E - Paintball Terms & Definitions

• Eating (the) Paint: is a slang term for when a player takes a direct shot to the facemask, spraying paint all over the lower half of his place. All paintball goggles are designed to protect the lower half of their face in the event of them Eating Paint. Some goggles protect the neck of players too, including the X-Ray Single Goggles from Extreme Rage and the Spectra nFORCER Mask from JT.
  
  
  
  
• Effective length: The Effective Length is the portion of a barrel's length from the breech to the beginning of the parting. This is the length of barrel in which the propellant gas can expand and add velocity to the paintball. After years of field testing, experts generally agree that the optimum effective length of a marker barrel in between 8 to 12 inches. Lengths beyond 12 inches can actually begin to cause drag upon the paintball, lowering efficiency and decreasing the number of shots the gun gets on one air refill.
  
  
• Elbow: is a slang term for hopper adapter. Some hopper accessories include the Atomic Elbow from Allen Paintball Products and the Loader Elbows from ACI.
  
  
• Ergonomic: refers to a design that considers or makes concessions to the conformation and mechanics of the human body. Some examples of ergonomically friendly paintball gear may paintball markers such as the Q Loader. Qloader markers come with a hopper that lies underneath the gun barrel, making it easier for a player to hold and fire his marker. Other marker accessories that make it more comfortable for a player to hold his paintball gun include gun stocks.
  
  
• Eliminate: Eliminate as an action is when one player takes another out of the game by laying a direct hit on him with a paintball that leaves a quarter size mark. Eliminate is used interchangeably with eliminating. Other terms that mean the same thing include marking, tag, and tagging. This is where the term paintball marker comes from, when a player is hit and marked up with paint splatter.
  
  
• Expansion Chamber: A device that "conditions" Co2 gas by allowing it to expand before it enters the marker's valve system. An expansion chamber serves as a heat exchanges and conducts heat energy form the environment to the propellant system, expanding high pressure air gas or in the case of Co2 converting liquid in the system to a gas. Expansion chambers are only used for Co2 air systems, since Co2 is temperature sensitive whereas high pressure air is not. Expansion chambers improve consistency in Co2 driven markers, so that players can get a steady velocity and accuracy from one shot to the next.
  
  
• Eye: An eye is a sensor that is connected to the breech of the marker. The eye waits until is senses a paintball in the breach before it will allow the paintgun to fire. This mechanism greatly diminishes paintballs breaking inside of the paintball gun.