{via}A couple weekends ago it was our friend Michael’s birthday, so his lovely sister organised for us to go paint balling. Now I had never been before, but had been shot by my brothers in our backyard with paintballs (thanks bros) so was prepared for the pain of getting shot, or so I thought.
We went to Bawtry Paintball Fields, luckily it’s only about twenty minutes from us and is one of the top paintball fields in Europe! They were great and helped us ‘noobs’ to get kitted out. Michael and Adam went last year so they knew the drill. After putting on our snazzy overalls, face masks and belts full of paintballs, we were called to go to the gun area. The staff is really professional and helpful if you have any questions which was great. They also tried to keep the “rowdy ones” in check by telling people not to shoot each other while walking between battle zones. This worked to an extent, there’s only so many times you can tell boys not to shoot each other. 
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This guy above is the predator, and enters in some games to shoot the crap out of you. They told us that he could only shoot you if you moved, so for about five minutes straight while he roamed around our battle zone both teams didn’t move a muscle for fear of being shot by his automatic paintball gun. If you move or shoot him, you’re fair game so watch out.
Fran, Bev and I along with one younger girl were the only girls amongst a load of boys, and when we were told our group had to split up, we chose the girls to be on the same team vs. the boys. I actually think it’s good they split groups into separate teams as then there is less of the ganging up aspect on the opposite team, but it also makes it more competitive and fun I feel like playing against your friends.I am SUPER competitive so I got right in the games running up, rolling around, ducking behind barrels and generally trying to shoot the crap out everyone (I’m such a lady). Therefore I went through quite a few paintballs, and if my boldness hadn’t gotten me out early in two games, it could have been a lot more of an expensive day. When you get there you pick a paintball package, and being new to the whole thing we didn’t really know how many paintballs we would go through. We played 12 games, and all together after having to go back for more paintballs, I used 800, and ran out the last game. You can easily go through 100 or more paintballs per game, obviously depending on when you get eliminated, and how trigger happy you are. We did the full day package which works out cheaper than getting a half day, and you get six more games. To be honest though, I could have done the half day and been happy. I was TIRED. Not to mention the giant bruises developing all over my body. Because I was such a good hider, I would peek out from behind my hiding spots and fire at people and then get shot in the face (my face mask). Most games I came out of barely able to see because I had so much paint on my face mask. I did get hit in the head a few times and let me tell you, it HURTS. As in instant tears streaming out of your eyes hurts. I think I’d want to invest in a full helmet or some sort of better padding if I did this a lot.
All in all it was such a fun day though, and I would 100 percent go back and play at Bawtry Paintball Fields. They had lot’s of different game zones with different places to hide, and they varied the rules up as well so it never got boring.
I’ll be back, except next time I might wear more padding…or wimp out and play the laser tag option instead.
Have you ever been paint balling?
