Renegade, Outlaw, Neighborhood ‘Ball, Pickup Paintball—it’s all the same thing:  a paintball game that’s thrown together by one local dude or another.  Pretty much any paintball that’s played somewhere other than a commercial paintball course is a “renegade” game.  Industry experts estimate that at least half of all paintball takes place in the back-lots, forests and otherwise unused land of America and Canada.  If organized paintball on commercial fields is the “heart” of the sport, then renegade paintball is the lungs, liver, kidney and guts of the game.

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Unless you have been living under a rock or hiding in your bunker the past couple of years, you have likely heard about the massive numbers of players switching to play pump paintball. Why would someone intentionally limit their rate of fire? Before you laugh and flip the page, let me try and explain my decision to you. 

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Since the scenario games put on by major producers get a lot of publicity, we figured it was about time the smaller local producers of games got some attention and kudos. These event producers put in their time, energy and creativity to put on events catered to smaller groups of players who crave new challenges and games in the spirit of pursuing paintball for the love of the game. But how do these ambitious producers do it?  How do they create the scenarios, build the props, find the fields, and score prizes for the players? How do they go from participating in the games to producing events? Most importantly, what tips do these successful local scenario producers have for those who want to put on an event for the first time? 

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Now, as much as we all love the articles of RECON, I know as well as you do that when I get a magazine, the first thing I flip to are the photos in the back. There’s nothing like a good woodsball picture. This “article” is one of a series which will only contain woodsball photos from the RECON Staff. This photo gallery installment highlights Skyline Nation, a field in Alberta, Canada.

(warning, this article is not 56k friendly)

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I know “speedball” isn’t exactly a favorite of many woodsball players. How many times have you seen people use “speedballers” as a negative noun to imply a waste-a-ton-of-paint, wiping-idiot-with-a-fancy-gun, and so on. Today, I’m going to evaluate speedball, how it has positively contributed to paintball and why you, the woodsball player, belong trying it.

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Now, as much as we all love the articles of RECON, I know as well as you do that when I get a magazine, the first thing I flip to are the photos in the back. There’s nothing like a good woodsball picture. This “article” is one of a series which will only contain woodsball photos from the RECON Staff. Pull out a bib, you wouldn’t want to drool on your keyboard!

(warning, this article is not 56k friendly)

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During Oklahoma D-Day this year the Colors will fly half-mast to honor the four plus thousand men and women who have died in the last six years of Operation Iraqi Freedom and the nation’s Global War on Terrorism. I know there are many of us that have lost someone to that conflict or a related combat death. 

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Now, as much as we all love the articles of RECON, I know as well as you do that when I get a magazine, the first thing I flip to are the photos in the back. There’s nothing like a good woodsball picture. This “article” is one of a series which will only contain woodsball photos from the RECON Staff. Pull out a bib, you wouldn’t want to drool on your keyboard!

(warning, this article is not 56k friendly)

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A few months ago, we asked readers of the RECON blog to submit a short article about why they love woodsball as a contest. We recieved three excellent entries, the winner of which is published here. Congratulations to Steven Williams, AKA Animal Mother.

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It’s no secret that paintball has shrunk over the last three years.  For around twenty years, the sport of paintball grew every, single year.  Now, over the last several years, the sport has taken a downturn.  When you look at the numbers, it seems clear that experienced players are playing as much as ever, but at the same time, new player numbers have fallen off dramatically.

As experienced players, why should we care if the paintball market shrinks?  So what if newbies stop coming out to play?

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