Are you just kick-starting your paintball journey? Or have you been into it for a while now but need help understanding how to aim a paintball gun and take accurate shots? If yes, you’re in the right place!
Your ability to take accurate shots is crucial when playing paintball. Otherwise, your opponents may take you out faster.
While a paintball gun’s quality can impact shooting accuracy, understand that your ability to aim matters greatly.
This post contains tips on how to aim a paintball gun. So, read from start to finish for an understanding of how to shoot a paintball marker accurately. You’ll learn how to position the gun, body, and more!
How To Aim A Paintball Gun Accurately
Getting a good quality paintball is the first step to take. Paintball guns’ quality differs from brand to brand, and there are good ones out there. So, choose a brand with a good reputation for firing accurate shots.
After sorting out your paintball gun, follow the steps below to improve your aiming.
Step 1: Consider your distance from the target:
Your standing position will affect the accuracy of your paintball gun. So assume a distance that will offer you a better chance of firing accurate shots.
Here’s what you need to do. Ensure you don’t move too close or far away from your targets. Otherwise, you may struggle to hit them with the balls.
Always maintain a distance of 5 to 10 meters from your target.
Step 2: Place the gun on your shoulder:
You can aim and hit your target when you position the gun correctly. Now how should you place your paintball gun?
The simple way to position your paintball gun is to place it on your shoulder. Placing the gun on your shoulder helps to offer the stability needed to fire accurate shots. Your shoulder will help to balance the gun so that you can aim and fire with better accuracy.
So, ensure the tank is resting on your shoulder to boost your chances of hitting the target.
Step 3: Hold your paintball gun straight:
How you hold the paintball gun will significantly impact your ability to aim and shoot accurately. So, pay close attention to this segment of our discussion.
What is the best way to hold a paintball gun? Hold the marker straight and steady. Don’t let it dance around. Otherwise, your shots won’t be accurate.
There’s a possibility that your paintball gun may wobble as a first timer. Don’t beat yourself up when this happens, as you’re just starting out.
Practice makes perfect. In other words, the more time you spend practicing, the better you become at holding your paintball marker.
Now, let’s continue with how to hold a paintball gun.
Ensure both hands are placed on the gun. And note that your two hands would have separate roles. The front hand’s job includes pulling the paintball gun into your shoulder, while the dominant hand helps with pulling the trigger.
Now, take note. You don’t have to grip the gun’s trigger too hard with your dominant finger.
Step 4: Use the paintball gun’s sight:
When firing your shots, you can improve your aim and fire accurate shots by looking down at the paintball’s sight.
If your paintball doesn’t have an iron sight, it probably has a scope. The sight is planted on both sides of the paintball gun’s front end.
However, most high-end paintball markers don’t have sights, red dots, or scopes. You also need to understand that most expert paintballers don’t use scope or sight. They can take accurate shots without them.
As a beginner, you’ll need all the help you can get to aim and fire accurate shots. So, use sight or scope, if your paintball marker has one.
Step 5: Keep both eyes open:
Most shooters prefer to keep one eye closed when taking shots, as they claim doing so allows them to aim and shoot accurately.
You can keep an eye closed when firing a paintball gun. Most military personnel using real guns do so when shooting and they still hit their targets.
As a paintball player, shooting with one eye closed isn’t a recommended shooting style. The simple way to fire accurate shots is to keep your two eyes open. Keep your eyes open and look down the paintball gun’s side. Then fire a shot and judge how accurate it was. You can then adjust your position, including the paintball gun’s, and take a second, or more shots.
This process is simple but can yield tremendous results. Just ensure you adjust your second and subsequent shots based on the results of previous shots fired from that position. Your chances of hitting the target will improve every time you fire a shot.
Step 6: Know your paintball marker’s limit:
How far can your paintball gun shoot? Find out before kick-starting the paintball competition. The normal effective range of paintballs is around 80 to 100 feet.
So how far can the paintball marker you’re using shoot? The reason to know your paintball marker’s range is to enable you to fire accurate shots. When you know your gun’s limit, you won’t be standing where your shots cannot reach your targets.
Now note this. If your paintball doesn’t have red dot sight or scope, avoid aiming and shooting at targets beyond 25 feet. Why? You may miss your target without those accessories.
Step 7: Get fitting footwear:
Wearing the right accessories is essential. You have to protect yourself from the impact of the paintball.
Another thing you need to consider before playing paintball is your footwear. Ensure you’re wearing a pair of footwear that will improve your focus and performance.
So, what footwear is ideal for paintball? Paintballers require footwear that can offer optimal grip and allow them to move around with ease.
You’ll be doing a lot of running around while playing paintball. So, invest in the right footwear to improve your aim, shooting accuracy, and performance.
From experience, the ideal type of footwear for paintball should have an aggressive tread and ankle support. You’ll have the freedom to move around while wearing such shoes.
You can also get trail running shoes, as these are ideal for paintball.
Step 8: Practice makes perfect:
There is an old saying that “practice makes perfect.”The more time you spend practicing something, the better you become at doing that thing.
Constant practice builds your confidence. Through continuous training, you’ll also discover the wrong way to aim and learn from your mistakes.
Practicing constantly will enable you to get used to your paintball and shoot accurately.
So, start doing the right thing to improve your aim and accuracy. And note that you can practice alone. You don’t need a tutor or a group of people to learn how to aim and shoot with a paintball.
Just get a few cans and place them strategically in the paintball arena. Then try to aim and shoot at the cans. If you can hit targets that small, you’ll hit bigger targets easily.
Step 9: Test your paintball gun before using:
The excitement to get into the battlefield and start shooting is high once you arrive at a paintball arena. But don’t let that derail you from a necessary routine.
Test your paintball gun to see if it is working properly. This advice is for beginners and expert paintballers.
Why should you test a paintball gun? The reason is simple. Dirt might have piled up in the barrel without you knowing. And remember, once the battle starts, you won’t have the time to fix your paintball.
Dirt can make it challenging for you to fire accurate shots. It can also slow down the ball’s speed, making it challenging to hit the targets.
So, always keep your paintball marker clean, and test it before making your way to the battlefield.
Conclusion
Now that you have seen the theoretical aspect of aiming a paintball gun, you can start the practice. Follow the tips on this post and improve your am and shooting accuracy.
However, choosing a quality paintball marker is very important. It will determine the accuracy of your shots. Finally, we spoke about the importance of constant practice.
When you practice consistently, your aim will improve drastically. It may take time to happen. But if you persistently practice, you’ll get there.
