The Next Evolution for Paintball Pistols?

CO2, HPA, C3, Semi-automatic, automatic—what does it all mean? How can the player sift through all of the available paintball pistol options and still manage to keep all of the pros and cons straight? The answer begins with understanding the evolution of the paintball pistol.

CO2:

Original paintball guns were pistols powered by a CO2 gas, but with only a small (12g) cartridge, play was halted repeatedly so that the paintball pistol could be reloaded. A larger canister and other modifications quickly followed, but problems still remain a part of CO2 driven paintball pistols.

The CO2 gas is affected by weather: it expands in the winter, contracts in the summer, and is further influenced by lowered pressure in the atmosphere. These create frustration for the avid paintballer.

HPA:

Years passed and finally an answer surfaced. Instead of gas, paintballers now had the option to buy paintball pistols that were powered by compressed air. Still available today, this air is known as HPA or high pressure compressed air.

HPA eliminates the effects of summer, winter and other climate issues, because it isn’t a gas. Air won’t expand in cold or contract in heat: it remains relatively constant in the paintball pistol. This was a wonderful step, except that compressed air still requires similarly expensive high-pressure compressors or equally costly trips to gas suppliers for fuel.

C3H8:

Finally, Tippmann, a leading manufacturer of paintballing equipment, created the Tippmann C3. Powered not by the less than dependable CO2 or still-expensive HPA, this paintball pistol may well represent the next evolution of this rapidly growing sport.

No more breaking the bank to buy new cartridges or to get refills, C3H8 is simple propane. The same propane that fuels backyard cookouts can now be the much less expensive alternative to paintballing adventures.

Pros and Cons to C3H8:

Propane is not without risks. It is a combustible fuel, after all. However, Tippmann has created safeguards that include reminding the handler to store his propane in a non-enclosed area to prevent potential fire from storage. The paintball pistol, itself, is a pump-action model that minimizes pressure in the canister that can reduces the risk of degradation of the tank.

Additionally, as propane burns it releases water and oxygen—neither of which are combustible. With the risks minimized by the same careful handling a cook in the backyard uses, an avid paintballer must consider the benefits of propane driven paintball pistols.

For three to eight dollars, or up to $390 dollars less than a similar-sized canister of HPA and up to $32 dollars less than a comparable CO2 purchase, an owner of this paintball pistol can shoot up to 50,000 paintballs, as opposed to 700-800. Perhaps, then, it is time to consider propane-driven guns as an important affordable evolutionary step in paintball pistols.

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