How to know you're an "Old School" player

Just off the top of my head.

You own more paintball guns than a 10 man team would need to play a tournament... & You've used them all.

You've ever played a game using a paintgun OLDER Than your opponents / teammates. And they marvel that not only does it still work, but you're actually tagging people with it.

Somewhere, you've got an article of clothing with the remnant of someone's grand expirement to make a better paintball. Specifically, stuff like "Glitter" paint, "Waxy" paint, Iodine stains, neon glowballs, metallics....

Related, you still have a scar from someone's grand expirement to make a better paintball. Specifically, Pro-Bounce, BE's "Brass ball bearings", Zap's "new" shell, Cal Mag when they did the Am open...

You remember that the full auto "SMG-60" was banned for two reasons. .62 and 9 BPS was too fast a rate of fire.

You've handled a 10 round tube made of metal.

You long for the old tournament format : 45 minute games. 15 man teams. 50+ acre woods fields. Capture the flag. And more often than not, a win was scored while opponents were on the field somewhere.

Related, you play big games or scenarios because that's the closest to the way games "used to be played".

More for the old school purists, but you've ever been told you need to put a barrel bag on "The top barrel" of your SC gun. Alternatively, if you've ever argued with a ref / field owner that no barrel bag in his pro shop fits on your PGP.

You remember buying paint in 200 round shrinkwrap boxes. 180 black balls, 20 bright pink. And you'd load them in your stickfeed 9 black, 1 pink, 9 black, 1 pink....

"Paintcheck" Mgazine was East Coast, APG was west coast, and Paintball News was black and white.

You still want to meet the "Ultimate Paintball Warrior".

With some neoprene, an exacto knife, some glue, and a "Butler creek" pop lid, you can make a 40 round ammo box hold 60 balls.

Speaking of that, if you look hard enough, you can find in your collection somewhere a 40, 50, 90, 100, 150 and 200 round hopper. And given time, you can find 10, 40, 90, 100 and 140 pods "somewhere" too.

You've bought a stickfeeder for $25.

You know the origins of the term "Speedball". You also have pictures somewhere of players in an arena couse in camo, plus photos of the "Shocking pink" JT Jerseys the Ironmen wore.

You watched paintball on ESPN in '96 and said aloud "Who planted the doors all over the place?"

The phrase "Magic Box" still makes you cringe.

You've seen so many barrel fads that you're happy to stick with the stock tube your gun came with. Or you're a die-hard of one of the "Old School" companies who hasn't radically changed their style in a decade. (LAPCO, Amrson, J&J...)

A case is 2500 balls, and anything less is a short case.

You've ever "tumbled" paint to make it shoot better.

If you've ever had an argument that "Constant Air" would ruin the game, either way. It also counts if you have a Co2 wrist bracer that holds 6 powerlets and is in camo.

You've sewn patches onto your camo jacket for fields you've been to.

You still wear BDU's because you can't justify spending $100 on a pair of pants just to trash them in a month or three. And you really hate picking burrs out of those fancy jerseys when you play.

You have an e-gun in your hands, you carry almost 600 balls on your back and 200 in the hopper, you're playing a 'groomed' woods field that resembles "Speedball with trees", and you find yourself crawling from one bunker to another because the angles were "just right" and you saw no need to "spray the bunker" you were heading twords.

You understand the satisfaction of setting up a shot, and one-balling a guy from 130+ feet in the goggles.

You have a "Nelson Spring Kit" for your NELSON BASED gun, NOT for an Autococker! And you know why it's so funny to put Nelson springs in an Autococker too. (Think ancestry)

You know where the "World Cup" used to be held, BEFORE the Mouse, and before "Paintball World" in Kissimme...

You remember when JT made a "Kevlar" styled helmet. You also remember that Vents were WAY better than anything else out there. But Jones goggles still ROCKED!

Related, you've ever taken a knife to a pair of "Uvex" goggles in an attmpt to reduce the "Fog". Or you've taken a hacksaw to some "Woodstalk" masks so you could BREATHE under there.

