Your Sentimental Gun Story

[DocsMachine]

My first gun was a Brass Eagle King Cobra, which I got lightly used, in the box, with a 9-ounce CAM tank complete with buttplate.

I knew nothing about paintball guns at that point- I'd previously used a Rapide Rifle as a rental. The next weekend I bought the Cobra. I assumed it was the same as the other "single long tube" guns I'd seen in the magazines... little did I know.

I was already something of a gadget freak even back then, but that poor gun led me to all sorts of mods, in a fruitless effort to get it over about 220 FPS. I made my own heavier hammer (with a cheap drill press and an angle grinder!) I tried all sorts of springs, spacers, lead weights attached to the hammer, you name it.

The barrel was something like .694", which was huge even then, and of course the Crosman valve those things used was poor at best for the flow they needed.

BUT... I used that for years. I eventually upgraded to a TASO Spartan (it was $150 cheaper than a Bushmaster, which is what I wanted), and a few years later, I finally got a well-used 'Cocker.

I still have both the Cobra and the 'Cocker. Neither have been on the field yet this century.

Doc.

[Ecapnation]

Short stories.....

I have two sentimental guns and a whole collection that's sentimental.

My first gun ever..... Wgp ranger I've owned it for 32 years now.

My 05 black magic pump.... I won my first national podium with it and it's become synonymous with me and my playing style. It's hard to believe that I've had it for 17 years now.

Finally.... "The collection of Dangerous Dan" he was a local guy playing with F-Troop and worked for flag station paintball in Brooklyn. Anyway one day he showed up at a local store looking to re-home his entire collection of guns. Not sell but re-home as he put it. I was third on the list for the call to come collect and was the first to show up.

Turns out this one imposing biker type dude was dieing and I barely recognized him. We talked for hours about paintball and polished off a bottle of johnny walker I grabbed on the way there with him and the staff. He called his brother to come get gather him up and told me to take his stuff it was mine. I forced the money I intended to pay him into his hand anyway.

Last thing I said to him was hope everything turns out alright and if you find the micromag barrel to let me know.

Three days later his brother came by the shop to drop the barrel off and informed us he passed away the next day.

[Handy]

The gun I have with the most sentimental value is my Phantom. It was not the very first one I got (I had issues I was too young/inexperienced to figure out at the time), but it was pretty close.

After selling the original out of frustration and probably regretting it, someone local had a Phantom with a bunch of random accessories for a decent price and I decided to give it another try. I had it for a while, played with some other guns, eventually sold it to another local, and when he decided to sell it, I bought it back.

Around that time, some of my buddies and I had created a little field out in the desert near our houses from trash that people had dumped out there. I shot a lot of Evil paint since it was the nicest stuff I could find locally, and my friends hated it since it would stain some of their clothes pink. Being the dumb kid I was, I thought it would be funny to scratch "kill" markings into the trigger group. I think I had 7-8 of them on there before deciding better of it. I had a moment of weakness when I sold it to a buddy, but he was nice enough to swap me for an orange/black acid wash Phantom I had acquired at some point.

The Phantom has gone through MANY iterations over the years. I've tried just about every different upgrade or layout of air supply and paint carrying, but it's been VSC with an L-stock for probably the last 5-8 years. I use the stock over the barrel pump handle, ASP detents, and a stock barrel. The only thing left from that original gun is probably the trigger group and the internals, which have worn in nicely and it's one of the smoothest Phantoms I own.

It's the one gun I will never sell. It's not fancy, a lot of the parts on it are ones that are scratched up that I didn't feel like selling to other people, but it works, hardly ever have to adjust the velocity, and is in my gearbag pretty much any time I hit the field, escpecially for scenario/big games.

[Seajay]

Different direction... my Spyder MR2. Not because it is particularly valuable or good. Happened to be the first paintball gun I really wanted, and then dove down the rabbit hole of experimentation.
Added eyes, different bolts, many valves, regulators, everything. It just took it and played reliably every single time. Still works to this day. Got it on ebay for I think sixty bucks.

