Paintball Journal

If you haven’t noticed yet, we’ve had some major template renovations done in the past few days. In fact, all of the 451 Press blogs have undergone serious facelifts. I find the overall look of the site to be very sleek and professional. And very cool, perfectly fitting the content of the blog!

So I just bought myself a pair of JT ’05 team pants from a friend, along with a gray JT jersey.

(Okay so those aren’t the right colors. I’ve got a gray jersey and red pants.)

I think he’s pretty much completely redoing his entire gear bag, so yeah, we’re taking advantage of the great deals he’s cutting us. You know, as much as I love to buy my stuff brand new, I see nothing wrong with buying hand me downs in paintball, especially for things like jerseys. See, when they get all worked in and scuffed up people are thinking “man, this dudes good. He’s a real serious paintballer.�? And instantly that psychological warfare is soaking in. They’re intimidated!

Okay, maybe not. But I’d still rather show up in something used rather than spending a ton of money on something brand new, and then go to your field and look like one of those spoiled little rich kids that get everything they want. Nobody wants to be like those kids.

GoldWave is a simple sound editing program that can be used to figure out BPS, all you need is a microphone on your computer, and some basic learning skills for the program. Oh, and the ability to produce a steady stream of dry-firing.

Once you’ve downloaded the program (available here), you simply select one second in which you produced a steady stream and count the blips. Or you can find more advanced ways to let the program do it for you, but this is easy, fast, and simple.

Derder has put together a music compilation of some rocking songs for the Holidays, and they are downloadable right from their site for free! It’s right there on the homepage, so look for the Nov. 29 entry on the news there.

I’ve already got mine, and I’ll give it two thumbs up. I like most music anyways. So get your download, and drop them a big thank you!

“11.29.06 - A little gift from us to you… The Derder Holiday Music Compilation. Download the online album for FREE! Featuring OneSideRed, Ceschi, Kiss The Cop, The Album Leaf, and many more.�?

Found another knock off…looks sketchy if you ask me. Guess you’d have to order one to find out for sure, but it seems like it wouldn’t keep the balls in. That’s just my take on it. Ahem…

“Feed Fast™ is an innovative new product for rapidly filling hoppers. The unique design of the Feed Fast™ allows you to empty any standard pod directly into the hopper in record time. The replaceable foam flapper allows paintballs to fall from the pod – right into the hopper – so there’s no need to flip open the hopper lid for every reload. The replaceable foam flappers are available in a variety colors to match any team.

The Feed Fast™ is brought to you by combined design efforts between PBMatrix.com and JCS Jet City Specialties®. It is manufactured by Blackpoint Engineering and MADE IN THE USA!

Precision 7-cut flappers are made from high quality foam stock - Colors Too!!!�?

Well, enough said. I don’t use speed feeds, but the original looks way better in my opion. Alot better.

Yeah, you walk that Tippmann. Now there is a phrase I will admit I didn’t see coming. But TechT Paintball has managed to come up with a walkable, highly adjustable trigger for the Tippman 98s. All of the 98s, from old to new, will be able to use these fine looking triggers.

Featuring a 3-Point adjustment system, smooth feel, and absolutely sexy looks, this trigger will be incredibly preferable to the standard double-trigger upgrade that you see on many 98’s these days.

Very cool if you’re in the area of any of these and play GHTP, or just want a chance to meet Greg Hastings.

Posted by Greg Hastings on PBNation:

GHTP ‘06 Holiday Tour.

Here’s your chance to meet Greg Hastings of Team Excessive at the following locations this December. Play GHTP Max’d for PS2 and get free posters, stickers, and R7 Gear.

Dec. 1st-3rd: Las Vegas NV XPSL at the Gold Strike Hotel & Casino
www.xpsl.com
Meet Greg, get free stuff and play GHTP Max’d PS2 for prizes. Check out some incredible XPSL competition.

