anti chop bolt
Multiple shooting modes
12” aluminum barrel
Expansion chamber
Drop forward
Low pressure chamber

Guns in the $200-$300 range are guns that are on the verge of stepping into the world of tournament paintball. These guns are for the beginner player that are looking for the fastest guns possible within a decent price range.

Tippmann A-5

Weight- 3
Anodizing- 4
Balance- 3
Speed- 4
Style- 4
Maintenance- 5
Barrel- 2
Trigger- 3
Operation Type- Blow Back
Barrel Thread- Tippmann A-5

Stock Features:

Built in Cyclone force feed
Bottom line

Smart Parts Ion

Weight- 5
Anodizing- 4
Balance- 5
Speed- 5
Style- 5
Maintenance- 2 (gun needs to be completely disassembled for lubrication)
Barrel- 3
Trigger- 5 (adjustable)
Operation Type- Blow Forward, Electronic Pnuematic
Barrel Thread- Ion/Impulse

Stock Features:

Break beam eyes
Multiple firing modes
Inline regulator
Adjustable double trigger
Bottom line
Input pressure gauge

There you have it guys and gals. Depending on your price range and personal preference those are some of the choices I recommend for the beginner player as well as most experienced players. Check back next week when we go over Air Source to power your marker.