Currently it has a modified Bandit bolt, Rocket valve, modded in eyes with a Tadao board, and toyed around with the trigger switch. Shooting around 280 fps at 300 psi. Never chops with a halo too sitting ontop.

Just a fun paintball gun to play with.

[Spider!]

My son has a Piranha that we modded for over 11 bps years ('08?) ago that he keeps. It was limited by the viewloader.

[Hp_lovecraft]

I have a broken splatmaster that I bought back around 87. It has not worked in at least 30 years... but I will never sell it. It reminds me of my greatest memory of paintball.

Back early 87, I was sick in the hospital with an illness. In the hospital, I met a guy who ran a local paintball field. "Van Houten". He was crazy. Legit crazy. But I was fascinated by this paintball thing. It was occasionally on TV shows and movies, so I kinda knew about it. But thats what I wanted to do.

Once I got better, I went out and checked out his field. He purposely built it in a swamp to replicate vietnam. Yes. Crazy. He told me the following sunday, the field is closed because they are making a field trip to a "big game" down in Epping NH. He told me he would give me a ride. "Great fun".

The "Ride" was in the back of his pickup. It was brutal, but when I got to the field, it was the most amazing experience Ive ever had. Maybe a 1,000 people and I had no idea what I was doing.

I've told this story before, but long story short, as soon as the game started, I got lost.... I could hear a massive firefight in the distance, so I went the opposite direction. I was scared. Completely scared.
I walked and walked and found myself at the enemy base! It was completely unguarded. My team was apparently getting totally wiped out... the the enemy left there own base unguarded to help with the rout.

There was just a ref there who could not believe his eyes. It was a total newb. Splatmaster... and 10rnd tubes in MY POCKETS! lol. The ref explained the rules, and if I could get that field back to my base, we would win the game. I managed to get to the frontline, but I was on the opposite side. I was sorta always standing behind a bush, so nobody noticed my armband. My blood was pounding so hard, it was practically all I could hear.

So I sprinted acrossed the field, and we won. Never even fired the splatmaster. The was actually a 4 hour game, but you get the general idea. The 2nd game I actually did fire the gun.... and thats a different story. But I loved paintball after that, and so I have kept that gun ever since.

[Tarsun2]

i still have my 1st "legit" (legit to me and at that time) marker.
my grey body (non compact) with all the upgrades from over the years.

my other is the a1 fly gothic.

i used to dream of angels and being able to use one on the field... but it was akin to driving a lamborghini and was NEVER going to happen.
never forgot about them as the years went on though.

later in life (30 or so) got a job and would actually go paintballing with my co-workers. got an old angel LCD at a pawn shop. fixed it up and sold it and it re-ignited this angel passion. over the next few years i went from my old grey body -> vs2 -> rsx -> g6r -> and then finally it happened. i had the $, i saw the listing, it was taken care of, i was actively playing, and the guy selling was really chill. i bought an angel A1 fly gothic. it actually happened. i actually ended up with my life long dream marker. and it was every bit as good and every bit as cool as i imagined it would be.

[glaman5266]

I no longer have my first one (BE Blade ‘02), but I still remember that first game on Christmas Day of 2002 in the wet, heavy snow behind my grandma’s. My brother & I wanted to try it & Dad gave us each one of those cheap, plastic BE Wal-Mart specials. And we had an absolute blast getting soaked & blasting away at eachother.

My brother quickly upgraded to the BE Afterburner (he was always better at saving money), but on my birthday in ‘03 Dad gave me a JT Excellerator 6.0. I used it a lot & upgraded it over the years, tuning it to get over 1000 shots off a 20oz co2 bottle. Younger me was pretty proud of that. I still have that one & maybe this year I’ll replace the seals & run it for a game or two.

Dad’s on hospice now & I brought up that paintgun last week. He said he had no idea that paintgun would cement a 20-years-and-running life passion. I am eternally thankful for that.

