Dishonor On the Field

Just like every other sport paintball has rules and like every other sport people break them.
the problem with this is that not only does it make the game less enjoyable and unfair but you will quickly earn yourself a bad reputation. Whether your a paint wiper, or a cheap shot you are hated, and for good reason. The rules of paintball are simple and are based on staying safe and playing fair. To break the rules of paintball is a very clear and to the point way of expressing that your a poor sport and have no honor to speak of. As far as I know I have never played with a cheater but the first time I do will be the last time I play with them. There are all kinds of way to cheat or just be dishonorable.

One way of showing a lack of honor is being a poor sport. I firmly believe that not being a sore loser is a rule on the paintball field. there is nothing wrong about being bummed about having a bad game but don't try to ruin every bodies good time just cause you were the first one out a few times. Being a good loser shows your team mates your a confident player who can bounce back from losing a few games. show that kind of attitude makes other mainly younger players look up to you. Be a leader not a sore loser. When you let a loss roll right off your back you come out smelling more like a rose then if you had won the game; and how often do you get to lose and still look cool doing it.

But as bad as sore losers are they are nothing compared to a paint wipers. a paint wiper is a vile person who will wipe off a paintmark instead of being honest and calling out. DONT GRADE UNFINISHED

It's Warming Up

Well the awful cold season is pretty much over, and hoping i haven't spoken too soon i will be heading out to play my favorite sport again. That's right it's about time to break out my mask and gun and head to the paintball field. Hopefully you figured out it was paintball considering this blogs title. With the new season comes new possibilities; maybe my brother will do better then me. Maybe we will have a new player; although i am planing on that last one. Now that the cold is past I make my plans on improving the backyard field me and my brother play on, but i thought i would give you new players a few tips on playing this season. Whether you have been playing a few months already or just discovered that the spot exists five minutes ago a few tips are always helpful.

First of all you need to try it out; almost every field has rental guns. So go try it out make the trip to the closest paintball field and rent a gun and play with your friends. If you're not sure you will be into paintball this is a good idea. Paintball can get expensive even after the buy in so testing it out before you buy a gun is a good way to maybe save some money; assuming your a wimp and can't take it.

Once you catch the bug and know you want to start the first thing you need is a gun and mask. Now any mask will do fine but you will need to pick up a bottle of anti-fog spray; this stuff will keep your mask from fogging up on you, which will happen. Your gun is a more important matter. Now as a loyal customer of this company I must suggest a Tippmann 98 custom it's one of the best guns to buy for the money. Like an old American car it will work for forever and it's performance is more then up to par. The gun it's self is about $125.00 but you can buy a set for about $178.00 that includes tank gun and mask. If you're not interested in Tippmann a lot of people like Spyder, Piranha, or Smart Parts. These brands do have some fairly good markers for a decent price. The things you need to watch out for are plastic guns or guns under a hundred dollars. Chances are if a gun is plastic or is less then a hundred dollars it probably isn't build solid and won't last more then a few games.

There are lots of other items you might want to consider mostly padding gear but still fairly important. Now this isn't everyone's opinion but I believe proper padding is very important. You might consider buying a neck protector though you probably won't get hit in the neck very often it really hurts when you do. You might also want to get gloves, you can use any gloves you can still work your marker while wearing but paintball gloves are best. As for cloths just wear as many layers as you can without looking silly a few long sleve shirts or a think jacket will do nicely. Steal toed boots are good if you have them but tennis shoes work fine to. You can buy a belt to hold tubes of extra paint but depending on how many people you play with you may not need it; this is totally up to you but you may need it at some point.

No matter what gear you decide to go with just have fun with it. Getting hit doesn't hurt that bad and if it does just put another shirt on. You may be nervous your first game but just listen to what the other players tell you and be safe about playing. Never take your mask off in the game and always keep your marker on safe when your not playing. Just have fun and do the best you can. Skill comes in time and there is plenty of that. Enjoy the new season and I hope to see you on the field.

Tippmann Has Disapointed Me.

