Letters from Iwo Jima

MPP Games’ Brothers In Arms Series IV

Iwo Jima: Climb the Mountain

Bearclaw Paintball- Fayetteville, Tennessee

Friday, October 19th

My Dearest Mikko-chan,

The Emperor, in His glorious wisdom, has assigned me to the island of Iwo Jima.  The American Devils will be landing along the beaches in the morning, but we know not yet where.  Why they would want this desolate stretch of sand and hills, I cannot understand…though it is not my place to question the brilliance of our leaders.

General Kdiddy-sama has assigned my squad to the headquarters as reinforcements to rapidly deploy to wherever we are needed in the morning.  Sake is flowing amongst the troops and spirits are high.

There is bad news being whispered amongst the units, however.  These Americans will most likely have heavy armor to support their infantry.  I may die tomorrow, but I will bring honor to you and my homeland.

I have written my death poem.  All that is left is to die gloriously.

-Tree

Saturday, October 20th

My Dearest Mikko-chan,

Today has been a violent series of battles, yet I still live.

Early this morning, the Americans began their assault on the beach.  Artillery from their ships pounded this desolate hellhole of sand…though our bunkered emplacements along the beaches remained unscathed.

The southeastern shores were the target.  With a meager 25-man detachment defending this stretch of oceanside desert, General Kdiddy-sama quickly deployed the rest of our troops on the island to support them.  Whether we arrived in time was yet to be seen.

Americans poured from the landing craft in waves, shooting into the bunkered Japanese troops crouched in the ridgeline of the trees.  As the Devils ran forward to die, I was also running toward the sounds of combat.  My death poem tucked tightly into my uniform over my heart, I plunged through the tranquility of the forest towards the ever-increasing shouts and screams of the battle.

I was assaulted by the sound.  Like a torrent of hail crashing upon the wooden shingles of our home, the sound of the massive confrontation threatened to break my resolve.  No amount of training could have prepared me for the withering firefight that I saw before my eyes.

I clutched my gun tightly, fearful to fire a shot.  Surely if I fired at one of the American Devils on the beach, they would spot me and end my humble life.  To my left and right, others began to fire.  I watched their shots reach through the trees and find their targets.  American soldiers were eliminated in droves.

The death poem’s delicate paper brushed against the flap of my pocket.  Funny how such a small whisper of a sound caught my attention in the deafening exchange of gunfire.  It gave me purpose…I raised my gun and added my own weapon’s voice to the cacophony of noise.

We took casualties.  Not so many as the Americans, but the volume of troops pouring from the landing craft never seemed to stop.  By midday, the Americans had driven us backwards into the trees and established a base of operations off of the beach.  Word of our adversary’s name had filtered through the ranks by now.  The American General, Death By Daddy, was a well-known name to many of us.  It is no wonder the American dogs fought with such determination to secure the beach.

I was continually on the move…probing the American lines along a flank, or forming up with my other squadmates and pushing hard directly at the middle of their lines.  Many times I was wounded.  Many times the brave medics were there to patch me up.

Ah Mikko, I must tell you of the brave woman medic.  I have never seen such fierce determination as what Deb showed today.  Where men were cowering behind cover, she was in the thick of the battle- weaponless and unafraid.  Truly, the Emperor’s daughters may take strength in her dedication to our homeland just as we men did today.  If not for her and the other medics, many more soldiers would have perished…possibly giving the tide of American soldiers an opportunity to sweep through our lines.

Thankfully, this was not the case.  The infantry battle remained heavily in our favor.  The tanks though, were a different story.  Access to anti-tank weaponry seemed very limited.  The Americans sent tanks through our lines as many as two at a time to wreak havoc on our outpost in Suribachi and elsewhere.  I personally witnessed the might of these tanks and fear that they may turn the advantage back towards the Americans’ side.

I had established an ambush position just off the road between the American base and the fortress at Suribachi.  The growling sound of a motor announced the tank’s approach.  I tucked even closer to the ground…attempting to hide my body beneath nothing more than a few fallen leaves and a small sapling.  I watched the tank approach through my peripheral vision…praying that it would not spot me.

Remaining motionless, I used my ears to keep track of the tank’s position once I could no longer see it.  I dared not move my head.  It was so close as to be right on top of me.  I could hear the muttered gibberish of the Americans talking to each other as the tank motored forwards.

The squealing of brakes announced that something was wrong.  The tank had stopped directly beside my hiding spot!  I closed my eyes and waited for the hail of shots to riddle my body.  Seconds passed and I was still alive.  Ever-so-slowly, I tilted my head to the side to see why I was not yet another corpse on the battlefield.

The turret of the tank was not pointed at me, but instead on the fort at Suribachi.  A heartbeat after I had laid eyes on this goliath machine, the hissing report of its main gun drowned out the sound of my heartbeat thundering in my ears.  For what seemed like an eternity, I watched helplessly as the tank systematically destroyed every tower and building within the fort, eliminating many brave Japanese defenders within.

Petrified, I remained still… so still that my muscles had begun to cramp.  A searing pain in my calf assaulted me…not from an enemy shot, but from a charlie-horse of knotted muscle.  Just as the pain became too intense to bear, the tank began to grind forward again, on its way to the next target now that Suribachi had been demolished.  I gritted my teeth and waited for the tank to roll away from my position, and then began to stir…working out the cramp in my leg and hobbling away from the roadside.  I never again got close to the road today…I could not risk my luck in surviving another close encounter such as that.

It is getting dark now, and our orders are to snuff all lights to prevent an American Airstrike from decimating us as it had earlier today.

-Tree

Sunday, October 21st

Mikko-chan,

I no longer fear battle.  I have seen too much of it in the past 48 hours to ever hesitate again.  I had reached the limits of my strength by dusk yesterday, but many brave Japanese soldiers carried on the fight through the night.  Missions were run in almost complete darkness, and short-range firefights broke out sporadically…making many of us in the camp stir in our bedrolls, but yet glad to find a few moments of respite from the battle.

Eventually, even these skirmishes died off in frequency until finally silence ruled the forest.  It was a fitful night of sleep for me…the run-in with the tank haunted my dreams.

I awoke early this morning, the sounds of mess kits clattering as soldiers wolfed down hastily prepared meals.  I began to reload my kit and was amazed that I had burnt through more than 2,000 rounds the day before.  As I was provisioned with more ammunition, I gawked at a fellow soldier who was telling me that he alone had shot more than triple this amount.

In fact, the quartermaster had not been prepared for the sheer ferocity of the battle, and had sent for additional ammunition to be sent to our facility.  Thankfully, it had arrived in time…so no one was short for ammunition.  If yesterday was any indication of things to come, I would again be running low on ammo by the end of the day.

At the HQ, I formed up with my squad and began the march towards the lines we had established the day before.  The morning was humid, and within a few moments my vision was starting to fog up.  I squinted through the poor visibility and pressed on.

Unlike yesterday, I was not in the least bit hesitant to fire my gun.  We pressed straight through the middle of the forest and assaulted the American base, forming a wedge and bisecting their skirmish line.  I took up a position behind a small barrier of fallen logs and loose brush…looking for signs of movement through my fogged vision.

