Chris Schneck

I’ve spent a lot of money on paintball gear, as most avid ballers do. Perhaps too much? Intentionally I’ve used several online and local retailers to do a general comparison of the level of end user satisfaction during the whole purchasing process. All the pain and teeth gritting anger I’ve had to endure needs to be shared to save some of you your hard earned money. Although I would as much as possible recommend buying whatever you need from a local pro shop, that isn’t always an option. There are some pretty ridiculous deals to be had, on the initial purchase price, that a smaller local shop just cant compete with. However.

 Things that aren’t painful to buy online.

• Barrels.You cant lose here, if you can find a good deal on a barrel or barrel kit go for it. As long as you know what threading you need, how many backs you want, stainless or aluminium and what colour you need you really cant lose. Related to barrels, here’s something I wrote on the Magnus Effect.
• Soft Goods.These include jerseys, pants, vests, pads, sandanas, bandanas, vests, pods, pod packs, swabs, military surplus. Really anything you wear while paintballing. If you know your measurements and the website is clear on sizing and colour availability, go for it. You can save a ton of money buying online and skipping the retail markup. Here are two tactical paintball vests I’ve previously reviewed.
• Air Systems, including remote lines. HPA & CO2 tanks kind of almost break my golden “do not buy online” rule, which ill get to later, but the money you can save by buying online VS. local retail places air systems on the green light list. I’ve already written a series of articles on HPA & CO2 that you may want to check up on as well.
• Hoppers, Loaders and Electronic Agitators. Although a high end loader will contain a little battery powered motor with spring loaded guts, the only way I’ve seen some of these things die is end user abuse. Either souping up some old paint inside like a blender, or landing on them while superman-ing over, or into, a bunker. These will rarely show up on your doorstep D.O.A. if ordered online.

Things that will kick you in the ass later because you thought you could save a few bucks now by buying it online.

Anything with a moving part, O-ring or gasket inside it. Admittedly that is a very general and broad statement, but I honestly think it’s sound advice. Although it does slightly conflict with what’s on the thumbs up list I’ll clarify now.

Paintball markers are an often confusing jumble of parts if you haven’t ever taken a marker apart or you have no brand specific airsmithing certification. If the marker you buy online shows up, for any reason, D.O.A. the only person who will repair it under warranty is the person you purchased it from. In the case of online shopping if you’re in Alberta and you bought something from lets say Ontario, that’s an approximate 8 business days of ground shipping + the time to repair the marker + the cost of shipping. You could be out of commission for two weekends and out of pocket an unknown amount of money.

Anti fog lenses should also be purchased where you can physically see the merchandise before buying it. A well sealed gasket between lenses is key for them to do what they are meant to do, which is ANTI-FOG. Doing what I have done and buying 3 replacement lenses sight unseen only to have them show up all seperated is vein poppingly aggrivating. Again the online retailers response will be, and sure was, “ship them back to us and we will replace them”.

All this can easily be avoided by buying the gear that is prone to break down the most frequently by someone you can 5 minute drive to. Everyone who runs an online store will, I’m sure, whole heartedly disagree with me but this has been my unfortunate experience.

 Now that my rant is over, here are the people in Canada who run websites that I WOULD buy from again.

• PaintballGear.ca
• TacticalPaintball.ca
• GlobalArmySurplus.com
• MyDogTag.ca - Email him first and tell him I sent you
• KJ Sales - Canadas nicest NCStar distributor!

If they aren’t on this list you should wonder why as I’ve bought from many many online sources.

Always phone ahead to see if what’s on the website is actually in stock. Try to avoid at all times cross border shipping, or shipping period! buy locally.

In the wake of recent and tragic events, Tim Kretschmer killing of 15 in March, a few sauerkraut’s have decided that, in the father land, games like paintball should be banned!

Not included in the linked article :

• Tim Kretschmer, 17, was in therapy
• Tim Kretschmer had potential access to approximately 15 firearms, but no mention of paintball markers?
• Tim Kretschmer was alleged to have disclosed his plan previous to the attack
• Tim Kretschmer had a specific grudge and the attack wasn’t random

 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/5291891/Germany-to-ban-paintball-in-wake-of-high-school-shooting.html

So since paintball has no link to the mentioned attack in March, why ban it? Nowhere have I read that the shooter, Tim Kretschmer, had an interest in or even played paintball.

Paintball gets the ban, but firearms stay legal? OH MEIN GOTT

Electronic triggers for paintball markers, either sear tripping or solenoid actuating, give anyone with the cash an instant advantage in rate of fire capabilities. With rates of fire nearing 20 balls per second or more your uber paintball marker should be used with caution and in a tactically correct way to yield any real benefit. ( oh and to make sure no one gets hurt )

Suppressive fire isn’t a new or revolutionary concept, but its surprising to see many new or relatively inexperienced woodsballers using it haphazardly without control or team coordination. I cant deny that there isn’t a slight satisfaction to raining paint down on someone, but you need to learn when to stop shooting as not to bonus ball anyone and how to time your barrages to help in team movement.

It’s quite simple really, while one person in the squad is laying it down on the opfor everyone else should be moving into a different position to try and build an angle on the target. After a lot of practice this isn’t even something that needs to be discussed before hand, if you hear a teammate shooting at someone that’s your signal to move and to try and flank them. The whole practice of shooting and moving is what makes paintball .  .  . paintball! Speedball or woodsball, it doesn’t matter, this is how the game universally works.

Unless you’re a full fledged noobinator, then the correct thing to do is to stay in one spot with your finger on the trigger and after 2 minutes when your rain of paint terror is over and you’ve accomplished nothing, quickly call yourself out and walk off the field.

Just as a paintball marker is only as good as the person using it, having full auto capabilities in your squad is only as useful as the squad itself. Practice and team coordination make full auto useful, not the individual or their marker.