What happened to Pump paintball.

[Tinybear]

I still love playing pump and with Mech play being more mainstream again it’s great for recball. I Still think the Tippmann SL68II Is one of my favorite shooters. And my Azodin KPII project performs great (thought not as trusty as the tippy).

But looking on the market today seems there’s only one truly main stream pump manufacturer. And that’s Azodin pumps in both the KP3 and KPC+ configurations.

Empire dropped the sniper and the Traccer(sad I’d love to get another). Spyder dropped the hammer 7

CCI is order only, much the same as the ID stuff and CCM.

why has pump offerings pretty much dried up. Where are the Nelson’s,only CCI left there.

[punkncat]

Everyone came around to the realization us old guys made 25+ years ago that it sucks?


/Ikid/sorta

[sniper97]

With any CCM marker, you can hold your own against anyone, played with a S6 almost exclusively since 2009. When playing walk on, a friend of mine and myself would challenge the rest of the group, 2 vs. 15. Once you are snap shooting, eliminations start racking up.

[The Inflicted]

The paintball market in general contracted, which is why there's less stuff overall.

The Hammer 7 was discontinued before it even caught on with the Magfed crowd.

Empire discontinued the Trracer even before that, before the pump revival started. Their Sniper may be only temporarily discontinued- like the Tippmann TiPX, there's a lot of stuff GI/NPS/Empire isn't currently making that has nothing to do with how well it was selling so much as a general need for that conglomerate to pare down its offerings as it restructures and fights of bankruptcy.

The Phantom supply is disrupted because Mike retired and sold the tooling and parts to Extreme Velocity, and they, like Mike, are fighting the problem that the used Phantom market continues to be strong enough that it cuts into the market for new guns.

I feel like there's a real opportunity to re-launch the Phantom with some updates ('cocker threads, picatinny sight rails, smaller valve bodies, flat .45 grips, etc.) but the current guys lack the capacity to do so.

[Chappy]

Economy of scale. There are already more pumps then pump players, and by nature, they are already likely retro players who don't mind using old junk. In order to sell a new pump it needs to be pretty amzing while keeping the price low. There is not enough market to do that, so the new pump market suffers.

[Trygve]

Makes sense. I've never felt the need to buy a brand new paintball marker since you can find anything you want used. Not to mention you can barely get weird annos etc. from cci now. More interesting options on the used market.

[Toestr]

Pumps in general are obviously less competitive in today's game than they were in their hayday, mechs do a better job. The only people rocking pumps nowadays are dedicated players with some experience under their belt. Blowbacks are (arguably were) what many pumps were in the 90s - a rental or beginner's/casual player's gun. Practically no casual player will go out and buy a gun that they will have a harder time competing with. There are so many pumps out there and they last basically forever (nelson anyway). If someone wants a pump they can get one from the used market.

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[Dusty Bottoms]

I think the decline in paint quality the last several years is going to make getting into pump even less palatable to most people. If you have to shoot multiple times with a pump to score an elimination because of crappy paint, why not just use a semi or electro to begin with?

[Mr. Hick]

This exact thing has me shooting my Emek more than my pumps. I play paintball to have a good time and pump paintball is flat out FRUSTRATING due to roll outs, oblonged, hook shooting garbage that qualifies as paint.

[iamthelazerviking]

Junk paint has turned it into accuracy by volume. Not 100% the case, still people out there playing pump and playing it well. I will always have a place in my heart for pump but I am getting older/slower + crud paint = use a semi-auto

[Hellion360]

I used to play pump every time I went out for a good chunk of the day.
Paint has been not as good, so I can't hit my shots like I normally do. Even a generally good ball like graffiti has been less good than usual this season and I have been shooting mech as a result.

[Hellion360]

Grafitti this season has been wobbly in the air and tougher than usual. I bounced a guy 5 times in one game last weekend. I also have bounced off peoples masks and lenses this season, which is unusual.

[stelmo]

I usually tend to start rec days off playing pump (phantom or KP3), and as I get more tired I'll gravitate towards my mechs (automag or ressy).
I manage to keep up with most of the "tourney" guys thanks to some ferocious ATing and aggressive moves, but man is it an uphill battle most times, especially with the garbage paint these days.

Honestly I have never once seen another pump player at my local field. They're so uncommon that most of the regulars just call me "Pump"

[Phantom1313]

Honestly, most of what was already said is pretty accurate. The only thing I have to add is that it seems pump play has become somewhat of a more regional thing than it used to be, even just a few years ago.

Here's my example (sample size of 1, subject to low data fidelity and sample size error) - In California where I am, when I was growing up (broke ass teenage years) I was often the only guy playing pump, let alone stock class (i did it because I could play more often for less money, remember I was pretty damn broke). After college when I returned to paintball, I was usually one of many people playing pump at the bay area fields....on any random day there were at least a few pumpers, maybe even other stock class folks. Now, specifically in the last few years, the northern central coast/bay area pumping scene has somewhat dried up, save for a few smaller groups at local fields. By contrast, the pump paintball scene in southern California is still pretty large, and I hear it's pretty big still in Oregon, but I can't confirm this other than rumor & gossip via MCB.

