Why does your paintball gun chop paint?

Answer 1

chopping paint is when the paintball is pinched between the bolt and feedneck which "chops" the paintball in half, this commonly happens when cheap paint or brittle paint is used or it occurs when bolt is moving faster than the hopper can feed the paint.

*edit* a CHOP is when the ball breaks in the marker itself normally in the breach. a BREAK is when the ball breaks either in the barrel or the air. THEY ARE 2 COMPLETELY DIFFERENT THINGS

Answer 2

What is perceived as a chop can be caused by a number of things.

True chop- The ball had not fed completely into the breech, the bolt came forward and crushed it against the marker.

Stack clip- When shooting small paint or using a loader on too high a tension setting, the second ball may be forced into the range fo the bolt. The bolt clips it destroying it and causing more breaks and a horrible mess coming out of your gun.

Barrel break- the combination of the explosion of air in the gun, and the friction of the barrel rips the paintball apart in the barrel.

smashing paintballs- only really happens with excessively overpowered forcefeed loaders, when they fling paint into the breech so hard it is destroyed.

Solutions: Buy good paint (DXS in Canada, RPS in the US) and use it within a month or two. Get a bigger bore barrel (unlikely your problem if you have an entry level marker). And here's the biggest way to prevent breaks, get a better loader! Garbage in, garbage out! Halos are cheap second hand currently and will probably solve the problem. Some guns though just hit paint like a hammer, like most brass eagle guns. The best solution there is either to patiently break it in or move up to a 98 custom or an electro.

Answer 3

Generally the opposite is true, If a paintball gun is "bad" it will chop paint. But chopping paint will not break your gun (further?) they are designed to take direct hits from paintballs, so one breaking inside is not a problem as long as you clean it out later.