Paintball Sniper Gear

Some people love the thrill and rush of intense, in-your-face paintball action on speedball fields, playing tournaments for big money or duking it out on the front lines at major scenario events pitting hundreds of players against each other! Some paintball players, however, are a little more methodical in their hunt for adrenaline and excitement, choosing to place a single, well-aimed paintball on target at long range from a hidden position! With modern paintball equipment, the paintball sniper is a very real thing that can, with a few shots, affect the course of an entire game! Valken offers all the paintball gear and equipment a serious paintball sniper needs to hit their target!

Paintball Guns for Snipers

The modern paintball sniper is now more capable than ever thanks to modern advancements in paintball technology such as mag-fed paintball guns! Modern magazine fed paintball guns like the Valken M17, Eclipse EMF100 and First Strike T15 and First Strike Scout make outstanding platforms for paintball players looking to get serious about paintball sniping, as they’re able to fire the amazingly accurate, spin-stabilized First Strike projectiles that truly give paintball snipers a long-range advantage on the field! While the Valken M17, Eclipse EMF100 and First Strike T15 are semi-automatic paintball guns capable of shooting semi-automatic and even fully automatic, they are still able to be utilized in a paintball sniper role with the right modifications and upgrades to enhance their long-range accuracy and reduce their sound signature, while the First Strike Scout is a long-barreled, bolt-action paintball gun ready to deal some long-range damage right out of the box. For those serious about a long-range, paintball sniper rifle build, a mag-fed paintball gun is by far and away the best choice, as their flat-top receivers are much better suited to the sights and scopes needed to accurately deliver paintballs at long ranges without a hopper in the way, due to their ability to feed and fire First Strike rounds.

Paintball Sniper Upgrades

When a paintball player decides to get serious about building a sniper loadout, the peripherals are every bit as important as the paintball gun selected to create the platform! A paintball sniper needs the ability to reach out and touch someone, and a good scope is a critical piece of equipment. As paintball is a fluid, constantly changing game of movement, and a sniper wishes to remain still and hidden, a variable-zoom scope is a great choice as it provides the sniper the ability to zoom in and pick shots, or zoom out if the action gets a little too close for comfort. The Valken 1-4x20 rifle scope is a great choice, as it offers this variable-zoom capability, is standard with an illuminated reticle for low-light conditions and is ready to mount directly to a paintball gun’s flat-top receiver with a picatinny rail, then zero and hit the field!

Once the paintball sniper has selected their paintball gun and added a scope, accuracy that can measure up to the scope can be obtained by selecting an upgraded paintball gun barrel. While the stock barrels delivered on most paintball guns are solid all-around barrels, for tighter shot groups at long range and more consistent velocity, which contributes to repeatable accuracy, a longer barrel with a better internal hone and tighter bore makes a huge difference. A barrel kit that enables a paintball player to match their paintball barrel’s internal bore size directly to the paintballs they’ll be firing may also be the best choice for the absolutely best accuracy possible. Finally, as an added and important benefit, an aftermarket paintball gun barrel is generally drilled with multiple lines of porting that dramatically reduce the sound of the firing paintball gun, and for a paintball sniper who needs to shoot while remaining concealed, this is a critical piece of the puzzle!

Paintball Sniper Ammo

Paintball snipers need to shoot straight. That’s literally the whole point of being a sniper. To deliver the very best accuracy and range, most serious paintball snipers choose to shoot First Strike projectiles. First Strike rounds are a technologically advanced paintball, upgraded with spiral rifled fins at the rear of each ball that enable each round to spin in the air, stabilizing the round and dramatically increasing effective range and accuracy. Shooters firing First Strike rounds can consistently and drastically outrange opponents shooting regular, round paintballs and the improvements in both range and accuracy are massive. Once a paintball sniper loads up with First Strike rounds and zeroes their scope, they’re immediately able engage targets near and far with devastating accuracy, sending opponents packing with single, well-aimed shots that other players could only dream of!

Should a paintball player be put in a position where First Strike rounds are unavailable, like at some paintball fields or games where First Strike rounds aren’t for sale or can’t be used, selecting a high-quality paintball is more important than ever. Higher quality paintballs like Valken Graffiti offer shells that are durable enough to feed consistently in magfed paintball guns without crushing cracking or breaking in the gun, while flying straight and breaking on target. Cheap paintballs will not be able to match high-quality paintballs for accuracy, consistency over the chronograph or breaks on-target, and may break in the paintball gun. When shooting round paintballs, it’s important that the paintball sniper spend a little more on a high-quality paintball like Valken Graffiti in order to deliver the greatest accuracy possible.

Paintball Sniper Gear

It doesn’t matter how great a paintball gun a paintball sniper may have, how accurate their First Strike rounds might shoot or how good their scope is – if a paintball sniper can’t see, they can’t hit their target! Paintball goggles are never an item a serious paintball player should skimp on, and it’s even more critical in the world of paintball sniping! Many paintball goggles advertise their ability to resist fogging, but many also rely on moving air through the goggle to help move the warm, moist air out before it can fog a goggle lens. For paintball snipers, who need to see opponents at longer ranges than anyone else on the field, and look through a scope to make a well-aimed shot, moving is rarely an option and that means hot, humid air can linger in a goggle and cause fogging that can ruin a game. A high-dollar paintball facemask with a thermal lens is more important than ever in this case! Furthermore, for a paintball sniper, who may stay in a single spot or creep and crawl around a paintball field for minutes or even hours at some major scenario games looking for targets, not only is a thermal paintball goggle important, but so is comfort! A tight or uncomfortable paintball goggle that causes headaches or pinches is going to make for a bad time. A serious paintball sniper should consider a thermal paintball goggle like the camouflage Valken MI-7, or high-end paintball goggle camo options like the Bunkerkings CMD, Virtue Vio Ascend, Dye I5 or Push Unite! A comfortable, fog-free paintball goggle will make every minute on the field much better and make putting paintballs on target that much easier!

There was a time when sniping and trying to be a paintball sniper meant little more than a ghillie suit and a cool looking paintball gun that didn’t do anything all that different than all the other paintball gear on the field. Those days are over. Between First Strike rounds, amazing new paintball guns that are better than ever, and some great peripheral gear, paintball snipers can shoot further and shoot straighter than anyone else on the field and truly take the fight to the enemy!