[HOUND1]

I was reading a paintball magazine the other day and noticed how thick some of the fills were. I've used some of this paint myself; its great to prevent cheating because its practically candle wax
But with a heavier, more dense fill, the paintball would gain mass, right? And all of the local physics gurus will certainly tell you that a heavier paintball packs much more kinetic energy than a lighter one at the same velocity.
So is there an ATF ( or some other agency) regulation about how heavy paintballs can be? Seems like if there isn't one now, there will be (thanks, Lawyers!)

This post has been edited by HOUND1: 02 March 2010 - 02:55 PM

[slinkyaroo]

Thicker fill means thicker shells. However with too thick of shell you get more bounces or more damage. Paintball configuration is a safe guarded secret in the industry. Everybody wants thick fill yet brittle shells; but not too brittle to barrel break.

.50 cal is expiencing this now. When maintaining .68 fill consistancy they must almost have the same shell thickness. This means the ball mass is porpotionately greater than .68 cal. However less breakage is believed.

Bottomline is that there is a science involved. You want max distance, breakage, and visiblility. Mass really is not a concern.


.

[drek]

HOUND1, on Mar 2 2010, 05:55 PM, said:

I was reading a paintball magazine the other day and noticed how thick some of the fills were. I've used some of this paint myself; its great to prevent cheating because its practically candle wax
But with a heavier, more dense fill, the paintball would gain mass, right? And all of the local physics gurus will certainly tell you that a heavier paintball packs much more kinetic energy than a lighter one at the same velocity.
So is there an ATF ( or some other agency) regulation about how heavy paintballs can be? Seems like if there isn't one now, there will be (thanks, Lawyers!)

Interesting question. Certainly a fill would create more favourable ballistic characteristics, especially if the only limitation at paintball fields about muzzle energy is only the velocity.

Where the kinetic energy of an object (which is what safety organizations are worried about) is (mv^2)/2, which is the square of the velocity times the mass of the object, divided by two. So you can see that while paintball fields only restrict the velocity, theoretically you could have a heavier paintball that would hit with a lot more force. It might be ideal if you could score eliminations merely by hits (or forcing a player to tap out because it hurts so much ) there is the issues of breakage.

[Tenacious221]

I don't recall the mass limit, but I know there is one for sure...

Whichever organization provides the standards for masks has a weight limit for paintballs.

-Tenacious

[drek]

Tenacious221, on Mar 28 2010, 02:53 AM, said:

I don't recall the mass limit, but I know there is one for sure...

Whichever organization provides the standards for masks has a weight limit for paintballs.

-Tenacious

Certainly...in Canada, for example, .177 calibre air rifles have a muzzle velocity limit of 1000 fps, while .22 calibre air rifles have a muzzle velocity limit of 850 fps. The reason? The kinetic energy at the muzzle of a .22 flying at the same speed as a .177 is greater than the .177's. So they regulate the muzzle energy as a way to limit the amount of hitting power air rifles have.

[Pyrate Jim]

Bud Orr brought it to the supreme court back in 1986 in an attempt to regulate the industry safety requirements.
It was demonstrated that a mass of 3.2 grams at 300 fps delivered 10 foot pounds at impact.
Just under the accepted 12 lbs needed to break a finger bone.

That was how paintballs came to be .68 caliber instead of the .50 or .62 that different makers were trying, because that was the optimum size for that weight when you set a speed limit of 300 fps.

There was more to it, but I'd have to dig through the archives to find the verification.

[jake9095]

I really dont think there are any laws on it

[Iron__Man]

good question actually, i'd never really thought about the mass of the fills affecting the balls.

i found out last night that musket balls were .69 caliber.... enough to break and shatter bones when someone was shot by one. being as being shot by a musket ball would suck, i can see the need for regulation.