How does a paintball hopper work? This is an important question for any paintball player because how the hopper functions have a significant impact on how quickly you are able to reload your weapon. Paintballs generally travel at about 300 feet per second, so it’s vital that you have enough ammunition available and ready to load up when needed.
- In a gravity-fed hopper, the paintballs are pushed by gravity into the marker for firing.
- In an electronic hopper, the paintballs are pushed into the marker with automated feed trays or paddles.
- In a sound-activated hopper, the paintballs are triggered when you shoot.
- In an eye-activated hopper, the marker will stop shooting if it needs to fill up again.
- In a cyclone-activated hopper, the paintballs are fed to the marker with a special system that feeds them out.
Types of Hopper
There are different types of paintball hoppers. They are:
- Gravity-fed hopper
- Electronic hopper
- Sound-activated hopper
- Eye-activated hopper
- Cyclone-activated hopper
Gravity-fed hopper
A gravity-fed hopper is a type of hopper that drops paintballs into the marker by gravity. This hopper does not work very well. It only shoots paintballs through the gun at a rate of about 8 per second. This is much slower than other hoppers which shoot up to 40. So it’s not surprising that experienced players prefer other hoppers.
Electronic Hopper
A gun that has a battery-powered electronic hopper shoots about 16 paintballs per second. Different levels of electronic hoppers allow more paintballs to be shot. A gun with an electronic hopper can shoot about 50,000 paintballs before the battery dies out. If you play a lot of paintball, then you might need to replace the battery every seven months or so.
Many people think that pure gravity-fed hoppers are not reliable because paintballs can get stuck. If you try to feed more than 40 paintballs through the marker per second, it will break. People who are new at playing paintball usually use a gravity-fed hopper or an electronic hopper with the lowest level of technology.
Cyclone-activated hopper
The hopper of a gun that uses the cyclone-activated type is powered by gas, which means no batteries are needed to power it. The velocity at which this kind of paintball shooter can shoot up to 15 rounds per second makes for more accuracy on the field as well as limiting how often your ammo will break while in use.
Eye-activated hopper
One of the most innovative features in guns today is eye-activated hoppers. These devices allow you to see how many paintballs are left before they run out, and if your gun has one, then it will stop shooting when there’s no more ammo.
Sound-activated hopper
The sound-activated hoppers instantly release paintballs when you are shooting them, no matter how fast or slow. It doesn’t even stop for a second to reload so that it can shoot 20 balls in one moment.
Contrast Between A Gravity Fed Hopper And Electronic Paintball Hopper
A gravity-fed paintball hopper is a nerdy way to load up on ammunition. This simple contraption attaches easily onto the feed neck of your favorite and trusty paintball gun, allowing you to swiftly refill by simply dropping in more rounds from above. The downside? Paintballs drop into the breech at an unimpressive ten or so per second maximum speed!
Players who want to shoot more paintballs than a gravity-fed hopper can hold will find themselves with too many balls and the gun shaking. To fix this, you need an electronic hopper. Electronic hoppers can feed paintballs into a gun without gravity. They are faster than using gravity. People can shoot fifteen or more paintballs per second with an electronic hopper.
Verdict
In this blog post, we’ve explored the different types of paintball hoppers available on the market and how they work. We hope that you’re now better equipped to make a more informed purchase decision when it comes time for your next upgrade!