Your exposure to pump

[JeeperCreeper]

Well for this, I have to go back to '06-07 when I was in high school. I was always on the Specops forums, which eventually led me here. On both forums, I always hung out in the customization sections. I remember wanting a pump back then, even traded a Minimag for a PGP here. I also started trying to make a spump out of an 05 Imagine. But sadly, life happened and I never used that PGP or finished the Spyder project. I got out of paintball for a long time, right up to 2020 when a nostalgia trip on ebay netted me an Ion like I had back then. I came back to MCB right after the great reset and quickly rekindled my curiosity for pump play, and customizing markers. I went right back to what I never finished, my Spyder pump project. Got that together with help from this forum, and also bought a bundle of 4 PGPs, and went off to the field. Of course team Ragnastock quickly spotted me hand loading an old PGP with no feed tube on it and asked me to join them shorty thereafter. Also 30 year old me can afford tools, so that's when I started messing with brass. The rest is history, found in my brass thread.

So, in summary, it's MCB's fault. Thanks guys 😀

[Jackson]

I think my first real time playing pump was at a MCB pump event organized by Azzy at Riverside Renegades in Pittsburgh, probably ~15 years ago. Somewhere along the line I had picked up a BE Tigershark, so I decided to go, not knowing anyone else. We had a good turnout with some from Damage Inc. and some guys from east, I think Bret G was there, Long Beard, I'm sure some others I'm forgetting. Anyways, everyone had these amazing fancy guns, a ton of custom brass, and I had the plastic fantastic Tigershark. But I had a blast. The field was on the side of a hill above the river and was laid out that if you went long ways you kind of stayed on the same elevation, if you went side to side, you were going up and down the hill, and some places were really steep. Being around 18 at the time, I was full of energy. So the only way I could keep up on the field with all the other guns was to use my legs and go where the others wouldn't or couldn't. Surprisingly I think I held my own.

I still have that Tigershark. I picked up a Piranha Short Barrel a short time later, but I was too young/poor/impatient/stupid to maintain it/fix it. Plus, the back bottle setup was not my style. I have a 2008 Grey Ghost and Retro 7 that will never leave my possession.

[Jonnydread]

I don't know if you're aware, but Tigersharks are cool again thanks to people like Impactfour and markdem

[Impactfour]

Just wait til I get mine resprung and paint it shiny gold!

[Jackson]

Sweet. I had a Blazer barrel on mine. The shank of the Tiger Shark and Blazer barrels are about the same size. With a few wraps of duct tape at the right place, the Tigershark body will "cut" threads into the tape. The wedgits even lined up perfectly for no roll outs.

[Apaches]

You guys make me feel old, when I started it was all pump and all the paint came labeled Forestry Service and everyone was wearing ski goggles to keep from losing their eyes.

[Jonnydread]

If they let 2-year old play I would have been there with ya!

[Apaches]

Yeh sadly I was a teenager at the time still remember first person I ever shot, was Doug Brown from the old National Paintball South

[NONOBLITUS]

I started playing in the winter of 89 and well all there was to pick from were pumps with the guys I played with. First purchase was a PGP in January 1990 We either had Nelspots or PGP’s at that time. The first event I played was a stock class game put on by Slim around 92 or so and the only things on the field were stock class markers. So started with pumps on 12 grams and lots of other stuff from then until now and still love the 12 grams and pumps.

[Grendel]

Only Semi around when I stared (1988) really was the SMG-60(68) and they were expensive and finicky. So we all played pumps in rec ball and in tournaments. Even as reliable semi markers came available I was slow to adopt. I bought my first semi (F1 Illustrator) I liked it better then the Automag on CO2. I used the F1 for tournaments and occasional big games or scenarios. Most of the time back then I still played either with my Piranha Long Barrel or my Phantom. I just never really gave up on playing pump but I did abandon "stock class" when we started you had to play stock class because that was all there was. So when new tech came out I was on the band wagon buying Guppies, ICS vests, Whaler hoppers...etc.

I like pump so much that during the mid and late 2000s while playing SPPL tournaments I used only a pump, first my favorite 2K+ sniper then later my Pyre. I use both of those markers regularly to this day.

[SETHZILLA!]

I started in '86 doing outlaw ball in the riverbed (near where i now live).
My friend and i rented a pgp from the local surplus store, bought some 12g's and tubes of paint, and met up with the other players there.
Since neither of us knew what we were doing ( both 11 years old back then), the locals took us in and showed us the field layout. We split teams up and spent the whole day running, jumping, and diving into brush along the river and its clumps of vegetation. Immediately hooked on the adrenaline rush and had to buy my own gun. Also got a set of camo's from the surplus store but those got ruined by the oil based paint lol.

