Tiberius Arms First Strike Paintballs - The first choice for snipers and snipers!
The First Strikes are special paintballs that were originally developed for use in the military sector. The main customer of Tiberius Arms was originally the US-based security company Blackwater. They were looking for a cost-effective training projectile for paintball markers in the military sector in order to optimize operational training. The First Strike paintballs are harder than ordinary paintball balls and can therefore be fired with higher pressure. Due to their special, streamlined shape, they fly about 1.5 times faster than normal paintballs and about twice as far.
You can achieve hits at distances of over 100m with a standard paintball gun.
These properties make the First Strike Paintball very popular for long-distance shooters, so-called snipers, in paintball sports. You can usually find them on Big Games scenarios around the world, wherever the playing fields are big enough and there is a good position for snipers with a clear field of fire.
What makes First Strikes different from regular paintballs?
Actually, a First Strike Paintball has nothing to do with a standard Cal. 68 paintball mean. Apart from the bullet diameter. Normal paintballs have a gelatin cover, while First Strikes are made of a biodegradable plastic mixture. This makes the casing harder and enables the special bullet shape. The filling of the sniper paintballs is very viscous and enriched with additives that make it difficult to wipe off. First strike hits should be removed and washed out as soon as possible to avoid leaving any residue. The bullet shape is particularly interesting: Normal paintballs are simply round and spherical. First Strike bullets, on the other hand, have a two-part structure. The back part is a coat with trains and panels, this is hollow inside. The rifling and fields on the outside cause the bullet to rotate due to the airflow along the bullet, this stabilizes the trajectory. The front part of the projectile, in turn, is spherical, has a thinner wall and is therefore more fragile. This is also where the color fill of the First Strike paintball is located.
In principle, you can imagine the structure as that of a shuttlecock. The bullet is heavy at the front and light at the back, which automatically aligns it in the direction of flight because the filling in the front area is the center of gravity.
Which paintball markers can I use to shoot First Strike paintballs?
You need special markers to be able to work with First Strike ammunition at all. All First Strike paintball markers share a few key characteristics.
1. All First Strike markers have a magazine, because only magazines can properly reload First Strike paintballs. This is not possible with a normal hopper.
2. The marker has the manufacturer info First Strike Ready. You can usually find this on the packaging or in the operating instructions. However, most manufacturers also advertise directly with it, as this is a popular marker property. To be on the safe side, look at the marker's ammo channel. If this is just round, then only normal paintballs fit in. If the ammunition inlet is round at the front and straight at the back, like the shape of a first strike, then you can shoot them with it.
Also pay attention to the shape of the magazine, the same exclusion criteria apply here as for the marker. Unfortunately, if the magazine only has a round ammo inlet, then it is not First Strike capable.
If in doubt, please ask your trusted paintball dealer if you want to buy a First Strike paintball marker.
Why are First Strike paintballs so expensive and where can I buy them cheaper?
You have to clearly consider the effort involved in production. The special shape of the First Strike Paintballs is complex to produce. Then a special, biodegradable plastic is used, which also makes production expensive. Not to be forgotten are patent costs, marketing, sales, etc., since First Stike are only produced and sold by one manufacturer.
First strikes can also be cheap, at least in relative terms. If you buy individual First Strike bullets, then you can easily pay 1 euro or more per shot. However, this changes when larger quantities are purchased. A box of 250, for example, is available from as little as 110 euros, so you then only pay around 45 cents per shot. This puts the price into perspective quite a bit.
All in all, First Strike paintballs will remain expensive exotics, as there is currently no further price reduction in sight.
Tiberius Arms First Strike
Paintball Scope Cam First Strike Sniping