As anyone who plays with me knows my favorite marker brand is Tippmann, but recently they have let me down. A recall was released for the A-5 marker. You see a few years ago Tippmann started production on the A-5, it was to be the first gun released with their new cyclone feed system. The cyclone feed is a marvel in feed system design so to change things up a bit they altered the base design of the 98 custom and called it the A-5, but when they did they over looked the possibility of a flaw in the gun. The end cap design on the A-5 is faulty and there is a chance it can come out when firing the marker. All the moving parts in the Tippmann markers are housed in one chamber, this design is the biggest reason they are my favorite brand but it also means the end cap must endure more than other models. Now don't get me wrong I'm not saying the design is unsafe, but the end cap on the A-5 can be inadequate.

As far as I know Tippmann is providing replacement parts to fix this problem. So if your A-5 marker has an end cap with a metal ring attached that isn't in a fixed position you shouldn't use it until you can get the replacement parts installed. More info can be found on the Paintball U.S.A Magazine or I assume at Tippmann's website. It is very important that you do not use your marker if it does not have the fixed ring on the end cap although it may not happen to all the markers it's not something you want to happen while you are holding the marker. It can cause injury be smart don't take the chance of getting hurt.

As for Tippmann I can't say I am pleased with my favorite company having a recall but I guess it happens sometimes. I still stand by Tippmann as being the most reliable company mainly for their rock solid design of the 98 custom. They are the most popular gun in woods ball and the only gun i have or will ever own. And if anyone says I can't say Tippmann is the best cause it's all i have ever owned your wrong. I have seen other guns but i have fixed too many of my friend's markers that weren't Tippmann to say any one else is the best when my gun has never had a problem. So thank you Tippmann for catching this when you did, though I wish you had before I bought one since fixing markers is a pain in the ass.

Where Are All the Girls

I address you with great concern for our sport, paintball. The world of paintball has long been a subculture the prizes it's members on macho toughness and a manly sort of persona. But, because of how we define our sport and it's members we have created a sport lacking in women. Now some men that play consider the idea of getting their wives or girlfriends into their alone time sport insane. But for single players or for those of us who simply like to see women on a daily basis the logic is sound. Everyone knows that women whether they be your wife, girlfriend, sister, or simply just a friend all like for you to involve them in your daily life. Making the women in your life happy makes life easier. This simple act of bringing more women into the sport adds new and enjoyable aspects to the culture of paintball. But don't get me wrong I'm not saying we need more pink masks or paint that smells more like flowers, I'm just try to say a little diversity in paintball would be interesting not to mention it would make the view much more enjoyable.

It's high time we bring our great sport out of sausage fest status and into the modern age. "How do we do that?" some may ask. Well it's simply word of mouth. We make paintball more appealing to women the same way recreational paintball got so popular to begin with. Tell your female friends what a great sport this is. Tell your wives, your sisters, your daughters, your coworkers, and even your mistress. Bring more hot out doors type women to paintball and improve the playing experience for everyone. By keeping the same image we project as amateur players we limit our sport to only about half the talent it could have. Furthermore, by passively limiting our sport in this way we keep a large amount of money from being spent on paintball, and as we all know paintball is a struggling sport that could always use a bit of help. We have to change the way we think of paintball, change our mind set to attract new members while at the same time making our sport more interesting. And none of that girls league and boys league crap if women can fight in the military then they can sure as hell play paintball on the same level as guys. Bringing women into paintball means more players, more much needed revenue to the paintball market, and it means a more interesting and enjoyable game.

For anyone out there that still doesn't agree with me allow me to offer you an example. I do know one girl who plays paintball and though I have not had the opportunity to play with her yet I look forward to it. My girlfriend Brianna and she has been playing almost as long as I have.
Just like me she started in high school and also like me she plays whenever she can afford it. paintball after all is an expensive sport. She's not girlie like the girls some who read this may fear will get into paintball, she simply likes to play. And although I have never been against women playing she did open my eyes to the good that would come from more women becoming involved in the sport. So the next time you go out and play woods ball with your friends think of some new people you could tell about your experience, and if you have an extra marker and mask and want to invite a friend consider how you might change it up by inviting a girl instead of a guy this time.

