Re-inventing the PBM

[Grauwolf <grauwulf-at-yahoo.com>]

Greetings All,

If I may make so bold as to quote one of the founding fathers of this
group, "KISS -- Keep It Simple Stupid." Truly words of inspiration!

With this in mind, I have been wondering if anyone here has given any
serious thought to re-engineering the basic Paintball Marker? Yeah, I
know, off-the-shelf is "Simple". But not if off-the-shelf then requires
access to a machine-shop so that it may be modified to kinda sorta
conform to your needs.

Considerations: 
1) The standard off-the-shelf PBM is engineered, that when fired, the
projectile will maintain as flat and true a trajectory as possible for
a range of at least 50 yards with the projectile exploding on contact
at the end of that course. (These parameters are usually incremented
and subject to the Price/Quality Gage starting at Wal-Mart quality at
around $50.00 and climbing to $2500.00 (Yikes!))
 -- What is the average combat range on any battlefield to-date?

2) The standard PBM is engineered to provide the look, heft, and feel
of a large caliber handgun. Thus bigger IS better. Additional
encumbrances for heightened operational requirements have the added
bonus of providing a high-tech/sci-fi flare that appeals to the
adolescent males (and those of us who still wish we were. --LOL) who
dominate this sport.
 --  There is no incentive to provide a smaller unit. 

3) Parts required for upgrades, modifications, and/or repairs are
available from the dealers and/or their distributors only, thus cost
and availability is subject to their exclusive control. 
  -- Not off-the-shelf.

Just to provide some food for thought, take a look at the utterly
simplistic and compact design utilized  in the weapons system used by
the Ship-To-Ship Warfare folks. Note the hardware store copper tubing
and fittings. Now THAT is off-the-shelf!

http://www.swampworks.com/Catalog-BB%20systems.html 

Yeah, I know, a paintball is not the same as a copper BB and requires a
lot of different handling. However, the BB weapon system featured is
also not the same as you would find inside of any semi-auto BB handgun
either. They re-engineered it to conform to the needs of their sport. 

In my opinion, I have seen the remarkable engineering and fabrication
skills displayed by the members of this group. I have little doubt that
a PBM weapons system designed to better conform to the requirements of
this sport would be out of their reach. 

Considerations:
1) Build it smaller, lighter, and with less bulk. = Less weight and
encumbrance and more room for other goodies.
2) Build it cheaper with hardware store type items = More people can
afford to participate in this sport.
3) Build it simple = installation takes far less time = more time to
dedicate to other areas.

(Just in case nobody has considered this point as of yet.)

4) Build it right = folks will buy YOUR off-the shelf system = more
tanks and tank goodies for you without having to explain to the wife
how you really need the cash for that new set of monster drive motors.
--LOL

So what do you all think? Doable???


Dan





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