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Paintball History
The forest industry for years has selected trees to be harvested
or left to mature by many means. Colored
tape and bright paint were two of the more popular methods.
Faced with the challenge of marking trees in
hard to reach places, Charles Nelson invented
a paint pellet that could be shot out of a gun. The original
pellet was made from oil base paint in order to leave a long-lasting
mark. Foresters marked trees with it. Cattle
ranchers even marked livestock with it. Eventually
as we all can imagine, people marked each other with it and
the sport of Paintball Was Born. Can you guess
the origin of the term "Paintball Marker"?
Evan and Charles Nelson
founders of the Nelson Paint Company Started
in 1940
As pellet marking became a more regularly played game, Charlie
Nelson was asked about creating a less permanent type
of paint in the pellets. Thus the water-based paintball
was born. Charlie Nelson is said to have invented the paintball,
it is also said that on January 6th 1987, the first recipe for
an actual paintball bullet was patented by George A
Skogg. The fluid was packaged in soft gelatin
capsules and this made projectiles which were more
stable and accurate and left bright and highly visible marks
on places that they hit. Luckily for the Nelson Paint
Company, George A Skogg was one of
their employees, so the patent registered became known as the
Nelson paintball recipe.
The Paintball
Marker or Gun
Many still call Paintball Guns "Markers"
as originally named. The Splatmaster was the
first specifically designed paintball gun - and it was patented
on July 30th 1985 by Robert G Shepherd. Paintball
markers have developed seriously since the time of
tree markers, semiautomatic,
mechanical, fully automatic
and Electro pneumatic paintball guns followed.
Most parts being capable of upgrading.
It took almost a decade for the game of paintball
to grow into an organized sport, with independent manufacturers
of guns and other supplies, regular playing fields and recognized
tournaments. Today paintball has over four
million registered players in the US alone. There are paintball
teams, associations and paintball fields
around the world including Canada, England, Australia, France
and Germany.
In the years since it began, paintball and
its equipment have grown considerably more sophisticated. Safety
gear has evolved to new standards. International associations
have developed official tournament and game rules, as well as
codes of conduct. Major paintball tournaments
can offer prize money as high as $200,000. There are at least
three glossy monthly magazines on the newsstands, and hundreds
of team magazines. Many businesses cater to the sport: manufacturing
paintball guns, paintballs,
clothing, and paintball safety gear, or distributing
and selling it in stores around the world.
Indoor Paintball and Outdoor Paintball fields
are commonly set-up with villages, trench lines, towers, wilderness,
night lighting, and tunnels. Indoor paintball
sites may be as large as 75,000 sq. feet, and outdoor
paintball fields as much as 180 acres. There are an
estimated 250 paintball fields in operation in the UK and an
average of 12 fields per state in the USA. The outdoor
paintball field in Cochrane Alberta is estimated to
be the 4th largest in the world, and the indoor paintball
arena in Calgary Alberta is the largest arena in Calgary.
Paintball is most commonly played in teams.
Games run anywhere from a few minutes to 48-hour marathons,
with camp-outs. Games themselves are usually quite simple: capture
the flag (either a single flag two or more teams fight
for, or each team has its own flag the other side tries to grab),
elimination paintball (a knockout game where
all members of the other side must be eliminated), timed
(winner is the team with the most players remaining). Individual-oriented
games are usually simple elimination games(the last player left
wins,) or may involve a point system for hits.
A hit means the actual paintball strikes a
player and breaks. Hits anywhere on the paintballers body or
on the player's gun count, and the hit player is immediately
out of the game. He or she must leave the paintball
field to a designated safe or neutral area commonly
referred to as "Heaven". The paint is water-soluble
and washes out of clothing and hair easily.
The paintball is a .68 caliber,
gelatin-coated ball filled with vegetable oil paint, and usually
travel at speeds of 250-300 feet per second (200 MPH). This
is enough to sting unprotected flesh when struck, but nowhere
near the speed - or danger - of a slap shot or a line drive.
Nonetheless, paintball players are required
to wear safety gear to protect their face.
Customers get full face gear that covers eyes, ears, nose and
mouth. Players at Capture the Flag are also provided with protective
camouflage coveralls, which not only makes the players harder
to spot, but also absorbs some of the impact and most of the
paint. No player is allowed onto the playing field - even onto
the firing range - at any time without a proper mask.
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