From the Editor
Welcome to our sixth Special Edition. This Special Edition differs from our past SE's in three ways; First of all it's on the internet as opposed to our printed magazine. Secondly, we're going to give you more than ever before, and we're going to give it to you over a four week period. This will give you time to "digest" all of the articles each week, and it gives us time to up-load it to our site. Finally, this Special Edition covers an 18-month period whereas in the past, we only cover the calender year. This Special Edition will cover products evaluated from January 1998 to June 1999.  There'a a lot to take in, so take your time and enjoy! Thanks for reading.

John Amodea

Inside this issue......

•   Paintballs 1998-99, An Introduction
•   Paintball Ingredient Basics
•   Paintball Weights & Measurements
•   Burst Strength & Shell Thickness
•   Paintball of the Year(s)
•   Best New Product
•   Best Internet Site
•   Paintgun of the Year
•   Accessory of the Year

In this article, the first of the "Paintballs ‘98-99" series, we'll tell you how we test paintballs as well as how to use the information in this series.

During the past eighteen months we have fired more than 305,000 rounds of paint through more than twelve different paintguns. That brings our total paint fired since 1992 to more than two million rounds (2,407,000+). We believe that we have fired more paintballs, and have more paintball related data than any other Paintball entity, including the actual manufacturers. That's 25,000+ rounds per month for the last 7 years. We've kept records for ball breaks, accuracy, velocity consistency, maintenance of velocity, and just about everything else imaginable.

Our testing is performed in both an indoor "controlled environment" as well as outdoors, in temps from 0 to 100 degrees Fahrenheit. We go out of our way to test paintballs in the absolute worst (and best) conditions possible.

In addition to our testing, we've again sent another batch of paintballs to an independent testing laboratory in northern Virginia. The information we get from the lab is extremely important in that it helps us determine which paintball is the most consistent in size, shape, weight, and burst strength.

The information contained within this article series should be used only as a general guide to help you choose which paintball is best for you. As you'll read, each paint brand has benefits and drawbacks. Your paintgun brand, the weather, your geographic location, playing style, and budget should all be considered when choosing a brand of paint. In other words, your gun may shoot a larger bore paint better than a small bore brand. Or, if you live in a climate that is warm part of the year and cold in the winter, you may need to shoot several brands of paint depending on the conditions. Regardless of where you live or which gun you shoot, try several brands until you find which works best for you.

We've had fun putting this article series together for you. We hope it helps you in the future.

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Some of what you read in this article was published in last year's PCRI Special Edition. Fact is, paintball manufacturing hasn't changed much since then. Enjoy!

What's the most common complaint you hear regarding playing this great sport we call paintball? You know....it's the price of paintballs, isn't it? It seems like every time out to the field it costs you $75 in paintballs. "Those darn paintball manufacturers, can't they stop getting rich off of us?" The fact is, manufacturing paintballs is a fairly expensive proposition. And hardly a manufacturer is getting rich from making paintballs. Actually, paintballs are the low priority for most encapsulators. They make far more money manufacturing vitamins, bath beads, and encapsulating pharmaceuticals.

What's in a paintball?

Paintballs are manufactured from a variety of biodegradable, non toxic, non caustic ingredients. The shell is manufactured from gelatin and glycerin. Gelatin is a purified form of collagen (animal hoofs, cartilage, etc) that is used as a gel-forming agent and a colloidal suspension agent in ice cream, cakes, candy, etc. Surprisingly, there is little or no water used in the manufacturing process of a paintball.

".....One encapsulating machine can manufacture about 15,000 balls per hour......"

Internally, paintballs are made from several ingredients including food coloring and dyes that are similar to those used to color Easter eggs. Some completely environmentally safe pigments are used to "hold" the color in the fill. Glycerin (or Glycerol) is used as a sort of non-toxic "anti-freeze."

How paintballs are made:

Softgels (paintballs, bath beads, etc) are manufactured on softgel encapsulating machines. Encapsulating machines are very expensive ($100,000+) and are only used by a handful of companies worldwide. These machines were invented, designed, and patented in 1993 by Robert Scherer, founder of RP Scherer.

