Shops in South

[Marcus Geezer]

Hope someone can help me.

I'm new to the scene and want to start doing walk-ons. To do this I obviously need to purchase my own marker and equipment and was wondering if there are any shops in the South, preferably in the Home Counties area.

Although I have had some good equipment recomendations, (Smart Parts Ion & JT goggles so far), I would like to be able to walk into a store to talk with someone with experience and 'touchy feely' the items before I buy them.

Can anyone help?

 

[Ahdinko]

One of the best ways to get all "touchy feely" is to go and see Robbo.

Otherwise, goto a walk on that allows you to use site equipment, and ask a few people nicely if you can use their gun for a game or two, most people have back up guns or are just nice enough to let you for a while. This will let you get a feel of several guns, and get a good hands on experince, rather than just pulling the trigger and going "Bang bang!" in the shop.

If you'd like to goto a shop, Lips in Welwyn Garden City. www.lipspaintball.com

 

[Lucky]

Smart Parts are in Bexley
Holmbush are around Crawley
Rekka is south london somewhere
LIPS are as stated above
Powerball are down souf somewhere

It all depends on where you are, how often you want to play, How serious you want to get, etc etc.
If by walk on, you mean that you want to turn up at your local site with your own gear, then the Ion probably isn't a good choice, for this reason. most sites still only have CO2, and although SP state that the Ion will run on this, i wouldn't want to try it, CO2 will shag an Ion in no time at all unlesss anyone knows different? i'd go for a Tipmann or one of the higher level of Inferno's if you only want to do walk on's, they will run on CO2 forever.
Talk to walk on's at your local site and get there opinion, if it doesn't ring true then post the question on here all mail me if your stuck.
As far as goggles go, try some on, everyone's heads are different and what suits one person won't suit another.

 

[Marcus Geezer]

Thanks

Diablo66 and Ahdinko, this is all very good advice, and I thank you loads for taking the time to respond. This is a great welcome to this forum.

Yes, by walk-ons i mean attending a site with my own equipment and starting to play with like-minded paintballers .

I've played paintball at sites such as Delta Force and want to progress to the next level but don't want to spend a fortune at first in case it doesn't hold my interest.

I was a little put off from the kind of responses i was getting from 'other' forums as I was advised to buy Ion this, JT that, air this, and being a potential newbie seemed to need in excess of £300 just to be able to purchase my own starter equipment. I was also beginning to think that there are only 4.2 paintballers in the South, but that doesn't seem to be the case being on this forum.

I've got a nearby site called Sabotage at Swanbourne which do walk-ons and have both air (at 2500psi) and Co2, so I guess that opens my options up a little for considering a marker, but it seems that Co2 markers come cheaper than Air, although I realise that Co2 has it's limitations but not perhaps at this level of play.

Another question. With a marker such as a Tippman or Inferno would a gravity fed hopper do, or do you need one of the fancy doohicky electro fed ones?

 

[Ahdinko]

It would do temporarily, although getting one of the lower electrics wouldn't hurt, such as an Egg. If you got the Tippmann A-5, I believe it has a hopper system called Cyclone Feed or something like that, it uses waste gas to feed balls down quickly.

Getting a mechanical gun such as an Inferno or Tippmann would really limit you to playing Walk-Ons only, as Sup'Air games really require faster, electric guns.

I usually play with the Samurai team on their training days, great bunch of blokes. A good way to try out different guns, and meet some nice, and experienced people that can guide you through some things. They only really play Sup'Air, but it'll be a good experience for you to give it a try, and try out alot of different guns if you wanted to come.

 

[Marcus Geezer]

Great...

Where do the Samurai's train?

 

[Tom37]

if i were you mate, id search for a newbie thread on what gun and just ask around on here really. then buy it all on here... much cheaper

 

[Ahdinko]

Samurai train at either Bricket Wood in Hertfordshire, or the D7's in Dartford. If you visit their site, and talk around on the forum, start to get to know some people, perhaps you could come along on the next training day.

www.samuraipaintball.com

 

[-Tris-]

Hi marcus mate,

Nice to see you on these forums also ^^, these forums are great to pick up a bargin and they seem to be nice guys/gals. I myself picked up a nice marker package from the classified forum for £50, which will do me for now.

Im going to sabotage on the 26th/27th myself mate, so I'll see what the walk-on bunch are like there, hopefully it all goes well.

 

[Marcus Geezer]

Tris - Sabotage

Let us know how you get on mate... as when I get my own gear, will prob go there myself for first walk on...