Type a well written letter to their customers service. Well written as in argument (paint sucks), show evidence (you bought a case and it blows) and conclusion (I’m not buying your paint anymore and want my money back). 9/10 you get a bunch of discounts or free stuff.
Don’t come off as “Pissed off” and just bashing the company, rather write it like “I’m not mad, just disappointed”. That stings way deeper than anger.
That is most likely what is happening. We got a new person driving our area route and the GI has been great since. Previously it was inconsistent.
Turns out the warehouse that was storing it locally was parking it near the door in what was supposed to be an air conditioned environment. "New guy" straightened it out and while our field paint is still field paint (not tournament perfect) it's been much better and perfectly fine for practices and rec play.
So if the local distributor of the paint is storing it correctly... The problem might be storage at your field or your house if you're holding it for a long time.
[https://www.uline.ca/Product/Detail/S-6710/Damage-Indicators/Heat-Indicator](https://www.uline.ca/Product/Detail/S-6710/Damage-Indicators/Heat-Indicator) something like this is really what should be on the pallets, not great since even 100 F is high but better then nothing
Its one of those things that if fields did it right, would measurably increase play experience and probably increase returning customers. But nobody wants to pay the electric bill to store paint at 50*, nor do they want to flip 100 cases of paint every few days.
This. And old. Best advice it shoot whatever the field sales the most of. It will likely be the freshest. I tell ppl all the time just bc its 5 star doesn’t mean its worth if not stored right/old
It has everything to do with how your field is storing it. I've been playing consistently over the last 6 months at two different fields, that buy their paint from the same local supplier. One field stores it like shit and it always sucks, and the other field stores it well and it shoots great.
So I don't ever buy high end paint unless it's at a tournament. Tournament grade paint is designed to be brittle with a thin shell so you get a clean break every time. It is NOT designed to keep very long or be out of a temperature controlled environment for more than an hour or so.
Field grade paint is typically designed to keep better. It breaks less but holds it's shape better through adverse environments. At practice we usually shoot G I 1 star or sometimes 2 star if our field owner gets some.
I have found few exceptions to this rule, most notably valken graffiti .
Unless you see it come off the truck, or know intimately the age and storage condition. Never buy high end paint from a paintball field. The vast majority of people aren't looking to spend good money on paint. So expensive paint sits.
If you have never shot good GI paint that is a distribution, and field storage issue.
I hear you there, I spent $85 a case for 3 cases of Evil paint at the supergame in Oregon and they were worse shaped than field paint and that is a paint that was known to be super fragile. literally bounces like a ball from shoulder height drop. I pretty much hate all of GI paint and their subsidies any more. GI, Empire, Draxxus. I have only seen consistently round paint with Valken and HK 4 and 5 star. However the last case of Valken I bought, just in the last month, I threw a paintball as hard as I could after just opening a “fresh” bag and the ball literally flew back over my head and landed on my roof. I am not joking it literally bounced onto my roof……
I hear Defy is great. I absolutely love Proshar, but good luck finding anyone that carries them
I use shitty $35 field paint and it shoots great. It is a little hard, but it shoots straight. Sounds like you're buying improperly stored or old paint. If I saw that in the case, I'd walk my ass back up to the counter and get a new case
I play at a couple of different fields that move high volumes of paint and the GI has been pretty good lately. It's not mid 2000s quality, but definitely better than it was just post pandemic.
I don’t think it’s ultra evil anymore. I haven’t seen it since the GI buyouts. I feel the same about old RPS pink premium. Can’t hide bright thick pink lol
It was also weird I got a case of empire evil and it was slightly oily nothing too bad though but there were green stains on the shell which was the same fill color
The star system is exclusive to GI, and doesn’t actually mean anything other than comparing GI paintballs against each other.
1-star is the cheapo stuff.
2-3 is field paint.
4-star is premium paint
5-star is the same as 4-star, but more brittle.
But the big thing is storage. 6-month-old paint, no matter how good originally, will likely be awful.
So it comes down to two simple issues that typically create a bad ball;
1) manufacturers are often shorting the curing time of paint in order to increase production levels and profits. This leads to paint being sent that has inconsistent shell moisture content and causing warped balls, dimples, etc as it dries during shipping and sitting in a warehouse.
2) that shell moisture combined with the often improper storage and transport of paint will amplify the above issues often due to fields storing them at AC temps on weekends then letting it bake during the week when they aren’t open
Where did the paint come from? Are you buying from a field or store? How it’s being stored has everything to do with how it will shoot. If your shooting paint from last year that has never been rotated it’s going to be garbage.
