The History of Paintball Guns
Paintball guns (also known as paintball markers) were originally used by the forestry and farming industries in order to mark trees and cattle. Early paintball guns were powered by CO2 cartridges but had poor range and were not the most accurate devices in the world.
The most famous model, and the one people first starting playing actual paintball games with, was the Nel-Spot 007 pistol. James Hale of Daisy Manufacturing invented the design back in 1970.
As the game of paintball evolved, the guns were modified in order to reduce their velocity. This measure was taken to prevent injury to players. The first paintball gun made specifically for paintball was the Splatmaster which was patented in 1985.
The original Splatmaster was a primitive pistol made entirely of plastic which had to be manually cocked before each shot. Further modifications included features like detachable barrels and pump-action cocking. The first semi-automatic paintball gun available for purchase was the SMG60 which was designed by Dennis Tippmann.
Before producing the SMG60, Tippmann Pneumatics was called the Tippmann Arms Company, and produced replicas of military weaponry for re-enactments. The successor to the SMG60 was the 68-Special, which featured the first hopper-like device for feeding paintballs into the gun.
Before producing the SMG60, Tippmann Pneumatics was called the Tippmann Arms Company, and produced replicas of military weaponry for re-enactments. The successor to the SMG60 was the 68-Special, which featured the first hopper-like device for feeding paintballs into the gun.
The evolution of paintball gun technology is focused on achieving greater speed, accuracy, and air efficiency. However, paintball guns have also got lighter and smaller over the years. This is probably due to the changing nature of the game as people are beginning to play more tournament-style paintball, where having a gun that is easily manoeuvred is very important.
Paintball guns will probably continue to evolve as new technologies are developed to make them ever smaller, lighter, more accurate, and more air-efficient.
Source: www.paintball.about.com