Splatter Park's Big Game

When i first started playing paintball it was just a few friends who just played out in the woods behind someones farm. Getting hit once meant you were out until the next game just a real standard way of playing woods ball. However, about a year later i picked up a copy of "Action Pursuit Games" and saw an add for an online paintball store called Paintball Discounters. A few years later while placing an order with them over the phone i learned that they were associated with Splatter Park. Splatter Park is a huge paintball course complete with 12 different fields and a pro shop. It's located up in central Ohio and twice a year in October and may is home to a big game event to die for.

The event averages about a thousand people each game and Splatter Park holds the game on it's over 40 acres of wooded and non wooded land. The game it's self starts at 9:30 and continues for 6 hours and 30 minutes. Those who are marked are not out for the whole game but rather eliminated until they can be reinserted onto the field after a few minutes. It's played like one long game of capture the flag and ends with an event called the Reign of Paint. The Reign of Paint is a game of submission your not out as soon as you get hit you take all you can and when you can't stand it anymore you give up. With the admissions fees they charge Splatter Park gives away $10,000 in prizes and they provide a lunch the price of which is covered by you admissions fee. So on the second of may i will be heading up to Mt. Gilead, Ohio to try this big game event out for my self hope you decide to join me.

Airball or Woodsball

Two types of the games in paintball are woods ball and air ball. Although they are both ways to play paintball they are as different as night and day. Because of these differences the playing experience of the two are also radically different. Some players lean more toward air ball like tournament players, others like woods ball more for it's realistic feel. Of course the biggest difference between them is the field they are played on, one is played in in a small course of giant air filled bunkers and the other in simply out in the woods. However, these simple changes in playing fields causes a huge change tactics and strategy.

In air ball the field is small and the bunkers are big, compared to woods ball. It becomes much harder to hide or blend in with your surroundings. Although, because of these close bunkers moving around and out smarting your opponent becomes more about your own abilities where as in woods ball it can depend a lot on what you have around you to work with. It's all about how you move around the field, giving the game a bit in common with chess. Rate of fire almost becomes the name of the game, players modify their guns so that they can be fired as quickly as possible basically turning them into paint sprayers rather then paintball guns. In a game of air ball people will use markers with double finger triggers, electronic trigger kits, and adjustable triggers. to increase how fast they can shoot their marker, by doing this they increase their chance of getting a hit. This type of play sometimes seems to lean more towards being about competition then it is about fun. Players of air ball turn everything up to eleven going to the extreme where ever they can to help their chances of winning.

Woods ball is a totally different animal. What was a game of strategy becomes a game of strategy, chance, and skill. An intense game of hide and seek, that often reminds me of the story "The Most Dangerous Game". Having to creep through a forest staying close to trees and fallen logs as you go, and depending heavily on the luck that your opponent's ball will break in the brush and that yours will make it through unscathed and on target. Playing on a woods ball course is more realistic then an air ball course. You can hide behind brush and wait from someone to walk by, or sneak through the trees blending in with the woods. Woods ball has a lot of things that air ball doesn't that shake up the game and force players to change the way they play in order to win. It's the more life like game of cops and robbers we dreamed of as children.

Being Smart About Bunkering

Like anything there is a smart way and a stupid way to bunker someone. The basic idea to bunker someone is to pin them down by shooting around whatever they are hiding behind, then running up on them and either tagging them out or forcing them to surrender by catching them off guard. Being smart about this is a simple as following the rules. Every field has a set of rules that is to be followed when playing on that field, the details of these rules may vary but all fields have pretty much the same rules. All rules should be followed no matter how stupid they seem they are all there for your safety.

