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paintballimpact.com / History of the Game / Nelspot Marker
Nelspot Marker
The first paintball gun ever used specifically for the purpose of people shooting at other people was the Nelspot Marker. When Hayes Noel and Charles Gaines were devising their survival game, they wanted a weapon they could fire that would leave a clear mark on a player, but one that would shoot projectiles that would not cause injury. The game of paintball originated in the mind of Hayes Noel, who wanted to create a challenging but safe game of survival for an American society that had grown soft. In 1976, Americans were leading a much more cushier lifestyle, with their high-rise apartments, dog walkers, and valet parking. He wanted to create a game that would toughen the average American and sharpen their natural survival instinct in the event that the country ever got into real trouble.
Hayes had a lot of friends that were in his line of business (stockbroker) and other acquaintances who were successful in their own respective fields, entertainment, law, military etc. Hayes teamed up with some of his friends to find a gun where players could be tagged with a mark that would stick to the player, but not one that would break the skin or cause injury. After a moderate period of searching, they finally discovered the Nelspot Marker, which was sold by Nelson Paint in Michigan. After seeing this paint marker in a Nelson Paint Catalog, they jumped out of their seat and phoned to order the paint gun to test it out. The Nelson Marker looked like a pistol out of a science fiction movie, with a clear plastic tube projecting out the back end. The clear tube in the backend housed the oil based paintball projectiles. The oil based paint was also a product sold by the Nelson Paintball Company. While today's air supply come in the form of tanks that can shoot hundreds of paintballs, the power for the Nelspot Marker came in the form of replaceable 12 gram CO2 cartridges in the handle. Like today's water based paintballs, the Nelspot projectiles were designed to split open when they hit their target, leaving a long lasting paint mark. Farmers and woodsmen used their markers to mark cattle for vaccination, and trees for cutting. So Hayes and George Butler ordered a bunch of guns, and played around with these new toys until they were hooked on the game.
Nelson Paint is still a provider of products for the paintball industry. Some products provided by Nelson paintball.com include Anarchy paint, and paintballs from the Special Forces Series. The paint from the Special Forces Series are fun for scenario paintball. To blend into the military theme of many of the scenario games, these paintballs come with a metallic shell, and a ranger green paint fill that matches the colors of the soldier's camouflaged gear. Metallic shelled colored paintballs with green fill are designed for the rangers. And metallic colored shells and blue filled paint are provided for the navy seals. The gelatin shells and paint fills from these paintballs are all high grade, and the fill is non-toxic and machine washable.
Hot spot is another coup line of paintballs from Nelson. These paintballs are manufactured specifically for practice ball, and are offered at a good price value. The paint fill for today's paintballs are water based and machine washable, as opposed to the oil-based paint for ammo for the original Nelspot Marker.
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