Your exposure to pump

[iamthelazerviking]

The recent thread about pump play losing steam made me think about how any of us even got started with this niche style of play within an already niche hobby.

Maybe you started long ago when pump was the norm, or maybe you thought huh that looks interesting then got hooked after trying one time.

When I started out, a few other friends got into it as well and this was Oregon circa 2001, with CCI not being too far. One day my buddy comes over with an urban camo RF Phantom. Though it was so awesome. Then shortly after that he gets all the matching VSC parts. Not sure if he ever even used it in a game lol but we would mess around in the backyard with it. I didn't get a pump of my own until later on, but that planted the seed. I haven't talked to this guy in a long time and I think he still has the Phantom. I've reached out before inquiring about it but no responses.

I messed around with Phantoms on and off, mechanical semi being the main style of play. Dabbled in snipers shortly but was too young and dumb to know what I was doing. Years later I get a WGP build for a good price, made a few changes to it then had an absolute blast using it. Then it was downhill from there with countless projects, buying/selling/trading which I've not been able to shake.

[Ecapnation]

I started in a time where there was open pump and open semi fields ran on any given day. So that's where my father let me cut my teeth in 92. After about a year of playing he threw me to the wolves because he bought a semi but I didn't so I just kept running my pump on open semi.

I earned a rep with the local guys as being this 10 year old kid who runs pump against semis and was just mean on the field.

Fast forward 30 years and I still don't feel under gunned using a pump. I still will out gun skill most players in a one on one situation.

[JonM]

I bought my first Phantom back in 2000 just as something different to try. Nobody else at my home field was playing pump, but I like variety. Shooting the same gun day after day gets boring for me. It was just your basic back bottle right feed setup, which has morphed into all sorts of configurations since then. Now it's pretty much my own version of the ship of Theseus.

It wasn't until I started playing with guys like Flounder, Lurch, and the rest of what would become The Expandables that I really got into owning multiple pump guns such as my Sterling, Sniper, 007, and my various Sheridans. This is also the time when my son became old enough to play and I introduced him to the game with a Phantom of his own. Eight years later, it's still his go-to marker.

[Cdn_Cuda]

Ooh, geez this is hard to remember. My brother-in-law and I got into cockers. We both had e-cockers for a bit. Must have been early 2000s as cocker were cheap. For some reason it led to getting pump kits (maybe because I couldn’t tech my cocker properly?! Don’t remember exactly. But I did build several.

[shooter311]

I started playing paintball in the 90s with some friends in the woods behind one of their houses. We went to Walmart each got a sling shot and a 200rd tub of paintballs and had a blast. Then some one got a PMI Trraccer, so we all ended up with pumps (I had a Tiger Shark). Then someone got a semi, and so on it went. When I was in the Air Force I got together a group of like 40 people together to play in a random spot in the Black Hills of South Dakota. One friend showed up with VSC Phantom, and I thought he was the dumbest person to dump that money in to a useless pump. He ended up holding his own so well every time we played. However, I never made the transition (this was early 2000s so I was trying to get my hands on the fastest marker I could afford). I had a son in 2014 and stopped playing for five years.

When I came back, paintball was basically dead in my area, so I tried to get a group of my new friends to play. They were all for it until they watched some of my paintball videos on Youtube and they all started backing out since they were scared. I compromised and bought an Empire Sniper, and told them they could use semi while I played pump. After that first game I was hooked! One of the best feelings in a game is shooting that single shot and watching it soar through the air and knock out someone else shooting 10bps. Next step was hitting up the fields in NH and playing pump games there, then I played Slim's events, and now I am completely hooked!

[autococker04]

I started playing with a pump in the mid 2000s because I had a field membership for admission and I could make a case last a month. I’ve always been good with sniper style pumps and terrible with Nelson’s. Every so often I’ll get one to see if it will be any better and it never is.

[iamthelazerviking]

I'm right there with you. I've owned countless Phantoms because I really dig them, the history, where they're made, etc and thinking I can stock class but I've never been able to really succeed. Once every couple years I try and fail again haha.

[autococker04]

Agreed, I like everything about them. Well built, simple, lightweight, and bullet proof. At the chrono range I can shoot it dead straight. On the field I don’t know if I’ve ever actually got anyone with one. Snipers just aim and shoot like second nature for me.

[Nish]

My exposure to pump play starts with a story, and an Evil Omen.

I bought an Omen when they first came out, which my old man memory says was 04. I loved it... on the rare occasion that it worked and I didn't need to spend way too much time messing with the recock, and it wasn't outshooting it's self. That struggle resulted in a budding hatred.

