A paintballing victory with friends can be very satisfying.
Paintballing is a leisure activity where teams of people compete against one another in military-style exercises. Rather than ejecting bullets, the large guns splatter paint, which indicates that a combatant has been "killed" and can no longer compete. The paintball "hopper," also known as a paintball loader, is a vital component of the paintball gun.
Function
The paintball hopper is the segment of a gun that stores paintballs. When required, the hopper feeds a paintball into the main gun chamber so it's ready to fire. The variety of hopper installed in a paintball gun can have a dramatic impact on the reliability, weight and speed of your paintball gun. A player with a lighter, more efficient hopper mechanism may not be quicker on the draw than you, but his superior equipment can leave you covered in paint and out of the game.
Gravity-Fed Paintball Hoppers
Gravity-fed hoppers are perhaps the cheapest and most commonly used type of paintball hopper. A gravity-fed hopper comes equipped with a container to hold paintballs and a feed line so they can be pushed into the firing chamber of the gun. Most gravity-fed hoppers can feed around eight paintballs a second. However, they are not as reliable and are much more likely to experience jamming compared to more advanced models, such as the force-fed hopper.
Agitating Paintball Hoppers
Agitating hoppers use an internal propeller to make the process of storing and shooting paintballs more efficient. The blades of the propeller move to prevent paint ammo from congesting the neck of the paintball gun, resulting in a smoother, quicker firing action. The propeller on some models is light activated, so the hopper agitates the ball as they pass the sensor. This means they are consistently ready for firing and not prone to jamming. Some agitating hoppers can pass paintballs at a rate of 10-12 per second and can hold up to 200 paintballs at any one time.
Force-Fed Paintball Hoppers
Force-fed hoppers are mechanized components which usually use a spring-loaded system to push paintballs into the advanced chamber area of the gun. These hopper types are common among more advanced players, where swift reloading to keep in competition with your opponents is usually a requirement. Force-fed hoppers can come with a range of advanced features, depending on the expense and brand of the paintgun hopper. Some have wireless systems which increase the loader's speed and reduces the risk of misfires, whereas others have digital displays so you can keep track of how many shots you have left.
Tags: Paintball Hoppers, Force-fed hoppers, hold paintballs, more advanced, more efficient
