Paintball Gun Mods - The First of a Series of Articles Relating to "Mods That Make Sense"

By Dave Goodin

Do you remember the first time you played a scenario or woodsball™ game? Do you remember looking at the more experienced players’ paintball guns with their killer mods, drooling over the way they looked, and wishing your stock Tippmann™ 98 Custom or A-5 could look as good as theirs? Well, my friend, the wait is over.

The availability of mods (specialty parts, kits, and upgrades) for the paintball gun market these days is astonishing. Recently, the mil-sim market has exploded with new product, innovations, and ideas. Special Ops Paintball leads the way with an ever-increasing availability of paintball gun mods and upgrades. Whether you want to change the way your gun looks, performs, or both, Special Ops can help make it happen.

The use of Weaver rail systems can make a huge difference in the ease of changing the appearance of your paintball gun. Weaver rails allow you to mount many different accessories, such as scopes (Mil-Sim - T168 Reticle Intensified Tactical Scope, red dot sights (Swat Force - Tac Red Dot Sight), tactical lights (Mil-Sim - TAC Flashlight System), hand grips and bipods, just to name a few. Paintball gun manufacturers like Ariakon™, Airgun Designs, and Warsensor are even starting to make Weaver rails standard features on their new products.

Tippmann paintball guns have a 3/8 dovetail mount, and a 7/8 dovetail mount that you can use to attach Jet City Specialties® Weaver hardware like the following. JCS - 3" Offset Dovetail Mount, JCS - 1.5" Long 7/8 Accessory Rail Mount for 3/8 Dovetails, JCS - 6" Long Offset 7/8 Accessory Rail Mount for 3/8 Dovetails. With these rails in place, you can mount your choice of optics, tac lights, or laser sights.

Aftermarket barrels are another upgrade that will significantly change your paintball gun’s performance. If Tippmann is your gun of choice, and you want some extra distance, then the Flatline Barrel may be what you’re after. This barrel will ad about 100 feet of range over other barrels on the market by adding backspin to the paintball. Use of high grade, medium bore balls is highly recommended. However, accuracy will suffer a bit by using this barrel. If you’re using the Tippmann A-5 as a platform, the JCS - R.I.S. 3-Rail Kit Flatline Shroud or the JCS - R.I.S. 4-Rail Kit Flatline Shroud give you many mounting options for any type of equipment that you like, that requires a 7/8-inch Weaver rail.

There are other choices for barrels as well. If you go to a lot of scenario games, you’ll notice that most event organizers establish a field or even paint only (FPO or EPO) policy, where players can only use paint that is sold at the field. If this is typically the case for you, a Hammerhead A-5 Kit Battle Stikxx setup might be a good purchase. It comes with several different bore sizers, and a barrel to connect to the sizers, allowing you to use just about any size paint. If you want to go with a single barrel, or several different barrels, you have a wide variety of choices available from Special Ops Paintball for the A-5 or the 98C.

If you want to add stability and balance to your paintball gun, adding a stock and remote line will work wonders. A stock will add tons of stability to your paintball gun by allowing you to brace it against your shoulder and use iron sights, a scope, or a red dot sight. With over 35 different stocks to choose from, Special Ops can help you get the stock you want. Remote lines help balance your gun out by taking your CO2 or HPA tank off of your gun, and putting it on a pod pack or tactical vest. Remote lines come with a nipple that screws into the ASA of your gun. You connect the end of the remote line with the quick disconnect to the nipple, and connect the other end to the tank. With this configuration, your paintball gun is balanced and feels much more responsive to snap shooting, and it gives you a lower profile when dug in and trading shots with the other team.

As you look for ways to customize your paintball gun, remember the Special Ops credo and only buy ‘Mods That Makes Sense’.