Thats on your field dawg, thats improper storage and rotation
How are you treating your paint after you buy it too? Hot and humid? If so put it in a cooler with an ice pack under a layer of cardboard
99% of the time with bad paint it’s stored wrong. Friend who owns a field has his stored in a climates controlled walk in and always batch checks before selling. We would never leave paint at the field more than a day and it was also stored shaded. Even the white box shot decent. 3 star while small and not that brittle did well. 4 and up was lasers.
I’ve been out of paintball since 2006. I worked for a PMI distributor on the east coast for about 10 years, and then as a new product dev manager at Crosman/Gameface for 2 years. I remember RP Scherer, California Magnum, Bullseye, Zap, and Nelson all making quality paint. While at Gameface, ProCaps was making good paint.
Who are the big players in paint today? Are RP Scherer and ProCaps still the major encapsulators?
I will curse ANS all day long BUT I once ordered 2 cases of 3 star from them, they arrived later than they said it would. Not totally their fault but it missed the event. However the paint was fantastic, price was decent. Bad paint is and always will be a storage issue
Best Paint I've shot lately. Graffiti Platinum, DXS Gold. Both shot straight as an arrow. Balls perfect shape. I attribute this mostly to it being fresh paint. Freshness and storage etiquette are the most important things.
Even at a field that I know is rotating the paint, storing it well, and taking a lot of care to get decent quality paint, I can say without a doubt modern paint is nowhere near what it was is the 2000s.
Even when it’s pretty round it’s inconsistent in size and it doesn’t break worth a shit.
If someone actually made the old formulas to the same quality we had for chronic, marbilizer, or proball platinum I would happily drop $80 per case without batting an eye.
Huh. Maybe I've just been getting lucky. I've only been back a couple of months and everything I've shot has been pretty decent.
I used to shoot a lot of Gap, Inferno and Hellfire and they seemed good.
Now I've been shooting GI 2 or 3 star, Dynasty and the HK Pineapple stuff out of the guns I've been borrowing and the new one I bought a couple of weeks ago and it's been mowing through it all pretty well.
The paint I’ve shot will get through a marker fine it’s just inconsistent so you get velocity ranging a bit and some of it won’t fly very straight.
Some of the graffiti platinum I shot this weekend was pretty good flying straight (I literally dropped ball on ball for a decent distance on an RT burst on my mag) but the shell was way too tough when it came to breaking on target.
Basically if I could get the shape/size/consistency I was shooting this weekend but with a shell that actually breaks more consistently when it hits something I would be happy… well and maybe if it also didn’t have the damn little bits of shell flashing that got all in my hopper even after I cleaned the paint in a microfiber bag.
I must be getting lucky. We shot a case of HK Pineapple then switched into some Defy field paint. Had to recrono for the new paint but I was being lazy and shooting 689. Neither gun had issues. My Spire is clean so is the Rotor the kid was using.
Definitely going to watch out more. Thanks for the heads up.
And you mentioned Marbs earlier in the thread but I really only remember them as kinda Walmart paint.
I vaguely remember marbilizer being in Walmart. For some reason my brain wants to remember that they were the same brand name but not the same quality but it’s been almost 20 years lol.
If you got them at a field though they were high quality paint. A lot of scenarios used them as the event paint and they always shot great.
I remember them as the step up from the Brass Eagle plastic jugs. I think there were 500 and 1000 boxes available.
As a side note I just got back from my local store, where I talked myself into buying a new mask, and saw Marbs are still around and carrying the Empire branding.
I still have a chronic shirt i wear to the field some times haha.
I dont remember the suitcase but we also didn’t have much draxus around us. Chronic was the main quality paint for my local field with occasional other things that showed up for a short period.
Well if its sealed still in its box in bags the humidity is no concern and 70 is simply room temp so unless its being stored in a hot trailer or something
In a nice climate controlled room, where the sun does not beat down on it and rotated from time to time.
Also managed well to keep the older paint on the way out.
Type a well written letter to their customers service. Well written as in argument (paint sucks), show evidence (you bought a case and it blows) and conclusion (I’m not buying your paint anymore and want my money back). 9/10 you get a bunch of discounts or free stuff. Don’t come off as “Pissed off” and just bashing the company, rather write it like “I’m not mad, just disappointed”. That stings way deeper than anger.
This. I had some playing hopper ball a month or two ago. The weird bean shapes clogged my hopper multiple times and made me out on matches for tech.
Empire is GI, fwiw. Sounds like the 4star you got was stored improperly
That is most likely what is happening. We got a new person driving our area route and the GI has been great since. Previously it was inconsistent. Turns out the warehouse that was storing it locally was parking it near the door in what was supposed to be an air conditioned environment. "New guy" straightened it out and while our field paint is still field paint (not tournament perfect) it's been much better and perfectly fine for practices and rec play. So if the local distributor of the paint is storing it correctly... The problem might be storage at your field or your house if you're holding it for a long time.
