Trigger Happy Me

Shooting someone in the head can be exhilarating. Hiding behind sandbags and popping a few shots, trying to draw out the enemy, providing cover to mates so that they can advance – everything builds up a fantastic rush that is hard to describe. Of course, the feeling would be very different had I been carrying real guns and facing real bullets.

Yesterday, I went to play paintball with paintball guns that are not called guns, but markers, as they are not weapons, and the bullets are actually paint pellets. Though I had seen paintball earlier in Gurgaon, this was the first time I was playing full games with a large group.

The Mudtrekker camp is in Sungai Boloh, an hour’s drive from Kuala Lumpur. The place had different courses, and we started off with a game in a bigger forested course. There were some sandbags that provided good cover, but the trees were obviously no good. Survived the first game easily and we won, but the next game turned out to be tougher. The only cover I had was a corrugated metal sheet that did not let me see the enemy easily. After some random shots, I saw one of the other team diagonally towards my left. He was engaged with two of my team members on the left flank, and I had a reasonable sight of him. I fired a couple of shots, missed, and unfortunately gave my position away. I had no cover on the left, and though I crouched and hid as much as possible, I got hit on my leg.

The problem with paintballs compared to conventional gunfire is that the pellets are fired with the help of compressed CO2. The pressure is enough to take the pellet in a straight line till some distance, but then the trajectory changes and the pellet swings and dips. The wind can also play spoilsport, and there is always a faulty barrel one can blame. But after a while, one gets used to the marker, and can adjust their aim accordingly.

We played the third game again in the forest. This time I again had the cover of the sandbags. I took cover, moved up a bit to fire properly, and splat! Someone got me on my mask near the mouth. So the paint splattered in and all I could think of is how bitter it tasted. Got to see the first casualty of friendly fire from the sidelines.

Anyway, this was my shortest game of the day, as we changed courses, and went to play on an urban obstacle course with a car thrown in for show. The game this time was “capture the flag”; more like plant the flag and hope it stays there. Each time had to move toward the centre of the course and plant their flag and make its stay there for one minute. Obviously there was no cover there. A shorter course and given that we were only 13, this was much better, and the games were more fun.

I got shot only one more time out of the four games we played – that too on the chin by a dipping paintball – and ran out of ammo once.
The best part of the day for me was when I saw an Indian friend on the other team trying to advance and changing position. He took cover behind some drums that was a good position. I kept some pressure on him by firing a few shots and stopped. He popped out his head to take a look, and bang! Headshot! Game over! (for him at least)

The paintballs really sting on impact, and leave some very nice war-marks on the players. However, I have only one bruise to show for my four hours of fun. Had a very good experience and hope to play more of it when I get back to India.
Caution for other people wanting to try out paintball: You’ll have to get your clothes dirty if you want to play well, and the enemy in the forest is much friendlier than the mosquitoes there!