Paintball

rjstaaf · 12-15-07, 04:13

Guys,

My son wants a paintball marker and gear for Xmas. He has been begging for some kind of gun all year and has been looking at airsoft, pellet, bbguns and paintball. I have done some looking around and asking questions and think I have settled on a Spyder VS1. I was looking for opinions though. For the next year until he is 10 (minimum age to go to any paintball park) he is just going to be plinking in the back yard. The VS1 is right in the price range we were looking at but I wanted to get some opinions on how reliable the VS1 is and your general thoughts on it or if you have suggestions for other brands...

Thanks

Bob

integritydetail · 12-15-07, 04:49

I used a Spyder SE. loved it till I sold it. very reliable and from what I've heard they were good till they started selling low end stuff @ Wally-World. Tippman's are great 4 the money, I think it's the model 98 that has been sold unchanged for years. As he gets older, better, etc. he can upgrade the barrel, use better balls, and all sorts of custom stuff. They make full auto guns that are in the $$$ thousands too.

JohnnyDaJackal · 12-16-07, 05:19

VS1 should be a good gun, specs are decent and I've had pretty good experiences with Kingman since my backup mech Spyder has never let me down throughout the years.

I'm more worried about your son not really liking the sport though. Not to discourage you or your son, but I would recommend you guys go to where you plan on playing to see how 'friendly' and 'competitive' it is. I've been playing for about 5-6 years and noticed it's a very intense, competitive sport; that not everyone likes once they get on the field.

As for equipment spend more $ up front to get better gear that you won't worry about replacing later down the road. When I first started (around age 14) I had the cheapest stuff from Sports Authority and playing was an absolute nightmare. Between guns breaking, balls breaking in the barrels and masks fogging it was very discouraging. Wally world has decent paint called "Visible Impact" which I found works pretty good for the price. As for the other stuff online is probably your best bet for the other gear (mask, hoppers, N2 tank, pods, squeegees, etc.) If you want I can list some online places that I've had good experiences with.

Just remember paintball is a really expensive hobby, and can be frustrating at times. Just make sure your son really enjoys it enough to justify it. Normally I'd recommend people to play a couple weekends with all 'rental gear' to see if they like it enough, but if your son isn't old enough that's kind of hard. I see lots of people who play that are more into the 'gear and guns' then actually playing, or are terrified while playing for fear of welts, etc.. If your son is just interesting in 'shooting' some sort of gun; then I really wouldn't recommend paintball since it's so expensive, messy, inaccurate and requires more maintenance then your average BB gun.

I have a lot of knowledge and experience, let me know if you want to know anything else.

themightytimmah · 12-17-07, 03:26

Paintball guns aren't a whole lot of fun to shoot in the backyard - I would probably suggest a BB gun, and then maybe look at a paintball gun when he's old enough for the parks. The ammo goes bad, and it's kinda pricey - plus the balls have a bit of a trajectory to them.