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History Paintball

history paintball History Paintball

The first paintballs were created by the Nelson Paint Company in the 1950s for forestry service use in marking trees from a distance, and were also used by cattlemen to mark cows.[2] Two decades later, paintballs were used in a survival game between two friends in the woods of Henniker, New Hampshire, and paintball as a sport was born.

In 1976, Hayes Noel, a stock trader, Bob Gurnsey, and his friend Charles Gaines, a writer[3], were walking home and chatting about Gaines' recent trip to Africa and his experiences hunting buffalo. Eager to recreate the adrenaline rush that came with the thrill of the hunt, and inspired by Richard Connell's The Most Dangerous Game, the two friends came up with the idea to create a game where they could stalk and hunt each other.[4]

In the ensuing months, the friends talked about what sorts of qualities and characteristics made for a good hunter and survivalist. They were stumped, however, on how to devise a test of those skills. It wasn't until a year and a half later that George Butler, a friend of theirs, showed them a paintball gun in an agricultural catalog. The gun was a Nelspot 007 marker manufactured by the Nelson Paint Company.[5]

Twelve players competed against each other with Nelspot 007s pistols in the first paintball game on June 27, 1981. They were: Bob Jones, a novelist and staff writer for Sports Illustrated and an experienced hunter, Ronnie Simpkins, a farmer from Alabama and a master turkey hunter, Jerome Gary, a New York film producer, Carl Sandquist, a New Hampshire contracting estimator, Ritchie White, the New Hampshire forester, Ken Barrett, a New York venturer and hunter, Joe Drinon, a stock-broker and former Golden Gloves boxer from New Hampshire, Bob Carlson, a trauma surgeon and hunter from Alabama, and Lionel Atwill, a writer for Sports Afield, a hunter and a Vietnam vet, Charles Gaines, Bob Gurnsey, and Hayes Noel. The game was capture the flag on an 80 acre wooded cross-country ski area.

Thereafter, the friends devised basic rules for the game fashioned along the lines of capture the flag, and invited friends and a writer from Sports Illustrated to play. They called their game "Survival," and an article about the game was published in the June 1980 issue of Sports Illustrated.[6] As national interest in the game steadily built, Bob Gurnsey formed a company, National Survival Game, and entered a contract with Nelson Paint Company to be the sole distributor of their paintball equipment.[7] Thereafter, they licensed to franchisees in other states the right to sell their guns, paint, and goggles. As a result of their monopoly on equipment, they turned a profit in only six months.[8]

The first games of paintball were very different from modern paintball games. Nelspot pistols were the only gun available. They used 12-gram CO2 cartridges, held at most 10 rounds, and had to be tilted to roll the ball into the chamber and then recocked after each shot. Dedicated paintball masks had not yet been created, so players wore shop glasses that left the rest of their faces exposed. The first paintballs were oil-based and thus not water soluble; "turpentine parties" were common after a day of play.[9] Games often lasted for hours as players stalked each other, and since each player had only a limited number of rounds, shooting was rare.[10]

Between 1981 and 1983, rival manufacturers such as PMI began to create competing products, and it was during those years that the sport took off.[11] Paintball technology gradually developed as manufacturers added a front-mounted pump in order to make recocking easier, then replaced the 12-gram cartridges with larger air tanks, commonly referred to as "constant air".[12] These basic innovations were later followed by gravity feed hoppers and 45-degree elbows to facilitate loading from the hopper.


Giant Paintball Park
OC Weekly, CA - 9 hours ago
at the newly constructed third season of the Giant Paintball Park at OC Fairgrounds. It’s the perfect way to combine that passion for fat pants, ...


2 arrested in paintball spree
Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, IN - Jan 3, 2009
Two men were arrested after homes in several south-side subdivisions were shot with a paintball gun Thursday. A 19-year-old Fort Wayne man was charged ...


Police investigate paintball attacks
The Salem News, MA - Jan 3, 2009
By Mike Stucka PEABODY — Someone decided the New Year was ripe for paintball attacks on cars and a home, leading police to say those paintball shootings ...


Homeless Man Could Lose Eye After Paintball Attack
MSNBC - Dec 29, 2008
Orange County police are looking for a group of teenage boys behind a vicious paintball attack on a homeless man. It happened Friday night in the 800 block ...
Homeless Man Savagely Attacked by Teens With Paintball Guns KTLA
Homeless Costa Mesa man may lose eye after teens attack OCRegister
Homeless man attacked by OC teens abc7.com
OCRegister
all 10 news articles


Paintball attacks reported in Miami County
Dayton Daily News, OH - Jan 2, 2009
By Nancy Bowman TROY — Vehicles parked along streets and roads across Miami County were hit with orange paint from a paintball gun New Years Day. ...


Teen Shoots Homeless Man With Paintball Gun
CBS 2, CA - Dec 31, 2008
Read more in our Privacy Policy AP A 16-year-old boy shot a homeless man with a paintball gun in front of a pair of undercover cops, Riverside police said ...
Teenager arrested for paintball attack Press-Enterprise
all 2 news articles


Paintball X3: John Amodea's New Digs
68 Caliber, FL - Dec 31, 2008
By Paintball X3 Occoquan, VA - December 31, 2008: Announcing the launch of a new voice in paintball, Paintball X3 Magazine, founded by John Amodea. ...


WHDH-TV

Homes, cars hit with paintballs in Peabody
WHDH-TV, MA - 8 hours ago
Police said they believe the suspect was firing the paintball gun while driving a small white two door sedan. Anyone with information is asked to call ...


The Ticker
Graphic Arts Online (press release), IL - 13 hours ago
For more Suspending publication: Paintball News until mid-2009; Kansas City (KS) Kansan effective Jan. 10; and JPG Magazine (featured in Oct. 08 GAM) as ...


Paintball News Suspends Printing Till The Middle Of 2009
68 Caliber, FL - Dec 31, 2008
By Paintball News Due to the current economic conditions in the Paintball Industry and the Country, as well as family medical issues, we have decided to ...

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