Low impact paintball?

I think my 5 yo would get a kick out of paintball but obviously the velocity the traditional paintballs move at wouldn’t be too conducive to him having a good time. Anybody have any experience with the newer low-impact .50 cal balls?

 

im not sure the cal but both of my boys did low impact about a month ago, ages 9 and 10. I will say they still pack a punch so have him layer up if he intends to play. My 10 yo came out with a welt on his thigh, chest, finger and forehead.

 

they still hurt lol my buddies played around with those low impact pump shotgun paintball guns a few times

 

Airsoft might be fun for him too, the lower velocity variety of course. Been so long since I've played paintball but even as a young adult I wasn't a huge fan of getting hit with those lol.

 

To bad they don't do anything with nerf guns like they do with painball/air soft. Even as older kids (18 years old) we would get together a group of 5-8 people and chase each other around with nerf guns and washable markers as knifes for hand to hand combat.

 

You can tune the paintball marker down with a lower pressure (lower velocity/range) but it sucks if you do it and are paying against that one guy that doesn’t follow the rules and tunes super hot. It really depends on who they’re going to play with that will make it fun for them or too competitive where they won’t like it. Some people play dirty. I’ve seen guys freeze their paintballs so they don’t rupture on impact and you’re just taking hit after hit without being “out”

Layering works but can be hot obviously. I found that wearing looser clothing helps more than several layers of form fitting clothes (skinny jeans). The loose fabric does a better job of slowing the paintballs before impact and “catches” them before they touch your skin.
Food for thought.

As an alternative there’s a smaller caliber made more for kids too (.37 I think?). It’s geared towards lower velocities so kids can play and have more fun. That might be an option.

 

Coming from a guy who played semi-pro, start kids off with the Nerf reball stuff then work your way up from there. The low velocity paintball stuff still stings a little plus people tend to cheat a bit with ramping up the velocity. The Nerf reball stuff (can't remember the actual name) is sold at Walmart and will give the kid an idea of what to kinda expect... Kinda. Once older, step into the low velocity stuff then full fledged paintball. Or just rip it all off like a band-aid and go balls to the walls like I did lol.

-PyroTaco

 

Why not just use squirt guns like we did at age 5?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=99UPQEFSGVQ