Paintball, Paintball

Rules for playing paintball vary widely, with most designed to ensure that participants enjoy the sport in a safe environment. The sport requires a significant amount of equipment.

It wasn't until a year and a half later that George Butler, a friend of theirs, showed them a paintball gun in an agricultural catalog. The gun was a Nelspot 007 marker manufactured by the Nelson Paint Company.

They used 12-gram CO 2 cartridges, held at most 10 rounds, and had to be tilted to roll the ball into the chamber and then recocked after each shot. Dedicated paintball masks had not yet been created, so players wore shop glasses that left the rest of their faces exposed. The first paintballs were oil-based and thus not water soluble; "turpentine parties" were common after a day of play.

Oil-based paintballs are still available through the Nelson Paint Company and are still used for tree marking and for veterinary purposes. Nelson's oil-based paintballs have been used to mark animals on every continent of the world, including Antarctica.

Some players may invest hundreds of dollars in equipment to improve accuracy, rate of fire, weight, reliability, comfort, or aesthetics. Instead of purchasing their gear, occasional players may instead rent equipment from a paintball facility for about $10-$80 USD per day.

Most reusable paintballs are the same size as normal paintballs but weigh less, and do not contain a paint filling. They do not break open to leave a paint mark on players, so the lack of filling makes them practical for indoor locations where accumulation of paint from broken paintballs would be a problem. A Reball is more expensive than a paintball, but since they can be cleaned and reused many times, they potentially have a lower cost per use. Some paintball parks have added dedicated reball fields, and some fields have actually gone exclusive with Reballs, eliminating the use of paintballs entirely. The primary use of Reballs, as intended initially by the manufacturer, is as a practice aid for teams who wish to save money by using reusable ammunition. Other manufacturers have created similar products, such as the V-Ball, a Velcro (hence the name V-Ball) reusable paintball. Reballs are also used at a lower velocity because of their inability to break on whoever they hit. For example, a Regular paintball will normally be shot at approximately 280 ft/s, but a Reball is supposed to be used at around.

Commercial fields also (but not always) provide such amenities as bathrooms, picnic areas, lockers, equipment rentals, air refills, and even food service. These fields adhere to specific safety and insurance standards and have a paid staff, including referees, whose job is to make sure players are instructed in proper play in a manner that ensures all participants' safety. In order to avoid liability, commercial fields strictly monitor paintball velocity with chronographs.

The same trained staff and insurance found at permanent commercial paintball parks can be found at these events.

Paintball masks are specifically designed for the sport, and the goggles are capable of withstanding a direct hit from a paintball traveling at well over 300 feet per second (90 m/s), the safety limit adopted by paintball marker manufacturers. The lenses of the goggles are composed of single sheets of tough plastic.

Chronographs are standard equipment at commercial paintball facilities, but should be purchased if not playing at a commercial location. Players who play without first using a chronograph put themselves and other players at risk. Changes in temperature greatly affect a paintball's velocity when propelled by compressed gases that undergo phase change, such as compressed carbon dioxide, the most commonly used propellant. Markers should be chronographed several times throughout the day. Paintball markers should also be chronographed after any adjustment, replacement of parts, such as the barrel, or paint as these changes generally affect the paintball's velocity.

Blind firing is discouraged on many fields, for potential safety implications. As the shooter cannot see where their shots are landing, they could accidentally fire at somebody point blank, hit a referee, hit a person that had removed their mask (also a major safety violation), or otherwise cause damage or injury through indiscriminately firing paint at an unseen target, although many players use the arc of a paintball to shoot at someone they can't see over low bunkers. This tactic is not advisable, yet can be effective in dense woods situations.

Ramping of velocity increases velocity during rapid fire and is prohibited in all tournament formats and paintball fields. Ramping of rate of fire begins adding shots while the trigger is pulled more rapidly, and is widely prohibited at paintball fields. Rate of Fire ramping is allowed in some tournament formats. Most of the major professional leagues modified their rules for 2008 to limit rate of fire to 13.3 balls per second versus the previous 15. (2006): Warpig.com Paintball Dictionary [1] Although it is possible for players to fire more than 13.3 BPS (Balls Per Second), doing so with ramping is disliked by some, and is regulated by PSP.

It is also played more often than speedball, another type of paintball, as more than 70 percent of paintball players describe themselves as woodsball players.

Sunyjim's Paintball Club - London Ontario Paintball History [2] URL accessed on 2007-02-19 Though tournament paintball was originally played in the woods, the rise in popularity of teams such as Team Dynasty (Then known as the IronKids) in the late 1990s saw speedball become the standard competitive format. The small size of speedball fields brings several advantages to competitive play.

Branches of the U.S. military, such as the U.S. Army have been known to utilize paintballing as a supplement military training, and in many (but by no means all) cases, paintball games and players take on a military theme, especially regarding camouflage and terminology. However, some controversial, incidents of either accidental and intentional misuse of paintball markers resulting in personal injury or damage of property have occurred, though more likely arising from "outlaw" games.

They can range from golf carts covered in plywood to real military tanks with real guns converted to paintball guns. Many paintball sponsors and businesses have their own paintball tanks they take to fights. One of the best and most effective paintball tanks ever created was the 4 wheel drive Gator made by the Great Paintball General Hunter Henson from Texas.

Source: Wikipedia > Paintball