Paintball | Paintball gear

At its essence, paintball is a competitive game played like any other competitive game, to win. It is like a more challenging, high-stakes version of tag, hide-and-seek, or capture the flag. Because you shoot at other people (and get shot at!), paintball requires specific equipment (goggles, a gun/marker, pressurized gas, and paintballs).

Beyond that, paintball is hard to describe. It can be played indoors or out, with as few as two people or as many as 500; a game can last 5 minutes or 24 hours; it’s objective might be to take something, bring something, find something, or to simply be the last person standing.

Depending on the field you play, tactics will be vary as well -- from being quiet and sneaky and picking your shots carefully, to being loud, fast, and shooting constantly.

A paintball game can be different every time, but there’s one thing that stays the same: it’s an adrenaline rush.

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12g - 12 gram CO2 cartridges: powered the early paintball guns.

APG - Action Pursuit Games--a paintball magazine

Anti-Siphon - A special CO2 tank designed to reduce the likelihood of liquid going into the gun.

Barrel condom - A bag that fits over the business end of the marker's muzzle. It prevents projectiles from accidentally leaving the gun.

Bottom Line - Usually refers to the local of the CO2 tank on the bottom rear portion of the marker's pistol grip. Desired since it makes sitting the gun with a mask on much easier.

Bunker (noun) - An object or embankment on the field that a player uses for cover.

Bunker (verb) - To charge a bunker and eliminate (hopefully), at close range, any players hiding behind it.

CA - Constant Air--allows marker to use bulk CO2 tanks rather than 12 gram.

Chronograph - A device used to measure the velocity (speed) of a paintball coming out of a barrel. The safe maximum speed of a paintball is 300 feet per second.

CO2 - Carbon Dioxide--compressed gas used to power paintball guns.

Hopper - A larger hopper which holds paintballs - feeding them into the gun through its bottom, typically holds around 200 rounds.

Hopper Agitator - An electronic device which is located at the base of the feeder. The agitator helps insure that balls feed through the bottom of the feeder. Often used on faster firing guns like the Intimidator, AutoMag, AutoCocker, Shocker, Angel, and many other higher end paintball guns.

FPS - Feet Per Second. The measurement of speed at which the paintball travels. 300 fps is the maximum velocity a paintball may travel safely Recreation play is typically around 270 fps.

Harness or Ammo Pack - Belt/harness system for carrying tubes of paint so a player may reload their hopper on the field during play.

HPA - Compressed Air High-pressure compressed air (3000 to 4500 psi) is usually used instead of CO2 in tournament paintball. The use of HPA requires specialized high pressure tanks and regulators, which lower the output pressure to what paintball guns need.

PSI - stands for Pounds Per Square Inch and is a measurement of pressure in the air tanks.

Remote Hoses and fittings which allow the air tank to be detached from the manufacture's intended location on the gun, then located elsewhere (e.g. on the player's pack).

Siphon Bottle - A special CO2 tank designed to avoid liquid going into the paintball gun.

Speedball - Speedball is a game played on small fields with little natural cover. Bunkers usually consist of wooden pallets, tires or other man-made barricades. Speedball fields are designed to allow spectators to see the action. The first speedball field was set up at SC Village in Corona, CA.

Squeegee - A device used to clean paint from the barrel of a paintball gun, either a pull-through or straight with many types of material used.

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The evolution of paintball into the modern sport that it is today took place fairly quickly in comparison to most other sports. The history of the paintball gun begins in the early 1970s, when it was used as a tool for marking trees and livestock. In 1981, twelve friends played the first recreational paintball game using these industrial paintball guns on a field measuring over 100 acres.

One of the first names given to the sport that we now call paintball was “The National Survival Game.” This name reflects the nature of paintball as it was first played – a small group of friends getting together in the woods to play total elimination games. Sometimes the friends broke into teams to play each other, but most games were “every man for himself.”

Over the years, recreational paintball has become more sophisticated. Because more people were playing, using teams became the standards. Different playing varations began to form, the most popular being “capture the flag”, but offensive/defensive scenarios also were popular. Also, as the number of people interested in paintball grew, so did the development of the commercial paintball industry.

The first outdoor commercial paintball field started in 1982. The first indoor paintball field followed in 1984.The fields allowed large groups of people to meet in one place to play, and the business owners were pushed to develop new and exciting ways to keep these paintballers entertained. This drove the development of new scenarios and styles of playing.

The biggest style of play change to come about because of commercial fields was the “bunker-style” game. Smaller fields let players start the action quicker, instead of having to stalk through the woods for 15 minutes before seeing anyone. Also, players purchased more paintballs when they were in a constant firefight, which made the commercial fields more money.

Today, commercial paintball fields are everywhere, but there are still a large number of people that prefer playing paintball out in the woods. While outlaw paintball is generally much cheaper, it is also more problematic than paying to play at a commercial field.

The first professional tournament was held in 1983. Even then, the prizes where worth $14,000. Today, major tournaments have hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of prizes. One of the major forces in tournament games, the NPPL, was founded in 1992-93.

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