I did not have to wait long…American devils were attempting to re-establish a skirmish line directly across from my position.  My squad and I harried the enemy and eliminated many of them during the firefight.  I was wounded in the arm and fell back to the HQ for treatment.  Not to worry, it was a clean shot and the medics tell me it will heal just fine.  If nothing else, it is minimal enough that they did not relieve me from duty.  Soon after I was patched up, I had orders to return to the battle.

The fates have a twisted sense of humor.  I rejoined my squad and we began fighting along the hill just south of the Suribachi roadway.  Not long after we had found entrenchments to hold the line, the growling of a tank engine approached.  I knew what was coming, and screamed for anti-tank support, but it was nowhere to be found.  With dread clenching my stomach, I saw not one, but two tanks approaching our position.  Again, they stopped along the path directly outside of the walls of Suribachi.  Their turrets were not pointed at the fortress this time…the Americans controlled the fort.  My squadmates and I found what cover we could and waited.

More babbling gibberish and pointing gestures from the tankers, and the two machines began trundling south past our position in the woods.  Another close call, but this time there was no relief.  American troops began pouring out of the Suribachi fort and following the tanks south.  My squadmates and I waited as long as we could, and then opened fire.

We caught many by surprise, but their numbers were too great.  We were sent packing in short order and we rendezvoused at our headquarters to regroup.

Word trickled through the ranks that the Americans were attempting to make a final push to establish a more permanent position on the island.  The next hour of fighting would determine the fate of Japan’s property…the island of Iwo Jima.

Once more refilling our ammunition supply, the Japanese army was assigned to take and hold three strategic points on the island.  With the end of the conflict in sight, we grouped up by squads and hustled towards our objectives.

Resistance was met almost immediately.  By the time my squad approached our objective, it was already in the hands of the Americans.  The forest became our best ally, providing concealment for us to encircle the American position.  At an unspoken signal, we rained fire down upon the group of buildings from the surrounding hillsides.  Japanese and American forces collided in close-quarters fighting as groups of brave soldiers began a room-to-room frenzy of flashing swords and point-blank encounters.

From my hillside perch, I watched us slowly retake the town.  I kept suppressive fire aimed towards the Americans’ line of reinforcement…pinning a few soldiers who were attempting to relieve their beleaguered comrades in the town.  Sweeping through them, the rest of the Japanese force eliminated the last bits of resistance and the town was ours.

Soon after, the battle had ended.  The Americans, having failed to establish a firm foothold further into the island, had given up their beachhead HQ and were loading troops back onto the landing craft in an organized retreat.

Ammunition had run out for many of us, and so we followed Bushido.  One of our XO’s was reported to have taken nine enemy soldiers with his blade before falling to the enemy.

Mikko, I have been given the order to pack my gear.  My service to the Emperor has rewarded me with a trip home before I am once again called on for duty.

I have burnt my death poem…this island has rid me of the need to carry it.  My poem will be forever ingrained in the sands of Iwo Jima.

-Tree

MTP’s 5th Birthday Bash

I recently went to Middle Tennessee Paintball’s 5th Birthday Bash.
And a bashing it was. Pummeled by heat, sun, and humidity…it was challenging just to keep hydrated. The level of sportsmanship and fun though, was on the opposite end of the spectrum. I met many “cool” folks, and had a blast.

Let’s go over some of the highlights, shall we?
Facilities: A great field is defined by the hard work that is put into creating it. MTP is no different than many others in the area. Places like Bearclaw Paintball’s expansive woodsball fields are a tribute to the Scenario Gamer’s dream, but MTP rivals Bearclaw…just on a smaller scale. MTP has two primary woodsball fields. Lovingly known as “big woods” and “small woods” by the local players, it provides a challenging bit of terrain for even newcomers like myself.

Interspersed with the local flora, you’ll find bunkers, barriers, and the usual “deer trails” that provide un-cluttered transportation venues between hot spots. And like most fields, you must be very careful when traversing these trails, lest the evil snipers ambush you.
I’m one of those snipers. What I love about this field is that there are plenty of places where the undergrowth is allowed to grow wild. No bushhogging it down so it resembles a speedball field with trees instead of bunkers. This is reason enough to keep me coming back for more.

Prepping for the day
The day started off well enough. I met up with my teammates of the Nashville Ridgerunners and shot the breeze while we waited for the call to orientation and chronographing. We talked about our markers. We chatted about our mutual interest in playing Battlefield 2 online. We talked about the olden-days (okay, I just listened to the stories…I’m a newbie to paintball and listened in slack-jawed silence while they swapped stories about the original days of the sport).
Once orientation gathering was announced, we kitted up and moseyed to the staging area. Bill (the field owner) gave everyone a run-down of how the event would proceed, and began splitting us into teams.
Lots of people gave me funny looks. Stands to reason, as I was testing out my newest creation…a ghillie suit made from the Special Ops Paintball Action Ghillie material. I’ve earned the nickname “Tree” due to my interests in blending in as much as possible. This event gave me the opportunity to try out my newest creation, and boy did it work.
The first mission was a Beach Landing. My team was slated for defense against the invading army of “Green” ribbons. The object was to get a large canister into the woods, and pound it against a specially marked base to end the game.

Round 1: Defense on Beach Landing
My “Orange” team did a phenominal job of holding off the invaders. They never once made it to the treeline where we crouched, laying down a horrid amount of fire into the Hyperball obstacles that they hid behind. In fact, the scenario seemed rather one-sided. I wasn’t looking forward to switching sides and trying to assault.
When the first round was called, it was a no-brainer. Not only did we dominate on defense, but we managed to capture the barrel…effectively preventing the Greens from having a chance to complete their objective.

A player has the red/yellow objective barrel (middle) and is moving up the field as teammates support him .

Afterwards, we walked back to fill up on air, paint, and lots of water. The first round of the Speedball Ace’s Tournament got under way, so me and the rest of the Ridgerunners cooled off in the shade. We’ve all agreed we’re not cut out for the Speedball scene.
After we’d all gotten a breather, it was time for the next Beach Landing…this time with Orange on the offense. Remembering the slaughter we handed out the first round, I was willing to give it a shot, but wasn’t looking forward to the anticipated number of trips I’d be making back to the respawn point to tag back in.

Round 2: Attack on Beach Landing
We had two divisions…the woodsballers, and speedballers. The speedballers had a nice pack lined up on the left flank, and the smaller contingent of woodsballers took the right flank.

I move up from the starting point…sticking out like a sore thumb in my new ghillie.

Things started out well, and only got better. With the amount of paint flying on the left flank from the speedball contingent, the Greens stacked up to oppose them. Little did they realize that their right flank was suffering. A number of early casualties on the defenders’ side from my team’s own assault up the right side gave us a narrow window to exploit.

Will has a great vault over a barrier captured on film. I’m hunkered down providing covering fire on the far left.

