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Airsoft vs. Paintball
Although airsoft and paintball games may look similar in their basic movements, they’re also two different styles of gameplay with various rules and approaches. Both involve tagging the opposing team with a projectile, but each has its distinct characteristics.
Keep reading to learn more about the distinctions between airsoft vs. paintball.
What Are the Differences Between Airsoft vs. Paintball?
Airsoft and paintball offer thrilling team-based competition in action-packed outdoor games designed for adrenaline-pumping tactics and strategies. However, both have varying costs, use different styles of guns, and achieve different accuracies.
The level of pain or injury you feel from being hit with a BB versus a paintball can also vary, despite the eye protection or face protection you wear.
Cost
Between airsoft and paintball, it’s more expensive to play paintball. Airsoft gear and guns typically cost less than their paintball equivalents, although prices and budgets can vary. You can also usually store BBs for years without any issues, but paintballs tend not to last as long.
Paintball rentals can cost anywhere from $50 to $100, and paintballs themselves generally range from $15-30 for 500 rounds. Biodegradable and tracer BBs often come at much lower costs — our RWA Tracer BBs are around $15 for over 3,000 rounds, for example, and you can easily purchase an airsoft gun for under $100. Most paintball markers (i.e., guns) that last are typically over $200 or more.
Shooting Platforms
There’s no mistaking a paintball marker, regardless of if you’ve played a game or not. These markers typically have a hopper located at the top of the gun, which holds the paintballs until they’re fired. Paintball guns also require compressed air to fire, similar to many types of airsoft guns.
In comparison, airsoft guns are available in multiple shapes and sizes. You can choose from a pistol, rifle, sniper rifle, or shotgun platform across decades and even from distant fictional worlds. Airsoft guns are also available in spring-powered, gas-powered, high-pressure air (HPA)-powered, and electric-powered variants.
Although you can modify both paintball and airsoft guns, the latter offers players more freedom to choose something that fits their gameplay style. For instance, if you want to shoot in a military simulation (mil-sim) game, you can purchase and run a historic airsoft rifle to pay homage to that particular time and real firearms.
The same cannot be said for paintball markers, which are typically built for speed and shooting accuracy rather than craftsmanship and replication of a real-steel counterpart.
Accuracy
Airsoft and paintball guns are accurate, provided they’re tuned correctly. However, airsoft platforms tend to be more accurate because the BB is much smaller than the average paintball. You can also curve your airsoft BBs by putting your gun sideways, whereas paintballs typically fly in a straight line.
Potential For Injuries
Due to their size and mass, paintballs tend to be more painful. Regardless of the distance between you and your paintball opponent, you will feel it in the morning if you get hit. Airsoft BBs tend to hurt less, but it’s important to note that they can still cause bruises and may draw blood even on low power, depending on how closely you get shot.
What Is Airsoft?
Airsoft is a game that involves competitive shooting. Players must tag out if they’re hit by a spherical plastic airsoft BB. Airsoft players use airsoft guns — also known as replicas — to hit one another.
Most airsoft guns are magazine-fed and use compressed air or gas to fire a BB down the barrel and out the muzzle. Airsoft guns typically resemble real-steel firearms. Civilians make up the majority of airsoft players, but law enforcement and military members also use airsoft to train for combat.
BBs can leave visible markings if they contact the skin directly and with force. However, most BBs sting at first and only cause bruising if the hit was within a short distance or from a powerful gun. Since BBs don’t leave a mark, players rely on the honor system to determine who is out.
Airsoft Pros
Airsoft replicas tend to be affordable and require less maintenance, resulting in lower maintenance costs that make it easier for beginners. For example, with a spring-powered airsoft gun, you don’t have to charge up batteries or purchase green gas. Ammunition is also a lot cheaper than paintball.
During gameplay, quickly reloading your weapon can mean the difference between getting off another shot to take out your opponent and falling victim to their fire and throwing your hand up in defeat. Most airsoft guns are easy to reload compared to paintball markers.
Airsoft replicas tend to be easy to maneuver on the airsoft field, from making longer-distance shots with an airsoft sniper rifle to dominating close-quarters battle (CQB) scenarios with a compact airsoft rifle.
Airsoft BBs don’t remove the potential for personal injury, but they lessen it compared to the mass of a paintball.
Airsoft Cons
Although you can easily purchase an airsoft gun on the cheap, it’s often very easy to exceed your budget, especially if you’re looking for something that performs well out of the box. For example, professional training weapons (PTWs) bring high performance to the airsoft field — for a steep price.
The game of airsoft is also based on an honor system, where players honestly call their hits after being tagged by one or more BBs. However, since BBs don’t leave a visible mark upon impact, the hits can be harder to see if players don’t follow the honor system.
Players can easily tune their airsoft guns to meet the challenge before them, but such intricate adjustments can easily cost a player precious moments. At times, following the BBs’ trajectory to make adjustments can also prove challenging.
What Is Paintball?
Another type of competitive shooting sport, paintball began in the 1960s and has expanded since. During gameplay, paintball players shoot one another with colored dye-filled gelatin capsules that break open and splatter to indicate a player’s been hit. The guns that fire the paintballs — referred to as paintball markers — are fueled by compressed air.
Paintball Pros
When you hit someone with a paintball, it shows. The same cannot be said for airsoft BBs.
Paintballs are also larger and heavier, so they can sustain an accurate trajectory over longer distances.
Paintball Cons
Since paintballs are bigger and have more mass than BBs, they’re capable of more significant injury. Plus, as the name suggests, the paint in paintballs can permanently stain clothing.
Paintball markers require compressed air to operate, so they aren’t as easy to carry around as an airsoft gun. The giant hoppers on the top of the markers can also make maneuvering them around the playing field more difficult.
Investing in paintball gear can also be costly, especially if you want a custom or high-performance marker. Paintballs are also expensive and typically don’t keep well if they’re unused.
Which Is More Painful: Airsoft vs. Paintball?
Between airsoft vs. paintball projectiles, paintballs tend to hurt more. Consider the size, surface area, and material makeup of these different projectiles. Although a small BB may seem like it can do more damage, paintballs pack a wallop.
Paintballs tend to have more oomph behind them due to their mass and surface area, which can be much greater than airsoft BBs. For instance, paintballs typically weigh around 3 grams, which is much greater than your average 0.2-gram airsoft BB. Your average paintball is also .68 caliber instead of 6mm.
The typical airsoft BB weighs 0.2 grams and releases about 1.2 Joules of energy. Compare that to a paintball, which releases 12.5 Joules of energy. That makes paintballs about 10 times as powerful as airsoft BBs.
Feed Your Airsoft Habit
Airsoft and paintball may share the same desire for fun and excitement, but they’re two different styles of gameplay altogether. Now that you know a bit more about airsoft vs. paintball, stop by RedWolf to add a few airsoft items to your wishlist, including airsoft pistols, rifles, and shotguns.
If you need plastic BBs, protective gear, replacement parts, vests, compressed gas, or pouches, RedWolf is your go-to source for all things airsoft.
Sources:
How Much Does Paintball Cost? | Precision Paintball
