How to Go Target Shooting with a Paintball Gun

Video Transcript

"Hello! This is Rob Rubin and you're watching Expert Village. This episode we're going to talk about target practice. One of the things that people always try to do is they always say I'm going to buy this, I'm going to go buy that, I'm going to go do this, but all the best gear in the world isn't going to help you if you don't learn how to use it. The best way to learn how to use it is the same way you get to Carnegie Hall, practice, practice, practice. This episode we're going to show you some practice techniques. We're going to start with what to use for targets. Okay, I know what you're saying. Those are just bottles. What makes them so good as targets? Why don't we use aluminum cans like we did with BB guns way back in the day? That's because aluminum cans, when you hit them with a paintball, they fold. Then when you try to unfold them, you weaken the middle. Eventually the metal rips and creates jagged edges and that's not good. Plastic on the other hand, these plastic soda bottles, these are fairly resilient. They can take quite a bit of punishment before they need to be replaced. In fact, I have left bottles like this hang at paintball fields for almost a year without much damage. These are so easy to setup. All you do is you setup a slipknot around the neck, you tie it off to a tree, and then you just let it hang. Now, the thing is you also leave the string at various lengths for one really good reason. I'll get into that in just a moment. I think it's time for some target practice. One of the mantras that I keep when I'm practicing is practice as you play. When I'm practicing, especially target shooting, I'm always wearing my goggles. Down range I have 3 bottles. Each of them are hung from tress in a similar fashion to how I showed you before, and they're hung from different length of twine. Why are they like that? Let me show you with a little bit of long range target practice. The different lengths of string give it a different swing to each one of the bottles so that when you hit a bottle, the energy from the ball causes the ball to just go wild. Then what you want to do is anticipate where the bottle's going to be and then shoot the bottle while it's swinging. This is where is starts getting difficult. What we're doing here is we're simulating an actual game situation because you're trying to anticipate motion on the other side of the field. A lot of times players will sit inside their bunker and they'll be like wack'a'moles. They'll just sit in one spot, pop up, shoot, go down, pop up, shoot, go down. If you can guess their pattern, you can put a ball on them. While you're doing your target practicing don't forget, don't just stand there and shoot like you're at a target range. When you're playing paintball, you're finding yourself contouring your body into all sorts of weird shapes in order to get behind specific cover. So, practice kneeling, practice laying down. Practice shooting from your back. It sounds weird, but in a survival of the fittest, you'd be surprised where you can fit."