What the kids call "ghetto rig" we call "ingenious" or "making it work". You gearbag has electircal tape, allen wrenches, teflon tape, duct tape, screwdrivers and plyers, zip ties, and several other "fastening devices" meant to hold someone's gear together "for now". Some of your best temporary fixes still reside on your feed necks to this day...

YOU know "The Brute" was the original plastic paintgun. Well, that and the Splatmaster, the "Cheezy 2000", Rapide and all it's offspring....

Any of the following names actually means something to you : Ken Kelsh, Fred Schultz, Chip Kurdt, "Sandman", Bob Gurnsey, Len Canter, Sandra Day, Jim Lively, Randy Kamiya...

(Feeling old yet?)

-Tyger (Who's feeling REALLY old after playing in the blustering cold all morning...)

When you have been around long enough that people go on the other team just to shoot you.

When people half your age WANT to hang out with you.

When flash and glitter guns just make your brain hurt.

When people spending money on marketing hype makes you sick.

When you wipe out the other team with a good move and people are amazed you can still do it.

When you feel an emotional attraction to a paintball product no one ever heard of.

When your older friends come to you to asking what "ownage" means.

When speedball was considered a stupid newbe game.

When pros used 12 grams and everyone else used con-air (and they were proud of it).

When being seen on the playing field meant you sucked.


AGD

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Originally posted by Tyger

You've ever "tumbled" paint to make it shoot better.

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I still do that and people wonder what the hell I'm doing to my paint when I load up.

:D

Heh, that reminds me...

You know you're old school when your first paintgun, the one that looks like an M-16, is back in style.

Come to think of it, same goes for all my old "ALICE" and "Military lookalike" gear too... I can get out the ICS vest and look like a great scenario player now....

EDIT ADD : : If you know the origins of wearing a harness on your BACK....

(That'll get some people thinking....)

-Tyger

When I first started playing:

* A Rapide with a back-bottle adapter was "high tech", and a forty-round spindle loader would last me two games or more.

* Leaving the tails on your Whippersnapper zip-ties for that "insect" look was considered cool.

* Loaders were still made with PVC and spray-paint.

* There was no such thing as a paintball store. You bought old military gear from an Army Surplus, or new hunting gear- like shotgun shell belts and camo gloves- from a sporting goods store.

* One ten-ounce thermo-valved "California air" fill would last you three weekends, maybe four if you went easy on the autotrigger.

I know what a CAM Tank is, and what the acronym means.

I know who "Wore their paint upside-down".

I know the original name of the field that is now EMR. I also know SC Village used to be called Sat Cong Village, in those pre-Politically-Correct days.

I remember paintball before the Automag, and I recall when Bud's gun was called the Sniper Auto Cocker.

I remember when guns like the Automag were advertised as "true semi-auto" to differentiate them from the double-action guns that called themselves 'semiauto'.

I remember when you could buy real, machined-aluminum slip-on silencers, and that was the hot, trick, top-of-the-line mod for your longbarrel Sheridan.

And I still have:

* Faint blue stains on the trees near my house, from the old Nelson paint- the same stuff banned from SC Village because it stained.

* Opaque black and green 10 round tubes (since they're camo, of course, unlike those bright white ones.)

* Some of the (empty) camoflage California Magnum 200-round boxes.

Last but not least, the hydro on my very first HPA tank expired eight years ago.

Doc.

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Originally posted by Doc Nickel
I know the original name of the field that is now EMR. I also know SC Village used to be called Sat Cong Village, in those pre-Politically-Correct days.

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Wolf's Lair I believe.

I remember looking the ink off the pages of APG while suffing through HS biology - back when tech articles were along the lines of "how to cut a filed strip slot in your 007" and seing something about a military compund that was a lot like todays scenarios - role playing from the moment you drove up. I always wanted to go...

-Calvin

When you go to chrono your gun and the field owner screams:

"Is that an antique?" and he's both ignorant and excited that it just might be....

