Chris Schneck

This was a number of years ago, in my spare time after my REAL job I worked at a local paintball field. Being a Ref and helping all the Newbs / Rentlers enjoy a day of paintball with their friends was rewarding. It was nice to sort of live vicariously through people experiencing paintball for the first or second time. Giving general playing tips and deserved congratulations, especially to the kid who mercy killed 1/3 of the OpFor with no balls in his hopper.

There was one day in particular that will always stand out however. No its not what you’re thinking, there was no glory for me, in fact I was taken out quite early on.

Sometimes, near the end of the working day at the field, the group of rentlers would invite the Ref’s to come join in the fun for a the last game or two. Who am I to turn down some target practice? As you may imagine I come fully prepared: custom A5, tactical vest & pods, pads, camouflage and the fact that I’ve been guiding these guys for a few hours on how to play paintball. If you were out playing for your first time and were young and impressionable, you may have been intimidated. Which it was obvious that most of these kids were, but I always play nice and take it easy on the Newbs since you want repeat customers, not butt hurt cry babies.

We separate into the two teams and rally on opposite ends of the field consisting of dirty old stacks of tires. Off the break everything goes well, and I make it to my grimy stack of tires to post up and lay it down. Unfortunately I’m paying more attention to what my team is doing then what I myself should be doing. A rentler, so small I barely notice him, flanks me on my right and spastically starts shooting at me.

He hit me. Did he really? A rentler? Hit me? . . . I check, yup, he hit me. Not a glancing or grazing or almost hit, a dead on splotch to the thigh. So I raise my hand and call out, which to be honest is something I’m used to.

This kid was the most excited I’ve ever seen someone while playing paintball. The game was still on but he had practically dropped his marker to dance as spastically as he was shooting at me, screaming “I GOT HIM I GOT HIM”. I don’t recall how that round ended, who won wasn’t important. The fact that I could participate in giving someone that moment, that victory, no matter how minor, made that one of the best days of paintball I’ve ever had.

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