ChoicePaintballGuns

There’s a new trend in paintball that’s a bit on the controversial side.  You can now purchase ‘clear paintballs’ at www.ChoicePaintballGuns.com and many people are using them to shoot raccoons that are taking liberties in the garbage cans.  That’s right; alley cats, stray dogs, possums, raccoons and any other fuzzy mis-lead creature could become the victim of a clear paintball from a high-powered paintball gun.  This approach to animal control may be hard to stomach for some people but just remember, paintballs won’t kill these animals…. just push them aside a little.  Forget about setting traps, get an awesome tactical Tippmann 98 paintball gun dressed up like an exact replica M4 Carbine rifle.  Or better yet, have some fun with it and get the T68 Extreme Sniper paintball gun with a high powered sniper scope, silencer, bipod and grenade launcher!  You’d be surprised how effective and fun it is!  ChoicePaintballGuns.com also carries a full line of everything you need to make your backyard varmant control a reality…. CO2, paintballs and a giant paintball gun selection.  Don’t worry, paintballs are not toxic; they are made of a soluble, bio-degradable, sugar solution that easily washes away, so it can’t hurt the animals.  Unless they get shot in the eye and they aren’t wearing their paintball goggles!

When you go to your first paintball competition, these are some things you’ll need to know ahead of time. Know what to expect before you go and you’ll have a much more fun time at the meet. If you’re the captain of the paintball team, you’ll definitely want to attend the Captain’s Meeting.
Captains Meeting: This is very important, you don’t want to miss this. This is where they go over things like game rules, scoring, last minute changes to the schedule, fields, etc.  Missing this meeting and not knowing of the different rules is going to kill you quickly on the field. Some fields have their own set of starting rules and things, as well as knowing what the starting call is. You look rather foolish making your break out when they call “ten seconds” (The standard start is for the Head Ref to call “3, 2, 1, Ten seconds” At this time the game can begin anytime within those following ten seconds when the Head Ref says “Go”. This prevents people jumping the gun).
Don’t be intimidated: If this is your first event you will see lots of people with cool and fast looking paintball guns all wearing personalized jerseys and drinking bottles of Gatorade with their own picture on them. Don’t be intimidated, I swear to you that one day long ago they were also sitting under a tree looking at people with cool and fast paintball guns and getting ready to get spanked. Yes they will probably beat you, but they have a lot more experience then you do. Stick with it and you’ll get better. Also talk to them, many of them are more then happy to help out younger players. Ask them if they will let you see their paintball markers. Get your 30 seconds of glory holding a $2,000 Planet Eclipse. Get a picture taken with it so you can lie to all your friends.
Be early: Find out quickly what paintball field your supposed to be at and be there early. Games can run behind or ahead and you don’t want to get skipped over. Also watch what other teams do. Maybe a team will send someone to the same place you were going to go and he gets picked off right out of the gate 3 out of 3 times…. my guess is you should change your plan.
Paint: Your back players are going to shoot more paintballs than your front players. It is a given, but your fronts will get the added protection of that added paintball cover fire. Is it fair that your back player should have to buy 2 cases while your fronts get away with 500 rounds? I think you’ll find yourself without any back players after a while anyway. So team purchasing paintballs is a must. The best way to do this is to have each person buy one case and then let everyone take from everything. As you need more paintballs make sure every chips in. Most 5 man teams go through about 5-7 cases per event. Depending if you make the finals or not.
Travis Sauer, Midwest Assassins Division 1 Paintball Team Captain

