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Ah yes, the Beast's gun story--a story which will live in infamy. :)
Squidly summed up the details quite well on his website--a lot of fun, but could have been better organized. The pre-game orientation/briefing got rolling around 10 AM--about an hour later than they'd originally told us. Just before the briefing, I attached my CO2 tank to my gun--I didn't want it accidentally going off in the parking lot. As soon as I attached it, I heard the hiss of CO2 leaking out. I'd had it apart a couple of times to clean it--once before the April 18th get-together and once afterwards. It's fairly simple to take apart and put back together--and after all, I'd done it once successfully two weeks ago. I stripped it all the way down, checked all the O-rings, and put it back together--once, twice, still leaking air. During the process, I dropped a crucial cotter pin (which holds the bolt that secures the firing assembly in place) in the dirt three times, as well as the screw from where the air hose attaches to the gun, but I did manage to find everything I dropped (with Faxman and Squidly's help) and get the gun back together correctly. Despite that, the air hiss continued. Air refills were free at this event (as they were at On Target), so I went over to the target range to see if I could squeak through, as the leak seemed pretty small. But when I cocked it and fired it, three paintballs sputtered out of the barrel and dropped about two feet in front of my gun, and the bolt dropped into the uncocked position instead of readying for the next shot, as it's supposed to do when the CO2 tank is correctly attached.
I went into the pro shop to see if they had a gun tech working that day--I was told they did, but he was wandering around "somewhere". At that point, the event was about to get rolling, so after a bit of thought and discussion, I went back to the pro shop and paid five dollars to rent a gun so I wouldn't miss any playing time. I did OK with the rental gun--the hopper was mounted off to the side, so I was able to use the rail sight, unlike my gun, and it had a rifle-style grip attached to the barrel. I haven't used my own gun enough to become accustomed to it, so I didn't really feel handicapped by playing with the rental. At about 3:00, we took a break, and I tracked down the gun tech over by the vendor tent (he'd helped Fax get his muzzle velocity below the field requirement earlier in the day). He checked a few things, then said it sounded like I had a broken valve. He took it into the pro shop to replace it--after about two minutes, I heard a promising series of dry-fire pops. (A paintball gun is OK to dry-fire because it has no striking parts, other than the end of the bolt hitting the paintball to send it on its way.) Right after that, the gun tech came out smiling and shaking his head. As he handed me the gun, he told me what the problem was. There's a short, stubby screw with two flat heads--one end wide, the other end tapers off. This screw somehow regulates the air pressure--I believe he said by putting pressure on the chamber. I hadn't paid enough attention the last time I'd cleaned it, and had assumed that the tapered end went into the gun and the screwdriver turned the wider end, when it was supposed to go the opposite way. This was the cause of my "leak". Everything's firing fine now, and I'll be good to go with my own gun the next time.
Despite the technical malfunction, I still had a blast--I had a couple of confirmed kills (including avenging Squidly and Fax's "death" while attacking a bridge down in a gully ;)). Unfortunately I still don't have any cool "tattoos" to show off (a la Faxman), despite a suicide run on my last spawn, where I charged to cover and exchanged fire with two "aliens" from less than twenty feet away when my ammo and air were running out. I came out of that without being shot--I had to call myself out when my tank went empty. Oh well--there's always next time. I had a great time and can't wait to play again. Squidly's a great guy--thanks for setting this up and providing the tailgating chairs. :) (So's Fax, but we've known each other for most of our lives). I did learn something from my gun experience (besides which way the stubby gold screw goes)--I'm going to order a replacement screw-and-O-ring kit from Action Village before I play again. Unfortunately, my little attack of the "dropsies" isn't all that uncommon for me (I can't count the number of times I've dropped my mouse or knocked over my microphone during intense or extended gaming sessions)--this way, I won't have to drive everyone nuts when the inevitable happens and I lose a screw in the dirt. ;)
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You forgot to mention "Fidel"... lol
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That's right--I was writing caffeine-fueled novels in this and other threads last night, and I forgot to mention the winner of the Fidel Castro look-alike contest who was on our "human" team! Mostly it was the bushy graying beard, but if he'd had a cigar in his mouth, the likeness would have been perfect. :) I think either Faxman or Squidly got a picture of him with the disposable cameras they brought--you have to see him to believe it.