My mom made me get a job as a paperboy with a route by my house, and i saved up until i bought my first gun, a Brass Eagle Cobra.
I played almost every sunday all through Jr. High and High school before joining the Army.
When i was overseas, my Dad had moved my old box with the Cobra in it, and i never saw it again. It didn't matter, because i had a Tippmann 68 Special and a WGP Sniper 2 by then.
Played tons of 5 man woodsball in the MSPA while stationed in the south. Always had the Sniper as my go-to for playing the local fields and shot the semi in tournaments.
Got out of the Army living in NC, and reffed at Paintball Central practicing against the guys on Image and running my pump consistently against them. That's where i really dialed in my snap shooting and honed my skills as a pump player.
Currently own more pumps than mech semi's and still like building rf snipers to let people try out pump play.

[Chuck E Ducky]

Those Image guys are ballers! I loved batting them at ICC. They put the smack down on us on the pipes field.

[SETHZILLA!]

Yeah Lane and Rob were the owners of Paintball Central and really had a great crew working for them. Brutal on the field as well. Always loved it when i was playing with them instead of against them! Hahahaha

[Melrosejedi]

Started playing in 91 at a local field, where me and my brother rented splat masters and 100 rds of paint. The dude with the vm68 was the big man on campus and we protected our teams heavy gunner. Crawled more than walking to get close enough for some eliminations and after two visits purchased our first guns. Pgp for my bro and a usi eliminator for me. Purcheased a vm68 shortly after and ran her many years( still have that maxed out bruiser) until i tried an automag our teammate had.purchsed a mag and boy she was a fine elegant weapon for many years. Had my kids and fell out of play for a few years but still made the trip to skirmish every year from 95- 05 for the big games.came back and maxed out the mag , but in 05 it was time for some new firepower and purschased a new nxt shocker and maxed that girl out, even had a custom anno done by grunt bull. Life playing paintball was in the fast lane and i loved it, but my best friend just got into pump play and so it began. He found a phantom online and i took the plunge and got it. Playing a local field me and him were holding down a side and thats when it hit me. The peeps were being intimidated and eliminated by a pump gun and that was a new cool feeling. I played a few years with that phantom and built a karnivor pump and have been using it ever since. I played slims stock class game at stocktoberfest this year, and now i am building a new pump just for that as im hooked . I love all aspects of this game but pump has a special place and the peole i play with are second to none on and off the field. Wish everyone had this environment and pump would be popular everywhere.

[binson]

I took an 11 year hiatus. It was 2016. I had built an 02 Sniper (didn't even get to play with it) and traded it to to a friend for a bobbed valve all black vertical stock class phantom. I proceeded to play with that Phantom against a bunch of walk-ons (some were on teams) with a whole array of electros and other mech guns. I didn't have a small tank, so I played with 12grams that whole day. I didn't eliminate anybody, but I kept people in their bunkers for my teammates to eliminate them. A few compliments here and there like:
"Damn 10 rds and you're holding us back in our bunkers," or "I could never got a shot on you." Plus you had the others who were like "look out for him he's got a pump." After that, I always had a pump on me and I would loan my mech out and just play pump.

[packersrule729]

Been playing since I was a wee lad in ‘01 - shitty STBBs for a while til I upgraded to my first “tourney gun” an SP Ion in ‘06-ish.

Freshman year of HS (‘08) buddy of mine told me to look into pump. Had never heard of it. Ended up buying an SL-68II with some umpiring money I’d saved up. Loved it. Immediately bought a red CCM’d 03 Prostock and haven’t looked back since.

And yeah, v spoiled since then with an awesome pump scene in New England and my few year stint in SoCal.

[Impactfour]

I started paintballing in 06, the first time was my 12th paintball party. I grew up shooting and running drills, so it came natural to me and I was immediately right at home. By 07 I was on a decent NEPL JR team. By 08 the speedwarz, agg/hk mentality and toxicity of competitive paintball made me debate quitting. I was active on pbn and the old mcb and the idea of pump paintball caught my eye via MCB. Somewhere along the way I snagged Tigershark, used painters tape to slap a camera tripod on the pump handle and a 4*20 sight on the rail. I tried "sniping" at Boston paintball somervilles indoor speedball field a few times, I think I managed to convince myself I got a few hits per outing. Overall I obviously set myself up for failure.

Between a way to make playing with a less toxic crowd but still being a challenge, along with cost issues I ended up buying a box of random cocker parts from Boston paintball in Maynard Ma. This allowed me to make my first real attempt at pump legitimate. $75 and a whole lot of annoying questions from a determined yet clueless youth like myself got me a box with a left feed body, all the internals and a benchmark frame. I snagged a pump kit off MCB and quickly found that I was too impatient/uninformed for tuning a sniper, my first day of real pump paintball was a nightmare.

I quickly sold the sniper on MCB for a nice little profit and snagged a mini vsc phantom, perfect for the 5'1" 100lb snake playing runt I was. I was hooked. Highschool came along with girls and substances and I sold off most my gear by the middle of my freshman year.

A couple of years ago I decided to get back into it, right off the bat I made an MCB account and naturally snagged my green/silver acodwash vsc in phantom and the rest is history. Without mcb I doubt I'd have ever gotten into pump play, or even stock with the sport.