This is how paintballs are made: Hot gelatin is formed in two wide flowing "ribbons". The ribbons pass over two rotating dies which help form the round shape of the shell. The die can actually be made in any shape from round, to oblong, to unique designs. Each of the two dies with the gelatin passing through it, presses against one another as they rotate. As the dies meet (the two halves of the shell), the fill is injected between them. The dies continue to rotate, pressing the two warm gelatin ribbons against each other forming the enclosed capsule. The seam is where the two dies met.

After the sealed and filled gelatin capsule passes through the dies, it drops into a tumbling machine. This helps the still warm, rubbery ball maintain it's round shape. It is then placed in one-layer drying racks. Once dried, the paintballs are checked for consistency and quality. Those that do not pass inspection are destroyed. The "good" paintballs are bagged, boxed, and palletized for shipping. FYI: One encapsulating machine can manufacture about 15,000 balls per hour.

Storing your paintballs:

Paintballs are very sensitive to heat, sunlight, humidity, moisture, dirt, etc. We recommended that you store you paint in temperatures of 55-75 degrees, and in low humidity (50% humidity or less). If you're at the field you don't have that luxury. In the hot summer months, keeping your paint in a cooler is ideal. You don't want the paint cold, just kept away from the heat and humidity. In the winter,keep your paint in the car. It is very important not to leave the paint in the cold for any extended period of time. Always keep your paint in sealed bags or containers.

Related links: "Birth of a Paintball"

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The Manufacturers

There are several manufacturers of paintballs here in the U.S. and abroad. Here's a brief rundown of the major paint companies:

RP Scherer: RP Scherer is still the worlds largest producer of softgels for the pharmaceutical and vitamin industries as well as in the Paintball industry. RP Scherer has eighteen manufacturing facilities and more than 3,300 employees in twelve countries. In 1992, RP Scherer opened the first Paintball-only facility (30,000 square feet) that encapsulates paintballs twenty-four hours per day, seven days per week. RP Scherer manufactures "Marballizer", "Premium Gold", "Premium", "Polar Ice", and "Big Ball" label brands. RP Scherer brand paints are available in 2,500 round cases, 2,000 round cases, 1,800 round cases, and 200 round "EZ Pak" bags with accompanying boxes and displays. In 1998 RP Scherer sponsored such teams as Aftershock, Farside, Jax Warriors, and a host of other foreign and American teams. RP Scherer paintballs are sold exclusively through the PMI Network of distributors.

Available colors: Marballizer Gator Black, Cobalt/Magenta, Cobalt/Orange Premium Gold Fire Rock Gold, Ruby Gold RP Scherer Premium Paintballs Gator Black, Orange/Blue, Yellow, Hot Pink, Midnight Sun, Midnight Neptune. All Star Paintballs: RP Scherer's newest tournament grade paintball. Call (847) 233-9900-4765 for a complete list of colors. (Other colors may be available, and some colors may be discontinued.)

PMI Network

• NPMI Northwest (503) 682-8450
•   PMI Southwest (319) 926-4340
•   Paintball Southeast (813) 915-1912
•   Pursuit Marketing Inc. Headquarters (847) 233-9900 
•   PMI Northeast (716) 383-5662
•   PMI Texas (817) 571-1177
•   PMI Canada (403) 282-8027

For more RP Scherer distributors click here. 

Accucaps: Accucaps Corporation, located in Windsor, Canada is one of the larger encapsulators in the Paintball industry. Their brand line includes Proball, Proball Platinum, Zap Classic, Zap Pro-Series, and probably several smaller brands (many insiders people believe that Accucaps manufactures paintballs for Paintball Mania Supplies and others). Accucaps' manufacturing facility is 115,000 square feet--they employ more than 180 people manufacturing not only paintballs, but pharmaceuticals and other products.

Proball sponsors many teams on the  tournament circuit, including Team Image, Rage, Lockout, and the Oh Nos. Zap sponsors many amateur tournaments and special events including the Zap Amateur Open in Pittsburgh, PA, the APL tournament series, Lively events, and more.