As others have said, this is a multifaceted issue with contributing factors like an over-saturated market for used pumps, and a sharp decline in paint quality....basically it's just not pulling in folks like it was. Frankly, even when it was more popular a few years back, the majority of pump players seemed to be the folks who are already pretty comitted to paintball.

For me personally, I can say that my play style has shifted to more electro & mech trigger time simply because everyone else is playing that way more often. Though I am happy to pull out the T2 or a phantom and play with them, my most enjoyable time playing pump is when EVERYONE is playing pump together....which just does not happen often enough anymore.

[iamthelazerviking]

Does seem like Socal has a huge pump population. And also out east in the New England area.

[gabe]

In my area at least it has to do mainly with player demographics. At the local field you either get thrown in with renters or with players shooting electros who are pretty competitive. Either way a lot of paint is getting thrown and mech at least allows you to get some of that limited ROF fun but still be competitive. Even against renters who are shooting buckets of paint you still have a massive firepower disparity so the mech gets the call again. I'll play with a pump very occasionally and stock class is even a more rare game but I still end up reaching for a mech after getting steamrolled a few times.

Basically pump is fun with other pumps but it's a bad day going up against semi's with even marginally good players. I used to be a masochist like some of you who say you can play pump against semis but nowadays I like to actually have fun and get a few kills in during a day of play.

[Euphie]

Back in the day I would do really well pump against semi but those woods fields were huge, you started well out of sight of the enemy team and you got to be clever with movement.

All of my local stuff seems to have really tiny fields in comparison, you can always see the enemy team at start and that really ruins pump vs semi for me. I could still play super aggressive and probably do okay against most walk ons but, I don’t have the knees for that sort of thing.

[Tinybear]

I guess for me I just suck enuff with either Mech or pump that shooting the pump don’t make any concernable difference to my performance in the game. I’m also into my late 30s with the added fun of some pretty nasty physical limitations brought on by major injuries (aka now I have better excuses for sucking just as much as before).

I have brought and used a pump at least a little every time I have gone out since I started playing. I enjoy it and although I try to be as selective with my shooting playing Mech I always use twice as much paint running my semi as I do my pump.

For me I find I get shot out most by players I didn’t see. It’s rarely loss of a gun battle, so it is hard to blame what I shooting on that. Not saying it doesn’t happen just being honest with the vast majority of my experience.

I also enjoy my pumps because with the smaller load of paint the setups offten end up being much lighter. And one thing I have found post injuries is lighter equals to can play a bit longer.

So I guess for me the huge decline in pump availability came as a shock.

As for paint quality I haven’t had much issues yet. Local field seems to be using GI paint and it’s shooting well enuff for me. My SL68II loved it. Seemed a bit more squirrely next outing shooting the Azodin and ULE Classic mag. But I put that up to a bit more rain.

[Grendel]

Well pump players in general are part of the reason for the decline in off the shelf new markers being produced. We tend to not change markers often more the buy once use forever mentality. My newest Pump marker is my Pyre from PPS and that happened 2008 everything else I own is most likely older or bought 2nd hand. The paintball community is awash with pump markers without having a dynamically growing community so low demand. Since demand is low there is not a lot to drive production to provide shelf stock so the boutique mfgs (CCM, PPS, ...etc) are better served by doing custom or limited run so they tie up less capitol.

[JonM]

Pump play by nature favors old markers. That's kind of the whole point. Anything new ends up being either more expensive due to limited production, or of lower quality than what's already out there on the used market in order to remain price competitive. Mike knew what he was doing when he said goodbye to CCI.

[sniper97]

He was 70 yrs old

[Chuck E Ducky]

Depends on ware you play. North East has a ton of Pump players. I use my pumps for rec play. However like many others I play all different styles of paintball do you migh not always see me with my pump. There is still a high demand for high end pumps. Low end pumps are not big sellers because most players that choose to handicap themselves are not new to the sport and prefer nicer equipment. Most high end Electro run $2k+ now so spending 1k on a CCM seems like it’s nothing. Inflation and material cost are way up so with it comes higher prices. Higher prices push new players out.

While lack of paint quality has put a damper on pump play for sure. It’s still has a big following in areas the cost of living is outrageous. It’s still cheaper way to play after your initial investment.

Another thing that keeps pumps out of the hands of new players is the availability of new cheap great quality Mech markers and the popularity of Mech play. The market is going to follow trends in the sport. People are buying them so that’s what the industry is going to focus on. Especially at a time business are cutting overhead. There just isn’t a big market for low end pumps.

Pump paintball is a niche market within a niche sport so you won’t see new pumps until the market is riding high again and production costs come down. Inflation will ensure that’s not going to happen in the next decade.

Even Field One who has a great chance of cutting into the CCM market with a quality high end pump is holding off on the New MVP. People have completely forgotten about how terrible the MVP was new by now especially with its value on the used market. CCM production has slowed and demand is so high. All F1 would have to do is meet demand. Its still not worth the effort and time at this point. So it will sit on the shelf until better times roll around or production material and overhead costs come down.

Paintball tec is pretty much at a stalemate at this point until a better projectile is produced.