We not only exploited their weakness, we broke completely through. The woodsballers on the right flank made it to the treeline, and quickly piled in to our natural environment. Leaving the foreign territory of the hyperball obstacles in the clearing, our confidence soared as we began melting into the vegetation. We blasted up the tapeline and began to circle around…coming at the enemy forces from their rear.
After about 10 minutes, our barrel-toting hero thumped the objective…ending the game in a total victory.

Next up was another round of the Ace’s Tourney, and another break for the Ridgerunners. We were in high spirits after winning both rounds of the Beach Landing…and Capture the Flag would be coming up next. We began planning our strategy while guzzling down the fluids.

Round 3: Capture the Flag (1)
It was decided that an early flanking maneuver along the tape would be the key to a flag cap. We’d grab whatever fast runners we could find, and proceed as far into the opposing force’s backfield without firing a shot. The larger contingent of speedballers would zip up the middle and take positions in some cover…causing as much racket as possible to make the enemy think that it was our entire force.

It sounded good in theory. It even started out well. Breathless and weary (I’m a smoker, so the dash across the field was really hard on the ‘ole body), I followed the rest of the flanking force into the backfield of the enemy completely unopposed.
Hand signals flashed, and we fanned out…heading towards the flag. It looked like the coast was clear.
A couple brave souls moved up to the flag. As an Orange player reached out for the flag, a Green ambush sniper popped up from out of nowhere and took him out. A hail of fire returned the favor…eliminating the stealthy guy (I admire him…he waited until just the right moment to pop up). Will (a Ridgerunner teammate) ran up to grab the flag. With an hand on the flag, he had it! And then Déjà vu happened. Another sniper popped up and shot poor Will right in the forehead just above the goggles.

We avenged Will’s “death” and finally were able to snag the flag on our third attempt. The element of surprise was gone though. The Greens had heard the exchanges of fire and had begun to pull back to see what was happening. We had just sprinted from one side of the field…and the folks like me who were in no shape to go dashing back the other way decided to “Take one for the team” by staying behind to provide as much distraction as possible.
It worked. With flag in hand, a small group led by Will started picking their way back towards our own side. Not that I was able to keep up with him and the small pocket of defenders running interference for our flag carrier.
Nope…I stayed behind. And just like I’d planned…I took one for the team. Just one. One shot right in the goggles. I congratulated the Green who shot me on such a great shot, and began to make my run back across the field to the respawn point.

Highlight: Psychological Warfare
This is where the art of scenario/woodsball gaming gets really twisted and fun…I arrived at our respawn point, announcing loudly that I was a dead player and not to shoot me. I actually was in the out-of-bounds zone following a deer trail back to our main base. I arrived with a fellow teammate waving at me frantically. I couldn’t figure out what was going on until he pointed at our tag-in point for re-insertion.
A Green player was braced against the stack of barrels, marker leveled right at my chest. I laughed out loud and said “Gee…no point in tagging back in, then, eh?”

The Green player demanded to know where the flag was. In my peripheral vision, I could see our blue bandana flag sitting atop a rusted barrel not 4 feet to the Green player’s right side. It was time for some bluffing.

“I dunno man. I’m guessing that your own team pulled the same move we did…we ran right along the tape and grabbed your flag unopposed. I’m guessing your team probably did the same, so I bet one of your teammates already has the flag.”

“Oh, yeah…probably so.” Was his reply.

“Yeah, you probably ought to move on back to help support your guys.” I said.

“We’ll give you a 10-second head start.” My other “out” teammate chimed in.
“Okay…I’m leaving.” Said the Green player.

Priceless! He walked off back towards the middle of the field…completely oblivious to our own team’s flag being within arm’s reach of him the whole time he had his attention focused on me and my other Orange teammate.
Me and my crafty teammate stared at each other in wonder…not only had we fooled the poor Green player into thinking his team already had our flag, but we’d gotten him to leave our base! We both tagged back into the game (by touching the barrels the Green player had been using as cover), and had a good chuckle after the Green player was out of earshot.

My crafty buddy went back out to hunt some Green, and I decided that I’d better stick around just in case another Green player happened along. I found a nice little spot of concealment and crouched down to wait.

Rounding off the Round
About a minute or two later, I heard stealthy footsteps approaching. I readied my marker and hunkered down a little further to wait for them to expose themselves at the “Undefended” flag of our base.
Two players walked right past me…I could have reached out and touched them.

It was our flag runner and Will…returning safely to officially cap the flag and end the game. Once a ref yelled game over, I stood up from my hiding place and surprised the two guys. My ghillie suit had officially passed judgement. I was able to hide from Will, a vet of woodsball.
With the game over, we walked back to our staging are. By this point, we were all pretty tired. Mikey was beginning to show signs of dehydration, so we made sure he drank extra fluids and had a cool towel on his head. I myself was dragging. That run had really worn me out. An ambush sniper shouldn’t do that much running…but it was for the good of the team. I had done my part by keeping the Greens from being able to pursue our flag runner, then sprinted back for a respawn.
I got to tell my story about fooling the Green player…which drew a great deal of chuckles and congratulations. I felt great at having sprinted back to the respawn point. If I had walked as my body was wanting me to do, that Green player might have been able to eliminate our returning flag capturers.

We started strategy for the next round of Cap the Flag. I think we’d all decided that this wouldn’t work twice in a row. We were all feeling the effects of a full day of running around in 100+ degree heat in a glorious Tennessee summer.

Round 4: Capture the Flag (2)
It was agreed that we’d provide some mid-field defense, and let the speedball portion of our team go for the flag cap. We geared up and moved out. I stuck to the same side of the tape that we’d sprinted down the first time (but moved much slower this time).

The entire field turned into the more traditional skirmish. Both sides met at about mid-field, and neither gained, nor lost much ground. I was wary of how easily we’d run up the tapeline the first game, so I stayed close to it…watching for enemy players who might slip through.

Highlight: I’m still a newbie
I proved I was still a newbie. From my position, I could see and hear two players moving towards me. With their markers up and searching for targets while talking to each other about who was covering what firing lane, I assumed that they were enemies. I waited until they were both completely exposed and quickly took them both out with two well-placed shots at each person.
Needless to say, they were quite surprised to be hit. Especially by what turned out to be a teammate. Oh geez! I’d just eliminated two friendlies!

I apologized for the mix-up. Once they’d figured out they were hit by friendly fire, they were about to wipe and play on. I told them that it was against the rules, and that even though they were eliminated by friendly fire, they’d have to tag back in.

In hindsight, I wish I’d done more for those two guys. I stayed where I was and continued to look for more targets.
What I WISH I had done was walk with them to the respawn point, and then walk back with them to the action…helping them get back into the fight by adding another bit of firepower to help them have some fun. That would have been the more sportsmanlike thing to do. Lesson learned though, and if it ever happens again, I have promised myself to be a better team player. I still feel rotten about that.

A few minutes later, the two guys backtracked from the respawn point, calling out loudly “Sniper dude, we’re coming behind you…we’re friendlies.”
I tried waving at them, but it didn’t work at first…my concealment was just too good until they were right up on me. I waved again, and they finally saw me…exclaiming again at how well-hidden I was. Salvaging a little bit of honor, I moved up with them to the tape line and covered their advance into a copse of wooden spools.

