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Paint grenades
Although not legal in tournament play, paint grenades may be found in recreational and scenario play. There are two kinds of grenades in use:
- Non-explosive grenades are generally closer to water balloons in function. One common grenade design consists of a rubber tube sealed securely at one end and more loosely at the other, with an arming pin which, when pulled, loosens that end. The tube is filled with paint under pressure, usually from a syringe. When the grenade is thrown against a hard surface, the loose end of the tube is unsealed, and the paint is sprayed over a wide area, potentially marking players. Another common design consists of a small compressed CO2 tank surrounded by a container of paint.
- Explosive paint grenades are powered by a small black powder \"banger\", tipped with a short time-fuse. A small plastic bag of paint is wrapped around this, and the whole assembly is contained in a breakable fibre case (usually segmented to resemble a WWII-era grenade). The end of the fuse protrudes from the top of the casing, and is tipped with a friction-sensitive material similar to the head of a match. This is then covered with a removable cap as a form of \"safety catch\". To fire the grenade, the cap is removed and its specially-roughened outer surface is struck against the fuse, igniting it. The grenade is immediately thrown; the fuse burns down to the tightly-packed black powder in two or three seconds and the grenade explodes.
This paint is normally a different color to the fill of the normal paintballs used on that field, as spray from a grenade (by definition) must count as a kill. Under most rules, any mark from a paint grenade is sufficient to count as an elimination.
Grenade launchers
Paintball grenade launchers are used in recreational and scenario paintball games they are used to launch paint grenades. They are more acurate than throwing a paint grenade which gives an advantage. Tippmann products such as the x7 are able to have a grenade launcher atached.
[edit] Paint mines
Paint mines are simulated land mines for use in Paintball. Several devices have been designed to spray paint over an area when triggered by passing players. Some of these devices are placed on the ground where, once a person steps on them, forces paint to shoot up and around the target marking the stepper and any nearby teammates. Another, rarely used form of mine functions with tripwires. Placed hidden on a tree or bush, the trip wire extends over a much larger area. Once tripped; a pin is released, like a paint grenade, the paint is forced out through the tight narrow tubes which shower the area with paint. Precise methods of spraying paint or triggering the mine vary; however, due to insurance reasons, no paint mines use any sort of explosive.
Smoke Grenades
Although again illegal in tournament play, smoke grenades are also used in scenario play. These create a screen of smoke which can obscure the movement of players and make it more difficult for the opposition to hit them. Some large-scale scenarios use military-issue smoke grenades, but for recreational use, smaller commercial \'smokes\' are preferred (due mainly to cost and convenience).
Thunderflashes
Alongside paint and smoke grenades, many recreational paintball venues sell small thunderflashes for use during games. These are effectively black-powder fireworks which explode with a loud bang, but have a sufficiently small blast to be thrown at opposing players with reasonable safety (provided they do not attempt to pick them up). They are used in the same way as the explosive paint grenades described above.
In practice, thunderflashes have little purpose in a paintball game; their effectiveness at their supposed task of disorienting the enemy is dubious. Nevertheless, they are popular with occasional players, presumably in emulation of the much bigger flashbangs used by the military.
Slingshots
A variation of paintball uses slingshots instead of markers to propel the paintballs. Because slingshots may shoot faster than 300 fps, most paintball fields don’t allow them. A normal game usually requires all players to use slingshots, but some games may allow certain players to use pump action markers vs. slingshots, such as Cowboys and Indians.
AirBow Gun
The AirBow gun uses a combination of mechanical and pneumatic power to convert the energy from a compound, or recurve bow. The energy released is generally equivalent to the power generated by a marker. Entire games have been dedicated to the use of AirBow Guns, in a fashion similar to that of slingshot paintball.
Paintball Bazooka
A \"Paintball Bazooka\", or a \"Paintball Rocket Launcher\" is a term used to describe a modified paintball gun or an item built from scratch to specifically \"kill\", or \"take out\" a Paintball Tank. Most often they fire rockets built from scratch or multiple Paintballs. Many players prefer not to have one because they severely limit what they can do because of the large, hard projectiles they usually fire that can injure a player. The only exception of ones that can be fired at anything besides tanks, and/or buildings are the type that fire multiple paintballs instead of rockets.
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