I'm goin paintballing tomorrow

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

Ditto the rec for dark clothes and kneepads. And you’ll see plenty of cammo. A hoody provides nice coverage of the neck/throat/head. Or a jacket with a collar that stays up. IME the shots that sting the most are to the neck and hands. So maybe a pair of thin/fingerless gloves if you have them. A couple of layers will be fine - you’ll build up a sweat soon enough!

IMO the shots don’t hurt much at all. You might get a bit of a bruise from a couple of shots, but nothing that will limit you the next day. IME, you are more likely to injure yourself, throwing your body around like a kid, diving for cover, etc. I have felt the residuals of such self-injuries far more than any hit.

When my son first got his gun, I had him shoot me square in my bare back from about 20 feet away, to see the maximum damage it would do. His gun was cranked up over 330. Stung like a good slap, and left a healthy discolored welt, but no significant pain. Very superficial. Most courses will limit your guns down under 270 or so. Indoors or in hot weather I play sleeveless and in shorts. But I can imagine lots has to do with your personal pain tolerance. Neither I notr anyone I played with ever came close to getting shot in the groin. I think slightly baggy/heavy pants would remove any real worry w/o needing a cup.

The other day I went out to this place with my 8th grade son and his 2 buddies.http://www.challengepark.com/paint_fields.asp What a riot! My son and his crew all got new guns/upgrades for x-mas. They are quite a team - my son is the general/sniper, his one buddy the commando, and the 3d a berserker. And all 3 of them are big into military history and strategy. It was such a rush to see all of these adult men lining up to take orders from these 3 14 year-olds, once the adults realized these 3 kids were kicking everyone else’s butts! And they let THIS old fart play with them! (Actually, I’m their designated wheelman!)

I suspect you will be impressed at the friendliness you will encounter. Basically, you have a bunch of boys and men (too few women - how YOU doin, Deadly?!) running around like nuts, playing army, cowboys and indians, cops and robbers, or whatever else you played when you were a kid. What a riot! I have a hard time imagining why ANYONE would not enjoy it. A couple of hotheads might get excited, but just avoid them and don’t let them take away from your fun. Most of the time, you are swapping war stories with all the other guys, whether on your team or the other.

Be prepared to get hit early in your first games. Especially if you get too aggressive. If you move too quickly, you’ll find you moved right into someone’s line of fire. It can be very hard to convince yourself to stay in a defensive position - especially when you don’t have any clear targets to shoot at. But little beats the rush of circling around someone’s defense, coming up on them unawares from their side or rear, and letting them have it!

And make sure you check back to tell us all about it.

22

I do get some looks. Most of the women who are there are using rentals, and I’m strapping on an ammo pack, wrapping a remote hose around my waist, and carrying a gun that looks like a sniper rifle.

As Dinsdale pointed out, don’t underestimate those kids on the field. Some are good enough to warrant the $1000 gun they’re carrying (and others don’t need the $1000 gun to be as good as they are).

I’ve found that offense is usually the better tactic than defense, in most cases, but that kind of depends on the field. I generally play support, because I’m a slow runner but an accurate shooter. My gun (when the damn thing works) has the longest range of almost anything on the field, so I don’t need to be as close as the guy I’m shooting (hopefully).

Work in teams of two or more for the best games. Once I was trapped behind a bunker with a guy, and I was out of paint. I fired blank to keep the enemy’s head down while he rushed his bunker and got him to surrender. If you’re out of paint or having gun troubles, you don’t have to leave the field. Work with someone else. Make yourself a target so they can circle around to get the shot (it’s not like real war, after all). Experienced players know what an empty gun sounds like, but it still takes a few shots to recognize the difference.

Don’t get tunnel vision (if you have military training, I’m sure this won’t be a problem). Getting too focused on one enemy will easily blind you to the other one trying to flank you.

If you’re not used to duck-walking or doing exercise that’s similar, don’t be surprised if your muscles are sore the next couple of days.

