Pictured here are two paintball markers. The DYE M3+ and the Planet Eclipse Etha 3M, showing the difference between an electronic marker and a mechanical marker.

Mechanical Paintball Guns VS. Electronic Paintball Guns.

Mechanical paintball guns, such as semi-automatic and pump paintball guns, use sears, springs, cocking handles, valves, pump handles and trigger pulls to fire each paintball towards their target, generally as fast as a player can pull the trigger or pump the action and then pull the trigger. With these markers there is no limit to how fast they can shoot other than how fast you can pull the trigger!

Electronic paintball guns are generally higher-performance in nature, as they use circuit boards, solenoid valves, micro-switches and either poppet or spool valves to fire paintballs with shorter trigger pulls and in programmable firing modes such as semi-automatic, fully-automatic, bursts or “ramping” mode. Not only can electronic markers fire faster because of the firing modes, but since the trigger does not have to release a hammer, the triggers tend to be much lighter so you can physically pull the trigger faster.

Mechanical paintball guns are often more affordable and are used as rental models at paintball fields around the world, while many serious players upgrade to faster, more consistent, higher-performance electronic paintball guns as they progress in skill or enter paintball tournament competitions. There is a very large and growing mechanical tournament scene happening all over the world which is bringing back a lot of players that had previously stepped away from the sport. 

Browse our selection of electronic and mechanical paintball markers HERE

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