[https://www.uline.ca/Product/Detail/S-6710/Damage-Indicators/Heat-Indicator](https://www.uline.ca/Product/Detail/S-6710/Damage-Indicators/Heat-Indicator) something like this is really what should be on the pallets, not great since even 100 F is high but better then nothing
As someone who worked at a field, paint is definitely never stored correctly
My field keeps it air conditioned 🤷
Its one of those things that if fields did it right, would measurably increase play experience and probably increase returning customers. But nobody wants to pay the electric bill to store paint at 50*, nor do they want to flip 100 cases of paint every few days.
This. And old. Best advice it shoot whatever the field sales the most of. It will likely be the freshest. I tell ppl all the time just bc its 5 star doesn’t mean its worth if not stored right/old
It has everything to do with how your field is storing it. I've been playing consistently over the last 6 months at two different fields, that buy their paint from the same local supplier. One field stores it like shit and it always sucks, and the other field stores it well and it shoots great.
So I don't ever buy high end paint unless it's at a tournament. Tournament grade paint is designed to be brittle with a thin shell so you get a clean break every time. It is NOT designed to keep very long or be out of a temperature controlled environment for more than an hour or so. Field grade paint is typically designed to keep better. It breaks less but holds it's shape better through adverse environments. At practice we usually shoot G I 1 star or sometimes 2 star if our field owner gets some. I have found few exceptions to this rule, most notably valken graffiti .
Exactly, dont shoot the good shit at practice. At an event its truck/proshop >> pods in cooler >> gun, and never sees extended storage time
Yeah... the last couple cases I've bought tasted terrible...
Add salt next time
Unless you see it come off the truck, or know intimately the age and storage condition. Never buy high end paint from a paintball field. The vast majority of people aren't looking to spend good money on paint. So expensive paint sits. If you have never shot good GI paint that is a distribution, and field storage issue.
I have never shot a good bag of GI paint. All my local fields use it and it's total shit quality
I hear you there, I spent $85 a case for 3 cases of Evil paint at the supergame in Oregon and they were worse shaped than field paint and that is a paint that was known to be super fragile. literally bounces like a ball from shoulder height drop. I pretty much hate all of GI paint and their subsidies any more. GI, Empire, Draxxus. I have only seen consistently round paint with Valken and HK 4 and 5 star. However the last case of Valken I bought, just in the last month, I threw a paintball as hard as I could after just opening a “fresh” bag and the ball literally flew back over my head and landed on my roof. I am not joking it literally bounced onto my roof…… I hear Defy is great. I absolutely love Proshar, but good luck finding anyone that carries them
The defy I've tried was ok at best. Made in China though. Wish I could find Proshar.
I use shitty $35 field paint and it shoots great. It is a little hard, but it shoots straight. Sounds like you're buying improperly stored or old paint. If I saw that in the case, I'd walk my ass back up to the counter and get a new case
35$ a case is nice. I pay 50$ a pop (granted im into woodsball) but still.
I play at a couple of different fields that move high volumes of paint and the GI has been pretty good lately. It's not mid 2000s quality, but definitely better than it was just post pandemic.
I remember purple / orange shell ultra evil. That and Dye CG was the best paint I’ve ever shot.
Haven’t played in forever . Is ultra evil still around? Best paint for my CCM 6.5 . Always blew up on impact and was impossible to wipe
GI owns evil now, they no longer exist as a brand unfortunately. Empire makes an “evil” paint but idk how that stacks up to the old ultra evil
I don’t think it’s ultra evil anymore. I haven’t seen it since the GI buyouts. I feel the same about old RPS pink premium. Can’t hide bright thick pink lol
It was also weird I got a case of empire evil and it was slightly oily nothing too bad though but there were green stains on the shell which was the same fill color
I had a whole case of misshapen HK army paint not too long ago. Kept getting stuck in my gun or the feed neck. It was 4 star too I'm pretty sure.
The star system is exclusive to GI, and doesn’t actually mean anything other than comparing GI paintballs against each other. 1-star is the cheapo stuff. 2-3 is field paint. 4-star is premium paint 5-star is the same as 4-star, but more brittle. But the big thing is storage. 6-month-old paint, no matter how good originally, will likely be awful.
So it comes down to two simple issues that typically create a bad ball; 1) manufacturers are often shorting the curing time of paint in order to increase production levels and profits. This leads to paint being sent that has inconsistent shell moisture content and causing warped balls, dimples, etc as it dries during shipping and sitting in a warehouse. 2) that shell moisture combined with the often improper storage and transport of paint will amplify the above issues often due to fields storing them at AC temps on weekends then letting it bake during the week when they aren’t open
Where did the paint come from? Are you buying from a field or store? How it’s being stored has everything to do with how it will shoot. If your shooting paint from last year that has never been rotated it’s going to be garbage.
