The following article will go into depth about why, if you’re a beginner, you should rent and not buy your initial paintball guns. Listen up, kids, I’m going to school you. So sit down at your school desks, turn your cell phones off, and get ready to learn from the paintball master himself: me.

I’ve seen so many gung ho paint ball newbies come into the game, all jazzed up about playing war games, and what is their first initiative? Yeah, you guessed it, I’m going to go spend all my daddy’s money on the most expensive paintball guns, masks, filters, canisters, boots, protection, etc. So they go to their dad, and tell him they need some money for a school project, for a science project, so they can get an A. Whoo-hoo!

These newbies think that it’s all about the gun. So they go onto Amazon and order a thousand dollar paintball gun that they think will make them invincible. Maybe it’s a high-end Tippman or Airsoft. They time and time again make the mistake of thinking it’s all about the equipment. The best gun wins! Just like in real war.

Not so fast, chum. This kid should be renting; he hasn’t even shot a real paintball gun yet in his life. And from my own experience out in the woods of Montana, playing with super-serious paintballers, I can tell you that I don’t care if this kid has a straight-up atomic paintball bomb, he’s going to lose and lose quick. He’ll be sniped before he can even say, “Where’s my mommy?” Or: “My gun won’t fire.” Splat! Go take a seat buddy.

So our friend Little Johnny here, he should have been renting. Now he’s sitting out, eliminated in the split of a second, and he’s out a thousand bucks. Sucks to be him.

All of this can be prevented. (You don’t have to suffer the same sad paintball fate as our war game loser Little Johnny afterall.) Listen up: when you first start playing paintball, you have to rent the first couple times. You will save yourself a ton of money while you figure it if this sport is really for you. It’s just not really about the paintball guns, not solely anyway. I’m not saying a gun is not important, you just have to have other skills to complement it. If it was all about who has the bigger gun, don’t you think Vietnam would’ve been over a lot quicker? Yeah, I thought so.

By renting your paintball guns as you get to know the sport, you can focus your concentration on rolling behind boulders, scaling large trees, taking mountains, and camouflaging yourself behind blueberry bushes. Paint ball is about strategy my friend, more than anything. It is a game for smart men (and women occasionally). It is a sport that can be quite depressing when someone tags you with a paintball splatter, knocking you out of the competition. You walk to the sideline out of bounds area, sit down a bench, and you may even weep because you think, “I’m so pathetic at everything I do.”

Kids, that’s when you have to rise up more than ever and prove yourself, put your mind to the task, and learn the sport from the ground up. Only then can you justify spending ten bills to begin building up your arsenal of paintball guns, grenades, and whatever else floats your boat.