Paintball guns have been used for many years as weapons for sport. They are capable of shooting paintballs at speeds up to 300 feet per second and at distances as far as 200 yards. The guns make loud popping noises when they shoot. But these can be customized so that they quiet down and don’t disturb the neighbors or players who are not wearing ear protection.
For someone new to paintball, the first thing that comes to mind is, are Paintball Guns Loud? Everyone wants to make sure they won’t damage their ears. The sound made by firing your paintball gun depends on how fast it’s traveling when it leaves the barrel and what kind of barrel design it has. The faster a ball travels through the air, the louder its bang will be when it hits something solid like another player or their gear (which includes their clothing).
Can Paintball Guns Break Windows?
Factors on Which the Sound of Paintball Guns Depend
Paintball guns are loud, but there is no standard for how loud they are. Paintball guns can be as loud as a shotgun or as quiet as a BB gun.
The volume of sound depends on several factors:
Paintball Gun Type – Paintball guns are divided into two groups: those with CO2 and those with compressed air. CO2 guns are very quiet, while compressed-air guns are much louder. The sound depends on how fast you shoot, but it will always be louder than a Nerf gun.
Paintball Loads – Most paintballs are made of gelatinous fillings that are compressed inside a shell made of plastic or rubber. The shell contains air and is held together by a cardboard sleeve. The more gelatinous filling there is in the shell, the louder it will be when it explodes on impact.
For example, .68 caliber paintballs have more gelatinous filling than any other size; they make a loud bang when they hit something hard like wood, but not so much when they hit soft things such as people’s skin or clothing.
Distance to Target – The further away you are from the target, the quieter your marker will seem to them. The closer they are, the louder it will seem to them. This is because the distance between you and them acts like an amplifier for your marker’s sound signature. If they are close enough and have good hearing protection on, then they may be able to hear your marker better than you can hear theirs!
Weather Conditions – When it’s very windy outside, it can be difficult to hear anything else other than that wind blowing against the things around you (such as trees or buildings). Similarly, if it’s raining out or there’s heavy fog in an outdoor scenario, then this can also make it difficult for players to hear your marker. If you are on a team where one or more players have hearing loss, it is important for them to wear good hearing protection so that they can still hear their teammates and the refs.
Electronic Paintball Guns and their Noise Level
Electronic guns are a great alternative to CO2-powered paintball markers. They are more accurate, have a lower profile, and are very quiet.
Electronic guns tend to be much quieter than their CO2 counterparts. The main reason for this is that the electronic markers use compressed air as opposed to CO2 gas as a propellant for the paintballs. The difference in sound is quite noticeable when you compare the two types of markers side by side.
The other reason why electronic paintball guns are quieter is due to their design. In order to make them more affordable, most electronic markers use plastic bodies instead of metal ones like those used in CO2-powered guns. Plastic has less mass than metal and therefore it vibrates less when it hits something hard (like another player). This results in less noise being produced during each shot!
The best way to reduce the noise level of your paintball gun is by using an electronic marker instead of a mechanical paintball gun. An electronic marker has several advantages over mechanical markers including reduced recoil and increased accuracy over longer distances. The main advantage of an electronic marker is that it doesn’t produce any sound when fired because there is no firing pin moving back and forth like in a mechanical marker.
Mechanical Paintball Guns and their Noise Level
Most mechanical paintball guns have a sound level of 140 decibels. This is about as loud as an air raid siren or power saw. If you have ever heard one of these things in person, then you know how loud they can get! The loudest paintball guns are usually mechanical ones. These guns use springs or levers to fire each shot instead of compressed air tanks used by most electric and electronic models. You can tell if your gun is mechanical because it won’t have batteries or an electronic board attached to it.
Electronic markers have an additional step to their firing process because they have to send an electric signal through the body of the gun before pulling the trigger releases the hammer or bolt. This means that there is another piece of metal or plastic moving through the mechanism and making noise in addition to what would normally be present with a mechanical model.
Electronic Vs Mechanical: Which Gun is Best?
The noise level of a paintball gun can vary from gun to gun. But in general, electronic paintball guns are much quieter than mechanical ones.
If you are looking for a quiet paintball gun, then you should go for electronic ones. The electronic paintball guns have an electric motor that propels the paintballs. These motors usually run on rechargeable batteries, which makes them quite silent as compared to the mechanical ones that use compressed air or CO2 cartridges. The sound made by these motors is also very different from the one produced by the mechanical ones, which makes it easy to identify between them during actual play when they are fired.
The mechanical paintball guns use compressed air or carbon dioxide (CO2) cartridges to propel the paintballs. These require some time to get ready after every shot. Hence, they make more noise than the electronic ones do. The loud sound produced by these guns is due to two reasons:
firstly, there is an explosion inside them due to high pressure.
secondly, there is a piston that moves back and forth inside each barrel of these guns which makes a loud click when it hits another part of itself or something else.
Tips to Reduce the Sound of Paintball Guns
There’s nothing we can do to change the fact that paintball guns are loud. But there are plenty of things we can do to reduce the sound of paintball guns. Here’s a quick list:
- Use a barrel plug when you’re not actually shooting. This will help reduce noise by preventing gas from escaping the barrel and making more noise when it hits the end cap.
- Use high-pressure air (HPA) instead of CO2 or compressed air (CO2 or N2). HPA is much quieter than CO2 or compressed air because it has fewer moving parts and uses liquid oxygen instead of burning chemicals to power your marker. It is easier for manufacturers to design quiet markers for use with HPA.
- Use a barrel with an internal regulator, like the Empire BT TM15 or Planet Eclipse Etek5, rather than one with an external regulator attached directly to the gun (like the Tippmann X7 Phenom). External regulators tend to be louder because they have more moving parts, whereas internal regulators are designed to be as quiet as possible while still being able to regulate pressure accurately.
- Use an integrated air system, like the Tippmann A5 or Tippmann X7 Phenom, which has an internal regulator already built into the gun and uses a liquid CO2 tank instead of compressed air. Liquid CO2 tanks don’t have to be pressurized as much as compressed air tanks do, so they are quieter when you shoot them.
Tips to Increase the Sound of Paintball Guns
Some people like the high sounds of paintball guns. There are several ways to increase the sound of your paintball gun:
- Use a heavier paintball. The heavier the paintball, the more it will bounce around when it hits something. It will also make a louder noise when it hits something.
- Use more than one paintball at a time. If you shoot multiple paintballs at once, they will hit each other and make more noise. This is especially effective if you use heavier paintballs in combination with multiple shots (such as five or six).
- Shoot at close range instead of long range. The closer you get to your target, the more likely it is that all of your shots will hit and bounce off together for maximum noise effect!
- Shoot in a direction that will cause the paintballs to bounce off of something. If you shoot at an object and it doesn’t bounce back, then it won’t make much noise when it hits. It is best to aim at hard surfaces like trees or walls instead of soft objects like people or animals.
Final Words
In case you are new to the game, it is common to assume that paintball guns are loud. They really aren’t. In fact, if you hold one up and pull the trigger in a very quiet place then you will hear it. But when compared to other firearms, paintball guns are actually known to be extremely quiet.
In final thoughts, the bigger and louder the gun, the more you can expect to hear about it. The small guns for children won’t make much of an impact on your ears.