Meanwhile a guy told me this story about a super human, sitting infront of a bunker on the ground with a Phantom and shooting him out before he could hit him with his RT Pro Mag.

So I sold the Omen and went straight to an SC Phantom. The rest is history as Phantoms became my primary markers until the Garg came out. Rough at first as I went from a good player, to the guy people felt was dragging the team down and the last one picked, to the one no one believed got them out.

All local play was against guys using mechs with the occasional low end semi for a long time, until our local group got older and stopped being able to afford a case or two every time they went out to play. Some stopped playing, some converted. Until I started doing events with you guys I never saw a pump only game. Just showed up, had fun and did my thing.

[OpusX]

When Jaegers opened in 1994 the default rental was a Trracer if I recall. You had to pay extra for the fancy Tippmann Pro-Lite as an upgrade. Not sure when they stopped renting pumps, but it was around 2000-ish.

Though my first me-money purchased marker was a Spyder Compact, pump was always present within our group of players. There is still a Trracer somewhere in my hoard now, along with many other pumps.

[Psycho91]

Started playing with a friend in middle school in 06 for my 15th birthday was instantly hooked, first gun was one of those plastic dual 12 gram blade pumps, eventually got a 98 and used that for a bit and was actually pretty decent with it, fast forward a couple years and I meet a new friend in high school who is all into it and mainly played pump, bought my first cocker boy that was a mistake cause i had no clue what I was doing and a $20 pile of parts from a friend and built a couple pumps, ran those forever and strictly played pump for years, I was the kid everyone at the field wanted on their team once they saw me play, even the 15 bps electros couldn't stop me, fast forward 10 years and now I probably would get steam rolled 😂

and even if I quit playing I always keep my trracer pump and jt proteus

[RAZRBAKK]

In 2008 a local scene was developing in the tournament community, almost entirely because one guy named Richard bought a super stock and slapped a CCM kit onto it. Back then there was a field called Vaughan Extreme Paintball that was basically an outlaw field for tournament teams to practice at. Pretty quickly a bunch of us navigated to MCB and started importing pumps.

It was a really good scene with some big fields hosting 3 and 4 man pump tournaments. I even got to play with Andy Kopcok when one of our guys got very sick the day of the tournament and various people filled in. Andy put on a masterclass. It was insane watching this guy go.

The scene lasted until around 2011/2012 when a lot of people's priorities changed, VEP closed, and less and less of us got together.

[Cyberpyr8]

Unlike you guys, I never played pump when I started. I played with electrics in the beginning and the faster the better. But I remember playing at the indoor field in Florida and there was a guy from a Jacksonville team (Jacksonville Raiders?) that came down and played with a pump. I was watching from the sideline and couldn't believe how fast this guy was shooting with it and hitting people like crazy. I was impressed and always remembered that.

Fast forward to a few years ago and I was playing at our local field and the rentals wouldn't play against me with the electro shooting semi. I decided to get a pump and try it. I bought a urban camo Phantom and decked it out so much I ended up with 2 complete guns. I also bought a Tracer and really liked that too. I just find that I am not accurate enough to really play that way. I WISH I could hit more with a pump but I have found that I depend on a front grip a lot more than I thought for accuracy. Holding the pump handle throws that off. But I really admire people that play pump. There's a guy at our field that has a high end electric but plays many games with his CCM pump. I have watched (in admiration) as he runs down the field and takes out an entire team with the pump.

[Chuck E Ducky]

At the time I was traveling a lot playing competitive paintball (Xball/5man) in various Leagues playing for various teams. I was running my own, guesting for others, and was a hired gun for local events. Back then gear was tossed around cheap, I played a lot of free paintball. Still travel expenses were a lot. I had a really good team that was placing regularly that fell apart after a ton of practice and commitment. I was burnt out and sower toward paintball at the time. I was going to quit but decided to go back to my roots in the woods. I started to play local met a few locals. I had a bunch of high end electros at the time that I won or was given I liquidated so I was sitting on some play money. I wanted to try pump so I did some research and settled on a CCM T2 had it built the way I thought I would like. Plays some scenario ball when it was in its hay day West Point, EMR, OSG. I hooked up with a local scenario team out of Albany who were playing a lot at the time. They had a pump team the Rubber Ducks I was asked to join and that’s how I was given the Nick name Chuck E Ducky. We played a lot back then even expanding into NH ware we played a lot. The norther chapter continued to expand and are still going strong. The Albany group all but dyed off and only a few are still active. Early on I found Slims games and got hooked on Stock Class paintball. I really enjoyed the challenge, quality of play and the people who played it. Instantly hooked I haven’t missed a Slim game since it’s early inception. I met the Ragnastock crew and the rest is history. We have an amazing group of pump players now and the skill and camaraderie is second to none. I still play just about every type of paintball but nothing beats a day cracking 12g’s with the boys.