Available colors: Zap (standard), Pink/Yellow Fill, Pink/White Fill, Purple/Pink Fill, Yellow/White Fill, Green/Yellow Fill, Orange/Green/Orange Fill, Green/Pink/Pink Fill, Green/White/White Fill, Green/Yellow/Yellow Fill. Zap Pro Series, Dacquiri, Green Hornet, Tequillia Sunrise, Purple Passion, and Banana Banshee. Proball, Orange, Red, Blue Pink, Green, Yellow, White, Blue/Pink/Pink Fill,  Orange/Yellow/Orange Fill, Green/Yellow/White Fill, Turq/Orange/White Fill. Proball Platinum, Orange, Green, Pink, Devil. (Other colors may be available, and some colors may be discontinued.)

Proball/Zap Distributors

•   National Paintball Supply East
•   National Paintball Supply South
•   National Paintball Supply "LA"

Brass Eagle: Brass Eagle has recently opened their new 24,000 square foot paintball-only manufacturing facility where the bulk of Brass Eagle paintballs are made. As of this writing, some quantities of Brass Eagle's paintballs are still being produced by Goldcaps, Inc./Gelkaps GmbH.

If you've been awake for the past four years or so, you probably have noticed that Brass Eagle products are showing up everywhere. Brass Eagle has become, without question, the leader in the Paintball industry, especially in the mass-merchant field. Many people in the industry credit Brass Eagle with starting the huge growth in the industry back in 1996.

Brass Eagle recently reached a royalty and distribution agreement with Lazerball Technologies for Lazerball products. Brass Eagle will distribute the glow-in-the-dark Lazerball product line exclusively in the near future.

Brass Eagle sponsors very few teams, the biggest name being Bad Company of Maryland.

Available colors: Brass Eagle: Orange, Green, Yellow, Pink, white, and a variety of "split-shell" colors. (Other colors may be available, and some colors may be discontinued.)

For more information about Brass Eagle click here. 

ProCaps: This is the new kid on the block. ProCaps, makers of Diablo Paintballs, has come into the paintball market with a bang, with distributors around the U.S. and the world. The Diablo line includes, Diablo (original), Blaze, HellFire, and Inferno paintballs. All Diablo testing for this issue was done using Blaze.

ProCaps/Diablo sponsors several tournament teams such as Ground Zero, Ground Zero Gold, and Nemesis.

Diablo Distributors

• NDiablo Direct (514) 630-9896
•   Air Concepts Industries (877) 832-6224)
•   Diablo Europe 44 (0) 1280-848040
•   Odyssee Paintball (418) 648-8756

Diablo/ProCaps does not have a web site as of this writing.

Nelson: Over the past five years Nelson has become a much smaller player in the paintball industry than they have been in the past. Once considered the leading paintball manufacturer, Nelson Paintballs are now one of the smaller brands. Nelson has never really sponsored many events or teams, and that has not changed recently.

Available colors: Nelson: Blue, Green, Orange, Purple, Red, Yellow, Blue, Pink, White.

For more information about Nelson Paintballs click here. 

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The information contained in this article, "Paintball Weights and Measurements" was gathered over a full eighteen month period. You'll notice that we've included some past year's data for comparison only. You will also notice the consistent weight increase since 1992. This size of paintballs keeps increasing as well. For clarification, the seam average is the average seam size of the entire batch of balls measured from within that brand. The +- is the average deviation. The average deviation is the average difference between the high and low measurements .

Measurements and Average Deviation

Brand	Seam (+-) Average	Polar  (+-) Average	Average (+-) Deviation	R-Factor
Proball	.678	.669	.009	5
Platinum	.670	.676	.006	3
Zap	.684	.671	.013	8
Zap-Pro Series	.680	.673	.007	4
Brass Eagle	.679	.680	.001	1
Marballizer	.686	.682	.004	2
RP Scherer	.682	.672	.010	6
Big Ball	.680	.669	.011	7
Diablo	.675	.689	.014	9

R-Factor: The R-Factor is determined by taking the largest size average and subtracting the lower average from that number, and dropping the two zeros. The lower the R-Factor, the more round the paintball is, on average (hence the genius term, "Round-Factor").

