Over the river and through the woods...

It happens every time about this same time every year. December, January, the weather gets cold and the paintballs start acting weird. The paintballs ship quick, overnight, but that's plenty of time for it to get cold and dimpled. We store it in a warm room but as soon as it's passed out it's back out in the cold.

When paintballs get cold they get brittle.

When paintballs get brittle they break in the gun.

I have two choices. I can get Wallyworld style paint that tends to be hard as marbles or I can try to get players to adjust their playing style - stop crashing into bunkers hopper first, try to be patient while the refs do everything possible to keep the guns clean and try to slow down their trigger finger (not only is this easier on the paint it also helps keep the inside of the barrel from frosting up with sharp little shards of CO2).

Marbles hurt.

Hope you have a great New Year.

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More boring industry stuff...

I'm constantly having to remind myself, "Do not purchase the first run of any new paintball product." The industry is notorious for letting their customers do the field testing and quality checks.

I have to remind myself because I often forget. Like I did recently when I bought a "brand new, just hit the market" paintball gun.

Yes. It has problems. Problems that are well documented on the infamous Paintball Nation forum by the way. Problems that apparently already have a fix but problems just the same.

But here's the problem that really frosts my snowman.

Every time (Yes, I've run into this many times), every time I call the company technician about an obvious, as well as documented, equipment problem I get the same response: "Ahh, gee. I have no idea what you're talking about. Send the gun back so we can take a look at it."

Apparently technicians don't read Paintball Nation. If they did they would see they are often mentioned BY NAME as being the one who identified the problem in the first place!

Give me a "D". Give me a "U". Give me an "H"

I'm out.

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WARNING - Boring industry related post...

I tried to raise a little dust on PaintBallNation (PBN) a few days back . Have you ever heard the expression “The silence was deafening”?

There is an event that comes around the first of the year for paintball field and store owners. The promoter does a great job of bringing the industry together in one place where we can learn and express and share. I attended last year and sat through a dozen different classes on a dozen different topics put on by paintball manufacturers and suppliers and providers. The classes ranged from field safety to gun maintenance to “what’s new”, insurance and business management and I enjoyed them all. I left each class feeling I was better prepared to go forth and help my business and the industry grow.

The classes were free.

This year there is a fee. Some rather substantial, ranging from $10 to as high as $500.

Now, here is where the raising of dust comes in. If you run a business that depends on the success or your salesmen and the satisfaction of the customer does it make sense to nickel and dime the salesmen or would it be better to provide them with as many tools and as much product knowledge as possible?

If a company wants me to sell their paintball gun shouldn’t they be anxious to teach me, their salesman, how to maintain the gun and provide me with technical information so I can keep THEIR end customer happy? How about a company that sells loaders?

Should I have to pay to learn how to attach a company’s after market parts? Should I have to pay a Scenario Game promoter to promote scenario games?

It's like paying someone to listen to their comercial.

What’s wrong with this picture?

Industry wants profit....................Customer wants quality/service
---------------------> Field/Store owner <-------------------------

Why do we let the industry put us in the middle without holding them responsible for arming us with the knowledge and ability to keep the customer happy?

Shouldn’t it look more like this?

Industry wants profit...................Customer GETS quality/service
---------------------> Field/Store owner ----------------------->

I brought this subject up in the Field and Store Owner forum and no one batted an eye. Want to bet me the class fees will be even larger next year?

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The theory of (paintball gun) relativity...

"His gun is better cause it shoots further."

My jaw aches from clenching.

Any gun, ANY GUN, set up to shoot X feet per second with X being constant for each gun will propel a paintball the same distance**.


Merry Christmas


** The exception to the rule is the Flatline barrel. It shoots further, but less accurately, because it puts a spin on the ball.

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The fans speak...

In one of the forums I look in on from time to time someone asked, "What should we do about cheating (wiping) in paintball?"

Here are some unedited responses:

"cheating has become a growing point of the sport, just accept it."

"wiping isn't cheating, it's an art"

"I'm not glorifying wiping, but if someone can do it and get away with it, then props to them. …its not unfair, both teams have equal opportunity to do this during the game. Professionals take it into account when they're playing, and plan their strategies around this."

"cheating is part of the game deal with it."

"cheating is part of the game now, your either good at it or your not and if your not then you get pissed off about other people doing it"

"cheating in an event is fine, the refs have to find you first....."

"You guys have to realize that cheating is not that big of a deal in paintball. Pro players cheat all the time"

"I'll cheat my ****ing *** off if I want to, and nobody will have a say in that."

"it's only cheating if you get caught"

"As much as I hate cheating, I do agree it's settled itself comfortably in the game, and probably will always be a part."

"I watched XXXXXX wipe 4 hits in a row, the man is a master and a beast to boot - And I have nothing but respect for him"

"If you ain't cheatin, you ain't trying hard enough..."

"I have kids on the team that will wipe if they decide its the thing to do. Bottom line I leave it up to them - I dont look down on the kids that wipe..."

"Because someone doesnt wipe, that doesnt make them a better player or a better person, it ONLY means that there beliefs are different"

"if you are going to play at the national level, you are going to have to get good at wiping to win."

"IF YOU PERM> BANNED CHEATERS THERE WOULDN"T BE A SINGLE PRO LEFT ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH! besides its just part of sports, ive seen an 8 year old wipe before"

"its not worth fighting for if its not worth fighting dirty for."

Hey Ollie, Chris, Alex, Ryan... any comments?

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I am NOT Legend...

I'm looking forward to the movie similarly titled. I've always known I wasn't the only paintball blogger in the world but for a long time I couldn't find another worth mentioning. I recently ran across one that led me to more.

http://gnomedplume.wordpress.com/ is a blog right up my mean and grumpy firing lane. As he claims, "I've chosen to be nasty, sarcastic and contrarian because no one else is really taking this industry to task." His thoughts lean more toward the industry side of the business while I tend to stick closer to home.

From the Gnomes blog I was led to http://technicalpaintball.com/, http://www.paintballjournal.net/ , http://blog.xpaintball.biz/ , http://blog.sakworldpaintball.com/, http://pbdirt.com/home/ . Each one has it's own style of news, information and commentary. Technical Paintball currently has a bunch of great photos of old and unusual markers. If you check any of the blogs and leave a comment be sure to mention you found them by way of T-Square Paintblog.

If you know of other paintball blogs I'd like to hear about them. My e-mail link is on the side bar.

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Job Offer...

Posted (unedited) on "PaintballForum.com" forum:

"WE ARE INVEST & devlop COMPANY IN THE MIDDLE EAST LOOKING FOR EXPERT IN PAINTBALL TO START AND RUN AN PANTBALL FIELD IN OMAN,DUBAI... GOOD OPPORTUNITY AND INCOM FOR A REEL ADVENTURE IN VERY NICE AND SAFE COUNTRIES PLS SEND YOUR CV TO OUR DEVLOPMENT MANAGER MR SAMIR BY EMAIL:samir.boudemagh@gmail.com"

I would consider applying if it didn't sound like some "Nigerian Prince scam"!

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