history of paintball

Paintball History
Paintball guns (also called paintball markers) were originally used by the forestry and farming industries to mark trees and cattle. These early paintball guns were similar to many paintball pistols of today – they were powered by CO2 cartridges and had poor range and mediocre accuracy. The most famous model, and the one that people first starting playing actual paintball games with, was the Nel-Spot 007 pistol. James Hale of Daisy Manufacturing invented the design in 1970, but the production of these paintball guns was carried out by Nelson Paint Company.
The tree-marking paintball guns had to be modified in order to reduce their velocity to prevent injury to humans. The first paintball gun manufactured specifically for the sport of paintball was the Splatmaster, which was patented in 1985.
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The original Splatmaster was a pistol made entirely of plastic – even the barrel – and had to be manually cocked before each shot. Shortly after the arrival of the Splatmaster, Nelson began producing paintball guns designed for play, and added features like the detachable barrel and pump-action cocking.
The first semi-automatic paintball gun that was available for purchase was the SMG60, designed by Dennis Tippmann. Before producing the SMG60, Tippmann Pneumatics was called the Tippmann Arms Company, and produced replicas of military weaponry for reenactments. The successor to the SMG60 was the 68-Special, which featured the first hopper-like device for feeding paintballs into the gun.
The first electro-pneumatic paintball gun, the Shocker, was marketed by Smart Parts in 1995. Generally, electros work on lower air pressure than mechanical paintball guns, and the release of air is precisely controlled by electronic valves. This low-pressure operation and efficiency has become the new standard that even mechanical “blow-back” and “blow-forward” paintball guns are trying to mimic.
Generally, the evolution of paintball gun technology is focused on achieving greater speed, accuracy, and air efficiency. However, paintball guns have also gotten lighter and smaller over the years. This is likely due to the changing nature of the game as people are beginning to play more tournament-style paintball, where having a gun that is easily maneuvered is very important. Paintball guns will probably continue to evolve as new technologies are developed to make them ever smaller, lighter, more accurate, and more air-efficient.