Most paintball markers and paintballs are .68 caliber; this is the standard size used in tournaments, commercial fields, and paintball parts worldwide.  So, why would company’s start producing a different sized paintball (that require totally different guns and are not the standard size?  Why .50 caliber)?

As it turns out, there are many benefits to .50 caliber paintball.  .50 caliber paintballs and markers beat .68 caliber in all aspects across the board.  They are significantly smaller and lighter than their counterparts making .50 caliber paintballs more efficient to ship, store and carry.  A box of 2000 x .50 Caliber paintballs are roughly half the size of a box of 2000 x .68; taking up less room to store and costing much less to ship.  At this point, there are only a few companies producing .50 caliber paintballs, but so far they also cost less to buy compared to .68 caliber.

.50 caliber paintballs also outperform .68 caliber as well.  Because things are lighter and smaller, they shoot a bit farther and tend to have less defects than .68 caliber, so they fly straighter and are ultimately more reliable.  They are also four times more air efficient – allowing many more to be shot per CO2/hpa tank.  You can easily get 3500 shots from a 20 oz CO2 tank with .50 caliber paintballs.