Gun care...

The best way to ruin your paintball gun:

Don't lubricate it.

The best way to ruin your paintball gun:

Use the wrong lubricant.

It's hard to get mean and grumpy with someone who uses gun oil to lubricate their paintball gun. I suppose they mean well and after all they are making an attempt.

Problem is GUN oil is the worst thing to use on a paintball gun. Gun oil has solvents and rust inhibitors that will make o'rings swell and get soft. In some cases the o'rings will dissolve and just disappear.

Guns do not have o'rings. Paintball guns need them. Guns need solvents to break away gun powder gunk and rust inhibitors to keep parts from rusting. Paintball guns don't use gun powder and are 95 percent aluminum.

Show your marker you care. Take the time to pick up some real paintball gun oil.

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Thank you...

No one can say paintballers are not a loyal and hardy bunch. Two weeks ago most of the field was a foot under water. Last week it was covered in a foot of mud and this week-end it was terribly cold. But players came to wade and muck and huddle together. And one more time, this afternoon, I got to hear it again; "Man this was the greatest time ever!" Everyday I'm thankful for the opportunity to do something I like doing for people who appreciate it.

Play safe.

Mick

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New forum...

Been working on a state wide paintball news forum but thank God, someone beat me to it. It's not as if I have nothing else to do. Check it out at http://arpaintball.8.forumer.com . I'll put the link in the sidebar for easy access. The forum seems to lean a bit toward the mil-sim/scenario crowd so I urge all you rec-ballers and tourney players to wander on over and say hey!

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With friends like these...

When people bring me a broken gun they all have explanations as to what happened, even if it's just to say, "I have no idea". My favorite one starts out like this:

"My friend told me to..."

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Why not...

It's probably a bit late to be talking about New Year's resolutions. Actually I don't believe in them. Why wait till the first of the year to make a change? After all, wasn't it Anne Frank who said, "How wonderful it is that nobody has to wait a single moment before starting to improve the world."?

Anyway. I resolve to stop talking people out of buying things they don't really need.

There are a few bugs to work out, for instance, I'm not sure what I'm going to say when someone asks what barrel will improve accuracy.

I guess I could say something like, "Well, try one of these."

When someone wants to buy a $135 hopper for their $95 dollar marker? Why not!

I'm still not going to sell electronic rec ball guns. But I'm going to stock up on and sell the new military looking Tippmann X-7. I might even carry a few aftermarket parts for it.

High pressure air instead of C02?

Why not?

A twelve pod harness when two pods are more than enough?

Why not?

A regulator on a mechanical, Co2 gun?

Sure.

Hell! Why not?

CYA

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Big balls...

Big paintballs that is. What were you thinking?

Both of the round, spherical (not the quarter), colorful items in the picture above started out life as a 68 caliber paintball. The one on the right is fresh out of the box. The one on the left has been outside, on the ground and collecting moisture for three days.

Pull the trigger on the ball on the right and it will rocket down the barrel as it is supposed to. The one on the left will not. In fact, it won't even pass through the hopper feed neck.

It's too big!

Duh!

Even someone with just a minimum understanding of the "round-peg-in-a-square-hole" concept, or in this case the "large-round-object-through-a-small-hole concept, should be able to figure this one out.

Yet every weekend someone (both youngsters and adults) will scoop big balls off the ground, put them in their hopper and then wonder why their gun fires but no balls come out.

I use to go up to them and clear the gun, remove the offending big balls from the hopper, and then explain why it's not a good idea to try and recycle paintballs.

Here lately I clear the gun, explaining why it's not a good idea to recycle paintballs from the ground and then hand the gun back saying, "If the gun stops working because of big balls again you are on your own."

In most cases they figure it out and I'll see them hunkered down behind a bunker clearing the remaining big balls from the hopper. Sometimes they remain clueless and spend the rest of the day dry firing and wondering why everyone else is using way more paint than they are.

I've promised myself I would show more patience this year. After all, I can't expect players to know ALL of the intricacies of paintball.

I'm going to try very, very, very hard to keep that promise.

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More phone stuff...

Needless to say, the phone is a big part of our day - and day off - here at T-Square. If you call during other than business hours you get this message:

"Thank you for calling T-Square Paintball. There's no one in right now but you can press one to leave a message. Or call back when the Pro-Shop is open, Wednesday thru Sunday from noon till 6 or when the field is open, Saturday and Sunday at noon..."

Here's a message left a couple of Mondays ago: "My name is XXXX and my phone number is 985-XXXX and I need to make a reservation for this Saturday for a birthday party. Please call back as soon as possible.

And the next day, Tuesday morning, another message from the same caller: "Hello I called yesterday and left a message. I need you to call me back."

And that same Tuesday later in the afternoon, a third message from the same caller: "Listen. I don't know what kind of business you people are running but I need a call back so I can make reservations. I've already sent out the invitations. Please call back as soon as possible."

The first thing Wednesday when we open we check our messages. The call back to this caller went something like this:

Impatient last minute planner: Hello?

T-Square: Yes Ma'am, this is Mick Gray at T-Square Paintball returning your call.

Impatient last minute planner: Oh. It's you. Well... Forget it. We've decided to take the birthday party to Chucky Cheese.

Maybe I should spread my 60 hour work week out over 7 days instead of 5!

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Agreeable is highly over rated...

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