I'd like to give a big shout-out to the old heads that dealt with my juvenile ass asking far too many questions and not having a damn clue. Also thanks to all those folks who dealt with my beer budget champagne tastes in b/s/t thread. And those that still put up with needing to help me tune a sniper or troubleshoot my pgp. This website really kept me in the hobby for well over a decade.

[BrickHaus]

My first gun legit gun was a BE Talon. My dad got my brother and I each players packs. We shot at each other in the house, in the garage, in the yard, ect.

I bought myself a 98 custom two years later, and proceeded to play outlaw with friends.

I honestly didn't look back at pump for almost two decades. 3 years ago, I was blessed with a Walz. I knew it was being built, and I wanted to ensure I would have the skills to confidently use it. So I made the shift to playing open class pump to prepare. Played OC pump for a year then my walz hit my doorstep.


Been playing with the walz vs just about anything for 3 years, and I rarely feel outgunnted. Though I ran a mech a few points last time I went out, and I was a monster for those games.

[Tippster]

When I started playing I thought Pumps were neat, had a Brass Eagle Blade I messed around with in the backyard for a few years but it ended up breaking before I ever played a game with it. Bought a Brass Eagle Tiger shark and played a couple backyard games with it as a teenager. Had got back into the sport as an adult and started my Tippmann collection and eventually got an SL 68 II. Got it running but took a hiatus for a few years, the next game I played was with a SL68 I and i was pretty much in love with pump a that point. Started playing consistently for about a year and then got a phantom/starting running stock class. Now own several phantoms and a crazy custom one thats my go to most of the time.

[JeepDVLZ45]

Literally had a friend tell me to try pump…then he said, “maybe try stock class…you’d probably like it. You should join MCB too”. Didn’t know what they was until he told me

I listened to him, picked up a OC phantom (knew nothing about them at the time) not realizing it was OC and not SC. Played with it, then grabbed a SC body and tried it…got my ass handed to me for several walk-on outings, but loved it anyway and never looked back

[JeeperCreeper]

When I met you, you had the Phantom bug really bad by then.

[JeepDVLZ45]

I went and saw a specialist to help keep the bug from flaring up again 😂

[cougar20th]

Getting into pumps started oddly for me. I was playing exclusively outlaw ball. Had never played at a organized field. Was interested in automags. Decided it was time for a automag and for whatever reason decided I wanted to build one instead of buying one. So of to agd's webpage i go and what do I find. Attic sale. Tom was selling pumpkits for 50$ and pumpmilled highrise powerfeed bodies for $50. So why not. After some searching on AO I had all the parts to build my first mag which was a pumpmag. And about the time it was complete I started going to Canobie Paintball to play and meet others who played pump. Shortly after bought my phantom.

Now I play more pump then any other type of game.

[Drunkscriblerian]

I started with classic wide-field woodsball in 1995 running a Sheridan VM-68. That thing was a dog; thanks to the hard-cycling action (and how it had been rode hard and put away wet by its original owner, a speedballer), it wanted to shake itself apart every time I fired it. I was forever tightening bolts and screws in the staging area. In early '96 I traded it in plus cash on the table for a brand new Pro-Lite and had a lot more fun...although I will admit, part of me wishes I still had the VM.

In 1999, I moved out of my parents' house and all of a sudden I didn't have the same level of disposable income anymore (hey, it happens), but I still wanted to ball. Since I was still playing on a wide-scale woodsball field I realized that pump play was a thing I could do. At that point freakin' everyone was going semi-auto if they could, so used pumps were dirt-cheap. I picked up a Phantom for either $60 or $80 (memory escapes me regarding exactly what I paid, but it was cheap) slapped a 50-round PMI "wedge" hopper on it, carried my paint in 10 round tubes rather than pods (because tubes don't rattle like pods do), and learned how to sneak. Also, I learned that the Nelson-style valve in my Phantom was hella efficient; if I ran it off the 20 oz tank I'd bought for my Pro-Lite, I could fill up in April and not have to worry about my gas until July.

Right away I also realized that when you're playing pump, what paint you're shooting matters. I gravitated to Proball black-shell-white-fill paint for a big reason; you could see where it landed, the person you're shooting at couldn't see where it was coming from. Between that and a "rain cover" I did pretty good. Also, I realized right quick that the key to playing pump wasn't long-balling; pump guns weren't any more accurate than semis really, so the key was bushcraft. If I could sneak up on them and shoot them before they knew I was there, their ability to put eleventy-gajillion balls in the air didn't matter. I only had to hit them once.

Unfortunately the woodsball field I played on changed hands in the early 2000s and the new owners transitioned to what we now know as "speedball in the woods". So I couldn't afford to keep playing, and dropped out of the sport. But yeah, IMO pump play in a legit woodsball setting is awesome. It's cheap to get into and involves several skills you can grow, and you're proud of every tag-out.