Clyde Hartsell didn’t set out to make one of the best paintball fields in the Charlotte area, he wanted to sell the land to property developers. The way property values have grown, he would have made a fortune. He purchased the 75 acres that now includes the Boss Paintball field (http://bossproshops.com/golddiggers/index.htm) as a quick land investment. That was eight years ago. Lucky for us, it didn’t work out that way. Today, Boss Paintball, formerly known as GoldDiggers (very close to the historical Reed Gold Mine) is one of the best wooded scenario fields in the area.  There may come a time at some point in the far distant future where a land developer will offer Clyde the right number of zeroes for the land, but until then, Carolina paintballers have struck gold again in Locust, NC, about 20 miles of east of Charlotte.

Not too big, not too small…

Some players stay at one field forever, but some paintballers can be a fickle lot. We rotate from field to field for various reasons. Sometimes we get bored with a field, sometimes it’s to play a different group of players, sometimes we get lost and can’t find our way back, and sometimes it’s just because we like the field.

 Boss is one of those fields we just keep coming back to. It has a variety of areas, towns, firebases, and terrains. Most of all, it is heavily wooded in a fairly concentrated area. Every field has good and bad points, but a good one about Boss is that while it has a mixture of different action areas, they are all close enough to walk to without needing a shuttle bus or respirator. Takes a lot out of your play time (knees and lifespan) if you spend a half hour humping back and forth to the staging area between rounds. The field actually utilizes about 30 acres, but it seems like alot more when you are hunting down  those last few Wambo Wannabes.

The field has some new towns and buildings since I was there last in January for Operation: Shining Shield. There are all new buildings around Fort Defiance and Clyde says they are close to tearing down Old Town and rebuilding it a new location while replacing it with a  whole new area. The field team is E.P.I.C. Unit and they and Clyde are out there every week adding new bunkers for the sequel to Shining Shield, Operation: Burning Sky, a 26 hour scenario which plays out June 21st - 22nd.

One of the “secrets” to Boss’ success is the field policies. learned from experience and national meetings with field owners, Clyde believes that keeping the players markers at semi-automatic only, so that it doesn’t chase off the younger, novice players. He still allows ramping during scenario events, but weekend, recreational, walk-on play is semi-automatic only. While shooting photos this weekend, I personally watched a ref enforcing this rule. He says this encourages his birthday parties and that brings new players to the sport, and I would have to agree with him. At one point, I looked around at our support team and they were all only about chest high. Firing over their heads would be no problem. This may be a negative for some of the more hard core players who want to come out for a weekend and find their team filled with very young newbies. This is not to say that there are not adult players, some of the best I have ever seen were playing that same day.

Another point of interest is that Clyde is very proud of how much he pays his referees. As a result, he has low turnover and refs that take some pride in their work. Many of the refs are also a part of the field team, E.P.I.C. Unit. E.P.I.C.  is also producing the Burning Sky scenario as well as last January’s Shining Shield. 

What’s In Store?

I had never been to the Boss Paintball store and dropped in for a surprise interview (who says I can’t ambush?) The store is built right off Clyde and his wife, Jean’s, homestead, reducing his costs further. Clyde is retired, but still does some land investing, which is his primary source of income, putting everything he makes from the field back into it.

The store was nice, a bit small, but well stocked with markers and accessories. A great deal of the apparel was speedball oriented with no BDU’s or scenario clothing other than some camo’d speedball uniforms. The walls were adorned with about an equal number of woodsball (BT and Tippmann) markers as there were speedball guns. All in all, it was a pretty nice shop with competitive prices, but a long drive from south Charlotte. Players living in North Charlotte will find the Concord store convenient. but it is definitely a drive to get there for the rest of us.

Eventful

This summer, Boss Paintball is hosting Operation Burning Sky, Saturday and Sunday, June 21st-22nd. The 26 hour scenario will feature night play and is expected to welcome the regions premier teams. I was at Shining Shield and it was a blast. Tanks were roaming all over the place and every inch of the field was utilized in battles. They were only expecting about 110 or so. They had that by the Wednesday before the event and in the last 24 hours, an additional 170 players signed up. because of that and the difficulties it created with the staff, they have decided to only do pre-registration and to end it on the 16th, which is the Monday before the event. This is somewhat unusual and we wanted to make sure that players were aware. If you snooze, you lose! If you buy more than 5 cases of paint in advance you can also save a little money.

I would suggest that you register as quickly as possible for the event, whether you want to fight for the Axis or the Allieds. The event starts at 12 noon, but the field will open around 8am. A number of the more hardcore teams will be camping overnight.

Come on out to Boss Paintball and check out the changes to the field and the store.