Paintball Netting
Well, the next thing to go up is your paintball netting. It is important
to note that there are some choices here. First, since light is so very
important, I'd highly suggest you go with white netting. It is a little
more expensive, but some companies make white paintball netting specifically
for indoor use. The white net helps bounce the available light around
the room and make for good even lighting without shadows.
Also, you will probably have to submit MSDS (Material safety data sheets)
on your netting to show that it is made from flame retardant material.
The white netting we got is. Now the other thing concerning netting, is
there are 2 different types as far as the density of the weave. If you
look at outdoor netting, you will see they use a very tight weave, heavy
mesh for the netting that is near the ground, but once you go 12 feet
or so up, they use a very open weave. We attempted to use this open weave
net on our ceilings at first - as it's cheaper.
In fact we got some of it for free when we purchased some use bunkers
off a field that went out of business. We stretched up the open weave
net, and fastened it to the ceiling, then we took a gun and popped off
a shot. The paintball went flying right through the net and nailed a 8
foot fluorescent tube and shattered it. We looked at each other for a
moment, then with a sigh of disgust, started pulling down all that net
- just to have to start over.
In this photo, you can see the two types of net sewn together. This is
known as hybrid netting with the tight mesh low, and the lighter stuff
would go up high. But as our experiment showed, the lighter mesh cannot
take a good direct paintball hit. So really, indoors - this type of net
is useless.
So get the right paintball netting from the start, and you'll save money in the long run. I've seen lots of threads on forums about "can I use fishing net?" or "This kind of net??" If you don't get made for paintball, paintball netting, you are just asking for trouble from a liability standpoint. Get the stuff that is made for this use.
To hang the net, we ran cables along the ceiling, hooking them onto the metal structure that holds the roof up, and by using some S - hooks, and some rope, we pulled the cables tight. Then you pull the net on top of the cables, so it is help up with long runs of cable, instead of just at a few points. When you have to splice together, simply roll up a bit of net from each side, then using long cable ties (zip ties) you can stitch them together.
If you haven't ever worked with netting, and need detailed pictures of this - simple shoot me an email at info@gatsplat.com and I'll send you some pictures, or post some out here.
In the picture above, you can see the ceiling in the foreground has not been netted yet, but we have it up on the back side. We also ran the net to the ground at the sides, leaving a dead space of about 3-4 feet between the net and the walls. In our facility, this works well for 2 reasons. We leave cuts in the net every 30 feet or so, that way when someone gets shot out, they can go to the closest side and move behind the net. It also makes for a walk way to the back field so we can send people to the other field, even if a game is in play, and they shouldn't get hit. (Unless there is a very unlucky shot through one of the slits.)
You can also see for the above shot, that we have long fluorescent lights
that are attached to the ceiling. The way the net hangs, it fives about
2-3 feet of space, which even when a paintball hits the net, it will not
move it far enough to risk your lights getting hit. You might get an occasional
break that will send some spray through - but not much at the angle people
will be shooting at.
Important Note: After your netting goes up, it will be much harder to change lights, run wires, etc. So make sure you have all your lights set up, and any electrical wiring you want to do. Don't forget wires for speakers, alarm systems, video camera lines, etc. It can be done after the net, but a much larger Pain in the ass.
And Visit our Indoor Field Site
Visit our Location
582 E Hwy 121
Lewisville, TX 75057
(972) 956-5500 Fax: (972) 956-5514
info@gatsplat.com
All text and images © GatSplat
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