By Brian Russell AKA Moati

I love paintball. I play it every opportunity I get. I've always made sure I could take care of my equipment and field stripping and "on the spot" repair is just a part of that, but, over the years one of the more frustrating things for me is working on my guns at the field. Let me tell you a little story that shows just how frustrating it can be.

So here I am, in the middle of an intense fire-fight. I'm fighting to advance on the enemy CP and my guys are kicking some serious butt! I make a move to a building that puts me about 70 feet from their base. As I come around the corner I see 3 guys grouped behind a bunker watching my friends move up about 50 feet to my left. Oh how I love easy pickings! So I pull up my trusty Tippmann A5, I take aim, and I fire off three shots... but there's no paint! I look in my hopper as I now start to draw fire because they heard my shots. There's plenty of paint! I take a couple more shots... no paint. What the... !!! My trusty A5 had failed me. My cyclone wasn't working. So I make a suicide run, throw my F-Bomb Grenade and immediately get lit up for my daring move. Instead of going up to the dead box I was heading off the field to do some gun teching on my own gun.

If you've been playing this game for any length of time, then you know firsthand, a version of the story that is about to follow. If you haven't been playing for long, then I assure you, there will be many opportunities for you to experience this for yourself. I get up to my staging area which on this fine day is an old stump. I had stacked my gear bag on the stump and then covered it with an old rain coat because there had been a light rain off and on through the morning. With no better place to go to work I made the best use I could of the stump and started to take my cyclone off the A5. I systematically started dissecting everything and trying desperately to keep all the parts on the various sections of the stump. Finally, I get to the plastic ratchet. Sure enough, the little drive tooth had broken off. Not to worry! I've had this issue before and I had spares in my gear bag. I should be back in the game in no time! Unfortunately, while I was searching for the replacement ratchet, the wind picked up blowing the rain coat that I was using as a work station... and all my parts went for a very brief flight into the air followed by a very quick trip into the tall grass next to the stump. I tried in vain to find everything but in the end, I came up two screws and one ratchet spring short! At this point I was so frustrated that I grabbed my gear and made the hike to my car. When I got there, I tossed my gear bag onto the back seat of my car and put the gun on top of the gear bag, got in, and headed home. My day was done... right? Yeah... I wish!

I had to stop for gas so I pull into a gas station, throw in ten bucks worth, and go into the store to pay. When I came back out, one of the city's finest had pulled up next to me and he was looking in my window. As I came towards my car, he asked if that was a gun in my back seat. I immediately said "officer, it's a paintball marker... it's not real". He pointed out to me that in his eyes all guns were "real" and he asked if I was aware of the city ordinance that said that paintball guns had to be stored properly and not out in the open while traveling. I told him I was not aware but thank you for letting me know. He said I was very welcome... and here's a reminder as he handed me a citation. This day sucked!

When I got home I thought to myself... I am not going to let this crap happen to me again! What can I do to avoid this in the future? I had two problems. One was a lack of adequate work space at the field and the other was a lack of proper storage of my paintball gun while in transit. So I started searching for a solution to both of my problems. Luckily, I happen to be in a position to be able to do something about it. I had our R&D Team go to work on a solution to my problems and they came up with the Special Ops Gun Pack/Mat. It's all closed up it just looks like a large nylon case. But what's inside is oh so much more. Undo the four buckles that hold everything nice and secure and then undo two horizontal folds. Now undo two vertical folds. When it's all unfolded you have a padded mat area that is 84 inches by 36 inches. In the center are two straps that adjust to various locations to securely hold your paintball gun (or even a real gun if that's your thing). Everything is nicely padded, water resistant, and there's even a pocket to hold the tools and spare parts that I might need.

Now, when I travel to a game, I have my paintball gun packed up safely inside the pack. The padding keeps it protected from dings and scratches and the case itself keeps me protected from future citations. Once I'm at the field, if I need to work on my gun, or anything else in my gear, I just lay out the Pack/Mat on the ground in any open location. I can kneel right on it and the padding protects my knees as I have a huge work area to do any repairs and maintenance necessary. My parts have to roll a long way before they end up in the grass and lost these days.

No more lost parts, less time searching for a place to work, more time on the field playing. Oh yeah... and no citations. I love the Special Ops Pack/Mat and I love this game!