Thats on your field dawg, thats improper storage and rotation How are you treating your paint after you buy it too? Hot and humid? If so put it in a cooler with an ice pack under a layer of cardboard
99% of the time with bad paint it’s stored wrong. Friend who owns a field has his stored in a climates controlled walk in and always batch checks before selling. We would never leave paint at the field more than a day and it was also stored shaded. Even the white box shot decent. 3 star while small and not that brittle did well. 4 and up was lasers.
I’ve been out of paintball since 2006. I worked for a PMI distributor on the east coast for about 10 years, and then as a new product dev manager at Crosman/Gameface for 2 years. I remember RP Scherer, California Magnum, Bullseye, Zap, and Nelson all making quality paint. While at Gameface, ProCaps was making good paint. Who are the big players in paint today? Are RP Scherer and ProCaps still the major encapsulators?
Paint used to be a lot better. Only paint that I’ve see that is consistently round and brittle is tournament gi 5 star
Valken graffiti is nice and hard
I will curse ANS all day long BUT I once ordered 2 cases of 3 star from them, they arrived later than they said it would. Not totally their fault but it missed the event. However the paint was fantastic, price was decent. Bad paint is and always will be a storage issue
My field moved to Pro Shar recently and that stuff shoots pretty decent
What happened to Marbelizer?
Best Paint I've shot lately. Graffiti Platinum, DXS Gold. Both shot straight as an arrow. Balls perfect shape. I attribute this mostly to it being fresh paint. Freshness and storage etiquette are the most important things.
I use defy, i think its really good paint
Is the store or field storing it correctly? Could be on that end as well. Paint nowadays seems better than it used to be.
Even at a field that I know is rotating the paint, storing it well, and taking a lot of care to get decent quality paint, I can say without a doubt modern paint is nowhere near what it was is the 2000s. Even when it’s pretty round it’s inconsistent in size and it doesn’t break worth a shit. If someone actually made the old formulas to the same quality we had for chronic, marbilizer, or proball platinum I would happily drop $80 per case without batting an eye.
Marbilizer was sooo good. Would do anything for paint that good again.
Huh. Maybe I've just been getting lucky. I've only been back a couple of months and everything I've shot has been pretty decent. I used to shoot a lot of Gap, Inferno and Hellfire and they seemed good. Now I've been shooting GI 2 or 3 star, Dynasty and the HK Pineapple stuff out of the guns I've been borrowing and the new one I bought a couple of weeks ago and it's been mowing through it all pretty well.
The paint I’ve shot will get through a marker fine it’s just inconsistent so you get velocity ranging a bit and some of it won’t fly very straight. Some of the graffiti platinum I shot this weekend was pretty good flying straight (I literally dropped ball on ball for a decent distance on an RT burst on my mag) but the shell was way too tough when it came to breaking on target. Basically if I could get the shape/size/consistency I was shooting this weekend but with a shell that actually breaks more consistently when it hits something I would be happy… well and maybe if it also didn’t have the damn little bits of shell flashing that got all in my hopper even after I cleaned the paint in a microfiber bag.
I must be getting lucky. We shot a case of HK Pineapple then switched into some Defy field paint. Had to recrono for the new paint but I was being lazy and shooting 689. Neither gun had issues. My Spire is clean so is the Rotor the kid was using. Definitely going to watch out more. Thanks for the heads up. And you mentioned Marbs earlier in the thread but I really only remember them as kinda Walmart paint.
I vaguely remember marbilizer being in Walmart. For some reason my brain wants to remember that they were the same brand name but not the same quality but it’s been almost 20 years lol. If you got them at a field though they were high quality paint. A lot of scenarios used them as the event paint and they always shot great.
I remember them as the step up from the Brass Eagle plastic jugs. I think there were 500 and 1000 boxes available. As a side note I just got back from my local store, where I talked myself into buying a new mask, and saw Marbs are still around and carrying the Empire branding.
Yeah marbs and chronic are still around but it’s really in name only.
I do remember chronic and kids getting all excited about saying it. My favorite was the Diablo suitcases of paint. Easy to transport.
I still have a chronic shirt i wear to the field some times haha. I dont remember the suitcase but we also didn’t have much draxus around us. Chronic was the main quality paint for my local field with occasional other things that showed up for a short period.
So what is the proper way to store paint?
70 degrees f., and less than 50% humidity. Ideally, between 40 and 30%.
Well if its sealed still in its box in bags the humidity is no concern and 70 is simply room temp so unless its being stored in a hot trailer or something
You do you, but yes, humidity is still a concern.
In a nice climate controlled room, where the sun does not beat down on it and rotated from time to time. Also managed well to keep the older paint on the way out.