Can paintball be frozen? Also, there are many rumors about frozen paintballs that cause significant damage, break gear, and hurt more than a regular unfreeze paintball.
Many players think that freezing paintballs can extend their ammo’s life span. In this post, we will answer these questions in detail.
So let’s start with the first question!
Can paintball be frozen?
Even if paintballs are frozen, keeping them in your freezer will only make their shell hard; the paint inside them will become dry or gel-like.
Some people think liquid nitrogen will help in freezing them, but it will not do as you imagine. The paintball may be challenging, but it will be more fragile; loading them into your paintball gun may break the shell or damage your barrel.
Playing with Frozen Paintballs
If you freeze your paintballs in a freezer or liquid nitrogen, there are low chances that you can use them during your game because many would have melted before the game had even started.
Also, the shell of paintballs that are frozen can break very easily. It is challenging for frozen paintballs to get out of your gun. So if anyone can shoot you with frozen paintballs, only two following things would possibly happen:
- It will not strike you.
- It will strike but with minimum impact.
What are paintballs made of?
Paintballs are spheres of gelatin containing a mixture of dye, polyethylene glycol, and other substances. But if you have paintballs from a paintball store, they are primarily nontoxic, biodegradable, and water-soluble.
Players don’t have to worry about their paintballs frozen in freezing weather, As the manufacturers have also used antifreeze ingredients. These antifreeze ingredients keep maintaining their consistency and quality in cold weather.
Can you freeze a paintball?
Yes. You can freeze a paintball, But the frozen paintballs are completely solid, and they do not feel hurt. Despite this belief, the frozen paintballs break faster than regular paintballs and are inaccurate.
By freezing your paintball gun, you are causing it to become dimpled and lose its round shape. Also, making the paintball’s trajectory inconsistent, the paintball’s surface area is not smooth and reduces its accuracy.
The shell of paintballs becomes brittle, meaning they become weak and can break with less force; with that, the frozen paintballs would break easier than unfrozen paintballs.
The worst part of freezing the paintballs is what it does to the paint inside the ball. Freezing the paintballs will make the paint either dry or it will be toothpaste-like thickness.
Premium quality paintballs are thick, non-transparent paint that can easily be seen on your opponent. The frozen paint in the paintballs will not show paint marks on your opponent as the unfrozen ones.
Using liquid nitrogen or dry ice to freeze paintballs
Meanwhile, if you can freeze paintballs, they would not become solid balls that can tear through the skin or tear through the skin; the only way to freeze them is by using an intensive way.
Even so, if someone has an approach to liquid nitrogen or dry ice, why would they use them to freeze paintballs? It doesn’t matter what method they use; frozen paintballs are irregular, breakable, and ineffectual. It won’t be used in competitive games.
What will happen if you load frozen paintballs in your marker?
A paintball marker is equipment in which the paintballs are loaded; it is gun-like equipment used to aim and shoot paintballs at opponents. We know that paintballs can freeze, but a question arises: what would happen if we loaded frozen paintballs in the paintball marker?
The paintballs from the freezer to your marker will likely be already thawed. At that time, the paintballs will be condensation-covered, sticks to one another, and are not usable.
But if somehow you manage to put frozen paintball in your marker, there is a high risk that it will break your paintball gun from the inside.
Frozen paintballs are fragile, so there are more chances they will break inside your marker. When you fire, the paint inside coats the barrel that will shoot out irregularly from your paintball gun.
Overall, loading frozen paintballs in your marker is a terrible idea. It will make your gun messy, and your gun will be with ineffective ammo.
In the worst case, Your paintball gun would be damaged, requiring replacement or repair.
Does a frozen paintball hurt more than a regular paintball?
Non-frozen paintballs hurt more than frozen paintballs. Many players think the frozen paintball will be more painful, but in reality, the non-frozen paintballs are more painful.
Many YouTubers have tested by playing with frozen and non-frozen paintballs and concluded that non-frozen paintballs hurt more than regular, unfrozen paintballs.
Frozen paintballs hurt less; this is because of the brittleness of the shell paint. Being so weak means the paint inside the paintball would break easily on hit, disturbing its momentum and reducing the force you feel on your body.
Can you freeze paintballs for preservation?
Let’s assume that you are not interested in the claims of people that frozen paintballs improve accuracy, cause more damage, and will turn you into a star player.
You may have a pack of paintball that is nearly expiring, and you want to expand its lifetime till your next game. But freezing paintballs will only damage them, and you will have to run to the store to buy a pack of new ones.
Wet moisture damages the paintball, so freezing paintballs for preservation is a bad idea. The paint inside swells, with the shell misshaping as it pulls the humidity present in the air.
Rather than freezing your paintballs, check the user manual that comes with them; usually, the manufacturers have given instructions on how to store paintballs. Mainly, it is best to keep the paintballs in a dry place and out of the reach of sunlight.
Avoid high temperatures; doing these things can extend the shell life of your paintballs up to four months, even over an entire year.
Conclusion
If you are considering putting your paintballs in the freezer for preservation or want to enhance their performance, don’t do it.
Freezing your paintballs will not make them more accurate, causing more damage, and will not extend their shell’s life.
You will get misshaped, unusable ammo that will damage your gun rather than cause more damage to your opponents.