Everyone hates standing in those mile-long air fill lines at tournaments, or having to spend that extra $5 at the local field for that one last fill.  Why not make your marker more efficient so you can spread that torture out?  Many people think, "I don't care how efficient my marker is, I get free air".  Without a doubt, there will come a time, when the efficiency plays a role.  For the back players, this could be a game where they have to shoot every ball that they carry (and didn’t have time to brave the fill line).  No matter what position you play on the field, it will always benefit you to have a more efficient marker.

   The key to efficiency is to maximize the use of air.  You can have too much or too little air coming through the valve for a shot; therefore, you need to find the perfect amount.  The problem is, that there is no exact formula that works for every marker out there.  All that can be said is what needs to be done to reach this point.

   Many people will tell you that you need a high flow valve, and all sorts of other gadgets.  Honestly, I used to think the same as well, but I have come to some realizations.  I prefer to use a valve like the stock valve or the Professional Paintball valve.  These valves don’t need to be fully open to work properly (unlike MacDevs or AKAs).  This means that they do their job and then don’t let excess air through (like other valves do).  Just because you don’t need a super high flow valve, doesn’t mean you can restrict flow with your bolt.  You still don’t want to use most venturi bolts.  Generally, you want something open face like the stock bolt (one of the best and cheapest in my opinion), the AKA Lightning bolt, the Orracle Bolt, etc.  O-rings have no effect, and neither does the material of the bolt.  Another piece that many people think is necessary is a heavy hammer.  Don’t buy the hype, and shell out unneeded money for one.  You can have an extremely efficient marker without a heavy hammer.  

   The key to efficiency is a perfect balance between your main spring weight, your valve spring weight, and your input pressure.  You don’t need any specific weight mainspring or valve spring.  All you need to make sure of is that your valve spring is heavier than your mainspring.  The root of most inefficiency is a valve spring that is too soft and lets way too much air through the valve.  After a point, any more air behind the ball will not help because the bolt is traveling backwards, and that air is wasted (which causes the inefficiency).  Installing a valve spring that is heaver than the mainspring will eliminate this problem.  However, you want the valve spring to be just slightly heavier than the mainspring, or else you run into efficiency problems on the other end of the spectrum.  With a valve spring that is too heavy, you may not be letting enough air through the valve, which leads you to compensate in other ways (increasing pressure).

   Theoretically, you can use just about any weight of springs (so long as their relative weights stays the same).  You can also run at just about any pressure.  No, low pressure isn’t inherently better or worse.  All low-pressure gets you is a different operating pressure, so don’t worry about that.  Generally, I like to use a medium light mainspring, and a medium valve spring.  This leads to an operating pressure between 225 and 300 psi (depending on your particular marker).  You don’t have to worry about starving the marker for air during rapid fire, but it also allows for a reasonably low cocking pressure which lowers the shot to shot bounce, and the force the bolt exerts on partially fed balls (which could help prevent chops).  

   Once you have installed the springs, you need to set your pressure to the most efficient point (remember that balancing act I mentioned?).  The best way to do this is to sweet spot your inline regulator (taken from my Regulator Sweet Spotting article).  Sweet spotting the regulator is not a quick process, but it is easy at least.  It is time consuming, and requires a good deal of air, and some paint.  You also need a chronograph (those handheld radar chronographs are great for this).

   Start by turning your inline regulator all the way down to zero psi, also set your velocity adjuster at two turns in from all the way out.  Now, increase your pressure slowly while shooting the marker over the chronograph.  Adjust your pressure 25 psi at a time, and take five shots (give or take) over the chronograph to establish a velocity at that pressure.  Continue this process until the velocity peaks, which is when any increase in pressure will result in a decrease of velocity.  This point varies for every marker and is the most efficient pressure setting for your spring set.  When the velocity drops, start lowering the pressure (5 psi at a time).  The velocity should start to go up again.  Gently nudge the pressure lower and lower (using those small increments) until any change, be it up or down, results in a lower velocity.

   Now that the regulator is sweet spotted, you need to adjust the velocity adjuster to reach your desired velocity.  With any luck, the regulator will sweet spot right around 290 fps.  Try not to turn the velocity adjuster in more than half way, as it tends to put too much stress on the spring.

   If you can’t reach your desired velocity, you will need to go back and change your main spring tension.  If you can’t get your velocity high enough, put in a slightly heavier mainspring (be sure not to make it heavier than the valve spring).  If the velocity is too high, install a slightly lighter main spring.  After you change the springs, you need to sweet spot the regulator again.

   One often overlooked contributor to efficiency is the paint to barrel match.  You want paint that is just big enough to get stuck in the barrel, but it is easy to blow through.  This ensures that the air won’t blow around the ball, but won’t have to overcome a gross amount of friction.  The basic idea is to prevent the air from doing anything but push the ball.  When air escapes around the ball, it can’t do its job to its fullest, and prevents you from reaching full efficiency.  Both porting and two-piece design prevent the air from reaching its full potential.  Unfortunately, this rules out all barrel kits (both insert based and control back based).  However, it is next to impossible to find a set of single piece, low porting barrels that can cover a wide selection of bores.  This means that usually you need to decide whether you want a good selection of bore sizes or a single piece, low porting design.  Generally speaking, a good bore match is more important than a single piece design.  However, if you get a barrel kit, try to get one that has control backs, or inserts that are around six inches long.  The Powerlyte Scepter and Titanium Paintball Longbow are both great options if you go down this road.  If you want to go single piece, Custom Products are probably the easiest way to go.  With some hunting, you can find some BOA barrels, which are possibly your best bet.  They are available in many bore sizes with very little porting, but unfortunately, are extremely hard to find.

   Setting up a perfectly efficient marker is not a difficult thing, however it is extremely time consuming, and requires loads of patience.  The rewards, however, are quite satisfying.  It is a magnificent feeling to know that you can turn around two more games when everyone else needs to go fill.  However, this is just the smallest of the benefits, the worst feeling in the world is running out of the air mid game.  In addition, everyone likes to relax in between games, instead of running to air fill lines.  Just keep your wits about you, and your patience readily available, setting your marker up will become as easy as timing it.