Rounding off the Round
To make a long story short, the last match of the day ended in a draw. Time ran out before either team could make a flag capture. We all headed back to the rally point for final announcements and the grand prize giveaways.

The Day Draws To A Close…with a twist!
My relationship with Lady Luck has never been a good one when it comes to games of chance. I never win at cards, never win drawings, and fear the lottery for similar reasons. Today was a different day. The name of the winner for a brand-new Smart Parts SP8 marker was announced. It took a moment to sink in…they’d just called my name!

Standing up with a murmured exclamation of “Oh Me!” I made my aching legs walk over to Bill & the event crew to receive my prize. I was exhausted, but happily surprised by my luck. I was fortunate to have my photo taken with the rest of the Ridgerunners and my brand-new marker.

From left to right are my fellow Ridgerunners: Will, Mikey, myself, Chip, and Bill…owner of MTP. (Not pictured is R.J. who was also in attendance, but had left early)

Afterwards, we all packed up our gear and started heading home. Hot, Exhausted, and Happy…I drove back home. A great day…and happy 5th Birthday to the MTP field. I’ll be back!

Movement on the woodsball field

I attempted to play woodsball this past weekend.  Went to a new field (for me at least) and met up with a couple of fellow Ridgerunners.

I say attempted because we were the only three who were there for a woods game.  Plenty of speedballers milled around firing off their mouths as fast as their trigger fingers, but it’s mutually agreed upon amongst my teammembers that we’re not Speedballers…so we did a bit of 2-on-1 action.

I’m the newbie on the team, so I have a lot to learn.  It certainly showed.  I got paired up with Will and we hunted down Chip (bait and switch more like…with me being the bait).  I learned some valuable lessons about the importance of movement on a woodsball field.

You either move a lot, or you don’t move at all.  There’s not much room for a middle ground.  My own personal style of play involves the latter.  I like setting an ambush and waiting for an unsuspecting victim.

With 2-on-1 though, it’s hard to sit still for long.  Will plays much more aggressively than I do.  I did my best to keep up with him, but never seemed to be much more than a meatshield/paint magnet.  Generally, I would end up drawing Chip’s fire while Will moved up for the kill.

Will and Chip are both great players.  They are constantly on the move…patrolling the perimeter of the field, doing hit-and-run skirmishes, and rarely if ever stay stationary for more than a handful of heartbeats.

Here I am, dressed up in my custom-ghillied dagger vest and AG Hood, traipsing around like I’m on a densely-foliaged runway.  My mind is screaming at me to find a good perch and wait, but my teammate is telling me to stay close and move as a pair.  I followed Will’s instructions as accurately as I could, but didn’t feel like I was playing “my” game.

Chip pointed out a very important point after we finished up…my ghillie was actually giving me away.  I have a mixture of Action Ghillie material and some “Sneaky Leaf” brand faux foliage zip tied to my hood and vest.  It’s the middle of summer, and yet I had a bunch of yellow and brown faux leaves strewn about my camo.  Chip said that if it weren’t for this very odd mismatch with my surroundings, he might not have noticed me a couple of times.

Basically…It stuck out like a sore thumb in this particular field.
While we were packing up, I took a minute to snip off all of the “dead” leaves while mentally kicking myself for such an idiotic mistake.  In my head, it looked neat and proper (there are dead leaves all over my home field).  On the new field, it looked very out of place.  Lesson learned…no matter how cool it might look, the important part is matching your camo to the surroundings you’ll be playing in…which may change every week.

I didn’t have the most fun I’ve ever had, but I didn’t have a lot of fun in some of my college courses either…and yet I still learned some valuable info that I’ve never forgotten.   This will be the case with this weekend’s excursion.

Muffle that Hopper!

The harsh rattling sound of a half-filled hopper always seems to give you away at the wrong time.  Silence may be golden, but it’s hard to achieve.  Let’s first try for “muffled” and “easy.”

One word: Moleskin

Look around in the camping or footcare sections of any sporting goods or major retail store. Moleskin already has an adhesive backing and is strong enough to stick even while wet.
They come in sheets that are meant to be cut in order to get the shape you need for a blister and so you won’t have a problem snipping the edges to fit your hopper’s internal contours.

Crack open your hopper (not literally of course), line the insides with moleskin, and you’re good. Save the snippets for your gearbag. You never know when you might need it for the real purpose during a scenario game.

Materials Needed:

Hopper
Screwdriver
2 Packets of Dr. Scholl’s Moleskin (they come 3 sheets to a packet. I used about 4 1/2 sheets to coat the inside of my A-5’s hopper)
X-Acto Knife
Scissors (Optional. I had them handy, but never used them. The X-Acto was all I ended up using)
Chopping board

Procedure

Use the screwdriver to remove the bindings of your hopper. Make sure that as you separate the halves, you take a moment to look at how the lid and spring are assembled. It will help you when it’s time to put the lid assembly back in when you are finished.

Before peeling off the adhesive backing, premeasure what the moleskin sheet is going to look like. Cover as much area as you can, but make sure you don’t coat the area right around the funnel at the bottom of the hopper.
Leaving this area clear serves two purposes:
1. It ensures that there is no chance that a ball will get clogged at the feeder neck end of the hopper by having that extra bit of moleskin layering making the opening too tight for a paintball to fit through.
2. If a ball ever gets chopped, you won’t have an absorbent layer of Moleskin right there soaking it up.

Once you’ve eyeballed how the portion you’re covering is going to look, lightly score the moleskin with the X-Acto knife…drawing a line at the portions you’ll have to cut away to make a snug fit.
Next, remove the moleskin from the hopper and place it on the chopping board. Using the score lines as a guide, apply some pressure this time and cut off the pieces you won’t need to cover the surface you’re working with. Make as few cuts as possible, leaving pieces that can be used to cover other areas.

Once you have your piece cut, peel off the adhesive backing and apply it to the surface area. Start with adhering one edge of the moleskin and slowly working your way across to the opposite end that you started from. This helps eliminate air bubbles. You want to get every bit of the adhesive you can snug against the surface of the hopper, so go slowly and try to press the air bubbles out of the moleskin as much as possible.
If you’ve ever done any wallpapering, it’s probably a familiar process.

Take your time and work your way from the bottom area of the hopper towards the top end where the lid is. Use the largest pieces possible at the bottom, and save the snippets for areas along the “roof” and sides of the hopper’s interior. Let’s face it…wear and tear on your hopper might eventually lead to pieces of moleskin to lose their adhesive properties. The portions at the bottom of the hopper will probably see the most wear, so having large surface area pieces there ensure that small snippets are less likely to come loose and clog the funnel end.

Once you’ve gotten the large areas completed, doublecheck that there are no portions of moleskin that overlap with the edges where the hopper sides fit together. Trim any pieces that might overlap or otherwise prevent the two halves of the hopper’s body from fitting together snugly.

When coating the inside, keep in mind that not every square millimeter of surface area needs to be covered. Look for areas that have uneven surfaces. Make sure that these areas are covered, as they are more likely to cause a rattle.

