so i've been doing paintball with some of my friends recently and i really enjoy it but i do not have equipment of my own and would really like to chance that!  So here is the deal: I'm looking to get some basic paintball gear here, and i'm pretty much starting from scratch at this point.  What all do i need besides like a gun, a facemask, and some decent camoflauge clothing to wear, and some ammo and CO2 carts?  This thread can be expanded to talk about what guns your already have for those who already do it.

I'm looking to get some stuff and I currently have a budget of about 200 dollars, but there would be more money in the pot once I return to my old job in September.  I'm not particularly looking at starting right away either since I'm going back to college in the fall.   What would you guys recommend.   Most of the budget is going to involve me looking for a gun online probably or in a store, but I'd probably just get like a CO2 cart and a face mask from Sports Authority or Cabellas locally. 

i don't really intend to be doing this very seriously or going out to random paintball tournaments or anything like that.  Rather this is something that I'd just be doing with my friends and people I already know, and its more of just looking for the right equipment under a budget.   
edit: i was talking to a friend of mine and his comment on paint grenades was that they're pretty useless in actual combat and are more useful for vandalism than anything else.  Considering that the last time I went to a store they were like 6 dollars each, I'm pretty sure that their effectiveness isn't all that particularly useful

guns usually come with a gravity fed hopper anyway. they only jam if you fire on a weird angle and the bolt chops a paintball and makes a horrible mess of your gun, of if you're firing faster than like 10 balls a second, so i'd hang off on an electronic one especially if your budget is low.

i don't know how much these cost but i think they're called double glazed visors, the visor on the mask is made of two layers so they don't fog up. it's really really frustrating having a fogged up mask and it's tempting to take it off as well, which is where you LOSE PARTS OF YOUR FACE

i used to work at a paintball arena so our guns were purchased to last, i think we had brass eagles and we had these fantastic plastic guns as well, which didn't seem as cool but cost half as much and worked much better.

guns usually come with a gravity fed hopper anyway. they only jam if you fire on a weird angle and the bolt chops a paintball and makes a horrible mess of your gun, of if you're firing faster than like 10 balls a second, so i'd hang off on an electronic one especially if your budget is low.

i don't know how much these cost but i think they're called double glazed visors, the visor on the mask is made of two layers so they don't fog up. it's really really frustrating having a fogged up mask and it's tempting to take it off as well, which is where you LOSE PARTS OF YOUR FACE

i used to work at a paintball arena so our guns were purchased to last, i think we had brass eagles and we had these fantastic plastic guns as well, which didn't seem as cool but cost half as much and worked much better.

yeah i have no interest in getting an electric hopper. 

When I paintballed the Tippmann 98 Custom was kind of the most economical gun you could buy, I think I got mine for 100 dollars. After that it all depends on what kinds of things you like to do in a game.

If you like long range shooting or want more accuracy you'll definitely want another barrel. The stock tippman one sucks unless you're just doing close quarters stuff. If you get an electric hopper, which you definitely should, you should also buy or find some sort of small ammo reload packs that you can attach to a belt. With an electric hopper you burn through way more balls and will probably run out of ammo in game. A lot of those pre-made ammo belts were really expensive and stupid when I was paintballing so I just found some water bottle holder belt pack, a little ghetto but it was all good.

Also if you and your friends are playing together you should all throw down some money and buy a case of paintballs, it ends up being cheaper. Paintballs do go bad though so watch out!

one of my friends has a custom 98 and he seems to like it pretty well.  I'm looking at some online and they seem to have a good price for what you get with them (some of them come with packs of like CO2 carts and a facemask that has the anti-fog thing climbtree was talking about) so i might get one of those in the future.  The 98's seem to have a lot of custom stuff for them too, so i probably wouldn't have too much trouble finding another barrel for the gun once my budget increases or I get some more money later in the future.  I"ve personally been using my one friend's spyder (no idea what the exact model of it is) and i like it, although it doesnt' seem as balanced when firing as the tippman

do you know how long is too long to store paintballs?  Like, if I were to get some during college would I be able to use them when I back at home in December, or would I be better off waiting to get some around the same month when I intend to use them.  (I'm not sure how much i'd use it when I'm away at college yet, although I'd imagine I'd use it some since I a know a feel people who would be interested in playing, I just don't know how often).  Also how big of a box of ammo should I get based on this? 

