Sloppy Joe

I was on another Froum annd found this thread. I thought it was good enough to share. Makes me wonder how many times stuff like this happens and how safe back yard games are...

Copied the following:

On Saturday, I did my typical routine showing up to the field around 10am. I paid my fees, purchased some paintballs, and got ready to get playing. I always have my marker disassembled and in my case, so I assembled it, put a battery in, loaded it and headed to chrono it. I normally set it around 250 to 270 FPS which seems to give me the best consistancy in reguards to paintball accuracy. I size my insert for the paint, and I headed back to my vehicle to get my pods and other goodies.
I played most of the day, then about 3:30 I noticed my first air bottle was getting close to 1000psi which is where I normally change out to my second bottle. I switched, played one round and then got ready for center flag. I was the forward deploy, and one of the refs wanted to spot chrono-check some of the players. I am actually embarassed at hot my gun was really shooting, but I will say that it was well in excess of 300 FPS. I couldn't believe it, I actually made the ref repeat the number twice before it processed. To get my marker under control, I shut the high pressure regulator down with the allen screw and worked my way back up to 250 FPS.
At the end of the day, all I could think of was maybe I lost a piece of the HPR, or I assembled it inproperly when I cleaned and lubed it. I took it apart and had a quick look, I wasn't sure how many washers go in the stack, but they looked to be assembled properly. I went home and through about it while I cleaned my gear. I looked at the directions, stripped both the LPR and HPR off, cleaned and lubed it all and put it back together. I still couldn't figure out how it jumped up so much between the morning and afternoon. I know it happens with CO2 because temperature differences change the pressure of the CO2, but air is very stable. This was something that I just couldn't let go.
Sunday, I called up a friend who plays a lot of woods ball and has his own chrono. I borrowed it, got a box of paint, and went to work in my back yard. To my suprise, despite all the cleaning my paintball marker was still set very near where it was when I left the field. I put about 500 balls through the gun with a +/- 10 FPS varriance. This wasn't helping me figure out what was going on. I messed around putting another 500 balls through just shooting and checking the speed every once in a while. The pressure in my tank dropped to about 1000psi and I changed it out.
First shot on the new tank, 170 FPS... as were the next 10 shots I fired. I switched back to the other tank, back up to 250 FPS. I did a little more research and found that I have one tank with a high pressure regulator on it and one with a low pressure regulator on it. When I set my marker on the one that gave the gun 450psi, it worked fine until I put the 800psi tank regulator on. The tanks look the same, feel the same, and are made by the same manufaturer, but the regulators are two very different animals. Moral of the story... IF YOU CHANGE ANYTHING ON YOUR MARKER, RE-CHRONO IT! No one got seriously hurt out of this, but that was nothing but dumb luck on my part. It ruined my whole day to think of how much damage I could have inflicted over something as stupid as not knowing my own equipment. I know that from now on, I will check my marker every time I leave the field for paint, overkill... probably, but I never imagined that changing an air tank would so drastically affect my marker speed. Hopefully, this little story will prevent someone else from making the same mistake that I made.

Copied text from: Battlefront Paintball Online Community - Shooting well over 300 FPS!

Fets

Good post... I have to say, as I was reading it towards the end when the author revealed why it was happening all I could think of is all the times I have been at BF with people probably shooting 350 FPS.

Then I saw you copied it from BF website, and I had to chuckle. But I am glad that whoever this is learned their lesson. Good post.

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Sloppy Joe

I know my self I was using 2 barrels on my A5 during games at BF. I had a tight 20" barrel and the stock A5 barrel that I cut back to about 5" long. The difference in the bore and possibly the length (Yes, I have read many of the discussions on the length changing or not changing the velocity of the ball--- not my point here) did change MY FPS. If I was at 175 with the 20" and only changed the barrels to the 5" barrel the FPS would drop to 140-150.

I would use the 20 in the woods and attacking the buildings. Once in the town I would change to the 5 for close combat. BUT I would ALWAYS chrono the 20 and use that as my starting point so I did not go over the 300 mark.

That is what I have learned about my equipment. I will be testing the Apex and the JJ Edge kit in the near future to see how they differ too, not for the exact measurements but for trends. I understand that paint also has a major part to play in the "paint to barrel match", which effects everyting from FPS, air efficiency, accuracy and so on...

Jaysonmauer_xo

I know my equipment, and I chrono every chance I get. What I do not understand is how a person buys an HPA tank with a low pressure regulator without knowing it. Okay, the high pressure tank too, whichever was different from the first.

I mean, it's one thing to not know exactly how a new piece of equipment is going to affect your marker, it's another entirely to have no clue what you are buying. I, for one, am not impressed by the story, I am frightened by it. I'm not afraid of a ball going 450 fps, that's going to hurt, but it won't kill me. It's what goes along with not being responsible enough to know what you've purchased. These things are labeled. I'm not scared of the balls, I'm scared of what else this person is capable of. I've seen people fire into the safe-zone, this is the kind of person that does that kind of thing. The rest of us need to know about this so we can watch out for these people, not so we can hear what we already know.

meatcircus

I'ma have to say, I have two air tanks and I have no idea whether or not they are low pressure or high pressure. I've asked around, and no one seems to be sure. I do know that they shoot a little differently as far as FPS goes, so I chrono with the one that tends to shoot higher.

Fets

Any paintball shop should be able to tell you I would think. That is surprising... I would just re-chrono when you switch tanks.

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Jaysonmauer_xo

Like a little different, or like a lot? Because the difference between a high pressure output tank and a low pressure output tank is 400+ psi; the difference should be night and day.

meatcircus

you would think I would have thought to ask the guys at the pro shop... but I didn't.

I will next weekend though =)

Sloppy Joe

I have a Palmer Reg on my remote line that has both pre and post reg gauges. So we could just hook that up to tell what the output PSI is from the tank to the pre reg gauge.
The other thing to possibly consider is that if you are running the X7 with a response trigger then your tank is pretty sure to be HP (800-1200). AND given the range that a HP regulated tank can put out you will get some FPS range as well... but nothing like what the guy in the origonal post was having.

I would also think that the flow from the tanks reg would contribute to the difference in FPS. Not sure how drastic that would be either.

Fets

Or it could be an adjustable reg as a 3rd option.

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Jaysonmauer_xo

Please tell me where to get a high pressure HPA tank with that kind of output. In the last two years I have been unable to find anything over 850. I have an X-Mag that's craving that kind of pressure.

Sloppy Joe

I could have swore that I saw them on FeeBay... I just did a few searches and found this regulator- http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&it em=270368869550

but it was the only one that I saw. Like you said other than that one I would only find the ones that went up to 850.

I may have misspoke about the 1200 max since I had been looking at a LOT of stuff PB related. I may have mixed it up with the Palmers and other off tank regulators. Sorry about that...