Paintball.

[Mesozoic]

Anyone here been playing recently?  I was a pretty consistent recreational player from around 98 until 2000, when time on the field got pushed aside for time with the g/f.  Mostly woods-ball although I did play in one local 3-man speedball tourney with my roommates. 

By the time I stopped playing I was shooting a Automag 68 with aftermarket RT valve and a 4500psi nitro tank.  Some extra bells and whistles like a two-finger trigger and a motorized hopper.  Back then it was a respectable marker.  NOW, all the high-end guns are electronic, with feather-light trigger pulls, fucking digital readouts on the back of the grip, and vacuum hoppers that sit below the barrel.  The mags and 'cockers that were so big when I played aren't even on the walls of local pro-shops anymore.  I guess Airgun Designs isn't even making 'mags now. Just parts.

So my question is basically this:  how common are these ubermarkers in recreational play?  I know the Tippmans are still selling like mad, so I'm not likely to be completely outclassed, but if anyone can paint a picture of what I'm likely to see out there, It would be a great help.

[Strazos]

You'll still see some of the higher end guns, but their frequency is really random, depending on where you play.

Also, those types of players usually come in packs, and play on the same team. Just pray it's your team they play on, or you'll be spending the better part of the day trying to hide behind foot-wide trees (or in the "safe zone").

[NiX]

Go to a speedball field, play with speedball players. You won't find many speedball (Timmy's, Angels, Ions) guns/players at Recball these days. There's far too many speedball places opening up for them to even justify going to Recball unless it's for some scenario shenanigans. The most I've seen at Recball are Tippmanns and of course me with my Spyder. It's not uncommon for recball people (like myself) to have all the bells and whistles that some speedball people play with. I have a harness, full clothing, new bolt, elec hopper to keep up with my elec spyder and all the other fancy shit. I even have a backpack made for paintball.

You'll still impress renters :-D

[Mesozoic]

Woo, replies!

The field I'm planning on hitting is just outside Baltimore; it's run by Pev's (if you've heard of them) and is basically all woods.  I would have to look again at the layout to see if there's a spedball field tucked in there somewhere.  Speedball was uncommon last I played...rec players really just weren't interested in it, and of course when an average Saturday draws 20+ people, you're either going to play a really stupid, overpopulated game of speed, or you've got to run two games at once, and neither option really appealed to the staff for obvious reasons.  Aside from the tourney I mentioned, I think I've done speedball once. 

[NiX]

I'm not too much turned on by speedball. The only thing I like about it is slides and dives, but the field I go to has refrained from letting me do so after some retard dove into a wall and broke his arm. Speedball is the new norm unfortunately. ESPN will be running speedball all of May I believe as part of the agreement to show some of the NPPL tournament that already happened this year (or last year, can't remember.)

If you play some serious recball you'll find a lot of scenario guns. They've come down in price from their old $400-$500+ price point. You can get a M4 style Ben Tippmann for about $200 US. Some of the fancier ones won't run you much more (Smart Parts SP-8 for example.) I'm not trying to discourage you, there are people still playing recball, but if you're going outside you'll find a lot of those hardcore scenario players. You know that mid-life crisis "I wish I had of been in the war" crowd who dumps a couple grand into equipment, gilley suits and camo clothes.

If you end up buying ANYTHING buy from theseguys. Great service, funny as hell over the phone, lowest prices around and they only ship with UPS. For me that's a bonus because even Canadian stores ship with Canada Post and takes about a week or so... to go about 15 KM. Sad. The discounter guys get to me within 4 days from Ohio.

[Jimbo]

Hey that website has smart part barrels!  I had a killer Tippman SL-68 II, it was awesome.  Accurate and easy to take care of, should have never sold that one.

Wooot, found some on ebay for under a hundred bucks!

[NiX]

I would of bought my marker online, but EBay doesn't allow people to ship markers out of the US :(