Saturday, Dec. 9th: Davis Paintball Expo. Davis, California. (near Sacramento)
www.davispaintball.com
Play Paintball for FREE! Play GHTP PS2 for prizes.
Fun all day for all ages! Meet and play paintball with pros Micah McGlocklin
and Greg Hastings

Saturday, Dec 16th: GAME STOP Centerton Square, Mount Laurel N.J.
Meet Greg from 12-4pm. Get free stuff! Play GHTP PS2 for prizes.
Call 856-778-3889 for directions or details.
Buy the New GHTP Max’d for PS2 or bring your own games for Greg to sign!

If only I still lived in NJ. Damnation.

Yes, having two paintball pistols in hand looks cool. Sadly, that is about the extent of the usefulness of duel-wielding paintball pistols.

Your accuracy with one paintball pistol is gonna be bad enough. Accuracy with a paintball pistol is a very important thing, because you have 10 shots max before you have to reload. Then you have about 25 shots max before you have to switch out CO2 cartridges.

Reloading paintballs with magazines takes about 7 seconds if you are really good. Reloading with pods takes probably 10 if you are very skilled. Reloading a CO2 cartridge takes more like 20 seconds.

All that reloading will get you mowed, unless you are moving very carefully. And with pistols, getting kills requires some crazy movement.

Now, if you have one pistol as a back up sidearm, then that can be very useful, especially if you play woodsball. Or playing with just one, that can make you amazingly good at playing a pump/stock style of play.

However, duel-wield pistols is a no-no. I’ve had a pistol before, and it was pretty awesome, but two is just too much to handle.

The DP Fusion is one of the most incredible, and unknown, markers out today. It’s operating system is similar to that of a Wrath, BKO’s, the AR-1, and several other markers. Using the basic FASOR (Forward Air Spring Operated Return) design, the DP Fusion’s is one of the first to be designed from the ground up. Because of this, the DP Fusion far outpaces all of the guns I listed previously. It’s extremely consistent, efficient, and has very little kick. (Think less than high-end Timmy’s)

The operating system is designed to be very lightweight, and when I felt the gun myself, I was truly amazed. The only part that felt heavy when we took it apart was the pair of grip panels. The gun is amazingly balanced and felt a ton more comfortable with my 48/3000 and Evlution2 on it than my Ion does.

It has an optical trigger, which felt awkward at first, but after some easy adjustments, was pretty incredible. The board is simple to adjust, although it is in itself very simple. 15/20 BPS Semi, and 15/20 BPS PSP Ramp are the four modes available on the stock board. It also has breakbeam eyes, a step up from most FASORs, as well as SP markers.

To be exceedingly blunt, the DP Fusion is NOT designed to be a back up gun. It can and will compete with many high-end guns, especially the top ‘06 ones.

Available in several flamboyant colors, even some nifty sand camo designs, the JT Flex 8 is JT USA’s latest and greatest in the goggle market. Debuting around this time last year, the Flex 8’s have proved over and over again that they deserve to be worn by professional teams.

As described on the Official JT USA website:

Behold! The 2005 JT Spectra Flex-8™, the latest evolutionary step in the JT Flex family. This all-new goggle system uses the most widely used goggle and lens combination in the industry (260 degree Spectra 2). The revolutionary exoskeleton frame is created using JT’s exclusive state of the art “Dual-Fusion” technology, which allows the system to be structurally efficient while maintaining the softness, flexibility and ventilation winning players demand.

How is the price of paintball as a sport going to affect this trend of rapid growth in recent years? Paintball has come a long way, but I don’t see how it’s going to be able to really keep growing until some of the prices are lowered and it is accessible to everyone. I think this is probably one of the main factors that keeps the sport from becoming a major success. As it is now, I know people that will do anything to save their money just to play just once or twice a year, and just think how great it would be if they could go twice as much for that same amount of money. That should be the true goal for paintball companies.

