Are Paintball Guns Loud? (Jan-2023)

Have you recently developed an interest in paintball guns? If yes, a common concern that you must be having right now is whether or not paintball guns are loud. People often search for this question’s answer, which is quite justified given that they do not want to alarm the people around them. Many individuals with hearing issue are often not sure if playing with paintball guns is something that they can do as well. 

Our journey with paintball guns started with many questions too, especially the one about the noise level of these guns. When you are playing on the field, the constant threat of noise can make you want to step back. Therefore, it is essential to know if paintball guns are loud and if so, how much. This really helps you prepare for the competitions and field games that you will have with other people.

Electronic Paintball Gun

The first type of gun that we will discuss here is the electronic paintball gun. It is powered by a battery, and you can charge them in most outlets available in your house. A problem associated with electronic paintball guns is that they often require you to carry extra batteries with you. If you run out of charge in one of them, you have a spare for backup.

If we talk about the sound level of electronic guns, you should be glad to know that it only produces a hissing sound in most cases. If you want to avoid that as well, we would recommend that you invest in a more expensive paintball gun. A cheaper electronic paintball gun has obviously made up of lower quality and so the noise produced is greater. However, this noise is not the result of the battery, but other parts of the gun like valves and bolts. If you are looking for a game with the least noise pollution, then you should go for an electronic gun. Such guns will have you pay extra effort to hear the sound because it is that faint. You should note that these guns are highly-priced as compared to some other options that we will discuss.

Mechanical Paintball Gun

The second type of gun that we will discuss is the mechanical paintball gun. This type of gun functions with the help of carbon dioxide, so it can be set up easily. If you want to start your journey with paintball guns, you might want to buy a mechanical gun especially if you are in a hurry. These paintball guns are very common and so you can find them quite easily as compared to the electronic paintball gun. A problem associated with this type of paintball gun is that it does not provide its users with the same level of accuracy or speed as electronic paintball guns.

When we shoot with a mechanical paintball gun, the sound produced is the result of the gas present inside. You will hear a popping noise and in some cases, you might also hear a hissing sound. The sound of these mechanical paintball guns depends on the quality of the gun. If you are looking for a quiet game where your neighbors are not disturbed much, you should consider investing in an expensive mechanical paintball gun.

The more money you spend buying a paintball gun, the less sound the gun will make. However, you should note that mechanical paintball guns are bound to make noises that can be quite distracting. Therefore, unless you plan on playing only in the designated paintball fields, you should not purchase it.

Even on fields, people often prefer to have a quieter gun so that their location is not exposed to other players. This cannot be made possible especially if you have a cheap mechanical paintball gun. While these paintball guns do come in different qualities, the best quality guns are the ones that produce the least sound. You cannot compromise on the high sound and settle with a high-quality paintball gun because they are only available together.

People often go for electronic paintball guns because they offer better accuracy as compared to mechanical paintball guns. However, if you are looking for budget shopping, then the mechanical ones are the way to go as they are way cheaper than the electronic paintball guns and are good enough to be used without any issues on the game field.

Valve’s roles

Now, that we have established the difference between an electronic and mechanical gun on the basis of their sound production, we should consider looking at some other factors as well. For this, we are going to throw light on the bolt and valve of a paintball gun, and how it affects the sound production in the gun.

There are two types of valves that we will discuss here. The first type is the spool valve. This type of valve is known for using a lot of air in each shot. This means that you will have to change the air cartridge more often than with the other type of valve. In addition to this, the O-ring of the spool valve requires regular and detailed maintenance which is not every individual’s thing. If you are cleaning the O-ring for the first time, you better hope you do not destroy the valve because the O-ring of this particular valve is quite sensitive to lubricant.

Make sure that you watch a good tutorial before attempting to clean it yourself. Even then, you have to be completely invested in the process to ensure total and correct cleaning. With these certain problems associated with the spool valve for paintball guns, there is one thing that makes it worth the purchase, and that is the little voice it makes. It should be noted that while the spool valve uses much more air than the other valve, it also produces much less sound than the other valve as well. Therefore, if you are looking for a valve you use for your paintball games in your backyard, the spool valve is the way to go.

On the other hand, we have the poppet valve. This particular valve uses lesser air than the spool valve. Therefore, you will not have to change the air cartridge very often. It is a great thing especially if you play with your paintball gun a lot and cannot afford to change the cartridge on a frequent basis. You cannot save a lot of money through this valve. A downside of this valve is that it has a higher weight.

However, this issue is not considered to be an issue by most individuals. For example, we feel like it lowers the sensitivity of our aim and allows us to be more accurate with our shots. A slightly heavyweight also makes the paintball gun appear to be more realistic and ensures that the games are felt to be more thrilling. A good thing about this type of valve is that its O-ring does not require regular cleaning nor does it require a lot of focus. Its O-ring is less sensitive to the lubricant, so you can clean it freely without worrying about damaging the valve.  

If we talk about the sound level of the poppet valve, it is higher than the spool valve. The reason behind this is the air efficiency. The lesser air that is used by a paintball gun, the higher sound it is bound to produce. It is difficult to find a balance between saving money from extra air cartridge purchases and reducing the sound level of your gun. We would suggest that if you play with your paintball gun only occasionally, you should go for the spool valve. This way you will not have to change the cartridge very often and also get to enjoy a noise pollution-free game with your friends.       

High volume paintball gun

As you can see, there are different things that determine the sound level of a paintball gun. While people prefer getting a quiet paintball gun to be considerate of their neighbors, many actually look for noisy guns on purpose. The reason behind this is that they only use their paintball guns on designated paintball fields and so the production of sound does not affect them.

Moreover, a loud game actually resembles a real war scene more, and so people enjoy it when their paintball guns produce a lot of noise. If you are interested in a fierce and exciting game of paintball guns, you should surely consider buying a loud paintball gun. We are sure that the above details must have enlightened you enough on the matter of which type of gun makes more sound, but just to make it more concise for you, we have mentioned them below.

A mechanical gun produces more sound than an electronic gun, so you will have to spend money on it to reach the desired level of sound. Another thing that you will pay special attention to will be the type of valve you choose for your paintball gun. A poppet valve makes a higher sound so you should consider purchasing it. If your paintball gun comes with a poppet valve already, that is great. However, you can always replace the spool valve with a poppet one if you are really passionate about high-volume paintball guns. Another thing that you can do is use electrical tape to cover some of the holes of the barrel to produce a greater volume of sound.         

Conclusion

We hope that the information provided above answers your question about the loudness of paintball guns. As you must have noted, there are a few things that you need to be aware of before making the right purchase of a paintball gun. Hopefully, we have made you aware of those few things. One thing that we would suggest you do before buying a paintball gun is to know more about your priorities. By this, we mean that you should know exactly where you plan on using your paintball gun and how good of a quality you are looking for. Answering these questions before choosing a paintball gun will allow you to not waste your money on something you will not be able to use even.