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The thing about Fidel was, he was using a DYE DM4 marker, which is like one of top 3-4 tournement level markers you can buy. Fully outfitted the things run well over $1500.
This revolutionary was serious about his paintball.
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I had a good time this weekend, but I found the organization to be somewhat lacking. Also, the refs seemed to be somewhat laxadasical, and ill informed of the scenario. I had a good time, and some of the battles were memorable and very much fun. Overall, it was good fun in great weather. I really enjoy the action of the game, followed by the tailgating aspect that follows. It's a perfect mix of paintball busting, and ball busting.
The field had a great gun tech named Bill, who helped both me and the Beast out with our problems free of charge. Friendly and knowlegeable, he quickly addressed and fixed the problem I was having. Which brings me to my lesson learned (Bribo, take note, as we both have the same basic setup):
Early in the morning I chrono tested my gun, and passed at 270 (max velocity was 285). Later, when they tested the guns upon entrance to the scenario, I was shooting at around 310-320, and I could not decrease the velocity even with the dial-a-welt all the way out. So, I chased the gun tech, and he was able to immediately diagnose the problem. It turns out, I was holding the gun with the barrel pointed toward the ground, and the C02 bottle was elevated causing liquid C02 to bleed to the front of the gun. The expansion chamber stopped some of it, but not enough to prevent pooling. This caused a plume of liquid "snow" to fire out of the barrell, causing a velocity spike. You could see the gas expelled out of the barrel, causing the balls to curve wildly, break in the breach, and blow out any number of o-rings. The fix, he said, was to always keep the barrell elevated, or level. He recommended a compressed air tank and a regulator. I'm going to try and get an anti-siphon hose installed in my C02 tank, and see how that works in conjunction with my expansion chamber before I drop money on a regulator/compressed air tank. I'll let you know how it works out. [EDIT: I'm also looking into a remote setup to keep the C02 tank vertical, and off the gun.]
I have some action pictures that I need to get developed, so look for those later in the week.
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That's a good synopsis of the phenomenon, Fax. For Stitch, Tippman guns by simple virtue of their design are a bit more tolerant of strange angle firing. It's quite a hike up to the valve assembly, so that's more room for expansion, and there's not much going on in the way of O-rings in that area for the freezing to effect negatively. The 98 and A-5 are pretty much the same that way.
BTW - I was diagnosed with Strep Throat today. I've got a perscription now that should help me kick this bug that I've been fighting for 3 weeks. :P
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Hope you feel better soon. Rest up, there's more paintballing in your not-too-distant future, I think.
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Hey do you guys know if there's such thing as a fully automatic paintball gun?
Would like to know :D.
If not I'll have to try to get some friends together so we can rig up something like a multibarrel automatic :D.
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There certainly is--just look for any marker labelled "electronic". Here's a fairly inexpensive one from Kingman.
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Yeah, a lot of guns can fire fully automatic. They also have other modes like 3 balls per trigger press, or turbo mode (starts off semi automatic until your trigger presses pass a certain time limit, at which point it goes into 3 ball mode.)
Lots of fun stuff to play with. Take pictures of your project and post them!
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I used to play Paint ball quite a bit years ago with my cousin. We used to do all of the Wayne Dollak scenarios even some that date before Wayne. Just wondering if you all are around FL that are going to the Paintball game and if so is it over at Waynes World over in Ocala if memory serves me correctly? I have an old PMI Pirannah do not worry I have long retired that for a Tippman 98. Certainly a great gun but was a sad day when I had to lay down the old PMI. Who knows maybe one day bring it out just for kicks. I think I still have my old Splatmaster laying around as well.
Later,
Duane
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Your paintball kung-fu is weak. I would so kick all your asses!
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