Be Prepared!

Will it hurt? 
Welcome to the wonderful world of welts and getting shot.  Everyone's first question when it comes to paintball is: will it hurt when I get shot?  Yes! Yes it will.  In fact it may leave a welt.  The question you should ask is:  Will it really hurt that badly?  Probably not.  If it was that painful people would not be so anxious to play.  Most of the time it hurts just enough to tick you off so that you want to shoot someone else even more than you did a few minutes before then.  Sometimes it does hurt more than others.  This usually depends on where you get shot, how many feet per second the paintball is going and how close you are to the shooter when you get shot.  There are things that we do to protect you.  First, you must wear a mask at all times while in the playing area.  This will protect your face and, more importantly, your eyes.  Second, we make everyone check how fast the paintballs are actually going when they leave the gun and tune them down when necessary.  A paintball marker should never be shooting at a high enough velocity to break the skin but you may still get welts.  We often see players displaying theirs with pride as they relive the game.  Overall, paintball is one of the safest sports in which you can participate.  

Wear layers: 
Weather conditions change throughout the day.  Also, you may do a lot of running around on some games and almost none on others.  How much running you do is up to you.  Layers will help you maintain a comfortable temperature throughout the day.  An added bonus of layering your clothing is that it gives you additional padding.  This will prevent some of the stinging of being shot with a paintball.

Camouflage:
It is completely up to you whether you choose to wear camouflage or not.  Some of our extremely experience players do while other wear bright red or blue.  Most players at our field do wear camouflage but most paintball clothing is either black or bright colors.  If you intend to play often, here is a tip: hunting clothing does not hold up nearly as well when running through the woods as does military or paintball clothing.  Also, paintball clothing tends to have extra padding in some areas which can help prevent the sting of getting shot.

Drink water:
Pop will dehydrate you.  Temperatures often get quite warm in the summer and dehydration can put you at higher risk for heat exhaustion or heat stroke.  Even when it is not hot out, the wind and running around may make you more dehydrated than you realize.  Also, drinking plenty of water can help prevent soreness if you are not used to physical activity.  We do not sell pop and do not recommend that you bring any.  We do sell  water ($1) and Gatorade or Powerade ($2-$2.50).  

Snacks:
If you plan to play all day, pack a lunch or bring some sort of snack with you.  You can burn a lot of calories playing and this will help sustain your energy.  The only snacks that we sell are Snickers ($1).  For some of our larger games, such as opening day, we do offer pizza from Little Caesar's.  The cost of half a single topping pizza and a bottle of water are $5.

Equipment:
  We are not are not a pro shop.  This means that we do not carry parts for most guns/markers.  If you own a very high tech gun, you may want to bring a spare if you have one in case something is working correctly with your gun of choice.  If you are new to paintball and want to buy your own gun/marker but are not sure to get, there are many reasonably priced, highly reliable and effective markers on the market, such as the Tipmann98.  There is another benefit to these more moderately priced markers.  They don't shoot quite as fast.  While this may seem like a disadvantage at first, please keep in mind that the quicker you shoot, the more paintballs you go through.  More paintballs equals more money.  Last year we saw a trend of younger players buying fast expensive paintball guns which they then could not afford to play with because they could not afford that much paint.  If you have any questions about equipment, feel free to ask other players at the field or post questions in our forums.  Things that you may want to bring with you include: paintball gun/marker, *mask*, something to clean the paintball marker and mask, paint, spare batteries if your equipment requires any and any tools or spare parts necessary to maintain your marker.  Some players bring walkie-talkies for communicating with other members on there team but these are not required.

***No matter what type of marker or what kind of clothing you wear, one thing is absolutely necessary:  You Must Wear a Mask While Playing!!!***

Paint:
First of all, please bring your own paint!  We recommend purchasing paint and other paintball supplies  from Paramount Sports (701/364-2334) located at 2551 45 ST SW in Fargo.  When you do purchase paint, keep in mind that the cheapest isn't always the best.  While you may be able to shoot a lot with extremely cheap paint, shooting another player doesn't count as a hit unless the paint breaks.  At the same time, you may find that some paint works better in your paintball marker than others. 

Restrooms:
Please be forewarned: the field is 24 acres of wooded land that we rent between the Buffalo River and a farmer's field.  We do not have restrooms, running water or electricity.  The nearest restrooms are located in Sabin, which is just a few miles away. 

Bug Spray:
We do not sell bug spray.
  Even though we do spray the playing and staging areas to help keep bugs scarce, you will most likely still need to wear some except in the very early spring and late fall.

Employees: 
Everyone working at the field is a volunteer.  None of them get paid.  Please treat them with respect.  We have confidence in them and could not operate without them.  The decisions of Refs are final.  All of our volunteers have the authority to enforce the rules. 

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