Average Shelf-Life of Paint

[Predator]

What's the average shelf life of paintballs? I mainly use RPS Big Ball.

[cocker kid 2k2]

3 months tops.

[llSmithll]

read somewherein APG that marbs can stay good for up to a year, but think how hard they would be

[LordOfThePaint]

I have some dusks from 6 months ago that are as good as when I got them(which granted isnt saying much but still) as long as you keep them dry, cool, and turn them over like once a week they will have a good long life.

[Vanquisher]

I've got a bag of Ultra Evil that's 1 1/2 yrs. old. It still looks and shoots great. Keep it in a dry, cool place and turn it.

[Messiah]

i have heard of has case of pmi premium lasting 5 yrs and still good

[Hecman82]

I bought 1000 Dusks paintballs and left it in the closet for 10 months. When I finally bought my own marker to shoot the paintballs they were still good except for about dozen. They broke in the bag.

Off topic but I drop some balls on the ground, but all them bouced except one that broke. I wonder if I can test the paintballs for quality by boucing them. Just a thought.

Hector the New Player
equipped with a stock Custom 98 and JT X-Fire mask with thermal lenses:)

[Turambar]

I guess that depends on the environment you are storing them in. I have had some Big Ball in my garage since August, rotating them about twice a week and they still shoot quite nicely.

[llSmithll]

hmm, maybe we could produce a tumbler that rotates/agitaties the ammunition every once a week...

[Hecman82]

A rotating container, like a bingo turning ball cage, sounds like a good idea and better then boucing the balls into a box with a hard floor surface.

Hector the new player:)
equipped with a stock 98 Custom and JT X-Fire mask with thermal lenses

[cocker kid 2k2]

Originally posted by Messiah
i have heard of has case of pmi premium lasting 5 yrs and still good

Thats some pretty big bs you heard there.

[llSmithll]

a bingo tumbler? no, that kinda friction would wear down the shells and break the paint soo fast

[Hecman82]

You know Smith you got one freaky looking picture when I look at it. Is it a goat's head on top of a human body?


Hector the scared new player:eek:
armed with stock Custom 98 and JT X-Fire mask with thermal
lenses

[thebluenu]

Originally posted by Predator
What's the average shelf life of paintballs? I mainly use RPS Big Ball.

in a perfect world, they should last about 1 year..... that means perfect temp, perfect humidity, paint sealed in bags, paint not being dropped, but shelved, and left in its "perfectness"


:eyes:

i have had paint last about 6 months (without paint preformance decreases...)

[k4p10-kr0niC]

well i found paint in a box that i forgot i had left over paint from the last time ive been paint balling at the time it was a good 4 months and there were some in the sealed bag those where fine . the ones in my tubes where fine to and thre was some in a open bag that were dead but for the most part they were all fine they were stored in a cool dry place

[llSmithll]

LOL thats quote material, no, its the Knights who say NI!, from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, easily one of the most funniest movies ive ever seen

[Predator]

Thanks everyone for your help on this. I always keep mine stored in my closet, in it's original sealed bag. It says to keep at temp between 59* - 85*. I try and agitate, cogitate, & rotate them three times a week. They should last me for awhile - atleast until it warms up a little (2-3 more months).

[MyJTRox]

Originally posted by Hecman82
Off topic but I drop some balls on the ground, but all them bouced except one that broke. I wonder if I can test the paintballs for quality by boucing them. Just a thought.

Already has been done. I use it often. I have some paint that is at least 9 months old, and i used the bounce test to find out that they're in the good but brittle range... It was an article in APG in how to do it... Ahhh... here it is....

So how do you know what you have and how do you test it? That is the subject of this tech tip. It is actually a tried and true process called a Bounce Test. We have used it for ten years to determine what type of paint we have and how it will work in the guns. In order for this test to have significance you must do the same thing every time and don't cut it short. Start with 10 paintballs, take one paintball and drop it from about 6 feet and let it hit a hard concrete surface. Catch it on the first bounce, do not let it bounce twice in one drop. Now with the same paintball drop it again from six feet, catch it and repeat until it breaks. Mark down how many bounces it took to break that paintball and then repeat with the other 9 balls. Throw out the high and the low numbers and average the other 8. This gives you the "bounce number" for the paint. Simple but effective. Make sure you use a hard surface not a wood floor etc.

So what does this bounce number tell you? 1-2 bounce paint is super fragile and will break down the barrel in most guns just from the air blast. It will also break in your tubes if you don't pack them tight. 1-2 bounce is pretty worthless paint, you can get it at Wall Mart. 2-3 bounce is considered fragile tourney paint, breaks on people and in the guns too. We are now seeing some field paint at this level. 4-6 bounce paint is good all around and considered fresh. It goes through most guns very reliably but will bounce more often on long shots. 6 and higher used to be considered the best tourney paint in the early 90's because it would go through the guns and never break. Nelson paint was very notable at 8-9 bounces. This paint is hard to find these days but still fun to shoot. Great for big games and when you just want to shoot a lot and not worry about anything. The best thing about high bounce paint is that as it gets older it still works pretty good. 2-3 bounce paint goes to unusable 1-2 bounce pretty fast.