After my last game at Liberty Paintball when cleaning my marker I noticed that my pressure gauge for the regulator is broken. After closer examination if found that I actually got broken by a paintball! Yes boys and girls, a paintball traveling at speeds up to 300 fps can shatter a plastic face of a gauge, and honestly this is a fluke shot, the gauge is facing front on my Pirahna but its mounted right under the long low pressure chamber, and there is a hose comming out just an inch under it.

Still remember, a paintball shot out of a marker can do great damage if pointed in the right direction, probably it could kill at small distance. So remember the safety tips, mask is always on when on or near a field, use a neck protector (they are about $5 common your lunch costs more than that), never shoot at some not wearing a mask, never aim for the neck, throat, spine and in case of guys - the groin (you might end up being sued for infertility of a fellow player). I remember on of the Refs at Skirmish told me a story that a guy sneaked up to another guy on the opposite team and at distance of about 3 feet did the infamous Nazi Execution technique (shot to the back of the head at the base of the skull), the kid went blind and they were carrying him off the field, its only 3 hours later that he began to see again, see the paintball hit him in the spinal column and disrupted some nerves, the kid was lucky cause this was not pernament but with less luck it could have been.

In all honesty this a rare occurance however makes you think how fast paintballs travel and how much damage can one make. I ordered a replacement gauge, this time something more solid and better quality than this generic gauge. Yes I went to the top and got a 600 psi Bob Long gauge. I promised myself that I will concentrate on getting my Rainmaker to be in top shape and ready to sweep the fields however this is a must.

Several points:

Your marker does not need a gauge, its a mesuring device, and does nothing for the performace, however if you have a regualtor you should get a gauge to know what pressure is the regulator outputting.

If you deducted from my story my marker was working fine with a damaged gauge, the gauges do not leak air when damaged, or when the see through cover is scracked.

If you are using HPA then a gauge can tell you how much pressure you have left (and all HPA tanks come equipped with a gauge), in HPA tanks the pressure goes down with usage, it will continue to drop untill you marker cannot take the low pressure, CO2 bottles do not have a gauge, the regulator there is much different (simpler).