Closing it back up
When you are satisfied, close up your hopper. Fit the two halves together without the screws. Eyeball the outside and make sure that there are no small areas of moleskin protruding from between the halves. Go back and re-trim any portions that do poke through.

Replace the spring & lid, then put the two hopper halves together again. Doublecheck that the spring is doing its job before screwing the hopper together again.

I ended up having to use my X-Acto blade to help me re-set the spring onto the hopper lid. It took a little bit of fiddling with, but I eventually got it to re-seat before I put the two hopper body halves together.

Once finished, cover the bottom funnel with your hand, pour a couple handfuls of balls into the hopper, and shake it around a bit.

You’ll notice that there’s no longer a harsh, plastic sounding rattle. Yes, there’s still some noise, but it is a softer, muffled sound instead of a loud clatter. Rattle around the same amount of paint in one of your paint pods to get an idea of the difference.

If you do still hear some clattering sounds, you may have missed a spot. Keep rattling the balls around until you get an estimate of where inside the hopper it is coming from before you take the hopper apart again.

Talking about Tippmann

I did a lot of research before biting the bullet and purchasing my first marker. The name Tippmann was hammered into my brain over and over.

There are numerous reasons why Tree went with a Tippmann (whoa, speaking of myself in third-person…I might be on to something here.)

First: I wanted a marker that was forgiving. I’m the sort of guy who, as a kid, took apart way too many appliances, etc. and always ended up having “spare” parts left over after I’d put ‘em back together. I’m fascinated by how things work, but rarely get it all right the first time. From alarm clocks to server software, I have the Midas Touch…but I always manage to get ‘em fixed and working. By the time I’m finished, I know the darned thing inside and out. With this in mind, getting a marker that wasn’t too finicky about its internals was a priority.

Second: I remember my days of playing “Capture the Flag” in my Boy Scout days with very fond memories. Woodsball is where it’s at for me. Matching my environmental needs with a marker renowned for durability was key.

Third: I am the sort of person that picks an interest and is willing to sink a lot of money into making sure I enjoy it. Paintballs aren’t exactly cheap, but they’re an expenditure that cannot be helped.
A marker on the other hand, can be as cheap or as expensive as you want it to be. I wanted a marker that could grow with me. With the Tippy A-5, there are more customizeable upgrades out there than I’ve ever cared to count. I can (and have) gone at my own pace when upgrading my marker and there always seems to be something else to add to my “Ooooh…shiny…” list of things to buy.

With these key elements in mind, I sunk my initial investment into the A-5 package that includes the flatline barrel, E-Grip, Remote Line, and CAR stock.

My only regret in my customization was with this initial package. Two main items of contention here:

1. I despise my E-Grip. I have never used any firing mode other than Semi, nor do I ever intend to. In hindsight, I could have saved a chunk of change by going with the stock grip frame and be perfectly happy. I’ve had batteries go out on me in the middle of a match, I’ve had the darned sear/rear bolt pooch on me halfway through a scenario weekend (See my first scenario game writeup in the AAR section), and after some initial problems with the cyclone chewing up paintballs before they entered the breech, I have never since attempted to use the burst fire modes.

2. The CAR stock does very little for me. It does not take into account the fact that every paintballer wears a mask. My particular mask has zero give to it, and so trying to sight down the barrel is impossible. Second, I’m a tall, lanky guy with long arms and neck. I have so far been unable to find a length that allows anything resembling comfort when attempting to sight through my offset Red Dot sight. I keep the stock as collapsed as possible and rarely if ever find the extra bracing to be of any help.

As of this writeup, I have a SpecOps Commando Air-through stock and grip on the way to replace this cursed piece of obstruction.

In closing:

If by some off the wall chance you read this before making a marker purchase, go with the plain-jane A-5 and upgrade slowly. By the time I’m finished customizing my A-5, I have a feeling that the vast majority of the “customizations” I bought in my initial purchase of a package deal will be in my “Stuff to sell” pile.

SpecOps’ Action Ghillie Density Upgrade

SpecOps’ Action Ghillie Density Upgrade:

This is nothing more than the AG mesh and a bundle of zip-ties. It’s so multi-purpose, that I’ve bought a total of 4 orders of this kit in varying flavors of color.

I have a SpecOps Dagger vest…and I’ve zip-tied almost a full AG kit to it. It’s a poor-man’s AG suit, without the extra bulk of wearing an outer set of clothing and worrying about sizes that fit you; the loss of concealment by wearing a suit with a vest over top; and of course, the expense. It helps break up the vest’s outline and covers identifiable seams on pockets, straps, and my HPA tank.

I’ve also used scraps to zip-tie onto a mesh ballcap. This is my backup headgear for when it’s too dangerous to my health to wear the AG Hood.

Before I got the Rifle Wrap, I made some home-made marker ghillie using even more scraps from the AG Density upgrade. Using nothing but some ponytail holders, AG mesh, and zip ties, I made some pretty effective pieces that break up the barrel, cyclone, and hopper of my A-5.

If you can find some very thin zip-ties, you could probably use a Density kit to ghillie your current Ultralights. The ties that come with the AG Density kit are a bit too thick to go through anything thinner than webbing straps.

SpecOps’ Action Ghillie Rifle Wrap

SpecOps’ Action Ghillie Rifle Wrap:

This thing covers ALL of your marker…even on my A-5 with 14″ barrel and collapsible stock, there’s a lot of length to thoroughly cover the marker.

Three velcro loops…two towards the front for the barrel, and one at the back to secure it to the stock, etc. Basically, it’s one very long strap. You start at the barrel, and begin wrapping it around the marker, hopper, etc. however you choose. Yes, it’s effective from a concealment/silhouette standpoint, but unless you are extremely careful while wrapping, it will obstruct the sightline of a Red Dot, etc. I quickly learned that I’ll have to use either one or the other…it’s just too “shaggy” for me to try using both at once. Maybe if I switched from an offset rail to a simple riser mounting it would work…but that’s just theory at this point.

It serves the purpose it was meant to fulfill, but may have a drawback when it comes to integrating well with a sight.

SpecOps’ Action Ghillie Hood

SpecOps’ Action Ghillie Hood Kit:
There are bonuses and drawbacks. It’s easy to put together, but a couple of things to watch out for.

First off, the bottom-front of the hood velcroes across itself, forming a double-layer of mesh. The first time, I put AG on both layers…a small bit on the underside, and quite a bit more on the outer layer. Bad idea! I had a Spaceballs “Dark Helmet” moment…gasping for breath and exclaiming “How do you BREATHE in this thing?”
I clipped off all the AG from both layers, rolled up the underside flap, and zip-tied it right up against the velcro strip. This let me only have a single flap to cover the mask’s mouth portion. I didn’t go quite as overboard on the AG on the outer portion of the flap this time and the results helped tremendously. I can actually breathe without needing a snorkel.

