Paintball Pods and Harnesses. Carrying the Paintball Ammo and Gas Tank.
Paintball pods and paintball harnesses are essential pieces of equipment for the serious paintball player.Harnesses - The harness or pack is used to carry the ammo, and the gas tank if it is being used remotely. A typical paintball marker comes with a hopper with a capacity of 200 paintballs. During a major engagement the hopper can be emptied in a few seconds of intense firing. In some situations the ammunition may not be at hand and a mobile supply is needed. Enter the harness.
Pods (see below) of paintballs can be carried in the harness keeping the player well supplied until the ammo "depot" can be reached. If a paintball harness is designed to carry a gas tank in addition to pods then it is given an x+1 designation where x is the number of pods that it can carry. For instance, a 4+1 would carry 4 pods and 1 tank.
Speedball harnesses are usually a simple body-band with rings for the pods while woodsball harnesses are more sophisticated with various pockets for radios, charts, water bottles and the like.
Pods - These are plastic tubes with a sprung loaded lid to store the paintballs. They are sometimes referred to as guppies. Paintball pods come in various sizes. The most popular pod holds 140 paintballs. Pods that hold 10 paintballs are available for paintball pistols, which do not run through the ammo quickly. Rental locations tend to use pods which carry 100 paintballs.
The spring loaded pod cap can be flipped off quickly with one hand helping the player keep an eye on the enemy while he reloads.
Pod manufacturers are continually improving pod design. Some pods can absorb great impact without shattering the paintballs, while others have caps that won't accidentally open spilling the contents.
