Paintball?!

[PhillipR34]

When I went paintballing the guns were pathetic too. The paintballs hit the floor within 25ft! I thought that the performance of the guns would be the reason people chose paintball over airsoft but clearly not. I went to Delta Force in Newcastle and it really commercialized too, they were constantly trying to get money off you with adverts everywhere, not to mention that it was £70 for 1000 paintballs. I'm sure this isn't the case with all sites but it was certainly enough to put me off from going again.

 

[Richard65]

Hi, so I went paintballing today for the first time and well...I was disappointed. I thought that there must have been a reason why some people choose it over airsoft, but having tried it I simply can not see why? (I'll not go list reasons as you'll probably already know). I was just wondering if any of you guys out there know anyone who does paintball and why?

I think the answer is very simple. Paintball has been around for many years and far more people have heard about it than about airsoft.

As others have said, the paintball community works hard at promoting their sport - had a stand at our local tesco for a week or so.

I had friends who got very into painball - own guns, gear etc and had their own team. travelled around playing against other teams but gradually gave up when wives/kids came along.

Airsoft seems to be a sport where you can turn up and play as a solo player and still have a great day out. Not sure this would be the case for a serious paintballer.

 

[Baz JJ]

Ive never been paintballing so cant comment on direct comparisons from experience.

However, having mentioned Airsoft to a few friends, Ive received some strange looks.

It seems that paintball is generally regarded by the people Ive spoken to as a rough macho game played by stag groups, birthday parties and so on. Many of them have done it (usually once or twice with a group) and talk about pain and fun, but it is regarded as harmless.

Few have heard of Airsoft and when you explain the differences i.e. people dressing in military clothes, realistic looking assault rifles, pyros etc, people seem slightly shocked - I think they have difficulty in understanding why grown people do it.

I originally saw Airsoft as a way of keeping fit while indulging an interest in militaria. I enjoy it immensely but struggle to explain why.

Dear Deidre, do I need help? lol

 

[deldalton]

I discovered airsofting when I was 22 (I'm 24 now, by the way). Before then, I'd only ever gone paintballing five times. I cannot think of any reason to go paintballing ever again.

I wouldn't mind if airsofting was a slightly more known, for retailer and site competitiveness, but I'm definitely glad that paintballing is around. Otherwise, we'd end up with the stag and birthday groups that have never played in their life, and never intend to play again, cramping out style ...

 

[snuff]

I've been paintballing a couple of times and its very frustrating:

1. You cannot bring any paintballs onto the site that aren't the site brand

2. I got a good number of faulty guns

3. I got shot in the arse by a 9 year old from one or two meters away. Which really hurt.

Same as airsoft use their guns use their bb's..you got spanked by a 9 year old....ha,ha...

 

[snuff]

When I went paintballing the guns were pathetic too. The paintballs hit the floor within 25ft! I thought that the performance of the guns would be the reason people chose paintball over airsoft but clearly not. I went to Delta Force in Newcastle and it really commercialized too, they were constantly trying to get money off you with adverts everywhere, not to mention that it was £70 for 1000 paintballs. I'm sure this isn't the case with all sites but it was certainly enough to put me off from going again.

Site guns..what a suprise?!!

How long did you airsoft before you bought your own,paintabll is no different...

 

[SheriffHD]

yeah, people always say about the accuracy of paintball guns.

They are more like a mortar than a bullet, so you need to adjust alot more to get your shots on target. I mean you do have first strike ammo which gives you an effective range of about 450ft, but the ammo is so expensive its not worth it.

 

[snuff]

I'm an ex-paintballer and I did enjoy it,we moved to the higher ranks and it got stupid expensive..

8 x 3min games=£100,not to mention the "good" markers upto £1000 just to be competitive.

Airsoft is cheaper,and fun is what you make it,I have to echo some of the sentiments on here even at briefings marshalls tend to have a pop at paintballers,I think even though we are worlds apart we simulate the same hobby and therefore we should protective eachothers interests which will in turn protect our "sports",if the country folk,red-sox,Janet Street porters gang can divide us they will eventually force us onto smaller patches of land and who will suffer first??

They've done it with green-laning.......

I wouldn't go back to paintball personally mainly for the cost but the transition was easy and I've seen a fair few p/b move across,have a go at paintballing there is a lot you can learn,the least you will learn is how to snap shoot the biggest thing I noticed lacking when I came across,learn to shoot with either hand is another.

