Saturday, November 13, 2004

Paintball Gun

I've been waiting for this for a long time.

Over the spring, some friends and I took up the sport of paintball, and after my first time out of the gate, I was hooked. I started with a Kingman Spyder Victor II. It's a semi-auto marker with a CO2 propulsion system. It was a pretty nice gun...really, not bad for entry-level, and I wouldn't hesistate to recommend it to a new player starting the sport. It works quite well for woodsball, but once I started playing speedball, some of its limitations became all too clear. Variations in the velocity caused my shots to frequently be inaccurate--it was OK for body shots on an exposed player, but if a player only had a head, or foot, or pod sticking out of the bunker, forget it--my only hope was to "spray 'n' pray".

At the start of the summer, Squidly got an Angel Speed, and his play got noticeably better immediately. Of course I wanted one...but his budget was a bit higher than mine. I read some other reviews, but couldn't find anything that looked good in my price range. What was I to do?

Another friend of mine came up with the answer. In August, my other paintball companion Faxman got a Bushmaster BKO from Indian Creek Designs. It's a LOT less expensive than the Angel, and performs amazingly well for the price. (In fact, it's been referred to as the "poor man's Angel". So I waited...and bided my time.

Once I had the funding together, it was time to talk to Squidly. He's got some friends at his local paintball shop (MI Paintball in South Jersey), so he was able to get me a bitchin' deal on this gun. I went up there today, and came away with a red 2004 BKO of my very own. While I was there, I color-coordinated it with a red gun cover, a red bottle cover (this gun uses a low-pressure nitrous system--exceptionally accurate for those pinpoint shots on heads, hoppers, shoes, etc.) and a red Empire speedball jersey (which was on clearance to make room for 2005 apparel. If you're in the market, now's the time to buy.) We topped off the afternoon with lunch and a quick pint at Squidly's local sports bar. A big thanks to him for arranging the deal and taking time to go with me and hook me up. Look out, Faxman--I'm comin' for ya!

Now...I can't wait to give it a field test. Anyone know any good paintball fields in Delaware?

(Look for pictures this week.)

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