Velocity, Rate of Fire, Ramping… What’s the Difference?
When people first start playing, many hear these terms and it doesn’t make much sense, because they sound so similar. They are related, and if not correct, can get you into trouble on the field due to violations.
Let’s start with the Velocity:
The velocity of a paintball gun, or marker, is the speed of the paintballs as they exit the barrel. Velocity is a very important safety issue. It is measured in fps (feet per second). While low velocity means less chance of the paintball hurting you or breaking, higher velocity can cause more painful injuries, or even break goggles. The maximum velocity of a paintball should not be greater than 300 fps.
Rate of Fire
A paintball gun’s rate of fire is the number of paintballs that are shot from a marker within a period of time. This can either be based on how fast a player pulls the trigger, the use of the response trigger or an automatic / eletronic marker. Some players can pull the trigger as fast as an automatic. A double-trigger helps to increase the speed, since you can use two fingers for firing.
Obviously the rate of fire can be very slow, while it can average 15 balls per second, or bps, for an automatic. Upgrades to automatics can nearly double that rate of fire, though going much beyond would continuously chop the paintballs.
Ramping
Ramping is based on the rate of fire, and may not be legal on paintball fields. It makes use of the programming in the electronic board to set an automatic rate-of-fire speed once you have fired a determined number of rounds, at a set speed.
All of these items are good to know, though learning to play safe and fair is best, and then take it from there.