Here is some more tidbits of information from Travis about what to expect at a paintball competition.  Travis has been the Team Captain of the Midwest Assassins paintball team for several years now and plays at the division 1 level.
The Game: You will find the game much faster and more aggressive than what you might be use to. People know if they don’t make a move then they will lose the game and that hurts them in the long run, not like rec play where the games don’t affect each other; you’ve got nothing to lose in rec ball. Bunkerings happen much more often, and peoples nerves are on edge. So don’t get upset if you get bunkered or you get a bonus ball walking off. Just understand that the person didn’t really have it out for you, they are just trying to win.
Points: The average points system usually revolves around a 100 point max; 50 for hang, 20 for first person to pull the flag, 4 for each opponent eliminated, 2 for each of your team left alive. But you need to go to the captains meeting to find out for sure exactly what the scoring criteria is. It may be different from other competitions.
Refs: The refs expect you to know the rules of the game. They will not talk to you, or tell you where the other guys are, or do anything other then start the game and give out penalty’s. But they are nice, if you are not sure if you are hit ask for a paint check, if you think you got someone tell the ref exactly here he is and where you think you got him. Also be courteous to them and thank them for doing their job. It can only go to your advantage to have the refs like you.
Arguing Calls: If something happened that you don’t think was right only the captain of your team should go to the head ref. If you have the entire team swarm the guy I can already tell you the final answer will be no. State the simple facts, and ask if there is any way to rectify the situation, usually the refs field call stands, but sometimes it changes.
Final Results: In short, expect to get rolled at your first several paintball competitions. Paintball is a lot about paying your dues by playing a lot. Many of these teams have been together for a long time and have been playing even longer. Worry not, be glad with your performance and look to improve next time. It’s happened to all of us, I see way too many first timers walk away upset that they didn’t win. Frankly they didn’t have much of a chance to begin with. Competition speedball is a lot different than just playing paintball with your friends after school and it takes a lot of competitions to get good enough to win.

When your paintball team goes to a tournament, here are a couple tips to remember and highlights to look out for. ‘Know before you go’ and you’ll have a much better time!
Make friends: Paintball is like any other social event, you get to meet lots of people. Whenever I got to events now I can see friendly faces and friendly teams of people we’ve met before and have similar interests. It’s great fun to walk onto the field threatening someone from another team and then walk off laughing hysterically at how you ripped each other apart. No matter what the outcome, everyone’s pretty much friends at the end of the day. Go to win, but go with a light-hearted, good spirited attitude; you’ll have more fun and meet more people if you do.
Food: It usually helps to bring a packed lunch to events as the food tends to be expensive. Then again it is often tough to ignore the calling of that triple Decker cheeseburger with jumbo fries.  Eat it if you wish, but my bet is it will end up on the field somewhere behind a bunker.  I personally feel best with LOTs of water/PowerAde, and light snacks during the day.  Granola bars, crackers, a cheese sandwich. But make that call as to how you are athletically.  If you’re not used to athletic events, trust me, eat light snacks throughout the day and drink plenty of water.
Bragging Rights: No one likes a bragger, even more so if they are a more defined team then yours. Everyone has a bad day and if you happen to beat that team of angels with your Wal Mart Talons don’t flaunt it in their faces. They may be higher up on the food chain and might’ve just had their turn at a bad day.  You never know, politically, they might be able to make things very difficult for you, or at least you’ll make an enemy and not a friend.  Simply be content with your victory and scream it to the hill tops when you get home but try to be respectful in front of the other teams.
Heading Home: Before you go make sure to thank the refs, the organizers and the other teams. Reputation is everything. Pick up your trash (you’ll probably be given a trash bag when you check in) and pack up. Stay for the awards if you’d like or just go home for dinner. Over dinner try to figure out what you did right, what you did wrong and what you can do to improve. Have each member of your team write these things down as an exercise and go over it all at your next practice. This is an excellent way to grow and get better with competing and working together as a team.
Travis Sauer, Midwest Assassins Team Captain, Division 1 Paintball Team

If you’re going to be the leader of a paintball team, sometimes there’s things you won’t want to deal with but have to.  Some of them are fun to do and some aren’t. Here’s a few tips and suggestions about how to deal with a few….
Sponsorship: Ah yes, to many this word means “Free”. Well I hate to break anyone’s bubble but the only people who get anything for free are the pro’s and the Am’s who are good enough to be pro’s. The rest of us have to deal with discount pricing and work/play deals.  But DO NOT turn these offers down. One of the best and probably first deals you should work out is if your home field will let you do a work/play deal. You work for them one day, and you play for free another day. This is how MANY teams get their practice’s done. Most paintball fields are more then happy to have you help out as it’s cheaper for them, and it’s better for you. You can help be a ref for other’s that play there or basically anything else they might need; offer your services and take what they’ll give you; even if it means picking up trash or working hard on their field.  That is what sponsorship is about, an agreement that helps BOTH parties.  A very important thing to remember is that no one will sponsor a team unless it’s good for their business.  So make your name known, get in the magazines, get to big events, and meet people.  A lot of it is who you know.
Live it up:  It is very important to trust each other on your team and that trust is built by being together.  So try planning to do non-paintball stuff with each other once in a while.  Play laser tag, go to the fair together, catch a flick….be a team.
Politics: Many people are scared of politics. Well I hate to tell you you’re going to deal with them. Not everyone on your team will like each other, some people will have different goals than others.  As a leader you have to take each one in stride and decide if it’s worth fighting for, or is it worth giving it up and letting the person “Be successful elsewhere”……
Still, no matter how many headaches I get as captain of our team, walking off that field, collapsing in exhaustion from our finals game, and dragging your team to the podium all teary eyed to collect your trophies… there’s nothing like it.  My teammates are now my brothers and I would never give that up.
Travis Sauer, Team Captain of Midwest Assassins, Division 1 Paintball Team