Pump brought paintball back to me and made me enjoy the game again. I only play a few select scenarios as I have had some bad experiences as of lately. They just aren’t the same.

I do enjoy slinging paint and I still play 10 man. But I can’t commit to entire seasons. I just play the big ones with my friends. We often do pretty good and can still upset the average pro team with a rag tag throw together team.

But Open Class and Stock Class is and will always be my true passion.

[Chappy]

I started in 92. First time was me and a buddy shooting each other with pgps the night before our “real game” which was 5 or 6 of us. Got to shoot a K2 in that game which hooked me. Spring of 93, a friend of same pgp buddy was getting a 5 man team together. All I could afford was a razorback classic, Everyone else was shooting blowbacks. I still managed to be in the core 5 and rented a prolite for the tourney (we ended up in 4th out of 11 and were cheated out of third but that’s another story). I got my z not long after that and didn’t think I’d ever bother with a pump again. Didn’t play much though until the early 2000s when I joined some backyard games. It was in 2005 when my cupseal went and I found mcb to find replacement parts. (Got banned on my first day but that’s another ‘nother story). Started playing with the crew and was confused at the pump sentiment and astonished at their success. However I was still reluctant and just picked up some trracers for pump games. It was the muppets vs fraggles pump pandemonium when said trracers gave me all kinds of grief and I decided to put together a sniper. That’s when it hit me. Once I started using my sniper I very quickly started using it in everything, not just pump games. I still shoot my blowbacks, still shoot my z on occasion, love my procarb and especially my spring fed prolite( which I probably never would have used if I hadn’t gotten so much confidence with my sniper). I now play limited in some way shape or form in most situations. If I’ve got my procarb or sniper, revvy and pod pack it’s paint dumping time lol.

[Euphie]

I started with outlaw ball, and when we were just getting going the common markers were the Tigershark, Talon, and Stingray, but then after a bit it became Tippmanns, Spyders, VM-68s, Trracers, etc just whatever old gun would be sold at the pawn shop or military surplus shop. Having a semi was a big deal, but plenty of us held on to our pumps because we either didn't have money, or the logistical challenges of our supporting equipment. I got a Tippmann .68 Special (already an old marker when I started), and I remember using the Tigershark a bunch still because the .68 Special would use up a 9oz or 12oz tank super quickly. It wasn't till I got a Tippmann 98 (one of the original sharkgill looking ones) and started going to actual fields that I fell into the ROF trap and starting buying Bushmasters, and Shockers, and Automags.

I never really stopped playing pump though, I had a PGP, Tigershark and Sniper throughout the 2000s, but there weren't many opportunities to use them but when the paint was low or someone was getting an outlaw game together I frequently would bring them out. Currently I still have a Trracer and a Tigershark, but I have had limited success with HPA making velocities low and modern paint being absolutely tiny frequently. I am considering seeing if Palmers still has a Blazer pump kit in stock just so I have a pump that I can use a barrel kit with that will actually work properly on HPA but, I think Nelson pumps are so much better than Sheridan ones.

What I really like more than pump is just limited play, the way we would do it frequently on the outlaw field, stick loaders or ammo box style loaders on semis and full size hoppers on pumps. That made playing pump more of a tactical choice where pumps had the capacity to lay down fire in a way that the semis didn't, but the semis could be "accurate" with a burst.

[Jonnydread]

Back in 1998 I first started getting interested in paintball, but the only proshop options we had in my area was at Walmart. My friend group saved our lawn mowing money up and bought a bunch of BE Talons & Blades and would go to the nearby sand pit to shoot each other. Once we got a little older and were able to afford things like Spyders and Tippmanns we started to move away from the plastic Wallyworld pumps, but I always thought the pump games in the beginning were some of most fun I had playing paintball.

Fast forward to 2009, by this point I had been playing for over a decade, had gone from woodsball to airball, recreational to tournament and had burnt myself out from attempting to start a paintball club at my university. One day I walked into a proshop owned by capitalpaintball and got to chatting with him about their local outlaw group. At this point I didn't have any leftover paintball gear as I had sold it during my rage quit purge, so I bought some cheap secondhand gear and an ACI Maverick from PBN and started playing again. I SUCKED, but I was enjoying paintball again for the first time in years and I think the fact that I was playing pump had a lot to do with it.

Now my stable has grown to include some mech guns, even the occasional OG electro, but nothing feels as right as a handful of pump.

[RAZRBAKK]

The classic post-tournament rage quit.

[Jonnydread]

RAZRBAKK A tradition these days!