Wow! Tyger, AGD and Doc Nickel! Man, how can I compete with that?
Well, I'm not old school, but here goes:

You still think that "Crazy black" is the coolest splash around!

You wore RENEGADE jerseys and mask-camouflage.

Angels were THE THING to have.

Having to split the guy with the VM-68 and the Tippmann 68 Special up because together they had too much firepower...

100 shots lasting 5-6 games...

Those 100 rounds costing $20...

The good ole days...:rolleyes:

Quote:

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Originally posted by Tyger
A win was scored while opponents were on the field somewhere.

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That is the part I miss the most.

Quote:

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Originally posted by Tyger
You also remember that Vents were WAY better than anything else out there.

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I still got my Vents, too bad I can't get replacement lenses anymore. :mad:

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Originally posted by cledford


Wolf's Lair I believe.

-Calvin

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Correct.

And having played at Wolf's Lair, with the patch to prove it on yout camo vest.

Ogre

ah, you can fix anything on a paintball gun with electrical tape....i even use to carry it in my bdu's during the game just in case lol

stop you guys are making me feel old...

.....you know what a 3357 crosman sounds like and know you can get real close before they'll break on you
.....remember when any mention of hit or dead on a Lively Master field would get you pulled
.....remember buying RPS paint in 60 rd econotubes
.....you were there when Keith laid Jim out with a 20 oz tank and who I'm talking about
.....the videos of Adam Gardner's "game" or lack of it at Tahoe and Nashville
.....Bob McGuire had a TV show on paintball and what time it came on
.....what the Hardcore mod was and what team did them
.....that tiger stripe products used to sponsor the ironmen and Bob Long does look like landscaping in them:p

I lost the contact info but there is a store in hong kong that still has lenses and masks for vents

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Originally posted by Brophog
When you go to chrono your gun and the field owner screams:

"Is that an antique?" and he's both ignorant and excited that it just might be....

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When the first time you EVER saw a chrono a player brought it to the field and everyone gathered around in interest to see what the heck it was - the only person not in the crowd or curious was the field owner who was too busy grilling hotdogs for sale.

The above statement was what happened the first time I ever chronoed a marker - some guy from CA brought it to the field as a novelty. The field owner could have cared less about it. My Nelspot with "4 thousandths" over valve tube was shooting in the 430s that day. The funny thing was that even though the field didn't have a chrono (it was a big field and no one there had ever seen one) the established field "limit" was 350fps. That was with UVEX goggles and the woodsstalker masks. My how things change...

-Calvin

Cleaning up the field at the end of the day ment picking up thousands of 12 grams and 10rnd tubes.

Paint was sold 1 10rnd tube for a $1.

Velocity was adjusted on a majority of markers using washers or cut springs.

Your pocket was the ideal storage area for extra tubes and 12 grams.

PB gear came in Camo and Black only.

When paint was sold by the ball, not by the bag.

I can't help but toss in a few...

Barrels didn't have threads, slots, or ports and everything was pressure fit...

There was no aluminum everything was brass and steel...

You had every intention of having to use the splatmaster holsterd on your hip...and still get laughed at for wearing it during a game.

You've won a game without a shot with a flag pull and a good crawl and sprint...

You've ruined countless surplus camo bandana's by shredding them and hanging off of hoppers and goggles.

Everyone had a secert way to keep their goggles from fogging up other than a double lens...

Played half a game without paint and still won...

Knew how to save paint by scaring the new kids by turning your gun on the side and shooting air when you made your move.

Speedball was just a fad and a waste of paint...

Only time someone needed to charge is if they left their car lights on...

Air was for the guns not the bunkers...

There wasn't a term "Wal-Mart Warrior"

Nobody knew what BPS ment? It should of been SPB!

You were a Bad A** if your hopper had a batery not your gun...

Half a hopper was plenty... half a 100rd hopper was plenty...

