All in a day…

Every now and then a customer will exit the Pro-Shop leaving me and my store manager staring at each other with our mouths open."

"He wanted us to do WHAT to his gun!"

"Did she seriously want to make field reservations for a group of pre-schoolers?"

"Did he really say that?"

It happens two or three times a week.

This time, it left us with some suprise.

A man came in looking for upgrades and maybe a gun for his friend. He and a group play backyard ball. During his look around he related a number of backyard stories that included bruises, shots to the neck, paint chips going through a mask cutting his girlfriend's lip and other typical tales of paintball mayhem and destruction that always sound a little short of safety when coming from a backyard point of view.

Usually it's me that asks but because of some high blood pressure issues I've really been trying to step away from the Pulpit of Perpetual Paintball Preaching and fore go the usual, "How fast are you guys shooting?"

The question with it's usual, "I dunno" response is a set up that leads to my chastising the player for playing hot and then explaining the importance of a chronograph - even in backyards.

Stephanie beat me to it (probably to cut me off so she could give her toned down version of my sermon) and asked the question herself.

His response caught us totally off guard. "We have a chronograph and set our markers at 280 feet per second."

Our blank stare and sudden silence must have uneased him. "That's okay, right? 280 feet per second?"

"Ummm...OH. Yeah. That's good," I managed to say.

When he left Stephanie and I just looked at each other and shrugged our shoulders.

"That's a first," I told her."

"Yeah. No kidding! Backyard players with a chronograph!"