So looking at the R-Factors you can tell that the average new Brass Eagle paintball is more round than any other ball. We believe that the roundness of a paintball has a profound effect on its accuracy. By no means is it the only factor, just one of several.

R-Factors

Proball (5), Platinum (3), Zap (8), Zap Pro-Series (4), Brass Eagle (1), Marballizer (2), RP Scherer (6), Big Ball (7), Diablo (9)

The numbers below are weights measured in grams down to the one thousandth of a gram. The high/low indicates the heaviest and lightest balls of the brand batch weighed. Occasionally we would find a ball that was much heavier or lighter than the "average" ball. Those were not recorded.

Weight in Grams

Brand	Average	Low/High	Deviation
Proball	3.4021	3.3889/3.4065	.0176	3rd
Platinum	3.4103	3.3997/3.4211	.0214	4th
Zap	3.3861	3.3471/3.4002	.0531	9th
Zap-Pro Series	3.3997	3.3895/3.4059	.0164	2nd
Brass Eagle	3.2204	3.2123/3.2355	.0232	6th
Marballizer	3.1822	3.1784/3.1911	.0127	1st
RP Scherer	3.1673	3.1519/3.1794	.0275	7th
Big Ball	3.1655	3.1499/3.1844	.0345	8th
Diablo	3.1797	3.1644/3.1866	.0222	5th

Some interesting facts...

Average weight in 1992 Average weight in 1993 Average weight in 1994 Average weight in 1995 Average weight in 1996 Average weight in 1997 Average weight in 98/99

3.1979 3.2093 3.2197 3.2702 3.2849 3.2899 3.2907

So what does this stuff mean you ask? Lets start with the fact that three of the top four balls in terms of accuracy had the lowest r-factors. Three of the four are also high in burst strengths. We also believe that a perfectly round paintball is less likely to break on target than an out of round ball. Put simply, if the ball is egg-shaped there is a larger seam on that ball. When a paintball hits the target on the seam, it is much more likely to break.

How many times have you wondered why some paintballs seem to bounce more than others? If you're like us, you probably think of it every time you play. Nothing is more frustrating than "bouncing" your opponent in a key part of a game. This article will show you that there are four major contributing factors for why paintballs break or don't break. Those factors are shell thickness, r-factor, if the ball hits on the seam or not, and temperature.

Shell Wall Thickness (measured in thousandths of an inch)

Brand	Average
Proball	0.0098
Platinum	0.0096
Zap	0.0102
Zap-Pro Series	0.0100
Brass Eagle	0.0101
Marballizer	0.0101
RP Scherer	0.0097
Big Ball	0.0099
Diablo	0.0099

Burst Strength (measured in foot pounds)

Brand	Seam (+-) Average	Polar  (+-) Average	R-Factor
Proball	11.4	27.2	5
Platinum	12.9	24.2	3
Zap	18.4	30.2	8
Zap-Pro Series	11.8	23.3	4
Brass Eagle	10.2	19.8	1
Marballizer	11.9	20.2	2
RP Scherer	9.7	29.9	6
Big Ball	8.6	19.1	7
Diablo	8.0	16.6	9

Ball Breakage (in the gun)

Brand	Average Breaks per 1500 Rounds Fired
Proball	1/1500
Platinum	1/1500
Zap	3/1500
Zap-Pro Series	2/1500
Brass Eagle	2/1500
Marballizer	1/1500
RP Scherer	4/1500
Big Ball	3/1500
Diablo	5/1500

What it all means....you don't need to be a brain surgeon to know that a paintball with a very thick shell is less likely to break on target. Many people don't realize that there's more to it than that. If you look at the numbers, you'll see that when a ball hits on the seam it will require much less force to break that ball. Therefore, a non-round ball should break easier on target (the seam is larger).

Structural integrity (how round the ball is, ie. r-factor): Just for the fun of it, we took our digital micrometer to the field and measured several hundred balls to find the most round balls. Once we did that we fired 100 balls at our "mock human" target.  At 100 feet shooting 280-90 feet per second, 37 balls did not break. Next we took 100 of the most un-round balls we could find and repeated the test. This time we had only 21 bouncers.

