Paintball Takes Playing Army to a New Level

What: Up the River Outfitters Paintball
Where: Up the River Outfitters, Buford, Ga.
When: Sat. and Sun. 10 – 5 pm. Weekdays by reservation
Cost: Prices Vary, see website for details, There is a $10 entry special until Dec. 31 (Includes field entry and gear, but you still need to purchase paintballs and air)

Recently we took a group of 12-year-old boys to Up the River Outfitters (UTRO) to play paintball. I’m not sure if the 12-year-olds or the 40-year-olds had more fun. UTRO has two fields with a third under construction. For those that know paintball, there is a woodsball field (basically a few structures with trees and woods), a close combat field (buildings and structures to hide behind) and a speed ball field under construction.

For those who don’t know paintball, here are a few things I learned. Our group had eleven people and we went through 4000 paintballs in about an hour and a half. One-third of those were in the first game when the kids were trigger happy and just shooting at anything. Next time I do it, I’ll give them half a hopper so they can learn this isn’t like a video game. After the first round, they were much more judicious with their paintballs and in the end we played five rounds.

My son was worried about how much the paintballs would hurt. I voiced this concern with Lance, the owner and he dialed the velocity down for our group. The balls don’t go as far, but they don’t hurt as much either, a good thing to know for kids. However, the paintballs do hurt depending on where you get hit, even with the velocity dialed down.

My biggest concern was safety and that’s top priority for the owners as well. They gave a safety talk at the beginning, but I’m sure the boys only got about a quarter of what was said. The main take-a-way, keep the mask on if you are on the field. I reiterated that one with the boys and made sure they understood that if the face mask came off on the field, they were done. No second chances. We had at least four people get hit with the paintball in the face mask, so this is a REALLY important rule. The other is a safety sock on the gun. Once you’re finished, put the sock on the gun so if it does go off, the paintball doesn’t go anywhere. There were two referees on the field with the boys to make sure they understood the rules and were following them.

In the end, everyone, young and old had a great time and it was a good team building activity.