Guns, paint and the great outdoors

[NiX]

So my boss and I have decided for the spring/summer we'd like to take up paintball after having rekindled our love for the game after going a couple weekends. We both used to play before school/work ran our social lives dead. But, now we're looking at so much extra time on the weekends and some weeknights it's viable for us to take it up again. Anyway, my boss decided to grab a Tippmann 98 while I went with a Spyder Imagine.

Anyway, probably a shot in the dark, but does anyone from here play?

[Strazos]

I play when I can. Having said that, I don't think I'd shot a single round in over 2 years.

I still have a full box of paint sitting in a corner. If I ever play again, I'd invest in a new gun, as my Spyder Compact turned into a chopping piece of shit. No straight-down vertical load? WTF was I thinking.

I personally have never had much luck using Tippmann guns, but you can treat them like absolute shit and they keep on going.

The gun you bought looks good, but I would follow the advice in the article and upgrade the hopper and barrel. Those teeny 6-inch barrels really gimp your accuracy, even at medium ranges.

Also, I'd suggest upgrading to a nice 20oz tank or whatever...the tiny stock ones blow when you don't have a refill station at hand.

I like expensive hobbies. 

[HaemishM]

It's been years since I played, back before semis became standard gear. I loved the shit out of it, though I never owned my own gun.

[Nebu]

When I was a kid we had bb guns and rock fights.  You didn't need paint to let you know when you hit an opponent.

[WayAbvPar]

It's been years since I played, back before semis became standard gear. I loved the shit out of it, though I never owned my own gun.

Ditto. I used to play back in high school and college. Haven't had gone in years, although now it is much more feasible on my budget (back then, $50 for field fees, rental,s and paint was a big expense). I am so out of shape at this point that I would be little more than a sniper, but I would like to go out and try it again sometime.

[squirrel]

When I was a kid we had bb guns and rock fights.  You didn't need paint to let you know when you hit an opponent.

I still play with BB's :)

Airsoft is similar to paintball in terms of fields and rules but the guns fire bb's not paint. They travel at about 300 fps, same as paintballs, and don't hurt much more but are far less messy and the guns look cooler imo.

I have a  MP5RAS, although mine is modified with a silencer (not to silence but to hide an extended inner barrel that increases accuracy) :



My sidearm:

[Nebu]

I saw similar weapons when I lived in West Phili.  I'm not sure they were for paintball though.

[squirrel]

Well, only for one game...

the primary draw of airsoft is the lack of paint and air. Rifles are battery powered and bb's don't make a mess. And it's originally created by the chinese and japanese players so there's an element of 'realism' in the weapons but that's not as huge a draw in North American players generally.

[schild]

Airsoft guns are awesome. We've got a FAMAS here. The only problem is finding high quality air soft guns. All the ones we've found are totally plastic and shitty toys.

[squirrel]

Airsoft guns are awesome. We've got a FAMAS here. The only problem is finding high quality air soft guns. All the ones we've found are totally plastic and shitty toys.

Ya here in Vancouver good rifles etc. are hard to find too. Mostly Tokyo Marui are the only reliable ones available, with small rifles (MP5, Bull-pups) being around $500 CND and full size rifles (M16, M4, AK47) being $600 CND, expensive.

[Strazos]

300FPS?

Isn't that a bit fast for paintball? I seem to remember people always having to tune their guns down at the fields I have played at. /shrug

[Samwise]

300FPS?

Sweet.  Is that with a GF 7800 SLI setup or what?

[Strazos]

Quantum Processing, suckah.

[MisterNoisy]

Airsoft guns are awesome. We've got a FAMAS here. The only problem is finding high quality air soft guns. All the ones we've found are totally plastic and shitty toys.

http://www.airsplat.com

Good prices and free shipping if your order is more than $150.

I just ordered one of these from them for $110.  Full metal construction (weighing in at about 4#) gas blowback pistol which shoots at about 300 fps and field strips like the real deal.  Get the propane adapter and a can of silicone spray, and you won't have to shell out for 'green gas' - you just use the camping stove/lantern tanks you find at outdoors shops.

The little orange cap can be removed for a better looking display piece, but doing so is illegal in most places, and could potentially get you shot.

[Strazos]

1) wtf is Green Gas?

2) Isn't using Propane a bit....dangerous?

[MisterNoisy]

1) wtf is Green Gas?

2) Isn't using Propane a bit....dangerous?

