Paintball Gear Maintenance

1. To make sure that others want to play with you, you must wash all of your clothes after a sweaty day of paintball playing. Just rolling everything up into a ball and throwing the clothes into the trunk is not going to get the job done. Water and sweat left on clothes can fester mold and odor, ostracizing you from other players if you wear them later. It is best to wash all of your paintball clothes before every day of playing.
   
   While washing your paintball clothes, it is best to wash them in a separate load from your other clothes. I have ruined a pair of dress slacks or two by mixing them in with my paintball clothes. Most of the time, the paint fill comes out of all the clothes, but not always.
2. One of the themes that will be repeated in this article is the importance of maintaining and cleaning all of your gear. Paint and dirt from dives behind the bunker can inevitably find their way into the marker, and into the barrel. Dirt that gets into the gun and barrel as well as dried paint can cause your gun to shoot like crap.
   
   
   One source of problems for your marker can be dirt in your pods. As you roll around into the earth diving here and there, dirt can get into everything, including your pods. And the dirt from your pods can make their way into the marker as you fill your hopper. To be safe, rinse out your pods in cold water at the end of their day.
3. If you want to fire off accurate shots, then you must have good quality paintballs that have been stored properly. To be well maintained, paintballs must be stored in a cool dry place. Keep your stock of ammo in one of the coolest and darkest rooms in your house, not in the back seat of your car. Excessive heat and moisture can ruin the paint fill. Alas, the paintballs need to be rotated in their box. Rotating the paintballs around means moving them around in the box to keep the paint fill from collecting to one side, and dimpling the paintball.
4. Check your marker for paint residue on the insides. If one of your paintballs has burst inside the barrel or inside the marker, the paint should be cleaned out.
5. Paintball guns should be periodically maintained as described in their user manual. Read your user manual a couple of times, and then perform the recommended steps describing regular maintenance.
6. Clean your hopper to keep them functioning properly. Today's hoppers are faster and more sophisticated than those of 10 years ago, but they are also more delicate. If you keep your hoppers clean and well maintained, they will continue to function at a high level.
7. Keep spare batteries on you so that you don't have to leave the field in the middle of the game. Keep spare or rechargeable batteries on you, should you need them. Check your batteries the day before the paintball game, and charge them if necessary. The loader above your marker functions better under a fully charged battery.
8. It may be beneficial to have an extra lens for your mask or hand, if it begins to fog up in the middle of a game.