History of Paintball

Did you know that paintball wasn´t originally a sport? That´s right folks, paintball was originally used by farmers and ranchers as a method of marking trees and livestock. Paintball has obviously changed tremendously since those days and I have compiled an in-depth history of our beloved sport we call paintball. Enjoy!

Let´s begin with those days of spotted trees and multi-colored cows shall we? The year is 1970 and the concept of shooting paint-filled balls did not yet exist. The idea of a paintgun came about with the want to mark the hides of livestock to save them from being killed and to mark trees for removal. The original paintguns (more commonly referred to as markers now) were not at all designed for any type of sporting use. A man by the name of James Hale of Daisy Manufacturing is responsible for inventing and patenting the first would-be paintball marker ever made. It wouldn´t be until several years later that an actual paintball game would take place using these paintguns.

We move forward in time to the year 1981 and the birth year of paintball. It basically came about with three men from New Hampshire wanting to settle a debate over who was more cunning. These three men are Bob Gurnsey, a sporting goods retailer; Hayes Noel, a stockbroker; and Charles Gaines, a writer. In the month of May of 1981 they came up with the idea of shooting each other for fun and making a game out of it. On July 27th, just one month later, the first ever game of paintball would be played. The game was a 12 man capture-the-flag game in which a man named Ritchie White captured all of the flags without firing a single shot or being seen. The paintguns they were all equipped with was the Nelspot 007 pistol and they wore nothing more than shop goggles for face protection. They used Nelson paint pellets made by the Nelson Paint Company and 12 gram CO2 cartridges. Here´s a picture of the Nelspot 007:

Paintball wouldn´t be paintball without a field right? Well, that´s what Caleb Strong thought as well in 1982 when he opened the first ever outdoor paintball field in Rochester, N.Y. This would be the year that paintball became a true sport and was marketed by Charles Gaines as the National Survival Game (NSG). Pursuit Marketing Inc. was founded this same year and became the first to market and distribute paintball products. This led to the first ever paintball tournament known as the NSG National Paintball Tournament in 1983. The tournament had a cash purse of $14,000. The following year Caleb Strong opened the first ever indoor paintball field as well.

As the sport grew in popularity, so did the demands for better markers and equipment. Robert G. Shephard developed the first marker specifically designed for the sport of paintball and was issued a patent for it in 1985. This marker was known as the Splatmaster which is shown here:

Another necessary improvement was that of the paintball itself. In 1987, an employee of the Nelson Paint Company named George A. Skogg came up with a paintball bullet recipe that was more accurate and stable and was filled with brighter, more visible paint. The water-based paintballs were gelatin capsulated and were much more easily washable than its predecessor. The paintballs we are familiar with today have been improved since then but are still the same basic product.

The paintball markers themselves have definitely encountered the most changes over the fairly short history of paintball. They have developed from single shot paintguns to pump guns to semi-automatic markers to fully automatic autocockers. It took several designs of each style of marker for them to become effective and even today they are not perfect. Major hurdles that they needed to overcome included gas issues, feed issues, and mechanical issues. I won´t go into the various types and styles of markers because there are just too many of them for me to want to write. The major improvements made from the earlier markers include accuracy and distance, rate of fire (ROF), reliability, and appearance. These improvements have been acquired with such items as precision honed barrels, curved barrels (Flatline), ported barrels, electric triggers, polished metal internal parts, and various body designs to name a few.

With technological advances happening all the time in paintball, it becomes increasingly popular. As we all know, paintball is one of the fastest growing sports in the world. With the increase of players in the sport, there was a need for various organizations and leagues to better promote the sport. The first of which was the International Paintball Players Association (IPPA), which was a non-profit organization founded in 1988. This was the first organization that was dedicated to the education, growth, and safety of the sport of paintball. Several years later in 1992-93, the National Paintball Players League (NPPL) was founded in Chicago and began the nationwide NPPL Pro-Am Series. The IPPA was officially disbanded in 1996, most likely due to the success of the NPPL. The NPPL is still around today.

Paintball over the years has been adopted by many different countries all over the world. It´s become so popular that TV stations such as ESPN and MTV have ran shows on it, actors such as William Shatner, Tom Cruise, and Arnold Schwartzenegger promote it, and major companies like Wal-Mart carry it´s products. With this kind of backing the future of paintball only gets brighter. The paintball players benefit from this as more companies become involved and more innovations are accomplished. Paintball´s wonderful safety record also plays a major role in its success but is still viewed by people who don´t play it as a dangerous sport. I think that once this hurdle is jumped, paintball will truly be able to achieve its full potential.