[Chappy]

Tell your Dad MCB says thanks for that.

[Nish]

So my KP2.

When Toni and I got married we were both playing and decided that we wanted to enter our wedding reception through an arch/tunnel of crossed brass and wood guns. We of course enlisted the assistance of several of our friends here as at the time we were heretics and didn't own a single Sheridan...

My KP2 was not only in that formation, but was unexpectedly given to me as a wedding gift that day.

[JeeperCreeper]

*Looks at drawer full of PGPs*
Challenge accepted!

Seriously though, that's just plain cool

[Nish]

Vecause

[Cyberpyr8]

My other sentimental paintball gun isn't a gun per se. One day my youngest boys (then 13 and 16) and I were out in the garage messing with stuff and somehow we had some paintballs and a few barrels laying around. I picked up a paintball and barrel and proceeded to shoot the paintball blowgun style, starting a war. We ran around shooting paintballs at each other for about 30 minutes or so laughing our heads off. I don't think any broke but we had so much fun. Now that my youngest son isn't at home or even in contact with us anymore and my other son is married about to have a child of his own, I look back at that moment and think about how good things were. So simple, but fun.

[Tarsun2]

i can relate to this more than you know.

i have a 4yo and 6yo, and a house full of projects. why? because im always having fun with the kids, eating dinners together, beach days, goofing around in the front yard... i got a pressure washer and foam cannon to make washing the cars quicker; that is, until the boys want to "help". then it turns into a big game lol

one this i was always good at was also a scene from the final episode of "the office" where Andy said; "i wish there was a way to know when youre in the good old days before youve actually left them..."

knowing that certain events and times are forever fleeting, i try to pull in as much information as possible. where the sun was, the casting of the shadows, the wind, the smells, the temperature, the sounds, what was going on, the colors, and just everything i can.

[RAZRBAKK]

My pirate Sheridan has had a fair amount of custom work. But I just always had issues I couldn't fix. I got tired of it, I was broke, it just sat on the shelf looking sad.

So I sold it. To a member on here.

And 4 years later I wanted to buy it back. Couldn't remember his username, but MAr helped me track it down.

To my surprise he just gave it back. It had been sitting in a box in his parents basement since he bought it, so it returned with the same leak it had, and a couple more.

I will never sell that gun, even if it never hits the field again. But hopefully it will.

[Tinybear]

Not all that sappy. I started playing in May 1998 at 15 years old with a pair of cheap plastic brass eagle pumps (I purchased them for my brothers B Day). My brother and I started shooting each-other in the construction zones by our parents house. Shortly thereafter I picked up a Tippmann pro/carbine as my first real paintball gun. A year later I went to spectate the 1999 Skyball event at the sky dome and was decided I needed to get me a real paintball gun. So the next weekend I was at Sargent Splatters and was browsing the pro shop when I spotted a AGD Automag hanging on the wall. It was perfect. It felt solid and strong even more than the procarbine I so loved. But at the same time it was small and compact. The lines were so clean and simple I just had to have it. I Had to forgo playing for a few weeks to afford it but I brought that gun home that day.

I still own and love that gun today. It’s been upgraded to the point of spawning complete new guns over and over and simply keeps getting remade into its original form. Today it’s mostly hung on the wall as I built a newer (classic valved) mag to take its place a couple years back as my primary setup.

Over the years I have tried many different guns of all kinds. But never found one I preferred over a simple lvl 7 classic Automag.

Couple years ago I decided to purge most my gear BUT the Automags remained as although I had many guns I loved including that original Pro/Carbine. The guns I ALWAYS choose to play was the Automags or one of the pumps. So since I didn’t use em I sold off most everything else keeping only what I use.

