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Beginners Guide to Paintball Gear

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-- by Malcolm

I love Scenario paintball games. I thought it would be good to explain what gear I have and where I have bought it. The idea is to help anyone that is interested in becoming involved in paintball decide what equipment they will need, and avoid a few pitfalls that I have experienced. Let me run through my gear, and where I located it:

Goggles:

The first and the most important piece of safety equipment; Goggles! You are going to be involved in a sport involving flying projectiles just the right size to take out an eye! You will have to have goggles. Your goggles should cover as much as possible, and be comfortable. Anti-fog lenses are a real bonus. What is the point of wearing goggles that you can't see through, are too loose or too tight, and will be a pain? You need eye mouth and ear protection! You can expect to pay anywhere from $50 to $120 for a decent pair of goggles, so if you are not sure if you're going to continue to play paintball, get a lone from someone, or play a few games at a paintball place and rent the equipment from them. The last thing you want to do is spend $20 on a piece of crap. I did. When I first started playing paintball I bought a $20 Winchester mask, no forehead protection and open at the back near my ears. Perfect for paintballs to come in beating on my eardrums. Now I have a VForce profiler ($70~) with full cover and a removable lens so I have the option of put in diffrent colour lens put in and easly replace it if it gets scratched. You can buy anti-fog gel that works perfect try thisif you find your mask fogging up.

Head Covering:

Now unless you have one of those JT Elite HeadShield Masks, you will want some cover for the top of your head, I have a cotton camo bandana that I bought at the Army Navy-Out Door Store. It's a very tough material and can breath, which is important on hot days. For colder weather, I also have a full-face mask (like those for ski-dooing or robbing stores:-) that I bought at Canadian Tire. So depending on what the season it is you can decide what would work best.

Neck Protector:

If you have been hit with a paintball, you know that it does hurt for a time, and if you are hit on a sensitive area like your neck it's going to hurt for a long time. Can you imagine getting hit close range on the neck? Dropping to the ground gasping for breath. Yeah, that one made a mark for weeks. I have a Brasseagle neck protector. Yes, Brassegale. They make terrible markers, but they do have some other decent quality equipment that is cheap. I bought mine at Canadian Tire.

Cloths:

Some people will play with just any pants and a shirt, and that's ok the cloths you wear don't determine how you play- experience does. But for scenario games a tee shirt and blue pants it sure don't play the part, and you can get camo pants anywhere theses days it seams, hell Bluenotes or Stitches has them you may even want to try a thrift store like Value Village. But if you go to the Army Navy Store you can get all sorts of camo stuff, and more you may even find some extra stuff for your scenario paintball game. I have a jacket and pants of camo which is great cause the cotton breaths, and even thou it is dark it isn't that hot. just wear what you want, as long as you can move freely in them.

Elbow and Knee Pads:

Paintball is generally a physically demanding sport. Paintball involves the ability to drop down and shoot around bunkers, jumping down for cover, crawling, etc. For all of this you will need some protection for your elbows and knees. Crawling is a whole lot more comfortable when you have knee and elbow pads. You'll feel a whole lot more easer about diving or dropping to your knees behind a bunker if you know That your joints are well protected. I believe you should have these for all paintball games. I have knee and elbow pads I bought from Value Village for something like $4. If you can get a knee and shin protector that would be best cause it would protect your shins as well but thats if you plan on crawling around alot I guess.

Hand protection:

It's a good idea to have protection gloves. I prefer fingerless gloves because I like to feel the maker and its trigger. Some people prefer the full finger ones. The full finger gloves do offer more protection. It's a personal choice alot of people actually cut the pointer and middle finger off the full finger gloves. They cost anywhere from $20 to $60 take a look at your local paintball store.

Footwear:

Again, Paintball is generally a physically demanding sport. Also scenario games is (generally) played outside. On your feet you will need something that has traction, and is comfortable. You'll might get you feet wet, don't worry about it, it's just water. On the other hand, if it's winter, you will want something to keep your feet warm and dry. Try to get footwear that provides ankle support, like high top hiking boots. And remember, heavy boots will make running much more difficult, common sense goes a long way here. In Speedball alot of people use clets for traction on outdoor fields.

Pod Pack:

There is a wide verity of pod packs out there and they all have their different levels of usefulness depending on what level you play, and what you need. There are pro speedball players that may need to carry 7 pods and have their tank on their marker. There are pump marker players that don't need any pods at all. I wanted lower the weight of my marker, so I bought a remote line for my CO2. Hence, I need something to hold my tank. I also wanted to carry about 2 to 4 pods max, so I found a pod pack that will do both! I found a harness pod pack that would hold 4 pods (2 on each side, just above the hips), and my CO2 tank in an adjustable pocket in the center of the small of my back. There are places that I can attach shoulder straps (which I did add) to hold it in place better. On the shoulder strap I added a little case to hold my squeegee. I bought mine at my local paintball store. There are many pod packs, try out a lots and pick out what you want that holds the number of pods you need to carry and what you find comfortable.

Marker:

The very first marker I bought was from Wal-Mart. My friend showed me a small plastic pump handgun he bought for about $20. I thought it was the coolest thing. So I bought one the same day. So later that month I had problems with paintballs feeding into the marker and I learned my first lesson in paintball equipment . Wal-Mart is a terrible place to buy paintballs! Almost without fail, they will be a cheap brand and old. Old paintballs swell! Swollen paintballs do not load properly or fly right.

The second marker I bought was from Wal-Mart again. I saved up for it but didn't do any research on it (big mistake!). It was a ZAP ZXS 500: red, all metal body, and chrome barrel with double trigger and rubber grip handle. I was so happy with it; I thought it was a coolest marker. until I tried it out. With a full CO2 tank on it and a hopper of paint, it was so heavy! And to make matters worse, it chopped every tenth ball. I never even got to play a game with it. I had it in the closet till I brought it back. It was pathetic; I am sure if you took a small tree and carved a slingshot you would have won every game against me. It was just terrible, so I count myself lucky for being able to bring it back and getting a full refund.

So with a little more knowledge of paintball and markers, I looked around and I researched forums and lots of sites, and decided that the Tippmann 98 custom would be the right choice for me. Then I decided where I would buy it. I found a store in the US that sold them for one a very resizable price (keeping in mind the CAD. to US dollar difference) and ordered one from them.

Ahhh. it was on its way. $129 plus $30 shipping and handling. So now with a stock Tippmann 98, I was eager to get it looking like a M16. I bought a new TRU_FLIGHT 14-inch barrel and a retractable tactical stock. Then a RocketCock II to keep the dirt out of the marker.

*Update: Now it's been a while since I have wrote this article and I thought I would update. I have recently upgraded to a Spyder VS1. It doesn't look like a M16 but it can sure as hell shoot better then the Tippmann, and when you need the firepower- I'm glad to have this Spyder.

 

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