Paintball

[MIballer]

Okay sounds like you have gotten many great ideas but lets elaborate a little

Refs: Yes they should be knowledgeable but a lot of players I know are refs and a lot of the players I play with are socially awkward it is key to not only have ref knowledge but also keep in mind you are in the entertainment business in a way so it is key to have refs that have charisma they need to be sociable and need to have a presentable image. If I am a parent and I see that the refs look like people not much older than my kids and or look like dirtbags well that wont sit well well with me. Have a standard uniform in a way non reffing staff should wear something presentable with your logo on it. Also people will feel a lot more comfortable letting there kids play there if you have ref's with first aid training.

Prices: my field charges 15 for entry 10 for all day air and 3 types of paint from Valken priced at 45, 55 and 65 the 45 is the most popular and honestly the best performing all around in my opinion heck we even use it as the standard tourney paint.

Rules: I feel 260 is a little low the potential for bounces is much higher and we all know that bounces hurt more 275-285 is more reasonable. Enforce a Semi only 10 bps cap if your worried about having electro's mixed in at some point but also be aware that RT trigger tippmans are always a major problem with the BPS rules so I would suggest investing in a virtue clock to do periodic checks just in case.

those are my two cents

[dutchman]

I agree totally with the refs, comment. We are going back to the old uniforms this season. They are a simple orange golf shirt with our logo and staff on the back. We had let them use jerseys and that was a bad idea.

For charisma, it's a double edged sword, but the good outweighs the bad. Some of the folks with charisma are just full of B.S. and will play you to get the job. It's really too bad, because if they tried they could do a great job, but some have learned to depend on deception to get in and then they kick back and coast until you fire them.

We've established that multiple paints on a field doesn't work for us. We offer an excellent paint and if you want it cheaper, bring a bigger group. We lower the price per case if the group gets to 20 players and again if it gets to 50. each time it drops $5.00 a case.

Our guys seem to enjoy the 260 fps for recreational play wearing just a shirt. If you go up they will pad up to protect themselves more, this causes the bounces we want to avoid and then the standard answer would be to up the speed. And so on and so on. it's a lot like the old days when head shots didn't count. The industry thought that would eliminate getting hit in the head. Just the opposite, since it didn't count the players kept their heads exposed so they could direct their fellow players as to the movement of the other team. This was countered by the other team shooting these guys in the head to drive them back down so they could move undetected. That rule only lasted about 2 years and everyone figured out the way to minimize the head shot was to count it.

Much like the stupid idea they tried with the "bounce rule." We went to a speedball tourney in Indiana back in the mid 90's. total waste of time!! But one of the events going on at the tourney was a separate tourney that allowed players to crash into an inflatable bunker and if you hit it hard enough to bounce the defending player out into the open he would be free to shoot. That sounded really stupid! by 1/2 way through the morning we watched an ambulance load a player and take hit to the hospital with a broken wrist. He broke it landing from a bounce. That rule died that day and I'm glad it did.

ROF is a problem at times, and it's hard to deal with. Some players with class can play to the level of the game be it up or down. Others bought the big gun to make up for a lack of skill. Those are the guys that are the issue for me. They have to dominate the other players to feel good. The little kid with the Walmart gun is the easiest target to beat so these guys show no mercy when they get a chance to get at them. We do our best to prevent this. I'm reminded of a line from the movie Schrek" When Schrek sees the castle of the short Prince and it's huge and he blurts out, "you don't suppose he's compensating for something?" I find myself thinking that very though when I see a monster marker being pulled out to deal with a handful of 10 year olds with plastic markers.

Thanks for the input, I'll pass it alone to the staff.

[Skipdogg]

I don't have a problem with 260 fps.
Does it cater to noobs and renters? = Yes
Is that bad for a field to do? = No

If a regular player is put out by that, then it's probably a good thing they go elsewhere.

