Paintball Information

HISTORY
The first ever game of paintball was played in 1981 in New Hampshire, with 12 participants. They used a Nel-spot 007 pistol which was designed by farmers and ranchers to mark trees and livestock by firing balls of paint. The first ever game was a "capture the flag" type scenario with 2 teams. The winning team in fact captured all of the flags without firing a single shot.

The game was originally devised by Hayes Noel, Bob Gurnsey, and Charles Gaines. Gaines had returned from a recent trip to Africa where he had hunted buffalo. Gaines' stories in combination with inspiration by Richard Connell's book "The Most Dangerous Game", a game was created in order to recreate the excitement of animal hunting. Players would stalk and hunt each other, and thus paintball was born.

WHAT IS A PAINTBALL? 
A paintball the ammunition which is used when playing the game. It is a spherical projectile filled with paint which is designed to break upon impact, and mark the target with coloured paint. Generally paintballs are made from gelatin capsules and filled with some form of non-toxic water soluble dye. Paintballs are biodegradable and non-toxic, although they do not taste nice at all.

Paintballs are normally 0.68 calibre, however in recent times 0.50 calibre variants have emerged in the hopes of making the sport more affordable, and more accessible to new players.

The quality of a paintball can be determined by a few different factors. How spherical the ball is, how brittle the outer shell is, and how thick the fill is. Higher quality paintballs with be almost perfectly shaped, with no detectable seam and very round. The shell will be brittle enough to break instantly on impact and not bounce, but not so brittle that it breaks when being fired. The fill will be brightly coloured, as well as being think and sticky so that it cannot be concealed, and cannot be easily wiped off during a game.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PAINTBALL AND SKIRMISH 
Often you will hear people referring to the activity as paintball, or skirmish and you may wonder what the difference is. The answer is nothing. They are the same activity, however skirmish can encompass a broader range of similar activities such as laser skirmish or laser tag. For the sake of easier understanding, we will always refer to the sport as "paintball".

WOODSBALL OR SPEEDBALL
Sometimes when referring to paintball, discussions will surround the two main styles of paintball games... Woodsball or speedball.

In the beginning paintball was strictly played outdoors in the woods. Players would take advantage of natural cover, camouflage and concealment and use hunting or military tactics. This style of play is now known as "woodsball".

Speedball is the modern evolution of paintball, brought about by the growing interest in the sport, and the need for a standardised league and playing system. Speedball is played on very flat ground, has no natural obstacles but instead used lightweight inflatable "bunkers" which are typically arranged in a symmetrical patter so that the playing field is identical for both teams. The benefits of this style of play mean that injury is less common due to the soft nature of the obstacles, game play is extremely fast paced, and a more commercial format can be employed to allow for better spectator viewing, TV and media coverage, and corporate sponsorship.

PAINTBALL GUNS / MARKERS
The paintball marker is used during a paintball game to mark another player. Within the paintball community they are typically referred to as a marker to reinforce that they are for marking an opponent only, and to differentiate them from real firearms.

Originally markers used CO2 to fire the paintballs, however this had many associated issues relating to the whether. If the air temperature was too cold, the CO2 would freeze before being fired, if it was too hot the CO2 would expand more rapidly when being fired causing velocity spikes and inconsistent performance during game play. All modern high performance markers now use compressed air which is lighter, more efficient, and performs consistently regardless of outside temperatures.

Early markers were "pump action" where a cocking hand grip had to be pumped in order to re-gas the marker, and load another ball into the breech before being fired. Modern day markers are all capable of semi-automatic, or fully-automatic fire, and when equipped with a mechanical loading device known as a "hopper", they can achieve fire rates in access of 30 balls per second.

APPLICATIONS FOR PAINTBALL 
There are many applications for paintball both as a sport, and as a training tool. Social games are extremely popular with bucks and hens parties, birthdays and similar events.

any people will also use paintball as a team building activity because of the team based nature of the sport itself. In Melbourne many top AFL teams have conducted training sessions utilising paintball as a way of raising morale, and increasing a teams cohesiveness.

The military also uses paintball as a simulation tool, to give soldiers real life experience of battle, using paintball markers which look and function almost identically to real world military weapons.