#’s to F’s
#.
300 FPS: The upper legal velocity of a paintball at commercial sites and paintball events.
“.68” refers to the most common caliber of paintball.
A.
After Market: A sometimes pejorative term used to describe upgrades and/or parts not made by the original manufacturer.
Agitator: Specifically, the component in an electronic loader that jostles the paintballs (such as a paddle) – sometimes used to refer to an entire electronic loader. Note motor-operated agitating arm inside the loader's body
Airball: An open playing field where all of the bunkers are inflatables
Airsmith: A paintball marker technician (also known as a Gun Tech). PTI-trained airsmith at work
Airsmith: A paintball marker technician (also known as a Gun Tech). PTI-Trained gunsmith at work
Anti-Doubler: A device for preventing more than one paintball from loading into the breech at a time – usually a flexible device that protrudes into the breech and which can be pushed out of the way by the bolt
Anti-Siphon (tube): A device for preventing liquid CO2 from being drawn out of a tank
Arm Band: A piece of colored material used to designate team assignment — conventionally worn on the upper left arm
ASA: Acronym for Air Source Adapter, a device for converting a standard bottle thread to a more common thread, such as 1/8 NPT – bottomlines, expansion chambers and On/Off tank adapters are different versions of ASA’s.
B.
Ball Break: A ball that breaks in an inconvenient location, such as inside a tube, loader, barrel or breech
Ball Detent: One of several different types of anti-doubler device
Barrel Break: A paintball that shatters inside a gun’s barrel instead of exiting
Barrel Condom: A sleeve fitted over a gun barrel to prevent accidental discharge
Barrel Plug: A safety device fitted into a gun barrel that prevents accidental discharge
Barrel Tap (rule): Game rule variation that allows a player to ‘tag’ or ‘tap’ a bunker with a gun barrel to eliminate an opponent instead of shooting then from close range
BBD: Acronym for Barrel Blocking Device. This acronym was created to cover both barrel ‘condoms’ and barrel ‘plugs’.
Big Game: A format in which the objective is to have as many players per team as possible – which has metamorphosed into the scenario game, although there are still several annual big game events
Bolt: A primary component of paintball guns – in most gun designs, the bolt is used to push the paintball into the barrel and vent gas down the barrel to fire the ball.
Blind Fire: The act of shooting a gun without looking to see where it is aimed or where the shots are hitting –
an illegal action at most commercial paintball fields
Blow Back (semi-auto): A generally inexpensive style of paintball gun design which utilizes excess gas to re-cock the mechanism
Blow Back: Gas leaking around the bolt of a paintball gun due to improper sealing of the mechanism
Bonus Ball: Shooting an eliminated player again, once they are leaving the field
Bottle: A common name for an air tank
Bottom Line: Originally a trade name for a specific style of ASA, it has now come to refer to virtually any device which has a bottle thread adapter and is attached to the bottom of a grip frame.
Bounce 1: A ball failing to break on impact – 99% of the time, a ‘bounce’ does not count for an elimination.
Bounce 2 (Bouncing): The electronic noise created by an electronic switch; using the ‘noise’ to cause a paintball gun to fire – usually multiple times per trigger pull
Bouncer: A ball that fails to break on impact
BPS: Acronym for Balls-Per-Second, a unit of measure used to indicate how fast a paintball gun can fire
Break (Break out, On The Break, The Break): The start of a competition, short for ‘Breakout’ (players breaking out of their starting location)
Bunker: A man-made obstacle used to provide cover and protection during a paintball game, most bunkers being of the inflatable variety – to ‘Bunker’ someone means to run up and shoot them from a very close distance (usually inches) and is common in tournament play. (Other terms: Bunkering, Bunkered)
Burst Disc: A pressure relief device built into all paintball gas tanks
BYOP: An acronym for Bring Your Own Paint, which is used to indicate that players are allowed to use paintballs not purchased at a facility or event
C.
Caliber: A unit of measure borrowed from firearms technology, usually expressed as a percentage of an inch The most common caliber used in paintball is .68, or 68/100ths of an inch.
CGA: Acronym for the Compressed Gas Association.
Check Valve: A self-closing valve or a valve which only allows flow in a single direction, used on the filling port of a high-pressure tank.
Cheese: An inflatable bunker resembling a cheese or pizza wedge
Chop (chopped): A ball break in a gun’s breech, usually caused by failure of the ball to load properly, where the ball is ‘chopped’ in half by the action of the gun’s bolt – usually the worst kind of ball break in a gun
Chrono, Chronograph: A device used to measure the velocity of a paintball; the act of testing the velocity of a paintball gun
Clean: A referee’s call, used to indicate that a player who was suspected of having a hit on them was not hit
CO2: A common gas, comprised of oxygen and carbon, currently the propellant most often used in the game of paintball
Compressed Air: High-pressure air used for a propellant in paintball guns (synonymous with HPA and Nitrogen)
Concept Field: Another name for a playing field consisting of inflatable bunkers
Condom: Shortened form of Barrel Condom
Constant Air: Originally a trade name, this term became synonymous with using a large, tank-based gas supply, as opposed to disposable cartridges.
Count (the): This tournament term refers to the current number of live players remaining on the field during a game. Teams employ code words to keep track of how many opponents have been eliminated and how many of their teammates have been eliminated. Asking “what’s the count” means the player wants to know the total of all eliminations and losses. ‘Loosing’ the count means that a team has a mistaken idea of how many opponents are left on the field.
Cycle (rate): Usually interchangeable with Rate-of-Fire or Balls-per-Second as a unit of measure of a gun’s operating speed – proper usage refers to the theoretical upper limit of a marker’s mechanical operation.
D.
Dead Box: A contained area on a field where eliminated players go until the current game ends
Detent: Slang for ‘anti-doubler’
Direct Feed: One of several older methods of introducing a paintball from the loader into the breech, this usually denotes a tube mounted at 45 degrees to the body of the marker.
Dorito: An inflatable bunker resembling a Dorito™ chip in profile
E.
Elbow: Originally an angled adapter for attaching a loader to a direct feed tube on the gun, it now refers to any adapter, regardless of shape, for attaching a loader to a marker.
Expansion Chamber: A volumizing device, most commonly used with CO2 – the large volume area inside allows liquid CO2 a better chance to turn into gas before reaching the gun’s valve.
F.
Feeder: An alternate name for a loader
Fifty (the): The center of a tournament paintball field, represented by a line running the width of the field, or the central portion of the field set off with a different color
Fill Port: A standard adapter which allows high pressure tanks to be connected to a fill station
Fill Station: The equipment used to fill either CO2 or high-pressure air tanks and/or the location at a playing field where a player obtains tank fills
Flag Station: A marked off area on a playing field that the game flag is either placed in and/or the location a flag must be brought to in order to win the game
Flash: The process of uploading new programming to an electronic paintball marker
Foregrip: A device, usually attached to the forward part of a marker, that the player can hold for additional shooting stability
FPS: Acronym for Feet-Per-Second, used to refer to the velocity of a paintball when it exits the barrel
Full Auto (Fully Automatic): A firing mode which allows the marker to continuously fire as long as the trigger is depressed
