AO member Talls asked in another thread what was my worst day playing paintball? His thread was about turning around a 3 on 1 only to find a hit on his pack. The worst day comes instantly to mind so I will share it here.
In the late 80's there were no semi autos, only pumps. A fast gun was 4-5 shots per second. The Tippman Full Auto was around but it only held 15 shots and they went quick.
Semi's were a huge dream and I had just developed one of the first gravity feed semi's we called the Panther. Instead of a stick tube that held 15 balls, I had a cut up Penzoil oil bottle as a hopper. The gun had all kinds of problems with co2 but when it shot it was crazy fast for the time.
We were playing in a 100 acre field that had two forts about 1/4 mile apart. As we walked into the field from the staging area our fort was the close one and the other was off in the distance. The battle ensued and in no time at all I was out of paint. In those days it was ok to leave the field, get more paint and air and come back on. These games could last over an hour.
After filling up I came back onto the field and headed to our fort. To my surprise I heard a huge battle going on right outside our fort!! I slowly crawled up the embankment and peered over. I saw a line of at least 12 of the enemy attacking our fort from close range. They were all in a straight line behind a 4 ft berm surrounding the fort.
My heart pounded as I knew instantly what I had to do! I would make a Kamikaze run on the entire enemy line. No stopping, No slowing down, my superior semi auto fire power with a whole hopper of paint would make me God like in my ability to put out a cloud of paintballs. I could single handedly turn around the whole game and be a hero.
As I launched over the embankment my heart was pounding so bad time slowed and everything went slow motion. It seemed like forever as I raced across the 50 ft between me and the start of the enemy line. I was right in the open and I knew if someone saw me coming at them my dream of glory would get snuffed out in a hail of fire. Just a little further, a little further, I reasoned that I could NOT MISS a single enemy as I raced behind them otherwise I would get shot in the back. Each shot had to be point blank and I had to get to that first player before he knew what happened.
The first guy was lying on his belly with the gun extended out in front of him. As I got within 10 ft he saw me but only rolled on his side and did not move his gun. In that slow motion effect you always remember, I saw the barrel of my gun come up and point at him . With a one handed shot I watched as the ball broke on his chest. I was at a dead run and knew my glory was assured. I went blazing down the line only a few feet behind each of my victims and shot each one in turn. Every time I landed another shot I felt a rush of confidence and knew I couldn't loose.
As I got half way down the line the gunfire from the fort stopped and they started cheering. I continued my relentless pounding of the helpless fools who never looked for the Angel of Death from behind. Bang, bang, bang, one shot for each no waiting.
As I hammered my way to the end of the line disaster struck, that disaster was for me the most remembered moment in my entire paintball life. Something that had never happened before and will likely never happen again. There are few things that can take you to the highest highs and then in another second just break you in half but it happened to me. As I lined up my barrel on the last player in the line he saw me and yelled the words that stopped me dead in my tracks, "Tom it's us, your own team!!"
Dazed and confused I was speechless. I crumbled to the ground and tried to figure out what happened as the cheers continued from the fort. In the aftermath I learned that my team was winning and was returning to the fort with the enemy flag only to find them in the fort pulling ours. A battle broke out and we were feet from victory when I looked over the embankment. I pulled off my dazzling run perfectly only to help the opposing team who cheered me on from the fort!
Needles to say the game ended right there in a jumble of laughter and comments, all at my expense. I was tortured non stop as we all walked back to the staging area and I didn't know if I could ever play paintball again. I sat out the next few games picking up the pieces of my shattered ego.
The one thing I knew for sure from the whole experience was that Semi Auto was the way to go if you wanted to shoot people!!
The life and times of,
AGD
In the late 80's there were no semi autos, only pumps. A fast gun was 4-5 shots per second. The Tippman Full Auto was around but it only held 15 shots and they went quick.
Semi's were a huge dream and I had just developed one of the first gravity feed semi's we called the Panther. Instead of a stick tube that held 15 balls, I had a cut up Penzoil oil bottle as a hopper. The gun had all kinds of problems with co2 but when it shot it was crazy fast for the time.
We were playing in a 100 acre field that had two forts about 1/4 mile apart. As we walked into the field from the staging area our fort was the close one and the other was off in the distance. The battle ensued and in no time at all I was out of paint. In those days it was ok to leave the field, get more paint and air and come back on. These games could last over an hour.
After filling up I came back onto the field and headed to our fort. To my surprise I heard a huge battle going on right outside our fort!! I slowly crawled up the embankment and peered over. I saw a line of at least 12 of the enemy attacking our fort from close range. They were all in a straight line behind a 4 ft berm surrounding the fort.
My heart pounded as I knew instantly what I had to do! I would make a Kamikaze run on the entire enemy line. No stopping, No slowing down, my superior semi auto fire power with a whole hopper of paint would make me God like in my ability to put out a cloud of paintballs. I could single handedly turn around the whole game and be a hero.
As I launched over the embankment my heart was pounding so bad time slowed and everything went slow motion. It seemed like forever as I raced across the 50 ft between me and the start of the enemy line. I was right in the open and I knew if someone saw me coming at them my dream of glory would get snuffed out in a hail of fire. Just a little further, a little further, I reasoned that I could NOT MISS a single enemy as I raced behind them otherwise I would get shot in the back. Each shot had to be point blank and I had to get to that first player before he knew what happened.
The first guy was lying on his belly with the gun extended out in front of him. As I got within 10 ft he saw me but only rolled on his side and did not move his gun. In that slow motion effect you always remember, I saw the barrel of my gun come up and point at him . With a one handed shot I watched as the ball broke on his chest. I was at a dead run and knew my glory was assured. I went blazing down the line only a few feet behind each of my victims and shot each one in turn. Every time I landed another shot I felt a rush of confidence and knew I couldn't loose.
As I got half way down the line the gunfire from the fort stopped and they started cheering. I continued my relentless pounding of the helpless fools who never looked for the Angel of Death from behind. Bang, bang, bang, one shot for each no waiting.
As I hammered my way to the end of the line disaster struck, that disaster was for me the most remembered moment in my entire paintball life. Something that had never happened before and will likely never happen again. There are few things that can take you to the highest highs and then in another second just break you in half but it happened to me. As I lined up my barrel on the last player in the line he saw me and yelled the words that stopped me dead in my tracks, "Tom it's us, your own team!!"
Dazed and confused I was speechless. I crumbled to the ground and tried to figure out what happened as the cheers continued from the fort. In the aftermath I learned that my team was winning and was returning to the fort with the enemy flag only to find them in the fort pulling ours. A battle broke out and we were feet from victory when I looked over the embankment. I pulled off my dazzling run perfectly only to help the opposing team who cheered me on from the fort!
Needles to say the game ended right there in a jumble of laughter and comments, all at my expense. I was tortured non stop as we all walked back to the staging area and I didn't know if I could ever play paintball again. I sat out the next few games picking up the pieces of my shattered ego.
The one thing I knew for sure from the whole experience was that Semi Auto was the way to go if you wanted to shoot people!!
The life and times of,
AGD
Yeah I have shot a teammate before but not my whole team lol. I wish I was there just to hear what the guys were saying. But don't worry about it to much it was a honest mistake and if you think about it could happen to anybody, but I have never heard of it till now
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