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Fibre v Steel

DonBossi

Active Member
Mar 4, 2021
84
39
38
"Players then need to make sure they use the right fill station for their cylinder.
A 3000 bottle should only be filled at a 3000 fill station - you can technically fill at a 4500 fill station if you are careful but you will get shouted at"

I assumed air fills to be a case of hand your bottle in and it comes back filled. Like a rental. Maybe not so?
Self service blowers for walk ons?
 
Last edited:

BOD

The brotherhood
Aug 1, 2003
747
231
68
YORK
Visit site
How much air would you say you use per average game (if there is such a thing)?

What kind of level is normally acceptable to go for a refill?
How much air you use depends on which gun you're using and how many times you pull the trigger, if you're using a tippman mech gun for example you're going to be using lots of air for not that many shots, but if you're using something like my AKA Viking i can shoot a whole box of paint on one fill of my 1.5L 4500psi bottle but i still make sure it's full whenever i go out onto the field .

Always make sure you have a full bottle before you start each game, no point in running out of air before you run out of paint.
 

DonBossi

Active Member
Mar 4, 2021
84
39
38
How much air you use depends on which gun you're using and how many times you pull the trigger, if you're using a tippman mech gun for example you're going to be using lots of air for not that many shots, but if you're using something like my AKA Viking i can shoot a whole box of paint on one fill of my 1.5L 4500psi bottle but i still make sure it's full whenever i go out onto the field .

Always make sure you have a full bottle before you start each game, no point in running out of air before you run out of paint.
Oh ok, fill up before every game. Good to know. Cheers for the info.
 

Tom

Tom
Nov 27, 2006
4,076
1,210
198
Salisbury
www.TaskForceDelta.co.uk
"Players then need to make sure they use the right fill station for their cylinder.
A 3000 bottle should only be filled at a 3000 fill station - you can technically fill at a 4500 fill station if you are careful but you will get shouted at"

I assumed air fills to be a case of hand your bottle in and it comes back filled. Like a rental. Maybe not so?
Self service blowers for walk ons?
Self filling depends on the site.

For a normal rental site you do not self fill, usually the site has a gun rack outside the safe zone. Players leave their rental gun on the rack and staff fill up. Depending on how the site runs their games the rental player either leaves their numbered hopper on the gun or carries their hopper leaving the gun on the rack.

On a walkon each own gunner is responsible for their own equipment. This means they have to turn off / make safe the gun, place a barrel blocking device on the barrel (normally a barrel condom) and takes their gun with them to the safe zone.
Each own gunner will normally self fill their own bottles - this needs to be on the sites health & safety risk assessment, and insurance. There is the matter of ‘operating’ the fill station but its also a concern for the site if they have site staff filling players bottles - the site cannot fully be sure about the condition of a bottle, but they hold liability for the safety of their staff.


When we ran our first scenario event it was at a site that to date had only run rentals and hadn’t yet run formal walkons. The insurance & risk assessments did not allow for self filling.
This put us in a dilemma as it was also the first event of the year and was the first event to use ‘UKSPC’ UK Scenario Paintball Community guidelines, standardising some rules such as chrono velocity, ROF etc and included a ‘training’ brief on air filling, handing out UKPSF air safety guidance and issuing UKPSF air passes. The intention being that if you had an in date UKPSF air pass then you had been shown how to self fill, demonstrated you could do it, and signed off a disclaimer. You could then turn up at another UKSPC event in the year, show your card and fill up.
It was agreed that we could run the session for anyone interested, UKSPC (a collective of sites/event organisers etc) our site and the insurers were happy that self service players could fill as part of the training session under site supervision and we could issue valid passes. But for the rest of the day fill stations were operated by staff.

