ChoicePaintballGuns

Your only supposed to shoot paintballs on the field and not bring it on the street.  Most towns and cities have laws against shooting paintballs within the town/city limits.  It is against the law to shoot any kind of street signs, businesses or anything else within your town’s limits unless it’s a designated area (like an indoor or outdoor field).  Take it from me, if you shoot up a building or something, the cops are going straight to the paintball teams.  In a small town, the paintballers aren’t hard to find either.  In most cases, the tactical paintball guns look so real nowadays, you can’t even carry one unless it’s in a marker bag.  Another thing that you can not do off the field is shoot people.  I had that experience once in my life and I don’t think the people who shot me were to happy when the cops took them to jail.
Joey Withrow Midwest Assassins Team Perryville, MO

If you know somebody in your life that’s interested in paintball, tell them it’s a great activity for learning strategy, hand-eye coordination, and various other skills.  Parents should understand however that paintball is an activity best enjoyed responsibly.  If your young child is asking for any kind of paintball accessories, make sure that they’re ready for that kind of responsibility.  Paintball guns shoot fast and it hurts to get hit.  Make sure they have the proper safety equipment before playing, so they don’t think the sport is too ‘intense’.  This is the main reason that you should be 18 years old before playing; most kids (who are too young to play) think it hurts too much to get hit with a paintball.  Safety must always come first when it comes to these kinds of activities.

The best way to introduce a younger child into the paintballing community is by providing him with all the safety gear and a very basic paintball gun.  The most important piece of safety equipment for the newbie is a good set of goggles or a paintball mask.  After he or she’s been properly versed in paintball safety and given all the necessary protective gear, look into paintball pistols.  These make ideal beginner guns because they tend to be smaller and more manageable.  They can also be outfitted with many extras once they prove he or she is responsible and capable of handling the basics.

What kind of injuries have you had from paintball?
I got hurt when I was playing paintball for the first time - we were playing scenario paintball in the woods and I tripped over a vine and scraped my legs and hands a little. Another injury I had is when I ran straight into a thorn bush; sometimes the natural ‘bunkers‘ outside can be kind of dangerous!  One day we were playing and I got shot in the face mask; my nose started bleeding a little, but not too bad.  But this goes to show you how important your face mask is.  If I wasn’t wearing it when I got hit, my nose would’ve surely been broken; who knows what would’ve happened to my eyes from the paint splatter too.  Overall though, these are the worst of what I’ve had from playing paintball…. not too bad.  One way to avoid these kinds of injuries is to look very carefully on where you’re running - especially when playing woodsball.  In woodsball, the unpredictable terrain is part of the fun but it can also get you injured if you’re not careful!  Another way to avoid injuries is to wear the proper gear.  The face mask/paintball goggles are a must, but you can also protect yourself with body armor, paintball gloves, helmet, padded jersey, shin guards and even a groin protector; getting hit in the sac is NO fun!  Also consider elbow and knee pads (in tactical and speedball) to protect yourself when sliding, landing and falling.
Joey W.  Midwest Assassins, Division 1 Paintball Team, Perryville, MO.

You’ve been playing paintball for a while, what equipment would you recommend for the newbie, just starting out?
Obviously, the most essential piece they’re going to need is a paintball marker.  The gun I would recommend for a beginner is a Spyder Xtra, Sonix, or even a Spyder MR1; these are easy to operate, maintain and there are many attachments and upgrades you can buy for them later.  They’re also very reasonably priced for a first gun.  To make the gun work, you’ll need air; I recommend starting with CO2….. start with either a 9 or a 12 oz. CO2 tank.  Next importance, you should think about safety.  I would recommend a full head paintball mask, to protect your face and eyes and just in case you get shot in the back of the head.  You can play with no body protection if you want, but it kind of hurts a bit when you get hit with a paintball, so a beginner may want to consider purchasing a padded vest and/or a padded jersey.  The paintballs I recommend is the kind that your team uses.  I would probably start off with Brass Eagle Monster Balls; their cheap and readily available - you can get them at Wal-Mart.  Our sponsor sends us Karnage paintballs and these are much better but we generally need more of them and Monsters bridge the gap nicely.  I would also recommend wearing a good pair of paintball gloves too. 
Joey W.  Midwest Assassins, Division 1 Paintball Team, Perryville, MO.

The key to playing the game of paintball is to make sure all the players are on the same page. Quickly going through the rules before starting a round of paintball is the best way to make sure that no one gets hurt.  So before taking out your paintball supplies and getting dirty – remember the following important rules:

1.) Establish boundaries.
2.) Mark the dead zone.
3.) Create a game objective.
4.) Establish a time limit for the game.
5.) Divide the group up into fair teams.
6.) Start the game only when both teams are set at their respective bases.
7.) When players are hit they must quickly leave the game playing area.
8.) When one team has met all of the necessary objectives, all players still on the field should be notified.
Check out www.choicepaintballguns.com forum section for a great variety of different paintball game ideas.  They can also be found under the ‘paintball games’ section of www.choicepaintballgunsblog.com.