I shouldn't read these threads they are usually written...................

 

[Hibernator]

I used to love paintballing and ran the society at Uni for a couple of years.

The reason I gave up seems to be the same as everyone else - cost! Also - back when I played (15 odd years ago) there was no such thing as a paintball walk on day. It was all geared up for the rental market. Unfortunately I like having my own kit, and the only way you could play with your own marker was at a day you organised for a large group (easy enough with a uni society). I don't think I found any sites that would let me use my own gun on a regular day, which meant I had to look at tournament paintball if I wanted to regularly use my own kit

At that stage paintball was really trying to separate itself from the "rambo" image (which I found odd since all the best rental sites were done up as military scenarios) so obviously tournament paintball was (as it is now) brightly coloured uniforms and sup-air fields. I have nothing against that, but I liked the woodland skirmishing!

It looks like the recball (scenario) scene is really taking off now with decent walkon days for own gunners all over. I'm still put off by the expense of paint, or more importantly the fact that you can buy it cheap in bulk but it goes off if you store it for too long/incorrectly! I have too much invested in airsoft stuff to really look at paintball seriously again, but I do like the new magfed markers - they've just arrived about a decade too late for me!!!

Some sites are running very airsoft like walkon days (although half the players still seem to turn up in rainbow colours rather than camo). If a mate organised a game for a stag do or something I would definitely give it another go. Might even blow the dust off my old marker - it'll be a dinosaur compared to the modern electric jobbys

 

[breakdown]

Folk like to bitch, it's as simple as that. Wither is paintballers bitching about airsoft or skiers bitching about snowboarders or Harley riders bitching about jap riders. Some folk like to bitch to try and justify to themselves or friends why they do a certain pastime/ sport whatever. It happens in all walks of life, I've never done paintball, just never thought about it, hadn't even heard of airsoft until about a year ago when my son mentioned he'd like to try it, so went along to my localish site and really enjoyed it, so until health or money dictates otherwise I'm going to keep playing no matter what anybody thinks even the other half. I'm sure we all bump into morons/ idiots and a'holes each day, unless they are directly affecting my life they get ignored for the morons they are. If they want to cross that line and get in my face, well!!!!! no comment

 

[Insanityx]

Advertising. Paintball is advertised everywhere. There are hard sell teams in shopping centres, universities and the like. It is aimed at kids birthday parties, stag do's and so on.

Exactly this. I should be going to my first proper airsoft game this weekend. I've been paintballing several times mostly for parties. Even though me and my friends all had airsoft guns it never even crossed our minds that we could go airsofting. Meanwhile like you say I constantly see advertising for paintball. Just after I planned this weekends trip my mother came to me and started telling me about a deal she was offered that was like 3 times more expensive without having to buy all the paintballs.

I wonder if it has a lot to do with the RIF status of airsoft guns. I remember a stall for a university airsoft team that was empty because they were not allowed to bring any of the guns. Its hard to compete when paintball sites can have a table full of their best looking paintball guns out in public compared to an empty table for airsofting.

As for paintballing itself I've had mixed experiences. The expense is a massive pain in the backside. The sheer price of going combined with having to buy a ton of expensive paintballs because the rental guns are completely inconsistent and you never get the same one twice so your basically spraying them everywhere. My worst experiences is when you are against people who just completely cheat non stop through out and they don't even get so much as a warning. It always seems to be 50/50 of if the marshals give a damn or not.

On the other side when everyone is playing fair, the guns are working and the marshals are on the ball then its great fun. Although everytime I've had a day like that its been so damn cold none of the douches would dare leave their homes. If you just want to run and gun for a day then I can see that draw. Just firing those things remind me of this bit from Lord of War: http://youtu.be/Zgo323lHPaI?t=1m10s

I'm really looking forward to this weekend. From what I hear most people play fair. Hopefully I'm not disappointed

 

[padraigthesniper]

Ahhh paintballing last time i went it was dread full the amount of inconsistency on the guns is astonishing i would fire and the ball would fly randomly left or right and the marshalls did not give a fuck about cheating as i noticed when a enemy grabbed our flag after we shot him at near point blank range at least 15 times he just kept running ive been 3 times trying to find it fun but im yet to enjoy it anywhere as much as airsoft