Second, humidity more than heat will affect whether or not you should even wear the thing. I tried playing with it on during a game not long ago and almost hyperventilated from the heat. The density of the AG greatly affects how much insulation your head gets. If you’ve played in hot, humid weather, you know that it doesn’t take much for you to start breathing hard and fogging up your mask. It’s even worse with the AG hood on.

My suggestion would be to not go all-out and try to use every scrap of AG they provide. It’s just too much for playing in hot, humid weather. Your head needs to breathe, so keep the AG application as light as you can. I’m in the process of lightening my initial application of AG mesh which will hopefully make the heat issue bearable.

You don’t have to look like a Wookie with a perm for the concealment & breakup factor to work…so keep it as light as you can around the top and rear of your head…a bit more on the front sides won’t hurt though.

Paintballing for the First Time

Original Date of writing: April 15, 2007

It was a drizzly day yesterday, but around 2:00 it began to clear up. I called around to a couple of the fields nearby and found one that had a group coming in around 3:00. They said it was no problem for me to show up and play.

I packed my gear and headed out.

The place was way out in the sticks. The directions they gave were flawless though, so I didn’t have a problem finding it.

I was fearful that the group would be a bunch of 12-year olds on a birthday party or somesuch. As I pulled into the parking area, I saw a bunch of people in BDUs…and they were all way too tall to be little kids. Much relief was felt.

I did a brief round of introductions. These were all military guys from the nearby Ft. Campbell army base. Good deal…I can dig that.

Round 1: Woodsball: When you don’t know anything, you can’t make mistakes.
We started with picking teams for the first game…woodsball. We set up, hollered back and forth that we were ready, and started the game. My memory isn’t so great on this first game. I was trying to learn by observing my teammates, but quickly found out that they were almost as wet behind the ears as I was…or at least it seems that way in hindsight.
Picture a Civil War battle being fought in the trees. No attempt at stealth…everyone found a spot of cover and traded shots until they got hit. I was the second person to get tagged out on my team, and they ended up wiping the walls with us.

Lesson learned: Do it yourself…don’t just mimic what the others are doing.

Round 2,3,4: Speedball
A small speedball course was set up to one side of the woodsball field. Everyone wanted to give that a try, so we headed over that way. We played a couple of games fairly quickly. I’ve learned that speedball doesn’t make for a good story. Lots of shots flying, not a lot of things to say besides “I was hugging that barrel like a drunken barfly on an ugly waitress” and the complete lack of satisfaction that I got from it. Speedball just isn’t what I’m cut out for.

The moment of stupidity
I had a noobish moment.
We had eliminated all but one guy who was pinned down behind a barrel and a pallet. I knew he couldn’t see me, so I shifted up to the cover just in front of his position. While my teammates laid down a hail of fire to keep him tucked in, I ran down the boundary and shot him from 10 feet away. I’m not sure what happened…I guess I had a brainfart or something. We’d all agreed to not shoot from point blank and instead yell “Bang! Safety kill” and get ‘em to surrender. This totally slipped my mind in the heat of things and I pegged him once in the arm. I’m sure he’s got a bruise. I apologized profusely and made sure he knew I didn’t do it on purpose.
Thankfully, he was a good sport about it. During our next speedball round, he tagged me in the arm (from a much further distance) and we called ourselves even.

Lesson learned: Even though I’m an admitted non-fan of speedball, I did learn something. I’m a noob…I need to think about the range I’m at before I do something stupid like that.

Round 5: Woodsball: The Art of Cover
We took a break to refill air, hoppers, etc. and had a couple smokes and whatnot.
We decided to go back to playing woodsball.
In the next game, I was a bit more prepared. Another teammate and I hung out way to the left, while the rest were positioned on the right. He and I spent some time hanging back until the other guys engaged. Once we heard them shooting, we began moving up our side.
We both found some great cover and began exchanging shots with two that were facing us. It bogged down with poking out from behind cover, firing off some shots, and ducking back in.
It was just a matter of time…lucky shots tagged both of us out.

Lesson learned: Cover keeps you from being hit as often, but they still know where you are.

Round 6: Woodsball: Confusion and Concealment
With this lesson learned, I started the next game right next to the boundary of the field. With nobody else with me, I knew I could flank without anyone giving away my position by firing too early. I crouch-ran, low-crawled, and used the sound of firing to mask my movements.
I got into a great position and was able to take three enemies down in quick succession because they were too focused on the rest of my team. After getting these three, I had a friendly start shooting at me but was able to wave him off before he got me.
Not seeing any further enemies, I started moving in towards the center of the field…there was one guy left on the enemy side, and three on mine. I saw movement along the opposite edge of the field from where I had begun my flanking, so I began stalking him. I couldn’t tell at this point if it were a friendly or enemy, so I tried to get in close enough to see if I could recognize him.
Well…he popped out from behind a tree and lit my position up. I returned fire and he began running away. I shot him in the buttocks and he yelled and bawled about it. (I found out later that his marker had jammed, which is why he ran away.)
As he walked towards me, we realized a grave error had been made. He was on my team! We both said our “woopses” and I turned 180 degrees to face back into the field.
Again, I saw movement…so I stalked up a bit. We saw each other, but held fire.

Having just pounded one of my teammates in the buttocks (yeah, that’s how we talked about what happened after the game…we had great humor), I was hesitant to light him up. I yelled out “I’m Tripp, who are you?” He yelled something back that I didn’t quite catch. So, I held the barrel of my marker pointing towards the ground and walked right up to him. At 2 feet away, we were still confused. Everyone from this other group tended to look the same because they were all army guys with their BDUs on. I had a realtree patterned t-shirt and a pair of tiger stripe BDU pants on, so I was a bit easier to identify.

He said “I don’t think we’re on the same team.”
I said “Yeah, I don’t think so either, but it’d hurt like hell if we shot each other right now.”
He said “Yeah.”
I said “Let’s just call it even.”

We both walked to the neutral area where the others waited. They asked who got who and got a good laugh out of the mixup.

Lesson learned: Stealth and concealment is far superior to having a good piece of cover but everyone knows where you are.
Secondary lesson: Know thy teammates.

Round 7: Woodsball: Sneakiness is next to Godliness
The final game was another round of woodsball. At this point, our teams were tied up one to one.

By this point, I had gained a reputation for being sneaky. I guess everyone that had been tagged out the last round had swapped stories about how they went down.
I again chose the right flank just along the boundary and another teammate joined me. He said that I should stay hidden and be sneaky, and he’d draw their fire.
It didn’t quite happen that way. I found a great piece of concealment and no sooner did I get settled than I saw an enemy stalking the same area coming from the other direction. If I moved, he’d see me…so I kept still and waited for him to come into range.
My partner must have gotten impatient, because he was nowhere to be found. I held my position and held my fire. Minutes passed and the entire field was silent…no shots fired so far.
I remembered some tips I’d read online about playing effectively…one of which was to avoid having tunnel vision. I mentally marked where my quarry was and did a couple quick scans of the area. I’m glad I did. Another enemy was further forward and a bit closer to the center. He hadn’t seen me, but I had a great angle to take him out.
I held fire though…I had spotted the new threat, but had lost track of the original guy. A mental “oh schnarkeys!” kept me quiet until I could spot him again.

