Considering that paintball doesn't allow it to be as precise as bullets, does that make scopes, lasers, and sights useless? Or are they actually useful?

Sights and lasers - yes.
Scopes - no.

Multitudes of threads like this - yes.

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In my opinion, a nice big red dot scope is a real benifit to play because for slightly further distances, it allows you to get more or less on target without firing the first few placement shots to find where you are shooting. All you need to do is put the little red dot on the bad man and pull the trigger a few times.


Magnification Scopes= probably about the most performance hindering device you can use. The reticule is just too small, and there really is no need to have 2x or more zoom.


Just my .02

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Ditto on what Kevin H. says.

Red Dot Scopes allow you the surprise that ranging shots do not. IF, your red dot is zeroed in perfectly for the particular distance you need to use it at; meaning, is the red dot at the point the paintball will hit at - 20 ft, 30 ft, 50 ft etc.

Lasers in my opinion do not help since they can injure retinas, are not allowed on most fields and give away your position.

Mag scopes are useless since they see farther than your paintball can travel accurately. If you want to use them for spotting the OpFor, then that's fine, I think.

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my 4x scope is not just for sighting targets but identifying them if they are friend or foe ... its a lot easier to make out their colors / tags with zoom scopes

All are very usefull. Lasers for the night ops when you want to scare the crap out of someone, or get your teammates attention while staying silent. Red Dots for quick, snap aiming and for the slightly longer shots when you don't want to waste three shots when one well aimed will do the trick, and scopes to identify targets and see down field.

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I've got both, but I don't use my red dot sight ever any more. I keep my 3x9 scope on all the time for two reasons.

1) to scout ahead

2) and scare the crap out of newbs


My opinion is that both won't help you make a sniper shot, but the distance you see through a scope will help with tactics.

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I like having a red dot providing you have either an offset rail or something to raise the red dot otherwise you cant look through it anyway, providing you have a stock

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I have a green dot sight.

Scopes are useful. They are great for looking long ranges, but they don't work well for aiming IMO. Some people like them for aiming though.. What ever works for you

It's all a matter of preference, but since most shots in paintball are relatively close, a well practiced shooter will be much faster and accurate than anyone trying to aim down a sight or even follow a laser. If you target practice and get a good feel for your weapon, you will gain the ability to "point and click" just like using a real firearm. You don't see scopes on pistols for that reason.

Scopes are for shooting long distances which paintballs won't do accurately. Short range weapons tactics are more applicable to paintball since paintball is a shortrange game (+/-100 feet), even if you set up your marker as a "sniper".

Being familiar with your weapon and being able to point your weapon instinctively is by far the most efficient way to "aim" in a short range game. This ability comes with practice.

Having said that, scopes and lasers are still really intimidating to alot of players and much of any game is psycological, so use'm for looks if nothing else!!