How Much Does Paintball Hurt You – Really?

Does Paintball Hurt?

The answer about the level of pain you experience when you take a direct paintball hit does depend on your pain threshold and if you planning to wear protective gear. Now, if you want a description of the pain for taking a hit on bare skin, my best comparison, would be being struck by a thick rubber band having been pulled back and then released to snap against your skin.

There are a number of factors to take into consideration which include the distance between you and the player who hit you, whereabouts on your body you got struck, the angle of the strike, and of course what velocity was the paintball pellet travelling when it impacted on you.

Getting hit by a paintball could hurt you, but normally it’s painless, a direct hit feels like a rubber band being pulled backed and snapped against your skin. Any pain you may feel depends where you get shot and if you plan to wear and cover your body with adequate protective gear or clothing.

If you’re new to the sport of paintball then our best advice would be to put the possible effects of being hit to the back of your mind. Once you get out on the field you usually get the adrenaline filled rush which in itself helps to reduce any feeling of pain. It’s worth remembering that if you tend to think about being hit then the probability is that you will get hit more and feel the pain more. So, don’t think about it and just get out there any enjoy your game and try to be the person splatting other players rather than the other way around.

Another important bit of advice is to make sure you are covering delicate areas of your body with good protective clothing and also that you wear good a sturdy pair of paintball pants, a quality jersey that is just a little bit baggy, the mandatory paintball mask or goggles, gloves and some rigid protective pads covering your arms and knees.

You may have read about being hit at close range resulting in rather nasty paintball welts, it can happen, but normally only if you don’t follow basic gear requirements. In addition you may get paintball bruises now and again due to being hit or even tripping and falling on ground cover. We will be covering the best way to minimise and even best treat paintball welts and bruises in more detail in an upcoming article and link that page right here when it goes live.

Probably the most painful areas of your body, if bare skin is exposed, to get hit by a paintball is the head or neck, on your hands, and inside thigh. Of course, and as mentioned above, all of this pain can and should be minimised by wearing at least some good paintball clothing, and definitely if you are playing on a hot day DO NOT wear shorts as you will be asking for trouble.

You may want to visit our paintball tips blog category which contains some useful information on paintball tips for beginners, essential advice on what to wear for paintballing, just how to shoot a paintball gun and you will find other great articles on tactics and strategy to use in your game play.

Important: Please take a look at our Paintball Safety guidelines which goes into detail about what kind of safety precautions to follow on the field.