Here is another fun scenario paintball mission that you can use to practice how to set up an ambush and also how to deal with being ambushed by another team.  You can play this mission with a huge group of people or just with your paintball team.  If your just with your own team, get one or two players and they will be the ones setting up the ambush against all the ‘unsuspecting’ other.  You can also play this the other way around as well (large group ambushes the smaller).

The team setting up the ambush should try different strategic scenarios.  Try setting up trip wires with paintball grenades.  Also try using paintball landmines set in strategic places that you might try and flush the others into to get them to blow themselves up.  Of course use fully decked out semi and fully automatic paintball guns on both sides.  Also look for strategic places to put a sniper paintball gun position somewhere to pick off key players while your other ‘regular infantry’ are keeping pressure on them with constant fire.  Be smart with your location as well; try to use the layout of the land or specific sections of territory that might make your ambush more successful.  These are things like a stream, a bottleneck - someplace where the opposing force would have to go through.  This might be a bridge, a trail or even a section of a field.  Try to use paintball gun firepower to divert the opposing team and force their movement into a certain area you’ve already strategically placed paintball landmines or tripwires in.  If you have multiple players in the ambush, consider separating your forces in different areas of your location to accomplish your mission.  Try to have alternate plans and be ready to go with the flow.
Your Mission…. Ambush the opposing team.  The opposing team should give the Ambushers enough time to set up their ambush (so they can strategize, set trip wires, etc.) without knowing what they’re doing.  The mission starts when the opposing team enters the area where the ambush is set up.  Eliminate as many enemy as possible.  Either team can win.
Time Limit…. 30 minutes. Also set a time limit for the ambush set-up (15-30 minutes).
Teams…. One team for the Ambushers (1-2 players if dealing with a small group - or you can use a whole squad if you’re with a big group).  The rest of the players will make up the Opposing Forces getting ambushed.
Enemy….Enemy forces consist of a squad of local insurgents.  Insurgents are suspected to be highly trained and armed with small arms and automatic paintball guns.  Also use snipers as part of your ambush strategy (using high powered scopes and long range sniper paintball guns).
Props…. Use any kind of props you want for forts, hiding spots and snipers, etc.  Try to utilize landmarks or interesting points specific to your location.  Be creative with your equipment for a great time; set paintball landmines or paintball grenades.  You will have more fun with awesome tactical paintball guns and scenario gear that’s totally decked out.  Depending on how much room you have to play with, try using different numbers of players, different equipment and different strategies to be ready for anything.

Here is another fun scenario paintball mission that you can play with a huge group of people or just with your paintball team.  This one’s better with a larger group though.  If your just with your own team, get one or two players and they will be the ‘US Special Forces’ team and all the rest of your team will be the ‘Opposing Forces’ protecting the weapons cache.  Here’s the situation…

A local warlord has recently taken control of a small mountain village capturing a large cache of heavy weapons in the process.  Intelligence reports the cache has been separated and moved to two locations, one in the Northern sector and one in the Southern sector of the village.  You can use either extra paintball guns, but this game is most fun when played with rationed ammo.  Start out with everyone (good guys and/or bad guys) having only half a hopper full of paintballs (or a certain small amount); use boxes of paintballs for the ‘weapons cache’.  You can choose to give everyone a small amount of paintballs or you can give unlimited supplies to the bad guys while the good guys have a small amount (this will make things much harder!).
Your Mission…. Conduct an assault of the mountain village in order to secure and deny the enemy the use of the weapons caches.  Eliminate as many enemy as possible.
Time Limit…. 30 minutes.
Teams…. One team for the US Special Forces (1-2 players if dealing with a small group - or you can use a whole squad if you’re with a big group).  The rest of the players will make up the Opposing Forces protecting the ammo/weapons cache.
Enemy….Enemy forces consist of a squad of local insurgents.  Insurgents are suspected to be highly trained and armed with small arms and automatic paintball guns.  Snipers are also suspected to be in the area (using high powered scopes and long range sniper paintball guns).
Props…. Use any kind of props you want for forts, hiding spots for the weapons cache and snipers, etc.  Try to utilize landmarks or interesting points specific to your location.  Be creative with your equipment for a great time; set paintball landmines or paintball grenades; try to set up a strategic ambush.  You will have more fun with awesome tactical paintball guns and scenario gear that’s totally decked out.  Depending on how much room you have to play with, some guys really go all out and play this game at night with night-vision goggles, high-powered scopes and sneaky tactical strategies.