Shots began near the center of the field, and my secondary target began a retreat…moving across my lane of fire towards where I’d lost my original target. Now that I didn’t have to worry about crossfire, I lit him up. He had no idea what happened. Two three-round bursts and he called himself out without knowing exactly where I was.

My shots had flushed out the guy I’d lost track of. He was beginning to flank me just along the edge of the treeline. He made no attempt at stealth…he crashed through the brush trying to get to a position with two large trees forming a tight V to set up a defensive position.

I began moving parallel towards the way he came from and caught him looking the other way. It was close…and having already embarrassed myself with the earlier point-blank shot on the speedball course…I yelled for a safety kill. Well…he decided to chance it and began shooting. I’m not sure how it happened, but he missed. I ran towards the edge of the field, getting an angle on his trees he was using for cover and laying down fire to keep his head down.
I got a lucky shot and he howled in pain as I connected multiple rounds with his wrist, hand, and arm.

Having wiped out the opposition on this side of the field, I began moving deeper into enemy territory. There’s an open trail that cuts right through the field at an imaginary halfway point. Two more enemies were using this trail and a copse of trees and brush for cover…facing towards my team’s “side” of the trail. They had a damn good position…but only against people that were still on my team’s side of the field. I had them outflanked and they didn’t yet know it.
The guy who had his arm torn up was walking down the trail, but was honorable enough to keep silent as he walked towards the neutral area.
I wasn’t sure how long that honor would last, so I tried to hurry in moving up into range.
About the time I had a decent shot, he had moved up to his teammates. I had to wait for him to pass before I could attempt a shot. Again, I admire his honor. He didn’t tell them where I was.

I shot the nearest of the two enemies and he looked over at me in confusion…then recognized my camo (Remember, I was the only one that DIDN’T have a BDU jacket on) and cursed, then raised his hand and started the walk out.
His partner hadn’t seen the shots, but obviously knew something had gone wrong because of the direction the guy had just turned to look at me before calling out.

I snuck up a bit closer…closer than I liked for a shot that wouldn’t hurt too much. Having again hit someone from close range a minute ago, I was worried about causing too much pain…even if the guy deserved it for deciding to shoot instead of surrender.
I yelled for a safety, made sure they saw me, and waited. They didn’t surrender. Matter of fact, they ignored me and went back to trading shots with two other guys on my team.
I was a little confused. Maybe they thought I was on their team…after all, I was behind them.

I yelled again…”Surrender or I shoot you.”
No response…
My two teammates were rushing the last enemy…I was actually further away than they were and they still didn’t have LOS to the enemy player. When they did, it would hurt like hell if they both shot ‘em.
So, I did the humane thing…I shot the last player in the hopes that they’d call themselves out before my other two teammates made it REALLY hurt.

Thankfully, they called out after a burst of three shots and the game was over.

We all walked back and had another round of smoking and trading stories.
I had gained a reputation on my first time playing…”Sneaky Git”

I took it as a complement. I’m not sure why nobody else was doing anything similar. These were army guys, so I guess I expected a bit more than the bounding overwatch that they did. Nobody really went to the lengths that I did to be sneaky.

Lesson learned: Stealth and concealment rock, but don’t be afraid to shoot someone just because you think it’ll hurt. Everyone has different pain tolerances and a guy that yells and bawls from a hit from 20 yards away might just be a sissie.

Wrapping Up
All in all, I had a blast. As we were cleaning gear, one guy asked how long I’d been playing and prefaced it with “You played like you’ve done this before.”
I explained it was my first time and he was surprised at that. I did explain that many moons ago in my days of Boy Scouts, I was a Capture the Flag fanatic. I guess that was a good enough explanation.

We exchanged phone numbers and all headed out.
Good times…good times.

MVP of the day: My kneepads. Hands-down, this is the best investment I’ve made. The ground was wet and squishy, there were fallen limbs and brambles everywhere, and these things gave me the added courage I needed to get down and dirty where others might worry about hurting themselves.
In fact, during Round 5, I was tagged out because I got shot on the kneepad. Suffice to say, it didn’t hurt a bit.

I had bought an el-cheapo set of Rollerblading pads back at Christmas and never really used ‘em. Sooo…about a month ago I broke ‘em out and used some painter’s tape and camo spray paints to tiger-stripe the kneepads to match my pants. I did a little of the same to my mask and hopper as well.
Now that I’ve had my trial by fire, I’ll probably do the set of elbow pads in camo as well. After having gone without them the first time out, I’ve decided that I’m willing to sacrifice a bit of maneuverability and stiffness in order to give me more confidence when low-crawling.

Proper Sight Configuration

There are a lot of topics that talk about which kind of scope or sight to get and the benefits that they can give you. There is not, however, a guide on what the best way to go about making your new shiny toy work for you once it’s in your grubby little hands.

There are a couple of topics to cover. I’ll list them off at the start, and work through each one in detail later.

It is widely accepted that a magnifying scope is not a good idea for paintball use. By the time you’d get any use out of magnification, you’re at a range that is far too great for a paintball to be launched.

For the purposes of this post, we’ll assume that you are going with a more natural choice for a paintball application: the red dot sight.

1. Zeroing your sight

2. The benefits of risers and offsets

3. Mounting your sight

Zeroing your sight

Picture yourself staring downrange at your practice target.

Your new sight is positioned just perfectly. The sun glints off of the black finish and illuminates your target like an aura from heaven. The stock of your marker is nestled snugly against your shoulder.

You press your bare cheek against the warm plastic of your stock and line up the brilliant red dot with your target…it can’t run.

It can’t hide.

You are one with your weapon.

A staccato burst of three shots strikes the target with unerring accuracy…your enemies stand no chance.

You have evolved to the penultimate level of predator.

Sounds good, right? Who can tell me what’s wrong with this picture? It’s a very small detail…

“Your bare cheek”…Doh!

I made this exact same mistake my first time…I zeroed the red dot with my mask off.

This is probably the most common error. It’s nothing to be ashamed of.

If you’re like me, you love shiny new toys. Just like a kitten, you get tunnel vision when something new and preeeeetty glistens in front of your eyes. It’s hypnotic. You don’t think straight…you can barely walk straight.

Much like when that cute gal at the bowling alley winks at you and smiles.

Alright…enough goggle-eyeing the pretty girl…back to serious, manly business…there’ll be plenty of time for that after you show how great a hunter you are. (Natural Selection baby…chicks dig guys who can align a paintball sight properly. Just ask ‘em…and give me her number.)

Take some time to go back and re-zero with your mask ON this time.

Practice your normal snap-shooting pose a couple dozen times before you start. Get a feel for the most common position you’ll be using while looking through your sight.

This is the position you’ll want to use for zeroing.

If you try to zero from your most comfortable pose (meaning you take about 5 seconds to get it “just right” when you’re lining up on a target), you’ll find out that it doesn’t work out quite the same when it comes to the real thing.

When it comes to red dot sights, it doesn’t matter at what angle you look through it…the dot will always be lined up with where you’ve zeroed. At least, that’s the theory. If it’s good enough for Special Forces, it’s good enough for me.

