The Rebel Faction

Paintball season has arrived to Northern Minnesota. It's not 'official' yet, stores are still only charging 20c/oz for CO² rather than their peak-season price of 25, but it <i>has</i> arrived.

Still a bit sloppy, something about not having a lot of frost has caused unusually spongy ground, and still a tad chilly, but that's not stopping me. I pulled my gun out of the closet, kissed it tenderly (it has missed me so) and made a few adjustments prior to taking it outside and re-calibrating. It was windy out, so I satisfied myself with 11 of 15 inside a 12" circle at 110'. I'll be a bit more anal later, much to my team-mates chagrin. And they wonder why I routinely get a very high kill to death ratio, often never outing at all.

I was going to take pictures and everything, but I couldn't find the driver disc to make my laptop look at my phone, much less copulate with it. So you'll have to satisfy yourselves with descriptions, and if you're knowledgeable, lust.

I play woods ball. If I wanted to play speedball or hyperball I'd go home and play QIII. Ok, honestly, my kit is designed around woodsball. I have a Tippmann A-5. I've added a rear velocity adjuster, expansion chamber, 14" J&J Pro Ceramic barrel and a response trigger. The response trigger is currently disabled, as I feel the extraordinary amount of CO² used outweighs the added firepower. Not that I don't mind making people wet their pants and scream in terror, but going from ~900 rounds from a 20oz tank to barely 500 is a hard bullet to bite for the budget gamer.

I'm looking to upgrade my gun with a Flatline some time this summer, provide the spare cash is around. Contrary to most opinions, I eagerly await the extra noise. A good "Boom Boom Boom" is worth more than a silent kill, if used correctly.

Who else plays paintball, and what kind of rigs do you have? Anyone else more than mildly interested in Tippmann's C-3 marker, which is powered by propane (50,000 shots <i>per tank</i>? Holy balls, I'm sold. What kind of people do you play with, and do you regularly introduce newbs to the sport?

It's a toss-up between a Custom 98 and an A-5, since they're both great guns. I tend to tell new players to get the 98, since it's cheaper and more newb friendly (less stuff to break), but the cyclone feed on the A-5 is the most delicious thing I've ever used. No chopped balls, no missfires, no need for fancy e-hoppers, just pure bliss.

Paintball is very expensive, yes. My rig ran me... um, probably close to 400 this last spring and summer. A day game will cost me ~40. I tend to play outlaw woodsball, so there's no field fee. Two 20oz tanks and two thousand balls will last me all day and leave enough to help tide a less fortunate player over when he runs out with two hours left to go.

I've mentioned playing winterball several times, but I always get the "I don't want to be shot with frozen paintballs" answer. I've done it some, I think it's fun, but most people hang up the gear somewhere around October.

Pfbt. End of the month LARPing begins and that's really where it's at!

I've discovered auto racing is cheaper than paintball, so long as I stay away from the nasty stuff like rallycrosses with foot-deep ruts.

I have a model98 I haven't used in 3 years.