Are we suggesting that you shoot our of round paintballs? No not at all. However, you should be aware that accuracy might cost you some bounces. It's up to you to decide which is more important. Don't forget also that fragile paint is more likely to break in the gun as well. This is why many serious players use low pressure guns. The ball is pushed out of the barrel as opposed to being hit hard with the gas burst.

As always, choosing PCRI's "Paintball of the Year" is by far the most difficult thing we do all year. This year was no exception, especially with the new brands and labels being introduced, or in Brass Eagle's case, being completely improved. Each brand has good and not-so-good points. For example, while Proball is extremely accurate, it is less likely to break on target than Diablo. However, from our testing, Diablo's accuracy is not that of Proball's. So what we recommend is that you figure out your needs/wants in a paintball and use the information here to help you narrow down the choices for the ball that might be best for you. Keep in mind that paintballs vary greatly from batch to batch, or case to case, so what you find may differ from our results. We've tried to shoot as many different batches and brands as possible to give you the best cross-section we could.

Here's how we rank each brand/label. The categories are Accuracy at four distances, size consistency, r-factor, weight consistency, burst strength, breaks in the gun, breaks on target, and social responsibility. That's eleven categories. We rank everything from one to nine with a lower score being best--in each category a one rating is best, and an eleven would be worst. Got it? So if the total score for a brand would be eleven, that would be a perfect score (probably one you'll never see here).

Accuracy (all distances): This is an easy one. The accuracy ratings are simply the overall accuracy rankings for the year. This includes published and non-published test results. Size Consistency: This is amount of size deviation within each brand. The lower the number, the less that brand/label varied from ball to ball and batch to batch. R-Factor: This determines how "round" the average paintball is. The lower the number, the "rounder" the ball is. Weight Consistency: The lower the number, the more consistent the weight of the ball. Burst Strength: The lower the number, the easier the ball will break. This is an average of seam and polar burst strength measurements. Breaks in the gun: This is the number of breaks per 1500 rounds fired, throughout the course of the year and one-half. The lower the number, the less breaks in the gun, but this will result in a higher rank number. This is the only category where the higher number is better than a lower number.Breaks on target: We set up a method of testing ball breaks on target. We used a padded target to emulate the impact of a paintball hitting a person. Social responsibility: Each brand or company is ranked on how they do business, and what they put into the industry. This category is ranked one to five since there are only five manufacturers or "brands" represented here.

Diablo Stats			B. Eagle Stats
Accuracy 125 feet	(7 of 9)		Accuracy 125 feet	(6 of 9)
Accuracy 100 feet	(8 of 9)		Accuracy 100 feet	(4 of 9)
Accuracy 75 feet	(8 of 9)		Accuracy 75 feet	(4 of 9)
Accuracy 50 feet	(6 of 9)		Accuracy 50 feet	(5 of 9)
Size Consistency	(6 of 9)		Size Consistency	(7 of 9)
R-Factor	(9 of 9)		R-Factor	(1 of 9)
Weight Consis	(5  of 9)		Weight Consis	(6 of 9)
Burst Strength	(5 of 9)		Burst Strength	(4 of 9)
Breaks in the Gun	(1 of 9)		Breaks in the Gun	(5 of 9)
Breaks on target	(1 of 9)		Breaks on target	(2 of 9)
Soc Responsibility	(5 of 5)		Soc Responsibility	(2 of 5)
total 61	7th		total 46	4th

Zap Stats			Proball Stats
Accuracy 125 feet	(9 of 9)		Accuracy 125 feet	(3 of 9)
Accuracy 100 feet	(9 of 9)		Accuracy 100 feet	(2 of 9)
Accuracy 75 feet	(7 of 9)		Accuracy 75 feet	(3 of 9)
Accuracy 50 feet	(8 of 9)		Accuracy 50 feet	(1 of 9)
Size Consistency	(9 of 9)		Size Consistency	(1 of 9)
R-Factor	(8 of 9)		R-Factor	(5 of 9)
Weight Consis	(9 of 9)		Weight Consis	(3 of 9)
Burst Strength	(3 of 9)		Burst Strength	(5 of 9)
Breaks in the Gun	(4 of 9)		Breaks in the Gun	(8 of 9)
Breaks on target	(9 of 9)		Breaks on target	(8 of p)
Soc Responsibility	(1 of 5)		Soc Responsibility	(3 of 5)
total 76	9th		total 42	3rd

