Once I had a working air cannon, there came the issue of how to load it. I started by taking styrofoam cups (A) and trimming the bottoms off at the point where they were 2" across. This was simple to do, just put the cup as far into the barrel as it would fit, then cut off what was sticking out. I then glued or taped two cup bottoms back to back to make a packing wad (B). These worked great for multi purpose loads. I'd put in one, then a couple of quarts of water, and then another. The resulting deluge was enough to knock over one of my wife's brattier cousins at a family reunion water fight. I started wraping pellets in paper towels, and loading them between packing wads, untill I built my first paintball shell ((C) and cutaway view (D)). And no, (D) is not a lava lamp! This was made up of a packing wad with 4 sections of another cup taped to it. The sections are only taped to the wad, and not to each other, so as soon as it clears the barrel, they fold outward releasing the pellets. These are a bit clumsy to carry around, so cutting some 5" lengths of 2" pipes makes handy storage cases for them.