The History of Paintball

Developed by the Nelson Paint Company in the 1950's, the first paintball guns were manufactured for the forestry service to mark trees in the U.S. Later this idea was adopted by cattle ranchers to mark their cows.

It wasn't until 2 decades passed when in 1976, Hayes Noel (a stock broker) and Bob Gurnsey were discussing a recent trip that Bobs' friend, Charles Gaines had taken to Africa and his (Charles') experiences hunting buffalo while there. Through this conversation between 2 friends and the inspiration of Richard Connells' book entitled "The Most Dangerous Game", paintball as a sport was about to emerge.

After a year and a half contemplating the subject, the idea of using pistols that could propell paint was introduced to the men by a mutual friend of theirs named George Butler. George showed the men a catalog photo from an agricultural magazine, the photo was of a Nelspot 007 marker.

Three more years past and it was on June 27, 1981 when twelve players assembled for what was to be the first round of paintball. They used 80 acres of woodland and they called the game "Survival". They made rules that were similar to the modern game commonly referred to as "Capture The Flag".

Among those in attendance was Bob Jones (a writer for Sports Illustrated at the time). Bob Jones wrote an article about the game and interest developed steadily. Bob Gurnsey, soon after, formed a company called the National Survival Game and entered into a contract with the Nelson Paint Company for distribution of paintball equipment. He made a profit within 6 months.

Paintball has evolved greatly since 1981, the original paint used was oil based and in order to get it off after a game they would have turpentine parties where players actually bathed and scrubbed in a tub of turpentine. Many manufacturers joined this lucrative new market and paintball technology gradually improved to what we see today.