Tips for playing magfed paintball in winter

For us in Finland not playing paintball during cold the cold season would mean 4-5 month break, so that is not acceptable :). Overall best winter game experiences I have had, have been sunny winter days with a few degrees negative Celcius. One might think having temperature above 0 degrees Celcius would always be better, but it brings the melting snow and humidity, that will eventually fog mask lenses. So if you can plan/choose your game days according to weather, all the better.

Here are some tips for playing in the winter.

Markers

Some paintball markers suffer more from cold, so choosing a good one can make your day. Totally mechical markers tend to be better for winter games, anything with batteries will eventually go out, if you are playing for several hours. Personally Planet Eclipse’s EMF100s and the Etek platform that it is based on, has been a blessing for our round-the-year playing group. The Gamma Core inside the EMFs and Eteks works very well if you can be bothered to grease it. It can develop small leaks in extreme cold, but even in those situations you can usually play with it.

Winter paintballs

Having good winter paint is essential. If you  get paintballs breaking in barrels, the game day turns pretty miserable fast. If you can’t test the paint before the game day, it can be a good idea to get some boxes of different types, so a bad batch from one manufacturer doesn’t turn the games bad for the whole group.

With first snow/cold games look for the player who just “needs” to use the leftover paint from summer games. Lot’s of barrel cleaning usually ensues :).

Magazines and snow

If there is just a few centimeters of snow in the ground, you can usually keep the magazines working by just keeping them of the ground, avoid dropping them even in tight situations. If you drop some, inspect carefully and avoid using them for the rest of the day if there is snow inside, if you have spares.

If there is a lot of snow in the ground and/or snow in tree branches and bushes, avoiding it gets more complicated. A good way to keep magazines working in this situation is to re-index empty mags to your chest rig or plate carrier with the feed port down where snow can’t get in.

With lots of snow even using a dump pouch can be risky, as they tend to collect snow inside them from bushes and then it transfers to magazines. Different magazine types can be vulnerable to snow in different ways, but for example with Planet Eclipse’s CF20 mags I have been using a lot, just an unlucky bit of snow inside can jam it, if it gets to suitable place and/or melts.

Using magazine pouches with flaps helps against snow and water. Also having the feed port down inside the pouch is good, but that is not necessarily possible with some magazine types when they are loaded, as they can open the mechanism and you lose some balls. Empty mags can then go in feed port first.

If your magazines have the sliding cover for the feedgate (“garage door” style), it is a good idea to always close it after reloading and especially so for snow games.

Masks

Today’s paintball masks with thermal lenses are pretty good for winter play. However, with cold/humidity all lenses tend to fog up eventually or actually start to ice up, so having extra masks is a good idea. If the game field has possibility to keep those extra ones in warm room or car, even better.

If you have glasses, contact lenses are your friend for winter play. Glasses tend to fog up before the masks lenses and unfortunately can make playing pretty impossible. If contacts can’t be used, some players have had success with Exfog Antifog systems, that are connected to mask strap and blow air inside the lens.

Clothing and boots

If you are a bit cold before the games start in your playing clothes, that is usually a good sign. During play having too much on brings sweat when the adrenaline is running. Then having some extra big jacket to just throw over the playing gear keeps you warm during breaks.

Layered clothing is the way to go. Merino wool for base layer is good to transfer sweat away from body, then a layer for warmth and then top layer for insulation. Add or take out layers during the day depending on the temperature.

Different sorts of winter camo are fun to play with, although they usually don’t actually work that well in the relatively short distances we play paintball in, but they can bring the advantage if you can stay very still sometimes :).

During the game day special care should be taken to keep your feet, fingers and throat warm and dry. Any of those getting wet/cold makes for miserable playing experience fast and unfortunately I have seen some players never came back to winter games after that sort of awful experience. Winter boots and gloves that keep the snow and water outside are good choices.

A change of clothes and extra sets of gloves and socks to change even between games are good ideas. A dry and warm shirt is a good morale booster too :).

Big no-nos for snow games are low shoes and summer type gloves. Snow gets in and melts from body heat, which makes you wet and cold and miserable.

Playing in winter with snow can be challenging, but still fun if you prepare a bit beforehand.

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