One rule that you should always be aware of when trying to bunker someone is the surrender rule. The surrender rule says that when you run up on someone if you can't tag them out you must yell "surrender" and wait to see if they do or if they try to shoot you instead. If a person does surrender you can't shoot them, however, if they do try to mark you first you have the right to shoot them. The standard distance is somewhere between 15 to 25 feet away before you need to follow the surrender, also this rule is mainly meant for when you catch some one unaware from behind. The purpose to this rule is to keep people from getting shot from close distances, because close equals pain or possible injury.

There are dozens of very good reasons to follow this rule. It keeps you from getting thrown off the field. It keeps you and your friends from getting hurt. Also, not following this rule could cause someone to get mad at you perhaps paying you back in the same way. Besides that when you shoot someone up close after sneaking up on them you have a higher chance of hitting them where they are not protected or where they are poorly protected; such as, in the neck, the back or top of their head, or the groin. hitting someone in places like these can cause a fair amount of pain, and it isn't something you want to do to a fellow player or have done to you.

I played a game about two weeks ago where something like this happened, but it wasn't because someone didn't follow the rules it was because someone didn't know how to do it. this kid was a first time player and didn't know very much about how to go about playing. In the match before this one he saw me bunker someone and i guess he thought he could do it to. He tried to bunker someone but got scared at the last minute and shot him in the top of their head standing only a few feet away. This is a perfect example of what i mean. the kid that got shot ended up with a small gash in his head, not enough to worry about stitches but more then enough to hurt and produce a sizable bump.

The best thing you can do is to follow the rules and know your own limits, so in addition to following the rules be mindful of what you are doing and don't try something if you aren't sure you can pull it off without anyone getting hurt. And if you can't follow the rules and be smart about playing within your abilities then don't play. it's not worth playing if your going to be risky about it, chancing injury because of ignorance ruins a great game and gives the rest of us a bad name. For those of us who try our best to ensure the safety of those we play with through rules and using our head, we don't appreciate you smearing that by calling your selves paintball players.

Everyone is a Wild Card.

One big lesson everyone who plays paintball will end up learning is that you never know how good someone is until you play with them. What I mean by that is no matter how well you know someone you should never assume that they will be good or bad at paintball. To prove my point to you i will tell you a story about two kids that i recently played with, both are friends of my little brother.

The first plays football and basketball for his school team and from what I can tell runs with what his classmates would consider the popular crowd, his name is Ryan. The other is my brothers neighbor, his name is Ramon. This kid was born in the Philippines and because of his heritage is very small in stature, which sadly sometimes makes him an outcast from the popular social group. His height or rather lack there of often puts him at a disadvantage in athletics. Knowing only this about these two boys you would expect Ryan to do much better then Ramon. However, that is not the case here. In fact Ramon was one of the best I have seen for his age, and even put me to shame a few times.

You see the wonderful thing about paintball is that your skill at it doesn't depend on your physical strength, or how big or fast you are. It's just how good you are at it, in part how smart you are about it. I myself learned this lesson my sophomore year of high school when i played against someone I often gave a hard time. That's why paintball truly is a sport anyone can play. Furthermore, it's a sport almost anyone can be good at. So think about that the next time you talk trash to someone before playing against them.

flatline barrel review

About two weeks ago I ordered the flatline barrel for my 98 custom. After reading the reviews about it I was sure it would live to it's reputation, but I was dead wrong. this barrel didn't even perform as well as the stock barrel. The whole problem wasn't that the barrel didn't provide any extra distance to my shot, but that it threw my shot off all together. When i wasn't breaking paint in the barrel the ball would fly off curved as if i had the velocity maxed out.

The idea behind the barrel is that it's distinct curve will cause the ball to go into a back spin, much like the rifling in a gun barrel. However, the curve seems to simply subject the ball to undue stress sometimes causing it to burst before leaving the barrel. And to make matters worse the back spin that supposedly gives you an extra 100ft on your shot, only causes your shot to be wildly inaccurate.

Online this barrel costs around $80.00 but in stores it can cost as much as $110.00. So, when you really break it down, cost verses performance, the product is a dud. My advice is to look elsewhere or at least just stick with what you got. However, if anyone still wants one after reading this, I know where you can buy a used one.