[dutchman]

When we ran our regular tourney schedule we went to 280 for those events, but saw no real need for it in Rec play. I know many fields still use 300 and I've watched too many players try to set their marker to the absolute max the field will allow. last year I had a lad shoot almost 100 rounds to get set at the 260 limit. He fired a 3 shot string at 255, 257, 260 and that wasn't good enough. He fooled around trying to get all 3 at 260. He finally gave up and settled for 260, 259, 260. For my gun as long as I'm below 260 and above 240 I'm good to go! But That's just the way I play. I guess some people take it more seriously then I do. I just want to have fun on the field.

[Mr Idiot Box]

Cheap hard shell paint at 260fps hurts more then good brittle paint at 300fps. Paint plays a bigger part in how bad a paintball hurts then the speed. Ask anyone thats been hit with a wallmart special monsterball. You can shoot them things 200FPS and its still like getting hit with a rubber bullet.

You see Pro paintball players getting blasted all to hell at 300fps point blank and it dont faze them because there shooting premuim paint. Not becuse they are accustomed to it.

If your selling one type of paint make it a good consistant brand. (that is Key)

[dutchman]

I agree, cheap crap paint that's harder then a rock doesn't belong anywhere in the game.
Good paint shoots straight, stays consistent over the chronograph and breaks at a reasonable amount of pressure. Cutting the corners to cheaper paint is a sign a player is trying to play above a level he can afford.

But another thing to watch for is getting a ball to hit on the seam. If the seam makes contact breaking is easier. But if it hits on the end of the cup that makes up 1/2 the shell it takes much more pressure to break it. They played with a 2 seam idea for a while which would have insured a seam hit, but they never did seem to get it to work.

[John Satclaire]

Originally Posted by dutchman

Marker old school "Air Power Vector". Great gun, I wish they were still around. Those things would shoot straight for a long ways.

Oh, they're still around

[dutchman]

I loved those old guns, but your right they did bark. The barrel detach was a great feature. I've still got mine, but haven't shot it in 10 years. I put mine together with a Sheridan inline regulator. That gave me velocity adjustment on the regulator between the tank and the back of the gun.
But if you build quality, you can't compete with cheap markers at low price. I liked the sponsorship package they use to have. If your team was shooting vectors and placed in an event, they would match the prize money you won. You bag a grand from the event and they give you $1000 for the rights to use it as advertising. Honest and straight forward the way it should be.

[John Satclaire]

Originally Posted by dutchman

I loved those old guns, but your right they did bark. The barrel detach was a great feature. I've still got mine, but haven't shot it in 10 years. I put mine together with a Sheridan inline regulator. That gave me velocity adjustment on the regulator between the tank and the back of the gun.
But if you build quality, you can't compete with cheap markers at low price. I liked the sponsorship package they use to have. If your team was shooting vectors and placed in an event, they would match the prize money you won. You bag a grand from the event and they give you $1000 for the rights to use it as advertising. Honest and straight forward the way it should be.

Yep, too bad the Model A was such a disaster that Air Power was doomed...the Vector's trigger mechanism is one of the best built pieces of hardware to ever grace a paintball field. There's a guy on here, J-Man, who has parts and spring/seal kits for the Vectors (which include those hairline o-rings for the adaptor body). And if you're a Sheridan RG1 user, check out the Palmers CART reg...easy backbottle reg for a Vector that's a bit sturdier than the RG1.

[dutchman]

I got tired of the hair line O-rings and took the back end apart and put it on my lathe and recut the groves to accept a more standard o-ring. It's worked well for me. A friend still has the Apex Elite pump gun from Air Power. I started out 30 years ago as a gunsmith and I've done more work the last 15 years on paintball gear then firearms. When you couldn't find a barrel for a Tippmann SL we were modifying barrels to fit the old girls. we made about 200 of them mostly 16 inch Smartsparts but we did a few Armsons and Dye Boomsticks too. That was back when accuracy was important. Oh for the good old days!