ITS no longer about "just paintball"

I know its been a bit since I have posted. Life got busy and I ended up leaving paintball.
I still have my trusty flex and SL68 II, so I will be back occasionally.

As for the blog, it will now be about all my hobbies. I will now be ranging my product reviews from paintball to anything. There will be a Surefire Backup review up soon as well as a couple others. I will be getting into mountain biking and who knows what else soon enough soon. Stay tuned for photography, biking, skiing and whatever else strikes my fancy.

Thanks for reading.

Well, that didn't last long. I will be getting back into paintball soon. Along with that, lots of new gear reviews!

Own a RTR Gargoyle? Check this out!

If you own a Remember The Ronin Gargoyle, we have a list of serial numbers located here for RTR to keep track of (and us nerds who love RTR):

RTR Roll Call
Or copy and paste:
http://www.mcarterbrown.com/forums/rtr/188410-gargoyle-roll-call.html


If you would like your name taken down, just message me there or comment here and it will be gone.

Guns For Hoses Promo

A great way to support your local fire departments. A friend made this video to promote the event for 2012!

Great field and a great cause!

Smaller Freak Insert Case

Looking to free up a little room in the gear bag? If you use the "Freak" Insert system, you can free up some space by getting rid of that bulky case.

You have a few different options available: Custom cases come to mind, but why spend more when you could use that cash for another day at the field?

Looked into cigar cases lately?
I first saw this at the field and immediately hopped online purchased one of my own. At the moment I am only using 3 different inserts so this worked perfect. If you don't have a local cigar store (or one that supplies similar cases), go online and look into them. I picked up a "Perfecto 3-cigar case" for around 5 bucks. If you use more inserts, there are others (8-cigar case etc).

You can see in the pictures below that the inserts slide into the case no problem. Though, they are a tad loose.

I solved this with some spare CamoForm which can be picked up cheap online or military surplus stores. It can be used repeatedly and it will only stick to itself. It won't leave residue on your inserts or anything else it touches. A perfect candidate for this use. Although, if you don't have any handy, you could wrap them in anything from a thin layer of paper-towels or similar. I just don't like my inserts bouncing around or making noise.

With the camoform in place, the inserts fit just right. I only had to do one wrap and they do not move at all. This takes up far less room in the gear bag than the SP/GOG case. If you have more inserts, just pick another or a larger one. Much more cost effective and a real space saver.

APP (Allen Paintball Products) Gloves Review

I have exhausted all my google-fu trying to find a nice set of paintball gloves at a decent price. It wasn't hard to find gloves, but the prices are sky high. I don't need to pay as much for my paintball gloves as my motorcycle gloves thanks. They are not worth what the manufacturers are asking (in my opinion).

As said, I searched and searched and found many great looking gloves. The only problem was the prices. I am NOT paying 35-50 dollars for paintball gloves. That is ridiculous.  

I found I was being too picky. If I don't want a couple fingers, I can cut them off myself. I do prefer no index or middle, but I got over it quickly enough.
I headed over to the new Celanis Paintball website and purchased a set of Allen Paintball Products gloves. The price couldn't be matched by 90% of other paintball gloves (yes, I made that statistic up.. so what), so it was an easy choice.

Here I am after a few days at the field with them. They have performed great. The fit is still perfect and they are holding up wonderfully. The rubber on the knuckles saved me the other day. I had a hard spill, and that rubber knuckle scraped a rock. They are barely nicked, but saved me from a nice gash.

The gloves only come in green/black, so if you like to match all your gear together these may not be for you. They come in multiple sizes though, so there is bound to be one that will fit you. The "PAINT BALL" writing is a little corny, but I'm not too worried about it.

Overall, they are a nice pair of gloves. You could go out and pick up a set of mechanix gloves for around the same price, which I find the fit and feel comparable to. I would much rather support the little guys like Celanis Paintball though. 

Pursuit Pods Review

Pursuit Pods aren't too well known, but they were definitely worth looking into. I use mine for a pair of TPX's, but you may find your own use (paintball or not) for them.

Features listed on the Pursuit Pods website:

1. Seven individual chambers within the pod. 

2. Rugged rigid outer material. 

3. Innovative spring loaded cap with top sliding trap doors.

4. The pursuit pod holds 105 paintballs. 

5. Designed and built by a Paintball field owner with 20 years experience.

6. Excellent for storing non paintball related items

I bought a couple pursuit pods to use with my dual TiPX setup. The kind of pods you order depends on what you plan to use them with. All pods use the same 7 chamber design, but the volumes are different.

Pods and their primary uses:
-Pursuit Pod 70: Holds 70 paintballs total. 10 in each chamber. Ideal for stock class players who want to cut back on 10 round tubes.
-Pursuit Pod & CRC: Each pod holds 105 paintballs total.
-Pistol Pod: 8 paintballs per chamber for a total of 56 paintballs. Excellent for Tiberious Arms magazines and the old style TPX magazines.
-TPX Pistol Pod: 7 paintballs per chamber for a total of 49 paintballs. Excellent for the newer TiPX magazines.

