A Sport in the Making Paintball History

Paintball history began in the 1950’s when a paint company by the name of Nelson Paint created paintballs for the forestry service to mark trees from a distance. It was also adopted by cattle ranchers so they could mark their cattle from a distance. In 1976, two friends, Bob Gurnsey and Charles Gaines, were pondering how they could reenact the excitement of hunting and combine it with survivalist skills, and the idea behind paintball was born.

It took nearly a year and a half before a friend of the original two men involved named George Butler showed them a picture of a paintball gun in an agricultural magazine. It was manufactured by the original paintball gun manufacturer, Nelson Paint Company. Modern day paintball guns have evolved from this piece of agricultural equipment.

Making Paintball History The First Paintball Game

Perhaps the most pivotal moment in paintball history occurred on June 27, 1981. On that day the first paintball game was played. It was a basic game of capture the flag, which would go on to be a popular type of paintball game. There were 12 players, including people from all walks of life, many of whom were avid hunters. It is even rumored that the person who captured the flag for the win never fired a single round.

These players played with the first paintball gun, a Nelspot 007 which was created by the original Nelson Paint Company. They continued to play the game and develop the basic rules of the game that would eventually evolve into the rules of modern day paintball. The creators eventually invited many people to try out the game, including a writer for Sports Illustrative who would go on to write a piece about the game which, at the time, was called Survival.

Eventually one of the original creators formed a company called the National Survival Game and contracted exclusively with the Nelson Paint Company to make their supplies. At that point in time in paintball history, the guns could only hold around 10 rounds and the paint was difficult to wash off because it was oil based. Shooting was far rarer, as players were very limited by the rounds they could carry. Safety equipment was essentially nonexistent.

Over the next couple of years in paintball history, competing products came out into the market and as with most things the competition improved the gear available. As paintball became more popular safety gear and improved weaponry evolved from the rudimentary equipment available at the beginning of the sport.

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