Is It Slow Enough?

Backyard woodsball can be lots of fun with a chance to play a variety of different games, play as much  or as little as you want and no requirement to pay field fees.  There are some drawbacks with generally no designated referee, on-site air or well-developed bunkers.  Also, there can be a big problem with people not chronoing their guns.

When I play woodsball on an outlaw or backayard field I always take a pocket chronograph to make sure the guns are all shooting at a safe speed - usually around 280 feet per second.  While this works fine the vast majority of the time, there are occasions where people switch to an unchronoed gun or even intentionally increase their velocity as soon as their away from the chronograph.  Sure, shooting at 350 fps increases your range and almost eliminates bouncing balls, but it can really hurt and a new player who gets hit by a hot gun might never come again.

There's a reason that paintball manufacturers always say to shoot less than 300 fps - any faster and a shot that otherwise might leave a small bruise can leave a painful welt that might take weeks to heal.  I still have three paintball-shaped scars on my back from getting hit by someone shooting hot and if I didn't already love the sport I probably never would have played again.

If you're out playing with friends, make sure you're shooting slow enough.  If in doubt, shoot even slower.  It's always better to have a few bounces than to shoot too fast.