Platinum Stats			Scherer Stats
Accuracy 125 feet	(1 of 9)		Accuracy 125 feet	(5 of 9)
Accuracy 100 feet	(3 of 9)		Accuracy 100 feet	(6 of 9)
Accuracy 75 feet	(2 of 9)		Accuracy 75 feet	(5 of 9)
Accuracy 50 feet	(2 of 9)		Accuracy 50 feet	(7 of 9)
Size Consistency	(3 of 9)		Size Consistency	(4 of 9)
R-Factor	(3 of 9)		R-Factor	(6 of 9)
Weight Consis	(4 of 9)		Weight Consis	(7 of 9)
Burst Strength	(7 of 9)		Burst Strength	(4 of 9)
Breaks in the Gun	(7 of 9)		Breaks in the Gun	(2 of 9)
Breaks on target	(7 of 9)		Breaks on target	(4 of 9)
Soc Responsibility	(3 of 5)		Soc Responsibility	(4 of 5)
total 42	2nd		total 54	6th

Marb Stats			Big Ball Stats
Accuracy 125 feet	(2 of 9)		Accuracy 125 feet	(8 of 9)
Accuracy 100 feet	(1 of 9)		Accuracy 100 feet	(7 of 9)
Accuracy 75 feet	(1 of 9)		Accuracy 75 feet	(9 of 9)
Accuracy 50 feet	(3 of 9)		Accuracy 50 feet	(9 of 9)
Size Consistency	(2 of 9)		Size Consistency	(5 of 9)
R-Factor	(2 of 9)		R-Factor	(7 of 9)
Weight Consis	(1 of 9)		Weight Consis	(8 of 9)
Burst Strength	(9 of 9)		Burst Strength	(6 of 9)
Breaks in the Gun	(9 of 9)		Breaks in the Gun	(3 of 9)
Breaks on target	(6 of 9)		Breaks on target	(3 of 9)
Soc Responsibility	(4 of 5)		Soc Responsibility	(4 of 5)
total 40	1st		total 69	8th

Pro-Series Stats
Accuracy 125 feet	(4 of 9)
Accuracy 100 feet	(5 of 9)
Accuracy 75 feet	(6 of 9)
Accuracy 50 feet	(4 of 9)
Size Consistency	(8 of 9)
R-Factor	(4 of 9)
Weight Consis	(2 of 9)
Burst Strength	(8 of 9)
Breaks in the Gun	(6 of 9)
Breaks on target	(5 of 9)
Soc Responsibility	(1 of 5)
total 49	5th

Paintball of the Year -- RP Scherer Marballizer

First Runner-Up -- Proball Platinum

Second Runner-Up -- Proball

Third Runner-Up -- Brass Eagle

Food for thought: Although we have thoroughly tested the nine brands/labels above, there are several more we just do not have enough test data on to present in this series. Some of these brands/labels include JT Paintball's new J-Balls, RP Scherer's All Star paintballs, etc. We will be testing those paintballs in up-coming issues of PCRInet.

Brass Eagle: Although early batches of Brass Eagle paintballs were not up to most standards, the paint we have shot and tested coming from their new factory is outstanding.

Diablo: We have used several different batches of Diablo paintballs and have had mixed success.  It seems that the quality varies greatly from batch to batch. This is to be expected from a new manufacturer. Diablo/ProCaps are taking huge steps to improve their consistency by hiring people with many years of experience in both manufacturing and marketing/distribution.

We hope you enjoyed this issue....we certainly had fun putting it together. There will be much more on paintballs here in future issues of PCRInet.

Please e-mail your comments and suggestions about this issue here.

Coming July 2nd, "Paintgun of the Year" article series