zombie killing with a paintball gun

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Vicious Lee on July 16, 2013 at 10:48pm

If you read Max Brooks books you see that you would have to have a powerful gun to be able to stop a zombie. The paintball gun is not strong enough as it is mainly gas-powered from the models I have seen. A marble is heavier than a paintball bullet and therefore would not have enough stopping power nor penetrating power to kill a zombie.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by saint.357 on July 17, 2013 at 12:57am

while i enjoyed max brooks works and they sure are entertaining i don't think you can trust them as the definitive source for zombie killing. after all the mans a comedy he wrote them to be enjoyed. and i never really saw him list any references for some of the information he put out. so I'm wondering if just made it up instead of looking at statistics. also speaking of marbles i read an articular about a man who was attacked in his car buy a paintball gun shooting marbles. apparently they were easily able to break right through the windows which is hard because thats tempered safety glass. also i remember another story of man who tested shooting marbles out of a paintball gun. it went right through the piece of wood he shot at and even dented is fence. that gives me a good feeling about this working. nomadic air is nothing to sneeze at it's powerful stuff. and if thats still not enough to convince you here's  a video of man shooting right through a zombie head analog with a supped up sling shot.

and in general co2 power is stronger then rubber, now I'm sure there is a way to calculate all this with advanced math but i just don't have the skill's to do it. so until someone actually test it this is all just speculation.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by KOMRAD RHINO☭ on July 17, 2013 at 1:23am

i like this guys videos. but i have some really sever reservations on slingshots and paintball guns for killing zombies. first off. paintball guns. they are designed to shoot soft jell like balls of paint. not marbles or ball bearings. so even if they clear the barrle. i doubt it will have the punch to go through the skull after it hit. and lets say for argument it can. how close or far do you need to be to accomplish it? without anything to go on. i for one would not want to chance it. and second. SLINGSHOTS? did you see how close this man was for his zombie kill with that thing? sure it went through and did damage on the way out. but he was standing at point blank range. to close for my taste. might as well use a good club or other melee weapon if that close. if he stood at a distance of say 15 feet with that second slingshot he used. then i would be more convinced of the kill ability if he had the same or at least similar results. so i have the same reservations for the slingshot as i do the paintball gun.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by saint.357 on July 17, 2013 at 1:56am

i never said the slingshot was a good weapon it was just a comparison if some rubber could do that then something stronger like the paintball gun would. and i'm not saying you should use only a paintball gun. if you have a real gun then all the better. but if your like me and live in a jack booted state where getting a gun is hard as hell then it might not be a bad options. especially since it's automatic and a lot quieter then a real gun. and I'm sure you could customize one into a hell of a zombie killer.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by KOMRAD RHINO☭ on July 17, 2013 at 8:40am

the reason i mentioned the slingshot was because of the video. because that guy was standing right up on that zombie head. i just cant give it that much credit. if he had been at least 10 feet away. i could give that one a bit of credit. as for the paint gun. being the thin barrels and the weight of a ball bearing or marble. i just dont see it being a good short term weapon much less a good long term one.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by saint.357 on July 17, 2013 at 2:29am

here's an interesting little article i found.

"Paintball guns can shoot marbles, though they are not designed to do so and can potentially be very dangerous. I’ll explain how paintball guns work, what must occur for marbles to be shot and also why you shouldn’t do this.

Paintball guns are pneumatically powered (air powered) devices that allow a compressed gas to expand behind a paintball which propels the paintball down the barrel of the gun. As the gas expands, the paintball accelerates down and out of the barrel. Four factors affect how fast the paintball leaves the barrel: the speed that the gas expands, the volume of gas expanding, the weight of the paintball and the fit of the paintball in the barrel.

Different gases expand at different rates. For paintball guns, carbon dioxide (CO2) and compressed air are generally the only two gases used. For the purpose of this article, they both expand at a very similar rate.

What does vary, though, is the volume of air that is used to shoot the paintballs. Compressed air guns use regulators to determine the pressure of the air that is released, with higher pressures indicating a larger amount of air being released into the firing chamber. CO2 doesn’t use a regulator, but the time that the valve is open will similarly determine how much of the gas is released (note, though, that since CO2 is stored as a liquid, sometimes a liquid is actually released into the gun). Generally, the larger the volume of air, the higher the velocity of the paintball.

Another variable is the weight of the paintball. Heavier paintballs require more force to move, which means that all else equal, heavier paintballs will leave the paintball barrel at a slower speed. To shoot heavier paintballs at the same speed as later paintballs you must increase the pressure behind the paintball (such as by turning up your regulator or increasing your spring pressure which will keep your valve open longer).

The last variable that determines how fast a paintball will shoot is also the most important when it comes to shooting marbles: how well the paintball fits into the barrel. A paintball is a globe-shaped object that fits into a cylindrical barrel. As gas expands behind the paintball, it can either slip around the edge of the paintball (in the gap between the paintball and the barrel) or it can push the paintball down the barrel. When there is a good paint-to-barrel match, a paintball will just barely fit into the barrel and won’t roll down by gravity alone, but will go down the barrel with a small puff of air. Paintballs that are slightly smaller (a few thousands of an inch) than the barrel, though, will still shoot because as the air pushes the paintball the pall will deform slightly, similar to when you push on opposite sides of a balloon, until it is large enough until it fills the barrel and creates a good fit. Excessive deformation of the paintball will hurt accuracy, but the ball will leave the barrel at the same speed as a paintball with a good initial paint-to-barrel match.