I too subscribe to this theory behind the red dot, but with a caveat: it better feel natural when I’m sighting, or it isn’t worth the extra edge a red dot gives me.

There is a method to zeroing. Probably the best description of both the process and the physics was made by Lothen in this thread. No sense re-inventing the wheel when it’s put so eloquently by someone with a much better grasp on it than I do.

Risers and offsets

Some folks mention buying an offset or a riser when mounting your sight.

You mentioned you don’t want to spend any money on these things though…after all, you want to buy that gal a soda and a round of pins at the bowling alley, and that ain’t cheap. Heck, I can’t blame you. Why back in my day…a game of bowling only cost…alright, ALRIGHT I’ll shut up with the reminiscing.

But from a hypothetical perspective, it might not be a bad idea. Let me clarify though just so you don’t get the wrong idea that it’s an absolute requirement to get your red dot to work properly…

The exception to this absolute requirement rule I just made up is how your hopper is mounted. If it is not offset somehow or another (Q-Loader, stovepipe, etc.) then you might want to settle for just buying the girl a soda and forego the round of bowling…you’ll need a little cash for one of the following…

Oops…wait a second…

The other exception to the same absolute requirement (darn loopholes…there are always so many!) is how flexible your mask is. If you can’t mash the lower part of your mask close enough against your stock to see through the sight, you’ll probably want to look into one of these as well.

Or you could just take off the stock…but that’d be an exception to an exception, and we’re not all willing to wait for an act of congress to push through all this legal jargon just to put a red dot on a friggin’ paintball marker, so we’ll forget I even mentioned this last option.
Right then…on to those things you might want to spend some money on…

1. An angle-mount for your hopper.

These come in all varieties and are referred to by a number of names. I own a Tippmann A-5 and they call this gadget a stovepipe. Others call it an elbow. There are plenty of hoppers out there that are already angled, so look at those too.

2. An offset rail.

These are gadgets that screw onto your marker’s built-in rail and are meant to jut out to the side with a new rail for mounting such things. They range in how far this jut is, but it’s usually a good inch or three.

3. A riser.

Just like the name implies, it raises the point at which you mount the sight by a margin. Some of these risers are actually more like a handle with the added bonus of being able to mount a sight on top. Others are a rectangular chunk of metal that looks kinda like a really long LEGO block.

It all depends on how much you need to raise the mounting point to make it comfortable, as well as bypass any obstructions (such as your hopper).

Given that your hopper is somehow mounted at an angle or is a very low-profile model, the only thing a riser or offset rail will do is make your posture feel more natural when trying to look through the sight.

If you can cram your face down far enough and your mask has some “give” to it, you really don’t need these accessories. They’re just going to help you feel like you’re not crammed into your mom’s clothes dryer while you’re trying to aim.

I have an offset rail, but it is still difficult to get the “feel” that seems normal for looking through a sight…which means my eye is square with the center of the sight optics.

I intend to buy something to give me some more elevation…I’m a tall gangly guy with a long neck, so I need that extra height a riser will give me compared to looking like I’m trying to snap my own neck every time I try to aim. I’m looking for the handle/mount combo for that extra elevation.

Regardless of what I end up purchasing, there is one thing that will happen before I waltz over to impress that girl with my sight mounting skills and a Dr. Pepper (Diet…it tastes just like the real thing!)…

Mounting your Sight

Once I get my new riser purchased and installed, I’ll have to re-zero the dot again.

But you ALREADY zeroed it you twit…go say “Hi” to the cute girl already!

Yeah, I hear what you’re saying. But there’s a reason.

Every time you make a modification to the position of your scope on your marker, you’ll need to re-zero.

Just remember that, and you’ll have no problems. It’ll save you some embarrassment when that pretty girl checks out your hunting skills in sight alignment too.

There’s one slight problem to having these extra doo-dads in addition to your sight of choice…

They’re attached with screws. Even the normal vibrations of my Tippmann A-5 firing on single shot cause these screws to loosen over time.

The more extra mountings you plop on to accommodate a sight that feels comfortable, the more likely they are to fall off in the field. Some Blue Loctite should help. Just be sure that before every round, you take a brief moment to inspect your screws and make sure nothing is coming loose.

There’s nothing worse than having to worry about some idiot with a screw loose running around the field with a loaded weapon. (Oh c’mon…you saw that joke coming a mile away)

If you’re using both a riser AND an offset, it’s a fair bet that you’ll always use both pieces…so why not permanently attach them? A wee bit of superglue and you have two less problems to worry about.

That’s right…TWO problems.

Number one: screws loosening.

Number two: attaching the two pieces in different places every time they are assembled.

One thing to always keep in mind: if you take a moment to ensure that you ALWAYS align the sight on the marker in the exact same place, you’ll never have to use the excuse of “My shots were off because my sight rail was two millimeters further up the mounting bracket that it was when I zeroed it.”

Oh yes…that’s right.

No more excuses…you forfeited your right to make excuses when you decided to take up the position of Sniper.

If you zero your red dot and permanently etch a couple of lines (a carpentry nail does the trick) to mark the front and back positions of your sight/offset/riser combination, you’ll always have the confidence of knowing that when you re-mount them before a match, they’re being put back on in the exact same spot as when you painstakingly zeroed it the first time.

You COULD take it a step further and just superglue or JBWeld the whole contraption in place, but I would STRONGLY advise you not to for numerous reasons.

First off, the whole idea of customizing your marker is the idea that you can always un-customize it back to the factory defaults. Why? What if your marker is completely pooched and you have to buy a new one? Or maybe you scored some cash in the lottery and bought one of those wiz-bang new markers (and took the pretty girl out for a movie with a LARGE popcorn thrown in with the spare change)

That’d mean buying the whole sight set again.

Secondly, when it comes time to strip your marker down to the bare components for cleaning, you may or may not have a problem doing so because of the addition of this permanent fixture.

Third, think about transporting your gear. Most totes don’t take into account “breathing room” in the bag for what might turn into a huge bulge from the offset, riser & sight.

Fourth and finally, you may switch positions on the field. Not because you suck at sniping…I’d never imply that.

Okay, I might…but we don’t know each other that well yet, so why don’t we just be friends? (Be prepared…that’s the line you’re going to hear from the pretty girl if you don’t have your paintball sight alignment skills in top shape)

Let’s just say that you are so uber-sneaky that they beg and grovel for you to go Light Rifleman in the next round.

That big honkin’ rig you have for your sight is next to worthless for this position. (No flames guys…It’s my opinion and I’m sticking to it.) Why not leave it off so you can dash around without all the excess baggage?

Before going off the deep end and permanently affixing everything together, keep these thoughts in mind.

Wrapping Up

Alrighty then…I’ve covered all the basics. Get out there, get that sight zeroed and mounted properly, and by all that is holy…make sure you freshen up that deodorant before going to talk to the pretty girl.

You smell like soggy burlap. Actually…what the heck are you doing in a Bowling Alley with your Ghillie Suit on?!?!? Freak!!!