Ah yes, the Beast's gun story--a story which will live in infamy.

Squidly summed up the details quite well on his website--a lot of fun, but could have been better organized. The pre-game orientation/briefing got rolling around 10 AM--about an hour later than they'd originally told us. Just before the briefing, I attached my CO2 tank to my gun--I didn't want it accidentally going off in the parking lot. As soon as I attached it, I heard the hiss of CO2 leaking out. I'd had it apart a couple of times to clean it--once before the April 18th get-together and once afterwards. It's fairly simple to take apart and put back together--and after all, I'd done it once successfully two weeks ago. I stripped it all the way down, checked all the O-rings, and put it back together--once, twice, still leaking air. During the process, I dropped a crucial cotter pin (which holds the bolt that secures the firing assembly in place) in the dirt three times, as well as the screw from where the air hose attaches to the gun, but I did manage to find everything I dropped (with Faxman and Squidly's help) and get the gun back together correctly. Despite that, the air hiss continued. Air refills were free at this event (as they were at On Target), so I went over to the target range to see if I could squeak through, as the leak seemed pretty small. But when I cocked it and fired it, three paintballs sputtered out of the barrel and dropped about two feet in front of my gun, and the bolt dropped into the uncocked position instead of readying for the next shot, as it's supposed to do when the CO2 tank is correctly attached.

I went into the pro shop to see if they had a gun tech working that day--I was told they did, but he was wandering around "somewhere". At that point, the event was about to get rolling, so after a bit of thought and discussion, I went back to the pro shop and paid five dollars to rent a gun so I wouldn't miss any playing time. I did OK with the rental gun--the hopper was mounted off to the side, so I was able to use the rail sight, unlike my gun, and it had a rifle-style grip attached to the barrel. I haven't used my own gun enough to become accustomed to it, so I didn't really feel handicapped by playing with the rental. At about 3:00, we took a break, and I tracked down the gun tech over by the vendor tent (he'd helped Fax get his muzzle velocity below the field requirement earlier in the day). He checked a few things, then said it sounded like I had a broken valve. He took it into the pro shop to replace it--after about two minutes, I heard a promising series of dry-fire pops. (A paintball gun is OK to dry-fire because it has no striking parts, other than the end of the bolt hitting the paintball to send it on its way.) Right after that, the gun tech came out smiling and shaking his head. As he handed me the gun, he told me what the problem was. There's a short, stubby screw with two flat heads--one end wide, the other end tapers off. This screw somehow regulates the air pressure--I believe he said by putting pressure on the chamber. I hadn't paid enough attention the last time I'd cleaned it, and had assumed that the tapered end went into the gun and the screwdriver turned the wider end, when it was supposed to go the opposite way. This was the cause of my "leak". Everything's firing fine now, and I'll be good to go with my own gun the next time.

Despite the technical malfunction, I still had a blast--I had a couple of confirmed kills (including avenging Squidly and Fax's "death" while attacking a bridge down in a gully ). Unfortunately I still don't have any cool "tattoos" to show off (a la Faxman), despite a suicide run on my last spawn, where I charged to cover and exchanged fire with two "aliens" from less than twenty feet away when my ammo and air were running out. I came out of that without being shot--I had to call myself out when my tank went empty. Oh well--there's always next time. I had a great time and can't wait to play again. Squidly's a great guy--thanks for setting this up and providing the tailgating chairs. (So's Fax, but we've known each other for most of our lives). I did learn something from my gun experience (besides which way the stubby gold screw goes)--I'm going to order a replacement screw-and-O-ring kit from Action Village before I play again. Unfortunately, my little attack of the "dropsies" isn't all that uncommon for me (I can't count the number of times I've dropped my mouse or knocked over my microphone during intense or extended gaming sessions)--this way, I won't have to drive everyone nuts when the inevitable happens and I lose a screw in the dirt.