Field Operations Codified: Team Selections

I think I posted this, or something like this, on MCB, but here's the rundown.

It's real fucking simple.  There's nothing more fair than completely fucking random.  No predefined teams for recball.

All you need is a binary criteria applied to some random (something you had no control over) input.

Even/odd is a binary criteria.

Most people have no control over their date of birth.

VOILA.

Even/odd birth date
Even/odd birth month
Even/odd birth year

That gets you three very quick randomization options.

Once things are broadly split, look over the teams and make sure they're not retardedly stacked, and make adjustments.

Refs need to take the initiative here for the rec groups.  It's rec play, not scenario play or tournament practice.  You all get fucking randomized, no arguments.

You want to play together or some shit?  Make a private game, or go play on the airball field.

Field Operations Codified: Separate And Totally Unequal

The field where I normally play at doesn't have an airball field, which is actually great because it tends to keep the field and players more rec oriented.  There are other fields in town with airball, and that's where those folks go.

The owner has mentioned that he would like to add airball to get that part of the business.

Here's how my take on how to deal with the situation.

The field should strictly be partitioned into two parts:  recball and airball/tournament ball.

Field fee is $20, and this gets you admission to one of the two partitions.

If you're a rec player, you pay $20, and you only play the rec fields.

If you're a tournament player, you pay $20, and you only play the airball field.

Pretty much everybody should be plenty happy and there's no need for the groups to mix, ever.

• The tournament players can be all snotty and claim a field all for themselves, in peace.
• The rec players don't have to listen to the tournament players baiting them to go play the airball field so they can get stomped.  "Oh, you want me to play airball?  Pay my field fee."
• If the tournament players want to fuck up the rec business, they have to pay.
• Either way, the field at least gets some money.

So here are some hypothetical situations:

Tournament baller is getting bored on the airball field and wants to play recball.  No problem.  Pony up another $20 field fee to play the rec fields, and by the way, if you cause any drama on the rec field, we're still kicking your ass off both fields.  No bones about it -- tournament players are second class citizens, and we'll take your money AND kick you off the field if you start shit.

Rec baller wants to get wasted off the airball field?  Pony up another $20 to hit that side of the field.  If you want to have a bad time and never come back because you were too stupid to stay off the airball field, then pay up.

Tournament baller shows up, pays his $20, plays on the airball field.  Airball crowd dries up.  He wants to play with the rec group.  That's fine, cough up another $20, same rules as before apply.

Rec baller pays $20 to play with the rec group, and the rec group dries up.  He wants to play on the airball field with the airball players.  That's fine, cough up another $20.

Private groups play on the rec fields.

The Fine Art of First Strike Round Loading

TBD:  Red springs, Spyders, and shitty overall strategies.

Krotary Rifle

Look at the grin on this guy's face at the beginning of the video.

Speaking of which, I think it's great that people are posting videos of their creations online.

This was basically what I was wanting to do myself, but I realized there was no fucking way I would be able to pull it off with my resources.  He has the basic elements I wanted -- a rotating feed and a feed gate.  And obviously he had FS rounds in mind.  I'm totally copying his 10rd tube dispenser as well; what an awesome idea.

Not overly complicated; just a nice, elegant bit of work.

Only problem is, of course, it's Not An Automag.  Being a bolt action gun, that means that once the bolt is forward, you can't rotate and load up the other chambers at-the-ready.

But at least you are damn sure you're not going to have a misfeed when firing.  That is one of the few remaining useful purposes of (closed bolt) pump guns outside of class-based games/rules.  (I.e. pump only games.)

I also hate shooting vids, but there are a few things to note.  I'm going to guess that he actually has pretty good dexterity, and probably does things like practice motions.  His motions and placement of items appears careful and deliberate.  I think that people with similar dexterity levels may wind up coming up with similar preferences.

FS Drum Mag

So I found this on the ol' Intertubes as well.

I kind of want to hesitate to call this a rotary loader because it's really more like a curved magazine loader.  The rounds are still fed from the back by a single pusher; it's just that it's using a torsion spring like mine instead of a compression spring.

Being a single pusher design, it shares the same shortcoming as the other pusher designs -- inability to load new rounds in on the fly.  And this has a pretty large dead zone.  Pushing the entire stack from the back instead of distributing over multiple rounds can also be problematic.

This compensates for that with increased capacity of course.

Still, an interesting design and worth thinking about.  Plus he 3D printed it like I did, so extra points.

CCM SR1

I was taking a look at the other FS options available to see where my mag would fit in and decided to maybe do a rundown of some of the other options.

The first is the CCM SR1.

I do not get this gun at all.

It's a fucking single shot paintball gun.

I don't see much interesting or special about the gun. It apparently takes AR-15 accessories, but big fucking deal. Real firearms stuff doesn't always make sense when carried over to paintball (hello facemask?); Hell some of that stuff doesn't even make sense in its own field.

It's a spring+hammer poppet valve. Proprietary barrel. CO2 in the magazine along with regulator. (Kudos for actually putting a fucking regulator in there. In fact, that is the *only* good thing about this gun.)

The only thing I see here is that stupid faux shell making it easier to breech load rounds. Which is kind of fucking stupid to begin with. A properly designed breech would fix that. Or how about a properly designed magazine?

The bolt action is hilariously long due to the shell. You only need to move a bolt like 0.750" or so. Cycling a bolt 3-4 inches for a fucking 0.680" round is re-fucking-tarded.

The worst is all the fucking ridiculous ass-kissing going on with the gun. Why is everyone incapable of calling this thing out for what it is -- a fucking stupid gun? Everyone is breaking themselves trying to kiss CCM's ass.

Watch the stupid ModernIntel "preview". Do they cover the valve type? Is the action ambidextrous? Is there a safety? Do they mention any regulation? Do they mention how to even adjust the fucking velocity? How to change the CO2? Any mention of efficiency? Oh, but it's "Well balanced." And it's "Very cool." Oh, limited paint "makes you pick your shots"? You know what else makes you pick your shots? JUST PICKING YOUR GODDAMN SHOTS. If they made a talking rifle like the Auditing Morningstar which constantly reminded you to pick your shots, would you be like, "OMG that's awesome!"?

And how about this "opinion"?  The entire thing makes no fucking sense whatsoever.  I think I'm going to dedicate an entire post tearing this piece of shit apart.

$450 for just the incomplete kit, but you know that CCM being CCM will probably blow the price of this thing easily past that for just the single shot version if they ever decide to fully release it. Oh and that only includes 3 shells. It does come with allen wrenches apparently though, lol.

For what is effectively a bolt-action SpydeR1.

There's a paintball player born every minute.

The only way I see this gun being viable is if they flat out change the rules, such as at Living Legend, where pump guns can chrono at 300 while semis chrono at 280.  I would not be surprised if they found a way to further bend the rules for CCM seeing as the drive to kiss ass is so rampant.

That does remind me -- a friend of mine said he was getting an SR1, so I said we should have a FS shootout.  He immediately started laying out ground rules for the engagement.  "No bunkering, no getting within 50 feet, blah blah blah etc etc."  Go figure.

3D Printed Parts Roundup