they last a really long time when they're sealed, they're made out of vegetable oil and food colouring, but they will absorb moisture if they're left out. they can get up to golf ball size which is pretty cool, but it's more annoying when one had absorbed just enough to jam up your gun mid game.

once you open the big bags (if you buy a box) just keep the rest in ziplock bags and you'll be sweet.

when all my friends finally got around to buying guns and everything they found it fun for approximately 1 game before they decided wait this is stupid and some of the random guys playing with us are actually pretty frightening people

if I would play I would rent everything.

yeah I'm not really thinking about renting because my one friend has a cabin in the woods and we'd go up there and it'd mostly just be a friends affair.  I'm also thinking of introducing some of my friends at college to playing too because I know of a few places in the woods where we could play.  The problem would be making sure we aren't playing on private property or something like that.  I don't think any of us would be good enough or would be interested in the first place of playing with random Dick and Jane who show up on a random arena somewhere in the middle of town though.

also I'm looking at Ebay now and I'm finding like packages of the 98 custom for under 120-130 dollars, so this looks to be a good deal (comes with like a CO2 cart, face mask, and sometimes modded out barrels instead of the original one which is apparently pretty bad).

If thats a tipman 98 those are really good and stingrays suck ass thats about all I know

yeah i'm looking at the tippmanns

i'm going to go ahead and bump this but i'm looking at a pretty new  but used spyder victor II tomorrow that I found on craigslist for 50 dollars.  does this seem like a reasonable price for a used one that is in good working condition?  they seem to be around 80-100 new.  it also comes with a 12oz co2 cart.   i'll be looking it tomorrow once the seller gets back to i think, but let me know before hand if I should back out, or if there is anything that I should specifically check for since I'm using craiglist.  also I'm aware that i might be able to get a cheaper deal using ebay and stuff but this saves the hassle of paying for shipping and have it be questioned by the campus mail department.

edit: i also meant to ask, is this a good gun?  spyder seems to be a reputable name from what I've seen online, but i would like to confirm that with anyone who knows something about these guns. 

i haven't had much experience with anything else but they seem pretty decent. a lot of individual parts which means you can repair them easier i suppose but it's also a bit of a pain, and they have like 10 o-rings which get expensive (the co2 evaporating freezes them and breaks down the rubber).

what do you mean about the o-rings?  like can you elaborate more ?  my understanding is that the o-rings are part of the co2 assembly and their wear and tear isn't necessarily reflective of the gun but I am probably wrong since I've never actually owned a paintball gun (this is the point of the topic no less) so if you can elaborate or correct my thinking, that would be great

the o-rings are there to seal the gas in and since it has more moving parts it has more o-rings. you've got three on the bolt, one on the cartridge, one on the barrel, and i think 2 on uhhhh the weight that the bolt is connected to...
i don't remember it too well but i remember they had a few more than some of the other guns. i think you could use cheaper o-rings on them but keep in mind when if you break an o-ring playing your gun makes a large farting sound and won't fire anymore.

it probably wouldn't be such a hassle for you since you wouldn't use it that much. also also all the moving parts makes it easy to lose peices and all the cool filligree stuff like the flash supressors and dots and grooves down the barrel make them a pain to clean.

okay that's fair enough, especially this being a step-up gun from the ones that I've been looking at.  the person I'm getting it from says that they're going to give me a lot of extra o-rings so that will probably be helpful.  I'm pretty decent about making sure i don't lose peices of things when i clean other equipment and hopefully this crosses over when i have to clean the gun and stuff like that thanks for the information dawg

oh hey how do you guys carry around your paint ball guns?

my current best idea is a towel and i'm sure that isn't good so suggestions?

you can get really sweat briefcases for them with foam inserts for all the parts. you could buy one or make your own probably

yeah i'll probably do that when i have more time.  i think right now though it'll end up being a towel in a box or something like that until I figure out something better. i can't imagine a reason why i would need to carry the gun in a case for long distances though, this is more so it just isn't loose when i haul it around in my car/have a place to store it in my room over the year

edit: is it bad for the gun to be in the car for a while?  like i would try from keeping it there permenantly but depending on how much i use it, it might stay in there for an extended period of time. like how bad would heat and cold be for it in there?  obviously you don't keep the paintbals in there