WEAR A CUP! If you’re squatting and your legs are open enough, and if someone shoots you within 50’, you could easily rupture your testicles. Seriously, my husband has taken shots that he actually felt through the cup, that made him very glad he was wearing it.

23

Will do, Dinsdale. Last night was the first time I have visited the board since the fourteenth, so I’ll be sure to come back to at least see what kind of brainbusters have been done in the past three weeks (the amount of threads in GQ, that’s an all afternoon affair).

The party bus gets here in 40-55 minutes. I have a little over $60 ($62.20, all my Christmas inheritance and then a little some goes to this) for paintballing, ammo, and pizza --not a beer guy, but it would have been fun to say “guns, ammo, pizza and bear”.

So I know to wear cammo, a sweatshirt is good, wear a cup, shut up and stay still unless I’m attacking, in which case I should sacrifice myself for the team, don’t be a lone wolf, body armor is silly (not that I have any), listen to the 14yr old kids, it’s a man environment so have fun doing guy stuff but don’t get too testosterone-insane, bring a backpack I’m told, conserve ammo, two pairs of socks is best (one to wear in the mud, and one so I can have a clean pair of socks on the way home), have fun, etc.

I’ll also be bringing my harmonica, which was my most prized gift for Christmas. I don’t know any songs yet, so I just fiddle around with it sometimes. Wednesday I jammed out with my dog with that thing, I was playing and hitting the high notes more than usual and she was howling right along side me to it. It was really cute. I’m thinkin while I’m at the front I’ll jam out with my buddies in the long nights during the lulls of the fighting. Stupid nazi attacks. Yeah. That’s how to play it. Nazis.

24

That’s cool. I’m a fast runner (haven’t run in three weeks though, blech) but probably a piss-poor shooter. I have a pretty big blind spot. Actually, it’s this whole area right in front of me, which is also why I’m not a very good driver.

I have some military training, and by that I mean I’ve played a few of the video games and watched the movies -I’m a little more nazi-centered than Viet Cong-centered but not a devotee of either- and I can get swept up in the Jihad or Berserkergang thing pretty easily.

25

For gun choice, its not a big deal like several people have mentioned. Most fields give you a fairly crappy gun as your basic rental and then have higher end guns that they rent for extra money. In my experience, tipmann 98’s are a great starter gun, however they are fairly short range guns (the stock barrels are horribly inaccurate) so don’t try to be a sniper. Deadly, I’m surprised that you’ve been having gun troubles, I have several friends with tipmann A-5’s and they have not had any problems with them, tipmann is known for its durability and reliability, perhaps you just got a dud. Also there usually is one person who cheats in woodsball, I’ve played some speedball, which is much more competitive and there are a higher incidence of cheaters IMO. I love playing both, but my $300 gun just doesn’t stack up to the $1500 dollar guns that everyone else has. Anyways, back to the OP, two more things I forgot in the previous post, that I’m sure they’ll tell you at the field but I must stress. Always have your mask over you face on the field, even when the game is over, don’t take it off until you are in the safe zone. Secondly always put your barrel plug in your gun after you are hit. This serves two purposes, one hit lets other people know you’re hit so you don’t get peppered with paintballs, and secondly if you do it right away you won’t bring a live gun into the safe zone. Have fun and kick ass!

26

Outdoors games can come in 2 flavours…untouched forest or built up field games.

Forest games are more difficult. You can’t shoot through tree branches/leaves or even small bushes. You can close to within 30 feet and still not shoot your opponents.

You might be a fast runner with running shoes but after carrying 50 lbs of paint, gun, mask, primary tank, secondary tank on remote, field tool kit and smoke grenades, you get slow real fast :smiley:

Moving helps. Do not get held down, very dangerous as they can keep your head down and flank you (my favorite tactic). Keep your team mates close and looking in different directions.