By the next year the risk assessments and insurance were updated and therefore self filling was allowed

* We actually ran a bottle swap system and had a second in game compressor.
We wanted action to be continuous, but we didn’t think anyone would actually hand us their bottle. We were mistaken!
This meant running up and down hills with crates of the site rental bottles swapping them for players own bottles - popping on a label tag so they could find their way back to the right person after filling. (I thought that perhaps a player may take a rental bottle and keep their personal empty, but they actually did swap)
I do not recommend this - my legs, arms and back took some recovery
 

Tom

Tom
Nov 27, 2006
4,076
1,210
198
Salisbury
www.TaskForceDelta.co.uk
Oh ok, fill up before every game. Good to know. Cheers for the info.
After a while you will soon find out how long you can go without fills, if you’re playing a half hour game then you probaly won’t need a refill.
But you don’t want everyone to hear the burp when you run out

Neither do you want to run towards a building with a pistol whilst suddenly remembering that you didn’t put in a fresh 12 gram because you were too busy chatting rubbish and they are all on the bench....... but it turns into a good story when you arrive at the fort, lean over the wall, wave your pistol, say “do you want to surrender?” And strike it lucky that you have just single handedly captured half of a fort with an empty pistol
 
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BOD

The brotherhood
Aug 1, 2003
747
231
68
YORK
Visit site
You managed to carry a Viking long enough to shoot a case !
Did you have to take a break or get someone else to lift it ?
No i managed all on my own besides without the 1.5l bottle on it it's not that heavy, i usually run a remote line. And i'm not exactly a 7 stone weakling either.6935569354
 
Last edited:

DonBossi

Active Member
Mar 4, 2021
84
39
38
After a while you will soon find out how long you can go without fills, if you’re playing a half hour game then you probaly won’t need a refill.
But you don’t want everyone to hear the burp when you run out

Neither do you want to run towards a building with a pistol whilst suddenly remembering that you didn’t put in a fresh 12 gram because you were too busy chatting rubbish and they are all on the bench....... but it turns into a good story when you arrive at the fort, lean over the wall, wave your pistol, say “do you want to surrender?” And strike it lucky that you have just single handedly captured half of a fort with an empty pistol
:ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:

Fake it to make it.
 

DonBossi

Active Member
Mar 4, 2021
84
39
38
Self filling depends on the site.

For a normal rental site you do not self fill, usually the site has a gun rack outside the safe zone. Players leave their rental gun on the rack and staff fill up. Depending on how the site runs their games the rental player either leaves their numbered hopper on the gun or carries their hopper leaving the gun on the rack.

On a walkon each own gunner is responsible for their own equipment. This means they have to turn off / make safe the gun, place a barrel blocking device on the barrel (normally a barrel condom) and takes their gun with them to the safe zone.
Each own gunner will normally self fill their own bottles - this needs to be on the sites health & safety risk assessment, and insurance. There is the matter of ‘operating’ the fill station but its also a concern for the site if they have site staff filling players bottles - the site cannot fully be sure about the condition of a bottle, but they hold liability for the safety of their staff.


When we ran our first scenario event it was at a site that to date had only run rentals and hadn’t yet run formal walkons. The insurance & risk assessments did not allow for self filling.
This put us in a dilemma as it was also the first event of the year and was the first event to use ‘UKSPC’ UK Scenario Paintball Community guidelines, standardising some rules such as chrono velocity, ROF etc and included a ‘training’ brief on air filling, handing out UKPSF air safety guidance and issuing UKPSF air passes. The intention being that if you had an in date UKPSF air pass then you had been shown how to self fill, demonstrated you could do it, and signed off a disclaimer. You could then turn up at another UKSPC event in the year, show your card and fill up.
It was agreed that we could run the session for anyone interested, UKSPC (a collective of sites/event organisers etc) our site and the insurers were happy that self service players could fill as part of the training session under site supervision and we could issue valid passes. But for the rest of the day fill stations were operated by staff.

By the next year the risk assessments and insurance were updated and therefore self filling was allowed

* We actually ran a bottle swap system and had a second in game compressor.
We wanted action to be continuous, but we didn’t think anyone would actually hand us their bottle. We were mistaken!
This meant running up and down hills with crates of the site rental bottles swapping them for players own bottles - popping on a label tag so they could find their way back to the right person after filling. (I thought that perhaps a player may take a rental bottle and keep their personal empty, but they actually did swap)
I do not recommend this - my legs, arms and back took some recovery
Similar to how at festivals you get people walking round selling beer from a tank on their back, it sounds like you could have done with a quad bike with compressor and whatever else needed. You could be touring the site offering mobile air fills.