And AMEN to winning a game with oponents still on the field!

wow.. what a turnout! well I fall short of old-school since I started in 98.. but I do have a relateable story.

I play for the rabid squirrels, an all-pump team that competes in semi-auto events. This weekend we had two players meeting for the first time, and they got to the field before the rest of the squirrels. In a building with 30 teams, they had no problem finding each other. And heres what one of them wrote:

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I just met and played with a new player today (Amhildreth) and the only way I knew it was him was he wasnt carring totes and totes of equipment.....

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Thought of a couple more:


when a "cool" upgrade to your bushy was a new trigger shoe


when a high-end, superfast gun was one where you could hold the trigger back while pumping it.

Oh you guys are evil... EVIL. I may not be old but I am in paintball years. ANyways here's one more for the list.


- You remember the tri-color VM-68 back when it was orginally called a PMI 3.

Quote:

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Originally posted by Tyger
Just off the top of my head.

You've seen so many barrel fads that you're happy to stick with the stock tube your gun came with. Or you're a die-hard of one of the "Old School" companies who hasn't radically changed their style in a decade. (LAPCO, Amrson, J&J...)

A case is 2500 balls, and anything less is a short case.

(Feeling old yet?)

-Tyger (Who's feeling REALLY old after playing in the blustering cold all morning...)

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Man I miss 2500rd cases. I used to love proball platinum...

And I have kept a few barrels that I don't intend to ever sell, including a 10" Carter SS, and a 12" BOA "patent infringing" snakebite. Sadly, the BOA needs renickled, it's got a pit in the bore...

Funny, I remember when angels were new hunks of unknown junk. Now people think that it's old school to want one. Course, back then I used to get in some debates about how it was physically impossible for any barrel, air pressure, or closed bolt system to make a paintball travel any further... oh wait... I still do...

DK1

Played with a rented Splatmaster.

You remember when the PGP went from being made with the brown grip handles to the black grips with the new ribbed (not knurled) pump grip.

Trying to find a guy that could solder to brass well and convert your PMI to CA.

Sewing 12-gram wrist packs to your green BDU's so you could carry an extra 5 powerlets.

Playing at Fields of Fire with Dave Youngblood in his silver suit.

when you still refuse to give up your PMI-1 that was converted to constant air and a hopper feed - 4lbs as it sits :D

http://www.killianshouse.com/zX/PBal01.jpg

Don't forget the must have upgrades for Phantoms included anti-kink bolts, lightened hammers, hardened sears and LAPCO power stems...oh and of course power stems in different sizes, this of course was with the one piece barrel and reciever not the fancy removable one you can get now.
Just so Sniper fans don't get left out....the wierd cam on the pump rod that allowed...slam firing.

Just remembered...you had to pay extra to get a donkey to screw in a constant air tank and if you didn't want to do that then you drilled a 12 gram and threaded a hose into the side to drop the air tank input to either a bottomline or a remote hose :eek:

This thread needs a sticky!

You read the "Team Navarone" article in APG and dreamed about the lifestyle of sports cars, boats, and a team weight room.

You easily found the newest APG on the magazine rack by looking for the scantily-clad cover model. (usually in a bikini, or micro shorts & tube top.... all in woodland camo of course).

You worried about PB being banned in New Jersey because if it happened there, it could happen where you live.

You knew by sight or name, all the "Lords Of Discipline".

You laughed your butt off at the new "JT Racing" jerseys.

APG covered PB & LAZERTAG.

The only color pages in APG were gun ads, and those were few and far between.

The "Poison" ad was thumb-tacked to your bedroom wall.

Barrel extenders were "must-haves".

Beards were a must so as not to give away your position.

I remember when they first got a chrono at one of the first field I played at. The limit was 325 and I was the only one under. No one else was even close.

--You refused to go remote because you liked the feel of the tank in your shoulder, but you still had just as much hose running from the bottom-line\back-bottle to the AIR Valve.

It almost got to be a running joke to see just how much you could use and how you could route it back then.

Aaron