Since the first game of paintball was played in 1981, the sport has evolved from something more like Capture the Flag to today’s sophisticated activity with several incarnations such as Woodsball, X-Ball, Speedball, etc. But if you haven’t been playing for many years, you might not know about all of the changes in paintball guns and paintball gun accessories that have been made over the years.
68Caliber runs a series of articles called “Then and Now” that looks at the evolution of the sport, including changes in gun technology, the latest feature. Author Steve Davidson talks about how the limited options when he started playing in 1983 (the Sheridan PGP, the Nelspot 007, and the NSG Splatmaster) have widened to include hundreds of branded options, with upgrades being offered often. The heavy, clunky, fixed-barrel, single-shot “old skool” guns have been replaced with sleeker, lighter, guns with semi-auto/electronically assisted firing modes. It’s a read that’s definitely worth checking out.
For the latest paintball technology, visit Speedy Toys. We’ve been a paintball gun store since 2002 and have been playing for much longer, so we’ve seen a few changes in the sport ourselves!