Best Way To Launch Paintballs

[sgort87]

Okay guys. I got it. I came up with a way to launch about 20-30 paintballs withought cartriges and withought having to replace wadding every shot. The secret is a built-in sabot in the barrel, a lip on the barrel tip to catch the sabot and not the paintballs, and venting ports near the tip of the barrel.

Lets say you have a 2" barrel and want to make it into a paintball barrel. You take a 1.25" endcap, 1.25" coupler, 3/4" of 1.25" pipe, and about 4 inches of 1.25" pipe and glue it together. The 3/4" chunk goes into the open end of the coupler. Glue a rubber gasket the same size as the open end onto the coupler and 3/4" long pipe to act as a shock absorber. This is your sabot; it will fit right in the 2" pipe.

Now put a stopper screw(s) on the chamber side of your barrel to stop the sabot. On the other end you need to take a 2" cap and drill/dremel out the entire center of it until it has a hole with a diameter of about 1.3". It can be bigger, just not 2". It needs to stop the sabot and not be so small that it can get in the paintballs' way. On the inside of the muzzle stopper there needs to be another gasket for shock.

When this is all done you need venting holes near the muzzle. Do this by measuring from the muzzle to a few inches more than how long your sabot is. It should be about 7-8 inches. Drill many many large holes for about 5 inches back. So there should be a lot of pipe missing 7-12" from the muzzle. It needs to let all extra air out and be able to withstand the momentum of the sabot only. The further back the holes go, the less momentum it will have when it gets to the stopper.

When operating all you need to do is find out how many balls fit in the sabot and just pour that many down the barrel (not straight down) or if the sabot is still at the muzzle it makes it easier. The barrel must be held upwards until just before the shot. If done correctly the sabot should slide down by itself and may just require some sanding to fix. To take the shot lower the barrel and fire immediately. The balls fly out and all you need to do is fuel and pour balls in.

Edit was to get rid of the damn green text!

[plasticex009]

I see some serious issues with this design that will probably lead the the barrel failing within a few shots. The shock of the sabot impacting the endcap at the end of the barrel with the holes drilled in it may break the barrel off near the vent holes even with rubber gasket shock absorbers. The sabot may also hit the sabot catch with enough force to shatter it and continue downrange with the paint balls. You need to get that sabot on a diet to minimize the impact forces involved.

You may need to use a 2.5" or 3" barrel to get a good working design because a 1.3" hole in the sabot catch is probably too small to allow .68" diameter paintballs to come out of, unless they are single file.

Is there any reason you can't use a softer material for the sabot? Rigid foam seems like it would work well for this application because it is light and will absorb energy in an impact.

[sgort87]

Well foam sounds safer. I'm concerned with how well it will return to the back of the barrel though. And it may be difficult to carve it out although I'm sure well worth it. And as for the number of balls exiting through the 1.3" hole, it's about 2.5 balls at a time. The way they stack in the sabot is quite nice. I will try the foam idea when I find/ buy a chunk of foam.

EDIT:green text removed

[SplatteredStarch]

In my humble little opinion, if you are attempting to shoot mass paintballs why not just get a mid to high end paintball gun. The net rate of fire of todays paintball guns is probally much faster than you can shoot and reload whatever shot gun you design. Aside from the fact most fields are not going to let you even bring a homegrown shotgun type device onto their feild. The inherent innaccuracy of paintballs combined with a high rate of fire will give you the same shotgun effect. When the rate of fire of mid level elecronic guns ~15/sec and high end guns approaching ~30/second, As far as i can see that is the easist solution, and you would have most of the equipment that you would need to go out and competitivly play paintball.

SplatteredStarch

[draculon]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="tahoma,verdana,arial" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by SplatteredStarch
[br]In my humble little opinion, if you are attempting to shoot mass paintballs why not just get a mid to high end paintball gun. The net rate of fire of todays paintball guns is probally much faster than you can shoot and reload whatever shot gun you design. Aside from the fact most fields are not going to let you even bring a homegrown shotgun type device onto their feild. The inherent innaccuracy of paintballs combined with a high rate of fire will give you the same shotgun effect. When the rate of fire of mid level elecronic guns ~15/sec and high end guns approaching ~30/second, As far as i can see that is the easist solution, and you would have most of the equipment that you would need to go out and competitivly play paintball.

SplatteredStarch
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

Yes, but we don't resign ourselves to such practical solutions.

[davidbowie]

How about a few dixie cups stacked and glued together? Would they be too weak, and break immediately? Somebody around here had a slightly different set-up, with a sponge on a rubber cord. maybe dixie cups on a skinny bungee attached to the back end of the barrel would work and reduce shock on the barrel.

[TurboSuper]

Mabye you can find an aluminium cup somewhere and mod it.

[davidbowie]

plastic pint glass?

[sgort87]

Why not the great solution we came up with a month ago? Foam will be fine. I'll try it when I stop being poor haha. After Christmas I will have some money.

[gnr rocker]

wouldnt paintball get caught between the foam and the stopper? normal barrel breaks suck imagine having to squegee out a spudgun barrel