So it was a cool Saturday in Colorado playing at Blitz Paintball in Dacono.
My buddy and I have been looking forward to shooting Nelson paint again, since it has been about 5-6 seasons since we last shot it, and after experiencing the field paint we couldn't wait to do it again.
We used a multitude of markers this weekend including a 92' bob long sig series cocker converted to pump, Loaded DM 3’s, 07 Vicious EGO & AGD rt, and the paint was also used in a couple spyders and tippmans. My buddy had some friends meet us and his kids wanted to shoot something different than the field choice. So we let them try it, not knowing how it was going to be out of the higher pressure markers, but their reviews were glowing!!!
To start out: 55 degrees cool and little wind in the morning Sun shining
Eye ball test: all the paint looked good, round good seams and there were a few small dimples here and there not on all the paint brands, but that is normal contrary to some beliefs. No performance differences were noticed on any of the paint with or without dimples. Just rotate the paint, and problem solved!
Fill test: The lower brands had a thinner fill but the fill color was the same as higher brands, at Special Forces a great jump in thickness from Nel Splat, I imagine Henmorage is right between the two fills. Anarchy was probably the thickest but definitely the brightest of all the fills.
Bounce test: Normally it is a hold above your head and drop on a hard surface and we did that with the anarchy and a few broke and a few bounced and then broke. We didn't bother testing the other brands.
At the field I was interested in what I call the "
flick test" hold your arm straight out with a ball and without moving your arm "flick" the paint to the ground, most other paints bounce. I was very surprised to see that every brand broke when I did this. From Dread to Anarchy it broke, and not on concrete but in the dirt parking lot, at the field.
They broke so well that I was a little concerned that all of the paint maybe too fragile, I was totally wrong. Throughout the day, 4 cases 6 different paintballs and all different guns "0" breaks ... None!!
Paintball Details
Fill Test : Sitting on T-Shirt for 10 Min
L-R : XO-Spectrum (White ?), Dread, Nel Splat (White), Turmoil, Fury, Nel Splat (Blue), Special Forces (Blue)
Dread (orange shell / white fill) Sized Back: .689
Nel Splat (silver white / white fill & silver blue / blue fill) Sized Back: .689
Special Forces (pearl gold shell & thick blue fill) Sized Back: .685- .689
Anarchy (Fury & Turmoil) Sized Back: .685
Some like to over bore and some like to under bore, I found that over boring was making the balls more consistent over the chronograph and that is what I’m after. On my DM3 I have a Sidewinder Regulator and AKA LPR Tuned and I was achieving + or – 3-5 FPS over the Chronograph.
Now on to the actual game play, at Blitz there are many fields to play on, one NPPL, one PSP, Hyperball, spools and large rec- ball with downed helicopter and two story buildings and more. We did not get a chance to play the psp field for there were teams practicing for a tournament the next week and for the upcoming PSP.
I preferred to play on the Hyperball field, set up like Old-school 10 man field size and for people that know it's almost impossible to shoot the length of a field (that big!!)
I conducted live fire experiments on the fields while playing, first was staying in my breakout spot after laneing on the break, hammering away and getting very tight streams. When in my primary bunker, I picked shots and 90% of them were long balling and it was interesting, when I was raining in paint I saw paint exploding from the ground, another sign of great paint.
Also when I did move up the field and on the long shots, I was hitting the back netting and the paint was also breaking on the netting that was bowed from the gentle breeze. (that's something good to see) throughout the day I was dropping in shots with blind shots and just trying to reach that most difficult shot, and consistently watching it truly rain and watching all the brands break on anything it landed on. Of course the thicker and brighter the fill the easier it was to see at distances.
Another trial I did was there was a flag pole on one field, I stood about 20 yards away and tried to hit with each shot, testing tightness of streams. All grades passed great meaning a good barrel at 20 yards, you can expect really tight stream. I walked it out to about 40 yards and similar result, now I was missing more now, shooting a wrist sized target at 40 yards, ball after ball is truly hard; and if I did miss it was only by few inches to the left or right. I did not experience any balls that took off, or winged, if I was shooting at something after 2-3 balls it was hit!
Game play reviews will be following, Just wanted to get things started for the people who have been asking. Want to know something, Ask and I will include in my other update.