A Paintball Squeegee is a device used to clean broken paintball mess from your barrel. Every now and then you will have a paintball break in the breech or barrel of your marker. Until your barrel and breech are clean and dry you will continue to break more paintballs and your accuracy will be horrible. There are three main types of squeegees: pull through, stick, and fluffy swab.
A Pull Through Squeegee is a long flexible device made of plastic, rubber or cable with cleaning discs at one end. To use a pull through squeegee you remove your barrel, push the bare end through from the barrel thread end to the muzzle, and then pull it through so the discs carry the gunk out from back to front. You can also just take your hopper off to run it through or, with markers like Tippmann 98s, US Army Project Salvoes or BT-4s, just move the feedneck to one side and pass it through. Pull through squeegees are the slowest to use but clean the best.
A Stick Squeegee is a long tube with a cleaning disc at one end that swivels when a spring loaded plunger at the other end is pressed. To use a stick squeegee you press the plunger in to swivel the disc sideways, slide it down the barrel’s muzzle to the breech, and then release the plunger and pull. The disc straightens out and pulls the broken paint from back to the front. Stick squeegees are often carried attached to a key lanyard worn around the neck. These types of squeegees don’t clean as efficiently as a pull through but are much faster to use.
Fluffy Swabs, also known as Folding Swabs, are wool or synthetic fiber attached to a stick. You slide it into the barrel to mop up broken paint. Fluffy swabs are good for small barrel breaks but will just push a big break farther down the barrel. Swabs are very handy for cleaning broken paint and shell out of feednecks and the marker’s breech in the event of a chopped ball.
Ideally a paintball player should have all three types of squeegees in their gear bag. A stick squeegee on a lanyard and a folding swab in their pocket will get your barrel and breech clean on the speedball field. A pull through will get your barrel completely clean between games. Many woodsball and scenario players carry all three squeegees in their tactical vest or a MOLLE pouch since they tend to be out on the field for extended periods of time.
There is a fourth type of swab that players find useful: a Pod and Loader Swab. These are incredibly handy to quickly clean paint ooze and broken shell from your pods and loader.