Shooting Marbles

Marbles can be shot by paintball guns, using the same principles that are used to shoot paintballs. The key is that you have enough air behind the marble to push it out the barrel. First, the marble must be nearly the size of the barrel. Paintball barrels are .68 caliber meaning you need to find a marble that is that size or just a bit smaller. A marble larger than that will not fit into the barrel and a marble more than a little bit smaller will not block very much air. While paintballs will deform a bit to fill the barrel, marbles will not. The result is that a marble will be shot, but a lot of air will escape around the marble and the barrel and the marble will not be shot very fast. To shoot a marble, then, you need to find a marble that will fit into the barrel of your gun, but will just barely fit into the barrel.

Beyond simply shooting the marble, if you want to get any velocity from the marble, you may have to increase the velocity of your gun. Marbles may be heavier than paintballs which will require you to boost the pressure on your gun."

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by KOMRAD RHINO☭ on July 17, 2013 at 8:51am

believe it or not. you just answered your own question. to put the required pressure behind a marble to punch through the human skull at so much as 10 feet. you need a butt load of pressure behind the marble. that would mean putting that pressure on seals that were not meant to take that. the seals would blow out in maybe two uses tops. i will give it 5 with lady luck on the user's side. this would make a paintball gun a very unreliable weapon at best. and the last thing you want to do is get backed into a corner with even a modified paint gun and hope that you can fend off 5 undead attackers and find that it wont even work after maybe dispatching 2 because of the seals blowing out. that would leave 3 undead attackers left to eat you and no real defense other then a good melee weapon. it just would not be a good (much less viable) choice to me. in order to make this work. you would need at least the pressure of a 22lr round behind that marble. even a modified paint gun cant take those pressures on its seals.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Jessie W. Garrett III on July 17, 2013 at 11:26am

   In a Z-poc I can see a paintball gun being used NOT to kill a zombie, but to mark buildings and trails that are zombie safe or have been scavenged. But as for killing a zombie or using a marble or ball bearing within a paintball gun, I don't think it would work. 

   The way you would have to load the marble or ball bearing would be the same way you would load a muzzle loader. To keep a lot of the surpressed air from seeping or leaking past the ball you would have to use some kind of wad of paper or cloth and pack it tight. But I still say there would not be enough power to cause a kill shot. Plus you would literally have to load this thing just like a muzzle loader. One shot at a time. To much work. Give me my little .22 semi auto rifle and a 25 to 50 rnd clip. (L) 

  

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by KOMRAD RHINO☭ on July 17, 2013 at 12:21pm

being the punch would be less then a 22lr. i would have to agree. and like i pointed out above. the pressures needed to just equal a 22lr would be more then enough to blow any seals and gaskets in a paintball gun. bad weapon. great marker though.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by saint.357 on July 17, 2013 at 6:30pm

i don't know i think if you can get a good fit, normal paintball guns using .68 caliber rounds. which are easy to get ball bearings in that size. then you won't need any kinda wadding and can shoot them out of the hopper or in regular guns terms magazine. and as long as you don't go higher then the regulator is set for you won't blow out any seals. good paintball guns are made to handle higher pressures. and after looking around I've found a few forums where paintball players have talked this and a few of them have shot marbles successfully without damaging their guns. but i don't know i haven't tried it yet. maybe it will work maybe it won't. but even if it does work only a few times, for someone like me who does not have a gun, and will never have one so long as i live in this fucking state. then at least those few times are kill's i don't have to make with my machete. if you have an option for a ranged wepon then it's always better then a melee. I'm working on getting a crossbow too but the reload time on those is that i don't think i can take on much more then one attacker at a time.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by KOMRAD RHINO☭ on July 18, 2013 at 10:19am

it would just have to be something i would have to see first hand before i would even recomend. i would sooner go archery gear before risking my big behind on the reliablity of a paint gun full of marbles. at least with a bow or crossbow one can make the arrows. no real shortage of ammo. sure you may either need a butt load of arows or at least a 4 person group armed the same to take out a large group of zombies. but there is safety in numbers anyway. so i would go bows or crossbows first bro. in my opinion. hang the paint gun. not worth the risk of even one malfunction. sure guns can jam and bows and crossbows can malfunction to. but at least they can be fixed in a hurry. let by freak chance one of those marbles clog the barrel and then you are up shits creek in a sinking boat. the gun jams. pull the bolt back to clear the breach. bow string breaks. make another. same with the crossbow. bows can even be made as you have shown in videos you made. and if the crossbow prod breaks. same principal of bow making applies. but let that paint gun jam or break and guess what. you got T-R-O-U-B-L-E-S. and big. to many unknown variables to chance for me bro. way to many.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Jessie W. Garrett III on July 18, 2013 at 11:18am

Aaaaa, you know you sound like a old man with old timers disease...(ROFLMAO)      I forgot the number to 9-1-1....(ROFLMAO)  Just messing with Rhino...(LOL)

   But I'll have to agree with Bro, the concept of a paintball gun being used to shoot a marble or ball bearing just has to many variables in which could actually blow up in your face...(LOL)

• ▶ Reply

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• …
• 12
• Next ›
• Page