Here is a fun example of a scenario paintball mission that you can play with a huge group of people or just with your paintball team.  If your just with your own team, get one or two players and they will be the ‘US Special Forces’ team and all the rest of your team will be the ‘Opposing Forces’.  Here’s the situation…

Intelligence reports that Opposing Forces  are using their base camp to plan and launch attacks on U.S. forces in the area.  Interrogation of Opposing Force prisoners has revealed that sensitive, perishable information is tored on a CD and safeguarded in a satchel somewhere in the base camp.  There is also reportedly a ‘phony’ satchel containing false hard copy documents intended to deceive the enemy.
Your Mission…. A squad of US Special Forces will seize the target, identify and secure the satchel with the correct CD and proceed to the extraction point.
Time Limit…. 30 minutes.
Points…. You get 3 points for retrieval of correct satchel, 2 more points for safe transfer of the satchel to intelligence Analysts waiting at the extraction point.  Additional points may be awarded for Officer capture or casualties.
Teams…. One team for the US Special Forces (1-2 players if dealing with a small group - or you can use a whole squad if you’re with a big group).  The rest of the players will make up the Opposing Forces.
Props…. You will need one ‘phony’ satchel containing hard copy documents and one ‘real’ satchel containing the ‘real’ CD.  You will have more fun with awesome tactical paintball guns and scenario gear that’s totally decked out.  Depending on how much room you have to play with, some guys really go all out and play this game at night with night-vision goggles, high-powered scopes and sneaky tactical strategies.

Perhaps the most exciting aspect of participating in the sport of paintball is to play it with a specific objective in mind.  These “missions” can range from the simple (Elimination) to the elaborate (multiple day scenario missions - like ‘D-Day’).  Often times, missions are part of a much larger Scenario Game, which can involve as many as several thousand players and last for 24+ hours.  Your team may get assigned several missions; one right after the other.  By successfully competing a number of pre-planned missions, the paintball team with the most points wins the game.  Remember you may also have to accomplish your missions in a certain time frame; you may also have several missions to do, so you will have to accomplish them as quickly as possible so you can move on to the next one.  After mastering some of the more common missions, many platers find it challenging to create and play their own Army-style missions.  An excellent resource for creating and playing missions online or adapting them for paintball play is www.americasArmy.com.  This site contains all the tools you’ll need to create your own game and missions; this information can help paintballers enhance their skills in a variety of locations, weather and lighting conditions.  You can also visit www.choicepaintballguns.com and check out their ‘paintball game variations’ section for a wide variety of mission options and scenario play ideas.

Going out to a paintball field and shooting at your friends all day can be both fun and cathartic.  Organizing a game, however, can be a bit of a pain.  Here are some tips that will help:
• Recruit people who play paintball and possess the minimum equipment of a paintball mask and a paintball gun. If you don’t know enough people, go to your local paintball store and ask the owner if you can post a sign-up list.  Make slots for names and phone numbers, putting your own information in the first slot as an example.
• Find a place to play.  Ask about both official and unofficial - but not illegal - locations at your local paintball store. If you know someone with open land, that’s a good option, as long as you treat the land with respect.
• Buy paintballs and CO2 cartridges. Buy extra stuff and sell it to people who forget or run out. Remind everyone to fill their CO2 tanks before the game.
• Get a chronograph. If you don’t have one, or access to one, you can rent one from a paintball store. 
• Set a day. Pick a date far in advance so people can plan ahead, and then call people the night before to remind them.
• Play the game with all you’ve got. Play fair and safe and everyone will have fun.
• Discuss the day’s problems and work on some solutions for the next game.  Repeat all steps as often as possible.