You, too, can be a paint ball warrior

By FRITZ BUSCH

Journal Staff Writer

CAMBRIA -- Tired of the steady summer diet of softball and baseball games?

A new alternative sport--paint ball--utilizes adrenaline, strategy and tactics.

Call it what you will ­ warped warfare or an adolescent "Beavis & Butthead" joy in destruction, as one paint ball web site describes it ­ Tommyguns Paint Wars Inc. opens for business Saturday and Sunday, southwest of Cambria. It's the brainchild of Tommy Strenge and his South Central Technical College business class assignment to draw up his own business plan.

Saturday morning, plans become reality when Tommyguns opens at 10 a.m. To get to the course, take Highway 68 to Blue Earth County Road 103 and go two miles west.

Strenge got interested in paint ball several years ago when he saw competition being broadcast on ESPN TV.

"I knew a little about it before I saw it on TV," Strenge said. "After that, I went out and bought a couple guns. It just grew from there."

If you don't know, the typical paint ball game is a variation of capture the flag. Two teams square off in a field. The first team to grab the other team's flag or sound their air horn or equivalent, wins.

Other paint ball games include attack and defend, bunny hunt, Civil War and free for all.

In attack and defend, one team defends a hill while the other team's mission is to attack and take it.

One person hides while the others search in bunny hunt.

In Civil War, everybody lines up and fires at each other.

Just about anything goes in free for all.

Teams usually consist of four of five players. The object of paint ball games is to be the last person to be hit.

Players wear protective equipment including a face mask and other gear like a field jacket if they wish. Players usually carry C02-powered paint ball guns

A paint ball is similar to a gel cap only bigger--.68 inches in diameter. It holds water-soluble paint instead of medicine. If you get hit, it stings for a few minutes and could leave a bruise.

There is a speed limit. A radar chronograph measures muzzle velocity of the paint ball that shouldn't exceed 300 feet per second. Paint balls quickly slow down after they leave the gun barrel. Some guns can fire paint balls with precision accuracy up to 300 feet.

The sport is coming into its own with ESPN coverage and hundreds of in and outdoor arenas in the U.S. alone, plus unlicensed warehouse and back-road places.

Artillery ranges from simple pump pistols to CO2-cartridge-driven machine guns with ammo bandoliers. There are also paint ball grenades, mines and rocket launchers.

Firing a semi-automatic paint ball gun with CO2 propellent is much like firing a BB gun. There is no recoil but the CO2 gun is more powerful than most BB guns.

Tommy Strenge said he became interested in playing paint ball after playing at a course in Le Center. He quickly fell in love with the sport and hasn't looked back.

He is interested in entering a $14,000 contest in Memphis, Tenn., this September. The winner will receive $10,000.

Meanwhile, Tommy and his father Dave say quite a few people, some of them avid hunters, are interested in playing paint ball on their 16 acres of high grass and thick woods.

The Strenges plan to host a number of weekend paint ball tournaments this year. Dave will act as a field judge.

"People like to come out and play," Dave Strenge said. "Some want a change from typical recreation like playing golf or going to ball games. Age doesn't matter but you can dodge only so many paint balls before you get hit, if they can find you."

A check with the New Ulm Municipal Code book revealed that it is unlawful for any person in the city to recklessly handle or use a gun or other dangerous weapon or explosive so as to endanger the safety of another, or intentionally point a gun of any kind, capable of injuring or killing a human being, whether loaded or unloaded, at or toward another (Section 8.20, Subdivision 1).

It is unlawful for any person to fire or discharge any cannon, gun, pistol, or other firearm, firecracker, sky rocket, or other fireworks, air gun, air rifle, or other similar device commonly referred to as a BB gun, according to Subdivision 3.