Do not bring a System X "Autococker" in my shop. System X is an insult to everything Bud Orr stands for. System X is a cheap rip off of Bud Orr heritage and I'm glad he successfully sued them and put them out of business. System X sucks.
I feel better, now.
At first I thought this might be a camera trick or a bit of Photshop magic. But, nope. It's the real deal. Gotta hate that.
I'm sorry. I hate to keep going back to EBay for entertainment but dang people there make it so darn easy. Here's a description of a spyder being auctioned:
"Like most of my paintball gear, this has been used in hostilities only once."
"Hostilities"??? Where is this guy playing? Iraq?
Sherwood Police Report/March 4
Joyce Atherton of Sherwood told police as she was getting ready to go in the front door of her home on Mohave Drive she saw a paintball shot from a paintball gun hit her front door. When she turned around, she noticed a red Dodge pickup truck driving north.
Anyone have any information for me?
I read a story awhile back about a kid that was expelled from school because he brought a paintball gun to school. Turns out it was just the grip frame.
The response was predictable and typical. One side lined up on the zero tolerance side and called for expulsion while the other wanted to know what the big deal was all about. Obviously the kid couldn't wait for the weekend and brought it in to show it off to his paintball friends (It was probably a UL frame - curses to you, DYE).
What I want to know is why kids bring ANYTHING to school other than their books and homework and bag lunch? Leave the damn IPods, cell phones, magazines, designer rags, gamer software, sunglasses, body metal and hobbies at home. Keep your brains glued to the task at hand.
And before you consider me out of touch or "one of those" let me explain my version of "task at hand".
Get involved. Don't just sit and be spoon fed life by your instructor/teacher/professor. Question. Argue. Applaud. Paraphrase. Create an experience and be a part of it.
Don't let stuff get in the way of getting smart.
Depending on how you look at it you could say I currently own 178 paintball guns. Technically, T-Square Paintball owns 176. Only 2 are actually mine and as you might expect, both are "old school" - my Autococker (mechanical) and an Automag (extremely "upped" - still mechanical).
They both have drop forwards.
Back in the day a drop forward was a must have. The Autococker by today's standards is a behemoth. A drop forward sets the tank forward and balances the marker making it easier to handle. It also allowed the shooter to get in tight with the gun which theoretically would make you a smaller target. What getting tighter with the gun actually did was get you closer to the game and get you hit more often. But everyone was in tighter and getting hit more often so nobody noticed.
Today guns are long and lean. Like a long sniper barrel your aim point is extended and, theoretically, improves accuracy. Actually what it does is put the shooter further behind the bunker with just the barrel of the marker exposed.
There was a time when I sold dozens of drop forwards, along with the latest and greatest ASA add on, every month. Now I can't give them away. I managed to get $4 for one on EBay the other day that would normally sell for $32. Considering my wholesale cost I lost $19 on the deal.
I have a bunch of expansion chambers somewhere. The bottom fell out on those about 8 years ago. Same with venturi bolts, game timers and 9 ounce CO2 tanks.
On the positive side stocks and sight rails are making a come back. Problem is I dumped all of my old ones on EBay a long time ago, losing around $12 on each one.
And it's not like you can see these things coming. Fads are a fickle thing. We would all be millionaires today if we could have seen the pet rock or hula-hoop coming. Or if we could have predicted the Dot.com crash a month ahead of time.
I could just say, "Oh well!"
Actually, I think I will.
"Oh well!"
You might notice a bit of multiple personality disorder on my part when it comes to writing about paintball guns/markers.
Is it a gun? Or is it better to use the more politically correct term "marker"?
I tend to use both depending on my mood. I've even been known to use both in the same sentence. I should probably stop being so wishy-washy and take a stand on one or the other. While I've never been much of a PC fan just for the sake of being PC I really feel I lean more toward "marker".
And probably for the same reason I prefer "HIT" or "TAGGED" instead of "SHOT" and "PAINTBALLS" instead of "BULLETS". It would be easy to say, "Who cares. It doesn't matter either way," but deep inside I think it does matter.
Perhaps I should be more concerned with what I consider the latest threat to paintball's image. Markers use to be called Spyders and Custom 98's or at the very worst, scary names like Intimidator or Piranha. Now they're called "T68 AK47", "TAC5-Recon" or "Spec-Ops Blackcell" manufactured by companies with names like Pusuit Combat Systems, Special Ops Paintball or Armotech.
I would say this is the NEWEST threat to paintball's image only we battled (pardon the pun)the bad "mercenaries in training" image over 20 years ago.
Anyone who remembers will tell you we didn't win that battle but rather both sides limped away agreeing to a cease fire. Light skirmishes have broken out since then with one town or county or state or another banning paintball "weapons" from their fair locale. I fear history will point to MIL-SIM as being the first shot that broke the truce.
Can anyone say, "Forced, knee jerk, left wing, gun(marker) legislation?"
Yeah, okay. So I'm an old party pooper. A fuddy dud. A mean and grumpy field owner. But seriously. Would YOU consider this name or slogan for your field??
You never know what you are going to find on YOUTUBE.
Don't worry. It's G rated.
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