Etha breaking paint

[Stu_B]

Hi Guys

New to the site and hoping you could help me out with an issue me and a friend had at the weekend.

We both have Ethas and we're using the rental balls but we were getting a lot of barrel breaks, we tried some other balls that the place called tournament balls which were a lot better but I'd be keen to try and solve why we were breaking the others.

We were both sitting at just under 300fps and another friend had his Etek4 at 260fps and didn't break any balls.
Will reducing the power on ours solve our breaking so you think?

Cheers for any responses

 

[-Tris-]

Hi Stu,

It could be a couple of reasons, the one I would lean towards, especially if you both are running the same marker/barrel,would be the barrel/paint match, which I will discuss below.

Sometimes if the paint to barrel fit is tight or too loose it can cause breakages, this could either be that the barrel is particularly tight bored or that the paint has swelled slightly due to conditions stored/on the day (if wet paint balls can swell), or alternatively the barrel being too loose the paint can rattle down the barrel. Obviously if the paint is on the more 'brittle' side this may contribute to barrel breaks if a loose fit.

This may be old school thinking as I am just returning after 10 years, but back in the day guys used to switch barrels like no mans business and play around with different bore sizes etc.

You can test the paint to barrel fit, but simply unscrewing the barrel of your marker and then putting a paintball in to it and then blowing moderately down the barrel. If it rolls out without blowing, this indicates a loose fit, however if blowing and it taking big effort to get the ball to come out, this indicates a tight fit. Ideally the ball will fit in the barrel without dribbling out easily, and will require a moderate blow on the barrel to come out the other end.

Hope this was at least informative, if not the ultimate solution to your problem, as noted above, it could be a few reasons, but paint to barrel fit is one of the easier things to test.

 

[Stu_B]

Thanks for the reply!

We were both using stock Etha barrels but didn't do a test on the paint, I have seen a few comments saying if you are breaking paint then try reducing fps and increasing dwell time to be gentler on the balls.

We are at Bassetts Pole on the 27th so will see how we get on with the balls there.

Cheers for the advice

 

[STONESOLDIER]

It could be the Bore size as mentioned but the standard bore for the Etha is quite a large bore

Cold weather obviously affects the paint a great deal if you are breaking less paint with tournament paint and even more with rental I would say its the Rental paint that is the issue as rental paint is renowned for being harder than tournament paint and shouldn't have an issue.

 

[Stu_B]

Thanks for the advice!

I can't say what brand either paint was which isn't helpful I know.
Hopefully we have better luck at Bassetts next time.
Was cold cold but the first game I had no breakages and then second I did nothing but break the whole game, forgot to take my swab out so could do nothing for that one.
The following games required a Swab as soon as it broke one and then it would be ok for another 25-30 shots, then a break and swab and go again.

Appreciate the replies guys

 

[Lloydie]

Iirc Bassetts use LSA paint .
I found it very bad with my etek 3 and Etha .
I've stopped going there because the paint was that bad to use .
If it didn't brake in the barrel ,it wouldn't shoot straight .
Every ball was as different shape .

Shame as it's a good site and ran well but ****e paint lets it down .

 

[Stu_B]

Ah that's disappointing to hear.

We'll find out on the 27th I guess

 

[Lloydie]

Let us know how you get on .

 

[Stu_B]

Yeah I will do
Thanks again guys

 

[BOD]

Thanks for the advice!


Was cold cold but the first game I had no breakages and then second I did nothing but break the whole game, forgot to take my swab out so could do nothing for that one.
The following games required a Swab as soon as it broke one and then it would be ok for another 25-30 shots, then a break and swab and go again.

Appreciate the replies guys

How were you storing the paint you had bought, when you played the first game the paint was probably still warm from where the site stores it but if you just left it in the box in the safe area by the time you played the second game it will have got a lot colder and brittle. this time of year i take a cooler bag with a couple of hot water bottles in it to store my paint.