Practice, Practice, Practice

So Italia and the boys haven’t been able to get .50 caliber paintballs quite up to what they had promised yet. Apparently it’s not that easy to increase the mass so flight characteristics are virtually the same as .68 caliber balls. But at shorter ranges, up to 75 feet it’s close. After that, you will have to tilt your barrel up at a higher angle (compared to shooting .68) to get the ball where you want it. Further out yet, the ball just isn’t going to make it. Also, the ball will be traveling at slower velocities when it arrives on target, so the chances of bounces are higher, possibly much higher due to the inherent strength of a smaller sphere. But we have been promised thinner shells in the future which should make the balls much more fragile and much more prone to breakage.

The promise of cheaper pricing has some thinking that maybe they could live with the reduced performance of .50 caliber paintball for practice use and then switch to the more expensive .68 caliber when it counts, during competition. It makes sense that one would want every advantage one could get during a competition.

So how much advantage will practicing with a smaller, lighter marker than the one you will be shooting during competition give you? How much advantage will shooting at higher angles to achieve the required distance during practice and then needing to adjust during competition give you? Hmmmm.