SpudFiles

Hey all, my rifle has a 3/4" barrel, and i want to shoot paintballs, but i need a sabot for it....clarification: this is regular schedule 40 PVC, not CPVC

I was thinking maybe a wax sort of thing- pouring it into 3/4", pressing a paintball into it, letting it harden, then cutting it down the middle... what do you guys think?

My main concern is having the sabot break away cleanly from the paintball without having it interfere with the paintball's fllight?

Thanks,

ILTBTU

what you could try is making a cone of paper and slit it down the middle so i breaks away from the ball.

The wax idea is actually pretty good, albeit a bit painstaking. The wax should break away on its' own. As long as you remove the paintball from the wax after it hardens, they will not stick together.

But on second thought, you may want to investigate the effects of the heat of the melted wax on paintballs, I know they don't hold up well in hot weather.

@mopherman, he probably doesn't even need a slit in the paper cone because the combination of the increased momentum of the paintball because of its greater mass, and the drag of the backwards cone should allow the paintball to continue out of the cone without interfering with its flight. It would also be easy to make and reusable. It would look something like this: o>

You could make something similar to this, but instead of the buckshot get some tube the same diameter as you paintball and wrap a 0.75" wide strip of paper around it until it's as wide as the inside of the sabot cup and pop it in.

Just use a wad of paper towels thats what I do when i don't feel like making something.

Such a big barrel and paintballs as ammo?
Why not shotgun-away a bunch of paintballs at a time, like 15 at a time or so.

I think your wax thing should work unless things get sticky.
The best way to find out if it works is trying it.

couldnt you just use tissues? or cotton wool?

if its like the 3/4" PVC weve got over here then paintballs will be wayyyyy offfff unless theyve grown.

why didnt you buy 15mm!

Jack was on the right track. Shotgun shells themselves will fit into 3/4" PVC with a little sanding. You could dump the powder out of one, (or just buy the shells for "reloading"), and place the paintball in the little acetyl plastic sleeve inside the shell. Cut the sabot off below the bottom of this sleeve, pull it out, and glue it back into the shell. Sand the outside a little and it should work like a charm. Of course, I haven't tried this for sabots, only quoting my experience "prospectively" reloading shells and of course pulling the powder out of them for whatever, and the buckshot for slingshot rounds.

Build a second barrel for your rifle?

love the sig mark

Listen. Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.

i just wrap the paintballs in a 2"x2" patch of an old cotton t-shirt. the patch comes off in about twenty feet. it's reusable. if you can't find it after you've fired your launcher the birds or mice will find it and use it to build nests.

as long as you center the patch accuracy is not affected.

Now we see the violence inherent in the system!

I fire paintballs regularly from a barrel with an ID of .8" - barely smaller than a 3/4" SCH40 barrel ID (Which is about .82-.83 IIRC?) using just plastic shopping bags as wadding.
Not precision, but cheap, exceptionally light, and non-porous, so losses are lower than with loo roll or something. It falls away very fast as well.

It should ideally be cleaned up afterwards, but many bags these days are biodegradable so that's not too heavy a concern (as long as you use one that will decompose!)

I have used cheap pool noodles cut down it diameter and slightly longer than the barrel's width to prevent the seal from turning. I have found that it makes an excellent seal (I've had a barely noticable air leak push a 6oz paintball grenade right out of the barrel), only travels a few feet after exiting the barrel. Biodegradable, re-usable, and inexpensive.

You could use pipe foam insolation......I have tryed it ,it works good..It brakes away after it leaves the barrel, because its lighter .....than the paint ball or what ever you shoot out......