If you cannot see, you are no help to your team and you are endangering yourself.  I would take being able to see and a pump-action paintball gun over the best paintball marker you can buy and fogged lenses (any day!!).  So, when you buy your paintball goggles, don’t skimp.  Get the thermal ones with a good field of view (if you already own goggles, go back and buy the thermal lenses for them).  If you can, get a fan.  You will never regret the purchase.  One last piece of paintball goggle advise.  Don’t ever wipe paint off your goggles!!  Paintball paint is really sticky.  More times than not as you walk off the field, stuff will get in the paint.  If you wipe it off, you could scratch the lens with the stuff that got stuck in the paint.  Remember, you have thermal lenses, you paid good money so you could see, don’t blow it now.  Here’s another good tip…. get a spray bottle, fill it with water (just water) and throw it in your paintball gear bag.  When you need to clean your goggles, spray all the yuck off and then dry them.  You will have clean lenses and they will last a lot longer.  You can also purchase certain sprays/cleaners specifically for cleaning paintball masks that will help polish the lenses and also help with anti-fogging; Sal Clear Spray/Solution is good for this.  Check out the Tippmann Ranger Performance Goggle or the Hawkeye Goggles from RAP4 for a couple of good ones.  You can also buy the Hawkeye goggles with a tactical helmet if you want.  You can find a great array of paintball goggles and masks at www.choicepaintballguns.com

I picked up my new Empire E’vent Thermal Lense Goggles, got em for $135-140 (Canadian) after taxes. They came with the goggles, a thermal AND tinted lense (one lense, single pane), visor, and two increadibly soft bags, one for the goggles and one for the visor, note these bags are not neccesarily meant to protect against shock/dropping, mainly just to keep dust and debris or whatever else could get on the lense when you’re not playing, packaged in an attractive hard-plastic, very protective case. Because they are tinted I wouldn’t reccomend these for evening/nighttime play, evening play being when the sun is just sitting above or on the tree line.  Other than that, these are, I’m sure, the best paintball goggles out there, the first time I played with them, I blew up into my lenses to check for foggage, I was huffing hot breaths up into the lense for 10-20 seconds before it reacted, and even so there was only a very small amount of fog in the far parriferals, and lets face it we don’t use them anyway in the heat of battle. Low profile, fits well, amazingly comfortable foam, by far the best paintball goggles I’ve even witnessed to exist, highly reccomend them! Just a reminder, to wash these use regular dish soap and water for the outside, if needed use a damp rag to clean the inside.. and NEVER submerge these underwater! Korian D., Barrie ON

If you’re a serious paintball athlete… (one who trains/practices and competes with goals of making the ‘next level’ of competition), then there are certain activities you should also practice; they’re called active rehabilitation. In weight lifting, there are exercises to help you build muscle and get stronger and there are others that help you recover/rehabilitate your body so you can train again sooner and therefore effectively increase your training load. You should also do these things with any athletics and the activities will be different depending on your sport. For example, massage therapy, trigger point work, deep tissue, A.R.T, ice/heat baths and jump stretch band mini-workouts are a few we use in powerlifting. It’s also super important to visit your chiropractor often to make sure you don’t have any pinched nerves that will cause pain and poor performance for sure. If you take your paintball seriously, treat yourself like a professional athlete and take measures to actively heal after hard training sessions. If you have an expensive paintball marker, you clean it, oil it, upgrade it and maintain it so it lasts longer and you get the most out of it…. do the same thing for your body and it will run like a fine-tuned race car as well! Some of these activities for paintballers may include stretching and properly warming up before practice and play; massage therapy and chiropractic care to iron out the bumps and scrapes of rough play and just keeping in shape to have more stamina for longer and more strenuous play.  Out play your opponents by being in better shape than them!

• First, get the main piece of paintball equipment; this is your paintball marker or paintball gun.  Ranging widely in price, there are also many styles and brands to choose from.  Pump action guns and semi-automatic paintball guns are popular.  The most popular paintball marker nowadays is the electronic style; all the great brands offer them now… Tippmann, Spyder, T68 Gen6 and even competition markers; Dye, Proto Matrix, Planet Eclipse and many more come with or upgrade to an electronic trigger.
• Next, choose the correct face mask to play paintball.  The face mask is one of the most important parts of your gear.  It’s important to make sure that the face mask covers your whole face and your ears.  Face masks also have different types of lenses; the most popular being the anti-fog lens.  It is crucial that the face mask fits properly so that it doesn’t slide down your face or fall off during a game.  It’s also important you use paintball masks that have a safety rating.  The V-type, Hawkeye and Tippmann paintball Goggles all have high ratings.
• Pick clothing as another important element of paintball equipment and gear. Purchase a paintball jersey that doesn’t fit too tightly.  If it’s loose, it will absorb some of the velocity of incoming paintballs, thus helping to minimize bruising during a game….. yes, there’s bruising involved in paintball sometimes.
• Wear pants for a paintball game that have pads built in for sliding, kneeling and sudden drops to the knees as you play.  Get knee and elbow pads, too.  It’s also important to buy paintball gloves as part of your gear to protect your hands.

There’s no doubt that paintball is a fun way to spend an afternoon or weekend.  Hanging out with friends is always fun, and when you add the strategy and tactical elements of paintball, you’re certainly in for a fun, entertaining, and challenging endeavor.  And for the real paintball enthusiast, there are certainly some advanced products and features available.  These include tactical paintball vests, paintball gun scopes, lasers, and even landmines and paintball grenades.  It seems like no matter what kind of paintball equipment you need nowadays, they are definitely readily available.  Graduating from a passing hobby to an all-out passion, paintball enthusiasts must always remember that safety products must come before all the fancy technical extras.  To that end, everyone should make sure they have paintball helmets and safety goggles before they ever take to the paintball field.  This is the most important piece of your equipment!  And only after those safety precautions have been taken should you indulge in some of the more obscure and extras like paintball gun upgrades.