[Drcemento]

I started playing at adventure mountain where I grew up in boonville. me and my buddies were often the only ones playing, but good ol' norm was always up there to take our hard earned bucks. He had a fleet of carter Tri-cars for rental guns. I had saved up my money and bought a tracer - which I hated and immediatly started working my butt off to get the ultimate dream gun - an autococker. somehow i pulled it off and got it stock from tony at pacific paintball. I could never make it work though, and no one else around me new anything about them either. I ended up trading it to norm for a tricar with an adco mirage red dot sight and paint credit. I loved that gun and played with it for a couple years before selling it back to norm and getting a used palmers stroker from pacific paintball.

fast forward 10 or twelve years of playing paintball here and there with a nickle plated VSC phantom, I had moved to Napa and I was scrolling though "Baccis big sale" on the old forum and came across a bunch of tricars with "AM" and a number scratched into the side, including # 12, my old gun! of course I had to have it, and turns out Bacci wasn't far away. I met him at a park and ride off hwy 37 he told me Norm was living in guernville and had listed all the old adventure mountain stuff on craigslist which Bacci picked up for a song. He also invited me come play at Bacci mountain where I've gone almost every year since. even re-united with Tony from pacific paintball there. truly the best paintball event of the year.

I got the tri-car working again but the non removable giant bore barrel leaves allot to be desired. the dream is to send it off to Doc and see if he can't thread the barrel, add inserts and add a nice bottom line stock so i can tear it upon the field once again.

[The Hobbit]

Summer of 2003 I start getting into paintball. I am buying pb2x and every other magazine I can. In these magazines I take interest in the hype ads for Smart Parts new Shocker and Nerve. The Nerve really caught my eye, something about the lines.

Being 12 with no real paintball scene nearby, I relegate these fancy and expensive markers to fantasy. Instead I get a tippmann custom pro and go crazy decking it out.

My friends interest in playing begins to dwindle around 2005. We went from a group of 10-12 every weekend to 4-5 once or twice a month. Meanwhile I'm still buying magazines and have found PBN and Spec Ops Forums. I don't wanna give up playing.

Summer of 2006 I reach out to a local scenario "team" and manage to jump on with them for a game a few hours drive away. There I am exposed to those fancy high end guns.

While perusing the BST section on one of the forums, I come across a guy selling a nerve. I throw a long shot offer of a straight trade for my tippmann, which to my surprise the seller went for.

The nerve was bone stock other then the hyper 2 reg. I couldn't stand the factory drop and non venting on/off, so that got swapped for the ndz rail and CP on/off.

I eventually found someone to swap some of my red parts for black (frame, backcap, feedback, lpr). I believe this frame came with the Factory Team board with the nxl ramping setting. Something not rare but uncommon to find, so that was cool.

I eventually found a great deal on the tonton frame and somewhere around then I got the NDZ trigger. Prior I had a delrin trigger with the same profile. At some point the team board died, at which time I replaced it with a virtue board.

Those years from 06 to 10, I ran a ton of paint through the thing. Since 10 I've used it on the occasions I made it out until the tiny ass eye cover screw stripped out. Not having the proper tools and wanting to avoid damaging it seriously, the nerve sat until a year ago. At that time I started getting the itch to play again and ran into people on Facebook rebuilding markers. So I sent it out to a gentleman in cali after explaining the situation and he got it back up and running. Since then, I catch myself bypassing the enmey I’d been shooting since 18 to run the nerve. Been playing at a local field with guys running modern PE stuff and the old nerve is completely capable of keeping up.

[Hp_lovecraft]

which I got lightly used, in the box, with a 9-ounce CAM tank complete with buttplate.

I really hated those CAM tanks. We mostly filled thermo-valve tanks in the late 80s, but the TPI-valve tanks started to become popular. Those all worked very well on our fill station. But those CAM tanks.... were a nightmare. Because of the odd oring placement, it didn't seal until completely closed.... even though the valve already started to open... freezing the oring, so it was guaranteed not to seal anyway.... co2 spraying everywhere.

I'm glad they didn't last long. I think everyone has heard the story that they were originally designed to be shipped with deflated spare-tires for canadian cars?