FAQs About the Sport of Paintball
To people who had th…
To people who had the great opportunity of growing up or spending their childhood in the suburbs, some of you probably had the chance of playing “capture the flag” or hide and seek, or perhaps the game called “invasion of bases” where one team tries to capture the base of the other group by individual elimination. This may have been the origin of the game or sport called paintball. In 1981, a variation of the “capture the flag” game that included guns was first played. The guns used were the ones being used to mark cattle and trees that were hard to find and reach. That particular gun was created and developed in 1970 by Crossman.
The idea of the sport of paintball is for teams or individuals to rid rival or rivals by shooting them with specially-designed pellets. These pellets contain a unique kind of non-toxic, non-staining paint that once it hits an object explodes and marks that object or person. The first paintball guns were only limited to very few rounds, hence, firing was very uncommon to save on the pellets. Nowadays, paintball shooters, as some would call them, are more acquainted with the more modern Airsoft, where paintball guns were equipped with 12-gram cartridges and bigger air tanks for longer shooting capability. To be eligible to play the sport of paintball, one should have these basic paintball paraphernalia:
• Goggles or masks – while some masks are designed to protect even the throat, the basic paintball goggles should be worn all the time to safeguard the player’s nose, mouth, ears, and eyes from the paintball.
• Paintballs – this is your bullet. it is actually a water soluble non-poisonous type of paint encased in gelatin capsules.
• Paintball marker – or the paintball gun. This is the gadget that fires off the paintballs into your target. Usually, it comes separate from the “hopper” or the loader which feeds the gun with paintballs and the tank which propels the paintballs to your desired mark.
There are universal rules that are implemented in most paintball playing venues to prevent injury and to promote wholesome fun and enjoyment for everybody. However, in some competitions, these rules are stretched to add more competitiveness to the sport of paintball. Consider these for instance:
• Of course, in all games, cheating is unacceptable. Since paintball is water soluble, some players may find time to wash off the paint especially if the playing field is huge.
• Some paintball players may be overwhelmed with the sense of fake anger or vengeance brought about by too much enthusiasm that they tend to overshoot or overkill an opponent by shooting the “enemy” repeatedly even after the foe was already marked with a shot.
• In most venues, there is a minimum allowable distance when shooting. Paintballs can cause welts and bruises if shot at a short distance.
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