Something I didn’t realize is that we aren’t paying for the labor or materials it takes to make the gear, we’re paying for the extensive research that goes into it. That’s quite depressing to think about. They’re always going to be making the guns better, always going to try to out do the competition. This means more research…which means more money. It’s a vicious cycle! Our best hope is that paint prices will go down. Yes, there’s research to make that thick fill and breakable but not too brittle shell, but I think it’s a limited area. So, if we have any luck whatsoever, we’ll get to see a decline in paint prices. Anyways, it’s all just wild speculation.

As much as we love playing with our friends, it’s just not going to be enough to take our game to a new level of play. We try our best to get into games against organized teams.

If you want to improve, you must be willing to get your face mowed over and over again by better players. It didn’t make much sense to me when I first saw that kind of advice, but there are a few reasons why it will just amaze you.

First off, playing a better team is going to mix things up a bit. It’s not going to be those same people that try the same plans every time. You’ll get a better idea of what you can expect from better players, the moves they will make, styles of play, etc. They will probably use tactics that they would in a tournament. If they keep taking your team out form the snake for instance, you will learn very quickly how to prevent that.

I can’t think of anything that wouldn’t take more trial and error than paintball. That’s all it is. Learning what works, and what doesn’t work. So long as you play the same people, you aren’t doing yourself any good. You have to get out there and learn how to adapt to any situation, counter moves, and make moves for yourself. So next time your out playing, whether it be speedball or woodsball, don’t be scared to take on a better team. I can promise from experience that you will learn so much.

Well, for anybody that doesn’t play a regular school sport (like me) or simply just too lazy to work out (like me), you’ll probably be very familiar with that really stiff feeling the day after a good day of paintball. Or maybe after you’ve played a few games you’ll start to feel the weakness growing all over your body, and you start to make sloppy moves, get lazy on your bumps, etc. I know I specifically have this problem. So if you want to take your game to the next level then you’re going to have to have a little self discipline.

Over Thanksgiving weekend I started my workout plan, or a rough schedule of one. I don’t plan on getting ripped or working out before school in the gym, but I do want to get my fitness up again. I plan on doing some type of work out for at least a half an hour everyday, probably alternating legs and upper body every other day. If you have any type of home fitness center then this will be much easier for you. Usually it’ll be simple stuff with more reps and less weight for endurance purposes.

-Curls
-Push ups
-Sit ups
-Crunches
-Ab stabilizers
-Squats with 20lb weights in each hand
- Etc

Of course things can vary with a person’s size.

I can’t be your gym trainer, because there’s so much stuff on the internet that a simple workout routine would take like five seconds to find, so it’s up to you to have the self discipline to find one and follow it. Just turn on the T.V. and watch some football, or pop in a paintball movie, something that will keep it from getting boring.

And to support my conditioning I’m going to try to cut out on the snack foods, and stretch before working out, and before going to sleep, and then again in the morning. They’re just quick stretches that you could do in about three minutes. And perhaps the best thing to do would be to run once or twice a week, or more if you’re just that serious.
Anyways, I may find some good paintball workouts and do some follow up posting on them.

So it appeares that National Paintball Supply and PMI are now a merged company. Their operations are combined, and they look to cover a broad range of premier products in the paintball industry. It looks like world domination is only a step away… or not.

I’m not exactly sure how that’s going to affect too many people though, but now that this merging covers so many aspects of paintball, I think we’ll see some fierce competition between them and the smaller companies…which hopefully means lower prices! But what would I know?

Ever wondered what a house fire (or any fire in general) would do to your gear? There was an incident where a guy’s house went up in a blaze, and days later when it had cooled he went in to dig through the remains. This is what’s left of his 68/3000 and a Tippman 98 Custom.

It was often thought that 98s were indestructible, but I believe that myth is busted!

In all seriousness though, I hope they’re able to recover from this disaster, and hope he makes it back out to the field soon. I’ve never lost anything to a house fire, but I really don’t know what I’d do. My whole life practically sits inside my bedroom, and I can’t imagine what it would be like with everything gone.