Ordering/Shipping:
I placed an order for two of the TPX pistol pods and had them at my door within a week. No issues with the ordering process and fast shipping. You won't hear any complaints from me here.

Durability: These pods feel strong. The honeycomb design provides extra reinforcement for the outer shell, so I have no worries about crushing them. The lid also feels surprisingly robust. Even the hinge seems quite durable. There is a good amount of plastic around the metal pin that holds the lid to the pod. It is a tad bulky, but it is a good trade considering how many pod lids I have snapped.
The lid itself is thick enough to accommodate two small sliding doors. One on the edge, and one dead center. I don't see any way you could really break these either.
5 out of 5 stars.

Ease of use:
I did not buy these to reload a magazine in the middle of a fire fight. If you do, then you will look at this much differently than me. The main reason I bought this is to reload magazines during a lull or quiet moment in a game. No matter what (whether ten round tubes or these), reloading your magazines on the field is going to be tedious compared to emptying a pod into a hopper. Utilize those quiet moments to reload your empty magazines.
For the use I just stated, I don't think there is another product out there I would rather use. Ten round tubes work okay (after cutting them to hold 7 balls), but I would much rather keep track of one pistol pod than 7 cut down tubes.
Another benefit of this pod over tubes is you won't need a dump pouch. Just shove this into any 50 round pod holder and you're good to go.

Loading a pursuit pod is just like any other pod. Just pop the lid open and pour paintballs in until all the chambers are topped off. When emptying into a magazine or feed tube, open one of the doors (center or outer edge of lid), rotate the lid to a chamber of your choosing and empty.

Overall, I really like these so far. They probably aren't a necessity for the guy touting an electro around, but for the pistol guys I found nothing better. If you are out there fumbling around with tubes trying to reload your magazines, you may want to give these a shot. I carry one or two of them out there for the average/long rec games (with 6 or 7 mags) and doubt I will ever need more.  

Animal Customs Jersey Review

Introduction:
I haven't had a paintball jersey in at least 4 years. Most of the time you could find me out on the the field with Under Armour or a T-shirt.
I used to wear an Empire React SS jersey consistently, so this review will be based mostly on my experiences with Empire's jersey and the Animal Customs jersey.

Timeline and Ordering Process: 
October 1, 2011: Ordered jersey.
October 7, 2011: Received E-mail with proofs. I had a sizing question, and received a response the same day.
October 25, 2011: Received shipping notice. Jersey is now in the mail.
October 28, 2011: Received jersey.

The larger the sale (more jerseys sold), the better the price per jersey. CLICK HERE to view Animal's "team discount" page. We got a good price on them due to our number.

As you can see by the timeline above, everything was reasonable. For a custom jersey, you have to expect some time to pass. No issues at all with the ordering process.

Shipping:

Was expensive for some reason. That 12.50 I spent to have a featherweight jersey shipped in a small padded envelope deserves its own section in this review. I know shipping prices have gone through the roof and fee is probably covering "handling" as well, but it caught me a bit off guard. You have been warned.

Quality: 

Upon receiving the jersey, I immediately flipped it inside out and examined all the seams. There weren't any threads hanging out or areas that may have come loose with a tug. Very professional. The designs all looked great and there were no mistakes with the lettering/number.

 Just like other jerseys, I don't plan to go crawling through some briars or prickers, but if I happened to in a game, I wouldn't blame any damage on the jersey. All paintball jerseys I have used would hold up it seems, but would probably have a bit of wear after something like that.

Overall, I am impressed.

Now here is where it gets interesting: The other day (Saturday, January 7) I was out at the local field and went to bunker someone:

I came around the bunker, and as per field rules, called "surrender!" I waited a moment to make sure they caught on, then turned and looked away, focusing on someone else. Apparently no ref was around, because they didn't feel like surrendering and proceeded to light me up (le' pumper) with their space dildos (those would be electro's).

I got off the field and took a look at the most painful hit and found that it had blown a hole right through the jersey. Correct me if I am wrong, but a jersey designed and produced FOR PAINTBALL should not have this issue. I can only assume that due to the awesome welt and the hole in a jersey designed for paintball I received that the opposing player(s) were shooting ridiculously hot.

Edit: I understand that a paintball jersey is fabric, just like other clothing. Things happen, it can't be blamed on the quality of the jersey (like stated above) ;]

Comfort:

The jersey is as comfortable as pajamas, maybe more. The fabric feels great and it breathes very well. The material seems like it would hold up great in most situations. Apparently, it will not hold up to a close proximity shot by someone with a crazy/jacked velocity though. Be glad I got to test that instead of you. Keep in mind the ONLY time I have ever heard of this happening was to me the other day. I have never heard of it happening to anyone else (and I read around a lot).

Overall I would definitely purchase the jersey again. The price is good and the quality was on par with others in my experience and the price was great for what I received. Thank you Animal Customs, I will definitely be returning when I need another jersey!


Months later I am still using the same jersey, the small hole never got bigger and the jersey still looks unfaded and great!