Finding My Home Field

Successful day with
Project: S'pump at The Siege!

Since I got back from the Michigan Monster Game, I have been working on a project marker. It's a base of a Kingman slim striker Spyder (which is a semi-auto marker) and converted to a mostly open class pump marker. It's woo.

On August 10, I got some friends together to introduce them to the world of Paintball. We went to the closest field, which was The Siege Paintball. This allowed me to put my S'pump to the test. Again, I really haven't played since '07, so something on the level of a local field is a new thing to me on the grounds that I live in WI now! I have been to this place a couple of times, really just for some air fills and some parts to bring Project: S'pump to life. I've never really gotten into how they run their field, how the locals and regulars interact, and how they welcome what they would perceive a bunch of noobs coming on their turf. 

So for full transparency, I was a moron on this morning and left my wallet at home. This pushed me out by 10 minutes on the drive back home, so I was really 20 minutes delayed. That morning, I was also getting all my gear together and in my excitement to get out to the field, I left my toolbox on the floor of the workshop as I was loading the car.

Moron.


This wasn't realized till I got out of my car and started divvying out some extra gear to my friends. I had no tools, no elbows, no extra 3d printed ball detents, a whole lot of empty promises to them... NUTHIN!


This forced me to talk to the onsite airsmith/marker tech (HUGE shoutout to Jim!) to let me beg/borrow some tools to get some of my air fittings tightened down so I can get to the chrono and check my speed and stay field legal. Being so limited with my tools, I couldn't get the S'pump to shoot any lower than 380fps from the field limit of 280-300fps. I was pretty much firing 100fps hot! Not about being a jerk, hide the fact that I can't get any lower, causing a safety issue, and make people bleed... I tucked my tail and talked to Jim again. Over a few discussions with what I was bringing to the table, he was so intrigued and impressed with my custom work. He was totally on-board with helping me get my pump up and running! He tossed me a soft mainspring from another Spyder but it didn't help much. We both agreed that if we reduced the amount of air pressure we could get it rockin. He found an air tank that was running at 800psi and I screwed it in. I was shooting at 260fps!


I'll take it!


By now, all my friends have played 2-4 rounds. All I was doing was teching markers. Apparently, this was garnering a bit of a buzz with some of the normies and staff. They all wanted to see what was up with this thing! Jim asked to shoot it and after his 1st shot, he was railing on his target without issue! He handed it back to me and I grabbed more paint then finally joined the other walk-on games.

My JAM!

(totally not us though)

We played approximately 10 games across a variety of fields. There was a field with a bunch of the shipping containers, another one with stacked tires (think onion choo choo train at the Habachi...) and then my jam: Airball!


All of the games we played were Speedball style. 2 teams going at it in a small area till only 1 team is left. The difference is that the Airball field is a tighter playfield and all the bunkers are big blowup obstacles. Even being one of the only pump players to show up on this day (the other being my work buddy, and not by choice...) I welcomed the challenge of playing against electro players that can throw ropes of paint at 20+ balls per second! It was just like the old days. Played a few more games and then realized that we have been there for almost 5 hours!


We all agreed that it was time to pack it up. As I was returning all the borrowed tools to Jim, he asked if there are any other custom markers I've built. I told him that I have a closed bolt Spyder. He looked at me cockeyed and said that my pump is a closed bolt Spyder. While technically true, he didn't realize that I meant that it had hoses and pneumatics that will do all the recocking and loading like an Autococker. (It's not fully an Autococker, but it's close...) Incredibly intrigued, now he can't wait for me to come back since I said I'd bring it!


What a great day with some friends slinging paint! Everyone here is cool. I think this will be my new home for local play. Staff is welcoming. Locals and regulars are great. Jim is The Man! Most importantly: They run a tight ship with safety!