Anyone involved with paintball have some recommendations for a noobie? Such as where to go in CFL to try it out and what is a good forum to read up on the sport?

 

am in so cal so i cant give you any advise. if your looking for a paintball gun i have one that i want to sell so if you interested PM me...

 

First off, what type of gun do you currently have, if any?

 

None. I am just getting interested and looking for some recommendations. Would really love to find a paintball forum that is like driver.

 

I Googled paintball web forum and found quite a few...

 

Yeah, I did that too. Was just hoping that there was a member here that could help keep me out of the "Fresh Alloy" forum and point me to the "G35Driver" of paintball.

By the way, I went yesterday and had a "ball." I think I found a new hobby. Best part is, I didn't seriously injury anything in this old body.

 

Tony, you should check out www.floridaairsoft.com . I've "heard" that this is a much more fulfilling experience. And don't get these "guns" confused with the cheapies being found at flea markets, gun shows, etc. This gear is serious, and you can get a replica of just about any real weapon out there.

I played paintball for many years, got tired of all the kids and lack of realism, and helped start the airsoft community in Florida back around '98. You're right in between two fairly active communities- Tampa and Daytona areas.

 

there are a couple of fields around the Tampa area that we played on. I have not played in about a year, but I can make some recommendations on equipment you like. Depends on how serious you want to get as to the "rig" you will go with. For instance:

CO2 (small rig setup)
best bet is a Tippman Model 98 with stock and decent loader. Also, get a Smart Parts or 32 degrees barrel (barrel type has a HUGE impact on how the paintball flies from the gun). Also, never use any of that paint that you can get from Sports Authority. Only go with RP Scherer paintballs.

Medium setup
Automag if you want to have a short barrel and shoot semi-fast. Go with a double trigger. Motorized loader is a must. This will be best for shortrange fights. Long range, you will need an Autococker. GEN-X AC would be very good (and don't fall for the pneumatic full auto stories on these). The AC is meant for long range and short, but it shoots much slower than the Automag does. This is what I used with a 24" DP barrel for long range and 18" barrel DP for short range. Loved this setup and also this does not use as much paint, so you will have more paintballs left over and be able to play more games.

Full auto
Angel. Nuff said. However, the field will dictate if you can use this in FA mode or not. However, most Angels will allow you to take off the side of the handle and move this to semi-auto. Motorized loader is very important as it cycles the paintballs for entry into the gun.

for both Medium and Full auto, you need to go compressed air. Carbon fiber tank for the gun with regulator setup is a must. Then you will need 3 scuba tanks since you have to equalize the pressure in the CF tank for the gun. For example, if you have a 800 CF tank, the first scuba tank will not allow that total volume to transfer. You would get 600, then 150 from the next tank and then 50 from the last tank. That way you will not run out of air during the combat round. Air is most important over CO2 for quick shooting as well. It is always equal. CO2 has a tendency to build up and then you get "sputters".

Then you have harnesses, goggles, gloves, barrel swabs, etc. Let me know if you have any questions and I can help out.

 

I play fairly actively in the Tampa area. Central Florida Paintball is hands down the best area to play in the state for faster past speedball and tournament xball, however the people that play here are generally more experienced. Orbital Paintball is another good spot to go, great spot for a beginner, they have woods, hyperball and speedball so you get a taste for everything.

As far as guns go, Tippman has a decent starting package, as well as Spyders and Pirhanas. If you find yourself playing more and more speedball, upgrade to a Smart Parts Ion with a 45ci/4500psi compressed air tank and a Halo or Reloader B as far as hoppers go, and you should be set for quite a long time.

 

Hey if your interested let me know I have two groups I go out with. One in Volusia County that are pretty hard core - dedicated feild - auto loaders and all of them are ex- something so they are all good shots - with them no matter what you wear you boast about the blood spilt on the feild. I got another group of us that just get together in a few places in Winter Garden to have fun, shoot off a few rounds and have a good laugh.

As far as guns go Spider or Tippman - the Tippman can become a real mean sniper with a new barrel and trigger so it is a fun gun to have - also really easy to feild clean - a big plus

 

Hey hit me up on aim and i'll tell you whatever you need to know. I was really far into the sport for a few yrs and easily have $3000 worth of markers and equipment that i really dont use much anymore. By far the best pb forum is www.pbnation.com and www.pbreview.com is a good one too. For starting out, a tippmann or spyder are both good, but in the long run are both really bad guns. If you get really far into the sport you will see just how impressive some of the technology behind it is. Both of my guns can shoot upward of 20 ***** per SECOND. First off, never (or very rarely) are full auto or bust legal, secondly "snipers" with long barrels/scopes are absolutely useless, third, how much you play really depends on how much you want to look into equipment a gun can range from a pos $30 to an amazing $1700+. What you use to propell your paintballs is important too. With a cheap gun CO2 is fine, but with higher end guns you must shoot compressed air or compressed N2 (same thing really). While these tanks are not expensive to fill, thay can sell anywhere from $80-250. Then there's the hopper. A cheap gravity hopper is only liek $5, but if you are going to shoot faster you MUST have an agitated or force fed hopper. Agitated hoppers are about $50, while force fed hoppers are more like $90. Lastly, your mask... once again depneds on how much you play, a cheap mask will be uncomfortable and will fog, where as a nice mask you can wear forever and will never fog up. As far as fields go, check out pbreview.com they have a review section based completely on fields.

Any questions (or interested in some nice equipment), pm me or talk to me on aim


on a side note, there are lots of a**holes on pbnation.com, but they really know what they are talking about. The people on pbreview.com are much nicer.

 

check out pbnation.com

Im down to play as long as other people go.
Anyone interested in a Z/G day of paintball lets set something up