Paintball

[paintballedbackin88]

I started playing in 1988 in SoCal. I had the fortune of knowing Earon Carter when Carter Machine was in Torrance, CA. I'd buy Earon, Bill "Thunderpig" Harvey(R.I.P.), and John K.(Texas Boonie Rats) filipino fried chicken for lunch or dinner and Earon would work on my Custom Carter Comp. It was very similar to Dave Youngbloods signature all polished carter comp with 20 inch barrel and twin 20oz CO2 tanks mounted calif style CA.

Local teams at the time were Those guy and that gal Mercenaries(Jessica Sparks, Termite, Jerry Y.sr), Sudden Death(Dave Youngblood, Rick Schroeder), Team Navarone, Kamikaze Shooters, Bushwackers, Bushmasters, KMA.

Colin Thompson, founder of LAPCO, was still making Grey Ghosts out of his house in Los Angeles.

I worked briefly at Adventure Game supplies, soldering direct feeds onto pgps and making autotriggers for nelson based markers, as well as being the nelson guy.

I owned a custom carter comp, termite gun, mac1 Annhilator, a custom hornet(nelson based, featured in an APG circa 1989 I think.) an old kp2, and a tippman smg-60 (very first marker, orange stipper clips!) I sold all my guns to friends when I quit in 1990.

The first semi I saw in person was Glenn Palmer's prototype. He brought it down to Field Games BIG game in Corona, CA.

We are heading in 2012 and I would like to start playing again. I was 18 when I started and now Im going on 42.

Is the game truly "fading" as Ive seen many post? My observation is that the game is faster with the electric markers. I just learned about ramping on these boards! I just want to get back into rec ball at sc village or Paintball USA (both Cali fields).

Ive already bought my first 2 markers, an old beat up 02 mech BM and a lnib Karnivor. Ive always wanted a Budd Orr Sniper when they first came out!

Maybe paintball has peaked and is declining, but I just dont see the game going away completely. Smaller shops and fields will go away, but that is just the way of business economy.

Merry Christmas!

PS. A huge factor in getting autocockers was the community I discovered here and at customcockers.com. I dont feel like I made a mistake, (guy at a shop told me not to buy any autocockers except for the karni) knowing I can find tech help here. Btw, why do pbnation and techpb get bad reviews?

[B.R.]

welcome to mcb
sounds like it might be hard to top your "early days"
it seams like there is a big pb comunity where you are so that will be nice.
pbnation is ok to visit its just maddenning to sift through all the b.s. never been to techpb

[noclue119]

Cockers are not hard to tune. Kids these days are just too dumb/lazy to work on their gun.

[paintballedbackin88]

Thanks for the welcome. The advantage of living in Los Angeles is just sheer numbers when it comes to finding paintball support. It seems like the smaller cities have harder times with local fields or tech support for their markers. Im very lucky to have a few local autococker specialists. Ive read where many guys have to send their markers out of state because of no local tech support. I guess this is why so many sell their autocockers or convert them to pumps when the front pneumatics start to fail. This is just my opinion on some of them anyway.

The old 02 BM I bought belonged to a 15 year old who inherited the marker from his father. It started to fail and he didnt have the resources to repair it, so he wanted to convert to a pump, thinking it was a simple fix. His local pb shop in north hollywood doesnt service autocockers, so he just sold it to me on CL.

I dont know about topping my early days when there were only pumps. Back then, there were only 4 game types, 12gm stock, 12gm d/f, constant air only, and constant air/12gm.

The most impressive upp at the time was a decent 12gm QC. That is what I loved about my Carter comps. It allowed you to keep up with a constant air bomber like Dave Youngblood. He was known for his accuracy and speed without an autotrigger on his carter comp, by those who played against him. Everyone else knew him for wearing his double breasted blazer and polished twin 20oz tanks!

I would see him honing barrels at Earon's shop when I stopped by for lunch or to ask Earon to work on my guns. Earon actually got quite angry at me for selling my comp and termite/buzzard to friends. He done things for me as a friend that he didnt do for customers. I never told him I sold the guns to help Mom with rent.

[Bored383]

come to some of the MCB groups or Those Pump Guyz games here in socal - you'll see a great bunch of people who are keeping the sport alive. There are a lot of veterans from those days past still going at it too

I don't know if its wishful thinking or not, but I think that there is a core group made up of all ages that kind of gets the sense of those early days.

[Stitch]

that and bored's collection of vintage will give you flashbacks and goosebumps /whistle

[paintballedbackin88]

Just started looking at Bored's paintball gallery. I regret not taking pics of our old days, but I was always playing or wrenching on a nelson in the staging area. I remember missing many games just due to fixing someone else's nelson. They had lousy valve tubes that snapped all the time. Sheridans had to worry about losing a poorly soldered direct feed! Lighter, shaved hammers and spring kits, and aftermarket valves were all we needed.

Carter, thunderpig and lapco had the best spring kits and hammers with internal velocity adjust. Get some decent cup seals and orings and good to go.

[ApoC_101]

paintball up here seems to be getting better, more attendance at the home field, more regulars, more pump players, and more growth in general. the sport continues to grow as it dies down in other places. it's how evolution works, things get simpler and they get better. now is a good time as any to get back into the game, I expect lots of good things to happen in paintball over the next few years.

[matteekay]

Originally Posted by Bored383

come to some of the MCB groups or Those Pump Guyz games here in socal - you'll see a great bunch of people who are keeping the sport alive. There are a lot of veterans from those days past still going at it too

I don't know if its wishful thinking or not, but I think that there is a core group made up of all ages that kind of gets the sense of those early days.

Originally Posted by Stitch

that and bored's collection of vintage will give you flashbacks and goosebumps /whistle

Listen to these two gents. I'd like to think that we have a pretty solid core group in SoCal; at the very least, we have enough players (primarily pumpers) to have monthly(ish) private MCB games at Camp Pendleton. I try to organize them but next month I get to take a break and let Those Pump Guyz handle it, lol. It should be an awesome event.

Check out the West Coast forum here on MCB to stay apprised of our misdeeds and goings-ons, and welcome back - which is incredibly bizarre for me to say to a vet since I just started playing a little over a year ago, haha.

[paintballedbackin88]

I have noticed a huge number of canadian players today, usually in the market for milsim type markers. I don't recall paintball being that big in Canada in the late 80's or early 90's. Im happy to read that it is growing out there.

It was a mostly adult sport when I played, except for the father/son teams on walkon days. It seems the average player is much younger now and the high end guns and gear can be quite costly.

I paid $275 for my first carter comp in 1988 and $300 for my mac1 Sheridan Annhilator(Tim Macmurry). I also had a used Line Si Bushmaster from a co-worker for $50.

I paid $466 for my first Karni and $180 for my first 02 mech BM with a spare f/b with pneus and a spare, beat up e1 frame with solenoid. Karni was shipped today and is on the way.

Unfortunately, I didn't do my homework well enough when I bought the black magic and it was not running. The tech gassed it and it started venting out of the front block and wouldnt cycle. He immediatley noticed the front block was wobbly! He feels I overpaid for a gun that needs major work to restore. I agree and feel the gun wasnt worth more than 80-100 at best. At least its undrilled, which people seem to covet. Why? Is it because they want it to remain a mech as opposed to an ecocker?