| My how the times change, in my day we were | | | | accuracy and affordability, we will keep you |
| lucky enough to get our hands on some paintballs, | | | | posted. |
| let alone have something to shoot them out of or | | | | CO2- Here is the long and the short of using CO2 |
| have a propellant of some sort to shoot them | | | | as a propellant for your paintball gun. If you are |
| with. As a kid I was more than happy to be able | | | | looking just to play a little paintball here and there |
| to shoot paintballs out of my wrist rocket, sure it | | | | and just want something that is easy and cheap |
| was painstakingly slow to load rounds and about | | | | to get then CO2 is the propellant for you. Any |
| half of the balls shot broke but it was fun | | | | paintball shop should be able to fill your CO2 as |
| nonetheless. Well now a days there are three | | | | well as a number of other places and its |
| main propellants out there that allow you to shoot | | | | inexpensive to have them do it. Now if you are |
| much much faster and with much fewer ball | | | | looking to get into paintball fairly seriously and you |
| breaks. The two most used paintball propellants | | | | are going to be playing a lot and shooting a lot of |
| that are used in the sport today are CO2, | | | | round as quickly as possible we would recommend |
| Propane and Compressed Air Also Reffered to as | | | | not going with CO2 and here is why. CO2 is |
| Nitro or High Pressure Air. My goal is to help you | | | | considered by most to be less effective than |
| understand what the difference is between CO2, | | | | compressed air and is much harder on your |
| Propane and Nitro and then also tell you about | | | | equipment. |
| some pros and cons of each. | | | | High Pressure Air (HPA) or nitrogen is stored in |
| Nitro vs. CO2 vs. Propane For the past 20 years | | | | the tank as a gas which saves the headache of |
| CO2 has been the propellant of choice when it | | | | the evaporating issue. Air is stored in the tank at |
| comes to getting balls out of barrels. The main | | | | a very high pressure, typically 3000-5000 psi, and |
| reasons that CO2 has been more popular are | | | | output is controlled with an attached regulator, this |
| these, CO2 is readily available and cheap. There | | | | regulates the pressure from 450 psi to around |
| you have it, cheap and easy pretty much wraps | | | | 800 psi depending on the type of tank. This |
| up CO2 in a nut shell. Compressed air or nitro on | | | | results in a much more consistent velocity than |
| the other hand has these things going for it, | | | | with CO2. |
| potentially higher psi, no need to evaporate, and a | | | | Keep in mind propane is still in its beginning stages |
| much more consistent velocity. With those things | | | | but as of now the reports are that it shoots just |
| said, lets delve a little further into the pros and | | | | as consistently as compressed air, you can shoot |
| cons of CO2 and Compressed Air. As far as | | | | about 60 times more balls per tank that |
| propane goes it is still in it's early ages but is | | | | compressed air and CO2 and you dont have to |
| looking like it is going to be the perfect mix of | | | | worry about Hydro or Quality Tests. |