Pain(t)ball

Akatsukami

When I was younger and healthier (quite a while ago, obviously), I was a pretty avid paintballer, with my own gear and guns.

Does anyone play?  If so (or even if not), do you care to opine on its awesomeness or otherwise?

Angeline

My son used to do this, and still gets together a couple times a year with a group of friends. He always had a few nasty quarter sized welts afterwards.

Akatsukami

EnticeMe said:

Angeline said:

My son used to do this, and still gets together a couple times a year with a group of friends. He always had a few nasty quarter sized welts afterwards.

Ok so maybe H had a reason to be concerned. I really don't like it when he is right

Well, there's "hurt" and there's "hurt".  I get nasty, quarter-sized welts from mosquito bites, so I may have a different standard

Aside from the obvious possibilities for injury from any activity more physical than channel-surfing, the risks for paintball are specific injury to the eyes, and general injury from overclocked guns.  Any field that doesn't require eye protection and have a chronograph (or forbid personal guns) should be avoided.  The field that I regularly played at had a policy on eye protection:  anything that the proprietors considered dubious was strapped to a post and shot from five feet away.  If it survived, it was considered allowable; if not, not.

I had a JT Racing mask, so the only problem was a tendency for the goggles to fog.  Some people actually installed small, battery-powered fans in their masks, although I wasn't that much of a gearhead.

Timitz

I wouldn't want my wife getting shot at.

Chet

I did it once, and it's hella fun.  We have an underground cave arena for it here in our city.  I think it'd be awesome to have a Wife want to go Paintballing, and if mine asked to go, you can bet I'd go in a heartbeat.

I personally prefer real firearms now - although obviously not firing at actual people, lol - Though now they have a similar technology that works in modified firearms, called 'simunition', which is used for real force-on-force training.

Best way for me to describe Paintball hits?  It stings pretty good, and you might get a slight bruise or a welt. You've probably had worse by banging your arm or leg on a piece of furniture. Depends where you get hit, too. There's all kinds of safety gear as well.   You don't strike me as a weakling type, so best thing I can tell you to do is try it once and just see!  If your Husband is so worried about you getting shot at, then you two should team up and cover each other.  Get him to display some of that Alpha aggression you probably want to see him display.

MaterStellie

What's not to love about the game?  It's where my husband and I first fell in love.

First of all, there's nothing like a mock battle to get the adrenaline flowing.  Plus, the pain you do feel when 'hit' simply serves to make you more aware, sharpens your focus. (Unlike laser tag). The pain is like the wasabi with sushi, without it, you're just eating raw fish on plain rice.  Then, there's the sense of fellowship with your teammates, one for all and all for one!  Next is the rush of dopamine you get when you execute a rather difficult 'kill'.  On top of that, the euphoria when your side experiences a win, heady stuff.

Of course, for me, watching Kenny2 coolly and calmly decimate the opposition was a huge dhv to me.  (We hate speedball, preferring the obstacle and scenario fields, more sneak and ambush type). And when I stripped off the equipment during breaks, the meager tank top and shorts I was wearing clinched the deal! Hey!  It's bloody hot running around in full gear!  

And, after all this, you get to go home and play 'Find The Welt'.  Tee hee!  

DarKeyes

Paintball is awesme. You hurt in all sorts of places after, but that's half the fun.

DarKeyes

Timitz said:

I wouldn't want my wife getting shot at.

Yeah, shooting at your wife is your job...;-)

LordVader

Used to play, though it's been a while (sold all my stuff when I moved). It can hurt, certainly - one guy I played with always had blood drawn from one hit, every time we played. Just a little, not like gushing or anything.

I did well, because the rules are that if you get hit and the ball doesn't break (so there's no paint on you), it's not a hit. I was at that time energetic and flexible enough to be a good player, and soft enough that the balls would often hit me and not break. One of the last games I played way back when, I got hit at 3 different points, and by then we were all using full-auto electronic markers so it was somewhere between 10-15 individual rounds. After that third burst, I put the safety put in the barrel of my gun, stood up, and shouted "I'm out!" I was just tired of getting hit over and over. Generally, though, it was a hell of a lot of fun.

Of course, the first game I ever played, it was about one minute into the game that I peeked out from around a tree or something and took a hit in the mask right over my left eye. SPLAT! Wear your safety gear, kiddies!

LiquidSound

I *love* paintball! We even had a store back in the day. Hubby had some close ties with some of the big manufacturers and up until we got rid of our house phone 4 years ago we'd still occasionally get calls from "Georgie in Taiwan." (He wanted us to open a paintball warehouse in the Midwest. I'm pretty sure his name wasn't really Georgie. Lol)

Ah, those were the days.

LiquidSound

Hey, @Chet, I know where the caves are. Loads of fun to play at!

ddad

Played a few when I was young.  Recently too my son and his friends out.  Awesome how preteen boys can talk a big game but really crumble under fire from a cool aggressive ddad.  Went with my wife and it was definitely an alpha boost although this was just before I got MMSL and the Red Pill.  Loads of fun they loved it.

girl_game_noob

I haven't been in forever but it's so fun!  I find that wearing multiple layers helps with the welts.

Kathrynthegreat

Growing up on the farm we had BB gun wars, does that count?

God it's a wonder we're all still alive and have our eyes.  

RedPillNeophyte

Lots of fun, but a hit on bare skin is not a nice feeling.

I made the mistake of playing in a light t-shirt once...not going to do that again.

AlphaVsBeta

I've got my autococker all oiled up and the nitro ready to go!

Running around in a redwood forest looking for someone to shoot is a blast!

alcockell

Chet said:

I did it once, and it's hella fun.  We have an underground cave arena for it here in our city.  I think it'd be awesome to have a Wife want to go Paintballing, and if mine asked to go, you can bet I'd go in a heartbeat.

I personally prefer real firearms now - although obviously not firing at actual people, lol - Though now they have a similar technology that works in modified firearms, called 'simunition', which is used for real force-on-force training.

Best way for me to describe Paintball hits?  It stings pretty good, and you might get a slight bruise or a welt. You've probably had worse by banging your arm or leg on a piece of furniture. Depends where you get hit, too. There's all kinds of safety gear as well.   You don't strike me as a weakling type, so best thing I can tell you to do is try it once and just see!  If your Husband is so worried about you getting shot at, then you two should team up and cover each other.  Get him to display some of that Alpha aggression you probably want to see him display.

Is "simunition" like Airsoft?

Britguy68

Yep done it got nailed on my bald noggin, bloody hurt. Good bonding father son stuff!

LazyAlpha

Kathrynthegreat said:

Growing up on the farm we had BB gun wars, does that count?

God it's a wonder we're all still alive and have our eyes.  

Never get into a BB gun fight holding a toy one-pump Daisy Red Ryder like the one on A Christmas Story (maybe 250 fps, effective range about 18 feet) against a Crossman 10-pump pellet gun (750 to 1000 fps which can kill birds and small rodents out to about 40 yards).

Many years later, getting prepped for an MRI, I had to tell the technician that I was still a bit unsure if some of the pellets were still in me. 

Smashmaster

The sting is there to give you some incentive to avoid getting hit, to justify the adrenaline, and to give you some material for your after action reports!

"This purple crescent here on my inner thigh? I got that one when I was....."