Paintball - Useful training or Wasteful Entertainment?

[Cimarron]

Went out as a big group with the church. After a couple hours of "shoot as many balls as you can and hope to hit somebody while running" courses. We did capture the flag. The teams have offense and defense and you move slower quieter..anyway, me and a buddy got pinned down behind some cinder blocks and I was slightly behind him when my gun went off. Had my finger on the trigger. In fact, it occurred to me the whole time I was out there I was walking/running with my finger on. This time I was behind someone and just narrowly missed shooting him in the back at point blank.
Fatal? No
Hurt like the "dickens"? Yes
Him pissed at me? Absolutely :)

The thought came to me later of when I was a kid hunting with my Dad and a thump on the back of the noggin with "keep your finger off that trigger until you have a target".
I remember thinking some time later "Its just a game" but I will always remember where my finger is.
Having no Military or law enforcement, paintball didn't "train" me. It might have helped me remember those things I learned about gun safety.

I have to add, it did show me the difference between sitting in a stand with no movement, steady breathing, and waiting for your target to come to you. And moving (sometimes quickly) and shooting with your target shooting back..big difference. Is this really training? I dunno..

[Jeweltgirl]

OK I know this topic is dead. But I have a few paintball guns that my girls and I play around with. SO to the point, I found this today surfing the web.

Less Lethal Live Agent Rounds (tube of 10 rounds) Will be Available on 12/25/2013.

The RAP4 PAVA™ Less Lethal Live Rounds are hard plastic spheres built to burst on impact. They contain a very fine Capsaicin II (chili pepper based) dust-like powder. RAP4 PAVA™ Less Lethal Live Rounds are filled with enough Capsaicin II powder to irritate a suspect's eyes, nose and throat.

Less Lethal Live Rounds are delivered on-target by a high pressure system with enough kinetic force to get the suspect's attention, unleashing a cloud of Capsaicin II powder into the face (eyes, nose and throat) of the aggressor. The irritant incapacitates them by powerfully stinging their eyes, causing non-fatal breathing difficulties, and creating other extreme but temporary discomfort.

So any thoughts to getting some as a back up idea or just get more ammo. :confused:

[justanothergunnut]

I personally believe in less lethal options.. I would not however include a paintball gun shooting pepper balls in that classification. Taser(to a certain extent), 12ga bean bag rounds, LARGE can of pepper spray(bear mace). Crowd control may be one scenario we find ourselves facing during a collapse and even if there is no rule of law, sometimes you just wont be justified in killing someone. Kids may be one aspect that we will need to deal with and they may not be enough of a threat to warrant escalation of force. The problem with less lethal is that unless you are fully committed to killing someone and by that I mean you have come to full terms with and grasp the psychological aspects of what that entails you may have a tendency to rely too heavily on the less lethal option. I know it sounds backwards but unless you are fully prepared to take a life or multiple lives then less lethal may actually be hazardous to YOUR health.