History of Paintball

First Published April, 2004

A Long Time Ago...about, 15 to 300 years ago, cattle ranchers and forest rangers required a quick and easy way of identifing the cows that needed to be felled, and the trees that needed to be slaughtered. Hand marking each item was time consuming and boring.

Nel-Spot 007 the first marker line

The idea of using gas to project a capsule filled with marking gel proved interesting and efficient. Marking trees which barely move and cows that stand still can only be so much fun.

Rumor has it  a couple of bored Forest Rangers got to drinking some Labatts. One thing led to another, someone mentioned the other's mother, and got shot with a capsule of paint for his troubles - the birth of "Capsule War".

Crossman produced the first marker the NEL-Spot 707, in 1965

Back in the 70's there were NO X-Boxes, no GameBoy, no computers, no internet, only three major sports and in most households, only three TV channels.

You had to get up off the couch to change the channel.  Imagine.

When I was a kid, we shot BB Guns and arrows with bows at each other. Good Lord!

I digress.

One day, some 11 years later, a bunch of old guys were sitting around talking about Survival. Who could survive a 'hunt". 

Have you ever seen that movie with Ice Tea? 

The one where a bunch of white, red-neckish business guys invite a "from the hood brother" out for a "hunting" trip? (Surviving the Game, 1999)

That's what I picture whenever I hear this story:

"In June of 1981, 12 friends went into the New Hampshire woods with Daisy markers, oil-based paint, and shop goggles. They played a game in which the goal was to capture each player's flag - 12 flags in all. The winner (Ritchie White) captured all 12 flags and never fired a single shot."

Never fired a shot.

I shoot 9 pods a game, and there is only one flag to get. How much fun could running around the woods collecting flags and not shooting even a cow be?

Once again, I digress.

So now we've got people running around the woods with shop glasses and tree markers. By 1982 the first outdoor paintball field was created, pump guns go rule, 12 oz.'s of gas and 10 shots.

Well, pump guns started to be mass-produced. Players were getting good at shooting and playing in the woods. Paintball took on the image of a "War Game". Camouflage, army boots, green, green, green and informally organized outings were the only way to play the game.

Bud Orr's First Nelspot Conversion.

State-of-the-Art in the early 1980s.

The pump gun allowed a ball to be placed in the breach and then propelled out the barrel whenever the operator slid the "pump" back and forth and pulled the trigger.

This pump action loaded the paintball and cocked the system making it ready to fire.

Thanks to Bud, the AutoCocker broke the game open - wide open.

The AutoCocker boiled the complicated cocking procedure down to a trigger pull.

Then the electros really hit, very fast, lots of volume and not that much accuracy - relative to the AutoCocker.

Games were still in the woods for the most part, but in Corona, California, at SC Village (Strategic Command) a thing called a "hyper-ball" field was created. Again, the sport opened up. Now the fields were smaller, the guns faster and the obstacles completely man-made.

Around the year 2001, the sport had been through a good deal of growing pains. Manufactures were just getting to the "big-time".  Dye would soon be into the new digs in San Diego, Worr was moving to their new place, Brass Eagle bought JT - more and more people started playing the game of Paintball. The Olympics and TV were "just a year away".

AutoCockers ruled, and I purchased my first gun, a right feed AutoCocker.

The tournament scene heated up as well.

Lots of events started appearing at the local, national and the global levels, including 1,000's of players. Yet, the growth of paintball can really be seen in the number of recreation players; scenario games exist that include up to 2,000 players in one game.

Today, changes occur every 90 days. Guns can get up to 22 balls out a second, and you can hit what you aim at. The fields are much smaller, games quicker. The sport is struggling to be more spectator friendly. And a TV deal is in the works, whatever that means. Some players are getting paid to play…but not many.

By the time you read this article, something has happened in our sport - one league has joined another, a new marker is on the market, and Nike is making jerseys (just kidding)

The sport is still young and anyone can make their mark - get out there and paint!

Greg Walters

Team Ambush

Paintball history timeline:

1970

James Hale of Daisy Manufacturing, patented what would become the first consumer, paintball gun. This original paintgun was manufactured and used for marking trees and cattle, and was later sold for paintball use under the Nelson name. 

May 1981

The History of Paintball began in New Hampshire. The principal creators were Bob Gurnsey, a sporting goods retailer; Hayes Noel, a stockbroker, and Charles Gaines, a writer.

June 27, 1981

The first game was played. The game had 12 competitors against each other in a capture the flag game using Nel-spot 007 pistols. One of the most interesting facts about the paintball game was that the winner, Ritchie White won without firing a single shot!

The first people that played the game are:

Lionel Atwill - Writer and author of the first official book on paintball

Ken Barrett - Venture Capitalist

Bob Carlson - Trauma Surgeon

Joe Drinon - Stockbroker

Charles Gaines - Writer

Jerome Gary - Film Producer

Bob Gurnsey - Sports Products

Bob Jones - Novelist

Hayes Noel - Stock and Options Trader

Carl Sandquist - Contracting Estimator

Ronnie Simkins - Farmer

Ritchie White - Forester

April 1982

Caleb Strong one of the current owners of PMI Northeast opened the first outdoor paintball field in Rochester, New York.

1982

Charles Gaines marketed paintball as the National Survival Game (NSG). PMI (Pursuit Marketing Inc.), was founded to market and distribute paintball products. Articles about the first game, written by the first players, were published in Sports Illustrated and other national publications. Paintball started in Australia under the name "Skirmish Games."

Nov 1984

The first indoor playing field opened in Buffalo N.Y., by Caleb Strong.

1985

The first indoor paintball playing field opened up in England.

1988

IPPA (International Paintball Players Association) was founded as a non-profit association dedicated to the education, growth and safety of the sport of paintball.

1991

Paintball begins in France, Denmark and other countries in Europe.

1992-1993

NPPL (National Professional Paintball League) was founded and the NPPL Pro-Am Series started with paintball tournaments in Reno, New York, Boston, and other cities around the U.S.

1993

ESPN filmed and aired PCRI's NPPL "DC Cup" in Washington D.C. suburb, Bowie, Maryland. This was the first time ESPN covered the game of paintball.

1994

Warpig introduced the first Internet paintball site.

1996

ESPN and Paintball Sports produced and aired the ESPN World Championships of Paintball from Orlando, Florida.

1996

Paintball playing fields, stores and tournaments can now be found in Canada, the United States, Australia, England, Scotland, Denmark, France, Holland, Germany, Austria, Ireland, Belgium, Greece, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Africa, Russia, New Zealand, Brazil, Venezuela, Israel, Korea, Thailand and the Philippines.

1998

Focus International staged the largest indoor paintball tournament ever in the Skydome in Toronto, Canada. PCRI, Airgun Designs, and Worr Game Products produced the first and largest to this date, technical certification conference to train paintball store and field owners on teching their paintguns.