Charging is fun but only with enough people :smiley: I once “charged” into a group of 8 guys and paid for that mistake with 25 hits on the front, sides and back!

Dont’ try to “fake” it out with blank firing alone!!! Guns make a very different noise when firing dry. I tend to charge in those instances and I run in firing 10-15 shots per second :smiley:
Tell us how it goes! You’ll probably want to check out threads about paint ball guns later :smiley:

27

I got back around 6 or 6 thirty. My and three other guys went over to Twisted Texas which is said to be the best paintball place in the area. There we met up with some other guys we know and there were also other groups there. All in all about thirty I’d reckon.

I ache. My hands hurt from the Tippmann 98 gun and the shots to my knuckles.

I have three bruises on my chest, one hard one in my back. I’ve been shot in my head about four times, two smaller bruises on my upper forehead.

I’ve been shot in my stomache so many times, but of them I got down/fell/“died” so quick it didn’t break.

I ruined a hooded sweatshirt that I never wore anyways. This old shirt of mine is covered in paint.

I am covered in dirt and tired. The first three games I played I wasn’t that good; the third one I was the first dead and got nailed right in the stomach.

Second to last game I finished it by a deadly barrage on my face and side, and as I was retreating to the safe zone I learned that in this sport your legs aren’t even safe as my calf and back upperleg took a barrage.

For lunch we tried to get pizza. The local place didn’t have a guy there until after paintball closed, and Dominos was too good for our money. We called the Pizza Hut in Porter, and they turned us down until we told them we were getting about 10 p’zones from them. They said okay. One hundred-six dollars and forty five minutes later, including twenty bucks just for coming out this far, the delivery guy was a class act. I tried my first cheese p’zone and it wasn’t that good.

I spent almost all of my Christmas money (sans Best Buy gift cards) on this trip, except for ten bucks. I was going to use that on some cool CDs and a book, Syrup.

I have rained multi-colored death upon mine enemies… usually pink death.

I had the best damn time I’ve had in years. Now I must concentrate my efforts on getting a gun and raising money for the next trip.

28

I’m glad you had a great time! I hope you’re not too sore tomorrow.

29

I have been running a paintball store for 8 years now, and have played on a professional level on several occasions. If you want tips on what kind of gun to buy, feel free to e-mail me!
If I had caught this thread earlier I would have offered some playing tips, but it looks like the folks here took pretty good care of ya.
Glad you had fun!

30

First, have a few rocks in your pocket.
Later when the enemy is nearing you and you want them to walk in another direction, toss a rock off that way. They will think they heard you moving and you might be in the clear.

31

Partner and I lie down behind small ridge on paintball course.

We stand up for some reason to fight or run.

Paintball breaks right between partner’s eyes, splashing paint across his goggles, obscuring his vision.

Partner: “Am I out?”

32

I would say I’m looking for a decent gun under $100. One kid was offeringn me a nice looking gun (sounded good too) for $60, but I didn’t take it because I didn’t have nearly enough money on me and I usually don’t buy stuff from 11yr olds, even if they do kick my ass.

Something that’s an improvement over the Tippman 98 in terms of range and accuracy would be great. Maybe get a scope on it; that would be cool.

33

A little trick I learned is if you run out of ammo (this happened quite often when I played since back then the guns only heald 10 shots) keep dry firing your weapon. The sound tends to keep people pinned down for a couple of minutes until he realizes he’s not hearing shots hit around him, in which time you may get help from team mates.

34

Glad to hear you enjoyed yourself.

Don’t count that sweatshirt out as ruined yet. The stuff washes out pretty well. In any case, do you plan on ruining a different sweatshirt each time you go out?

My son and his platoon went out on Sat. I had too much stuff to do around the house. Rats!

35

Probably so. It’s an old sweatshirt that I believe I’ve worn twice in my life, which may even include when I tried it on in the store.

Bummer. Your other post was pretty cool.