Paintball on a Budget - Part 1

Paintball is one of those hobbies that can quickly become an obsession and lead a person down an incredible path from scenario paintball or magfed paintball to speedball and tournament paintball on the local, regional and even national levels, all the way to professional paintball! That said, not everyone has the aspiration of going pro with a paintball gun in their hands. Some people just want to get out in the great outdoors, have some fun with some friends and shoot it up, and that doesn’t have to be expensive! Even better, cheap paintballs and cheap paintball guns aren’t the only options for people who want to play paintball on a budget! Let Valken guide you through affordable paintball gear to help you ball on budget!

Building a paintball gear loadout or gear setup on a budget can be daunting. Cheap paintball guns are often not very good, and the best, most heavily-advertised paintball guns aren’t cheap, then there are paintball air tanks, paintball hoppers, paintball goggles, and of course paintballs! Cheap paintballs often lead to a bad time on the paintball field, breaking when they shouldn’t and bouncing off targets if they fly straight at all. While this can all be frustrating, Valken offers numerous cost-conscious options for quality paintball gear that might not cost very much, but still performs reliably on the paintball field, letting a player build a solid, reliable paintball loadout that will provide hours of fun, accurate shooting paintball action but won’t break the bank. One perfection example is the GOG eNMEy paintball gun and a few peripherals like an HK Army Pinokio Speed Hopper, a Valken 48/3000 compressed air tank and a set of Valken MI-7 thermal paintball goggles. Throw all that together with some Valken Tango paintballs and what you’ve got is an extremely affordable gear setup that shoots straight, works great in all weather, is easy to take care of, can be upgraded for improved performance and can help any player from the back yard to the local field have a great time without spending too much!

The GOG eNMEy paintball gun is a simple, affordable and reliable semiautomatic paintball gun that shoots as fast as the player can pull the trigger, and doesn’t rely on batteries, electronics or even a mechanical sear to operate! A low-pressure, spool valve style mechanical gun, the eNMEy is gentle on paintballs, works great in almost any weather conditions, is compact and lightweight, and is very easily maintained with just a little time and a little grease! Quiet, accurate, reliable and simple, the GOG eNMEy paintball gun needs only a few upgrades to go toe-to-toe with paintball guns that cost hundreds more, so players on a budget need not worry about trying to play with a cheap paintball gun when a $149 spool valve GOG eNMEy is available! Pick your favorite color from the wide selection available here at Valken then get ready to go hang some flags and put paint on people!

Once you’ve got a great, affordable paintball gun that also happens to be a great performer picked out, it’s time to get it running. You won’t be shooting anyone with a GOG eNMEy without air, and while the eNMEy IS rated to play using CO2, it will work better in all weather conditions and at higher rates of fire if compressed air is used. Don’t worry – paintball air tanks don’t have to be expensive either, and Valken makes a great 48 cubic inch, 3000psi compressed air tank that is simple, affordable, rugged and lightweight, that’s perfect for use with the GOG eNMEy! Rather than a cheap paintball air tank, the Valken 48/3000 air tank is an affordable paintball compressed air system at only $49.95 that pushes 800psi to the paintball gun consistently for several hundred shots per fill! Simply thread it into the eNMEy paintball gun’s bottom line air adapter and the paintball gun is going bang!

Getting your budget paintball gear setup going bang with a GOG eNMEy paintball gun and a Valken 48/3000 paintball air tank is a great start, but you’ll need to feed paintballs into this thing to get to the next step, and a cheap paintball hopper isn’t a great idea. While a simple, affordable paintball hopper like a five dollar GXG 200 round paintball hopper WILL work with the eNMEy and many other paintball guns, the eNMEy is capable of much higher rates of fire than a basic paintball hopper can feed with gravity alone, and this can lead to feed issues and chopped paintballs – and that’s no fun. So rather than learn all this the hard way, why not invest in an affordable paintball hopper that’s actually a top performer with a Paintball World Cup championship under its belt instead, and shoot faster and more reliably? The ideal choice here is simple – the HK Army Pinokio Speed loader is a great deal at $79.95 that can feed at well over 15 paintballs per second, is extremely lightweight, takes 2 9volt batteries that are quickly and easily swapped, and is incredibly reliable! Twist the HK Army Speed loader, the same one used by legendary team Dynasty, onto your paintball gun setup, add 2 batteries and push the on/off button and you’re almost ready to go!

Now you’re almost ready – your GOG eNMEy paintball gun is aired-up with a Valken 48/3000 paintball compressed air tank and ready to feed fast and shoot fast with an HK Army Speed loader, but you better not go anywhere near the paintball field or even think about loading paintballs before you put some goggles on! Nothing is more important than your safety, but don’t just trust your eyes to cheap paintball goggles. While cheap paintball goggles MAY still be certified and safe for use in games of paintball, that doesn’t mean they’ll be very comfortable and that certainly doesn’t mean they’ll resist fogging – there’s a reason they’re called cheap paintball goggles. Instead, how about a pair of affordable paintball goggles that also happen to be comfortable and thermal so they’ll keep you seeing what you aim at while other people with cheap paintball goggles are out there walking into trees. A set of Valken MI-7 paintball goggles are the perfect choice – at only $36.95 they’re a set of thermal paintball goggles that won’t fog, look good, and protect the yes, ears, forehead and face comfortably! 

Now you’re ready to play. You’ve got affordable paintball goggles and a great, lightweight, accurate, simple, reliable and affordable paintball gun, hopper and air tank setup that’s fun to play with, shoots straight, works well and won’t let you down! And you got it all on a budget – the whole deal adds up to $316 in the cart before shipping! Why waste money and risk a bad time at the paintball field with cheap paintball gear when you can spend that money on a great paintball gun, a pair of paintball goggles that won’t fog, an air tank that’s affordable and a hopper that can feed faster than you can shoot instead?