'Green' or 'red' gas are the two most common propellants used for gas-powered airsoft guns.  'Green gas' is often just propane with silicone lubricant premixed in and sells for silly prices, whereas 'red gas' is for Japanese guns mostly and also sells at ridiculous prices.

I wouldn't shoot a gas-powered gun of any sort indoors, but otherwise you should be fine unless you're smoking while shooting or refilling.  :)

Alternately, you can buy an electric gun and skip all that, but you don't get the recoil and sound you get from gas guns.

[NiX]

300FPS?

Most low to mid range guns hit 270FPS max without dumping cash into a HPA system. Even then if you do try 300FPS you'll chop and kill your bolt. So, with paintball it really varies on how fast you get the balls going.

I ordered a J&J Ceramic 14" barrel and metal feed neck with the gun. I'm trying to ebay a nice hopper and this mask. It's so damn sexy.

[Bunk]

Used to paintball about ten years ago. Had a .68 Automag with a specklecoat paint job (you couldn't tell if it got hit) and a self customized arm brace the CO2 feed went through... sigh... I miss that gun.

Played about two years, was on a team, did some tournies. Quit after realizing I was spending over $100 per week on it. Still miss it a bit though.

[Trippy]

Airsoft is similar to paintball in terms of fields and rules but the guns fire bb's not paint. They travel at about 300 fps, same as paintballs, and don't hurt much more but are far less messy and the guns look cooler imo.

If you are firing bb's how do you know when you've hit somebody?

[WayAbvPar]

Airsoft is similar to paintball in terms of fields and rules but the guns fire bb's not paint. They travel at about 300 fps, same as paintballs, and don't hurt much more but are far less messy and the guns look cooler imo.

If you are firing bb's how do you know when you've hit somebody?

From the yelps of pain and the loud cursing.

[Surlyboi]

I've got a highly modified G36, a P90, a PSG-1 and a few assorted gas pistols. I don't get to use them nearly as much as I used to since I live in a place where anyone with weapons like those is shot on sight, either by the cops or the criminals.

And yeah, if you're not appropriately padded, airsoft hurts like a sumbitch.

[squirrel]

My MP5 easily does 375+ FPS but it's dialed back to about 300. And that's about the same velocity as a good paintball gun on a chronometer. Now my sidearm - which is 'Green Gas' or propane powered - does about 400 fps but then again it's semi auto so i'm only going to hit you once or twice with it.

[squirrel]

Airsoft is similar to paintball in terms of fields and rules but the guns fire bb's not paint. They travel at about 300 fps, same as paintballs, and don't hurt much more but are far less messy and the guns look cooler imo.

If you are firing bb's how do you know when you've hit somebody?

From the yelps of pain and the loud cursing.

Yup, pretty much...

[Evangolis]

I wish I had a digital camera, as I am inordinately fond of my modified Sovereign semi-auto paintball gun.  Alas, both it and I are outdated.  There was a time when I worked at a paintball field, and I once went through nearly 5000 rounds in one weekend of play, but those days are behind my severely overweight ass.

Worse still, there are now full-auto paintball guns out there, pretty much standard issue on the pro circuit.  I worked at Shocktech's Lansing plant last year for awhile, and saw some truly obscene rates of fire.  I'd be thoughtful about jumping into Open games at larger fields.

As to speed, 280-300 fps is pretty common on outdoor fields, 250-270 indoors.  The big advantage to HPA isn't speed, it's consistency; you don't get the big pressure swings of CO2 systems.  As to propane, I wouldn't expect it to be that much more dangerous to airsoft players than CO2 and HPA systems, which kill one of two paintballers every year, generally in pressure-related mishaps around the fill station.

The ultimate paintball system is still under development, where the player is allowed to simply insert their credit card directly into the marker, thus converting money into paint directly.

[Jimbo]

Man, I feel old.  A bunch of us in high school back in 1986 played with Nelspots that didn't have pumps and with splatmasters.  My first gun I bought was a SL-68 from Tippman, was slick as snot, shot straight, and never broke on me...wish I hadn't sold it when I quit playing.

[Evangolis]

Those old Tippman's were tanks.  I loved them.  Still have a couple of Splatmaster Rapides in the closet as well.  Paintball does really make me feel my age and infirmities, worse so since when I started playing one of the best players in the area was older than I am now.

Also, reffing paintball games for a fundamentalist Christian group has left me with a couple of memorable lines from off the field, namely:

"Cover me, Reverend!"

and

"Nice shot, Brother Steve!"

Memorable, and a bit disturbing.