BT TM-15 LE

BT's got a new iteration of one of their most popular markers out with a new compact look, cool colour scheme and an included Apex 2. Not bad, but not something exactly new either. The fact that they still include "Semi/PSP/Millennium" modes still boggles my mind though. Here's the ad copy and then some more pictures:

Product Information:
Empire Battle Tested introduces a new, shorter carbine version of the TM-15 marker for more maneuverability and CQB.  We’ve upgraded the barrel to the APEX² to give you more distance and the ability to curve your shots…on purpose!  Add in the front foregrip and a cool color scheme and you’ve got the best milsim marker on the playing field.  Better move now and get them fast, these are only available for a limited time.

Grey Ops Stencil

Looking to spray paint your bunkers at your local field? Sprucing up the buildings in your play area? Why don't you (legally) "tag" them using a Grey Ops stencil! Click here to download the PDF for printing, and here's how it will look when you print it off:

The additional white lines allow for a usable stencil, while still keeping with the crosshair aesthetic.

Anyone that adds this to their field or play area in a responsible manner will receive serious kudos, and possibly even a discount on some cool Grey Ops swag. 

Resealable Paint Bags

If you're going to market your paint towards both speedball players and a limited-ammo style crowd (such as many milsim players and organizations), take a page out of Dye's book!

The Catshack Reports' report on some new Dye Paintballs got me excited for all the wrong reasons (from Dye's marketing point of view). I tend to ignore speedball ad copy as it doesn't pertain to my interests, but the words self standing, resealable, and airtight really caught my eye when they talked about their bags.

Tankless Invasion Tlk-01

I began drafting this article a couple months ago but lost it, and had to start from scratch, but this product has received very little press up till now so hopefully it's still relevant/interesting.

Ever want to have a paintball rocket launcher without worrying about air tanks or CO2 cartridges? Yeah me neither, but the guys at Tankless Invasion wanted exactly that, and came up with a rather cool solution for it. The answer? Explosions. Or more specifically, a launcher using an easily available disposable butene/propane canister with a built in igniter (powered by AA batteries). That may sound dangerous, but it uses the same trusted technology in some portable nail guns, Paslode Impulse fuel cells (specifically, the red kind).

Grey Ops Chat

So the Grey Ops forums were a flop. I won't even bother linking to them, they were a fruitless endeavour and required too much upkeep (monetarily and time-wise) on my part for the marginal service it provided. So I've decided to reallocate resources and space to "Grey Ops Chat". You can now see a link on the top of the blog for "Chat", and the same thing can be found on Crypsis and Mil-Sim.com. Currently it allows for 10 people to be online, chatting and sharing content across any one of the above mentioned sites, including Grey Ops. It's casual, easy and hopefully will be a source of entertainment. In the future I'll upgrade the service to allow for others to be online (50 or 100 possibly) and chatting at the same time. I may or may not create a list of censored words, and will definitely establish a few people I know of good moral caliber to by moderators of the chat.

Killjoy Tiberius Trigger Pre-Order

I knew Killjoy Industries was great for having a short prototype to production turn-around time, but less than two weeks after their first announcement of their adjustable Tiberius triggers they're now taking pre-orders with an ETA of the end of the month!

Click here to go to the product page, and just for fun tell them Grey Ops sent you!

Skunkworks Holsters in Stock at Crypsis

Remember Skunkworks holsters? Well hopefully you'll be seeing a lot more of them, as they're now in stock at Crypsis (full disclosure as always, Crypsis is my [Connor] store that I opened up this summer)!

If you read my review, you'll know why I love them, and  I believe they're the best holster system on the market for paintball pistols. They're made of Kydex, which is a pretty damn cool polymer, and makes for an insanely good fit/retention while allowing for a draw like yanking a lightsaber out of a pad of butter (yes, that's a bit of a hyperbole, but still it's awesome). Available are drop legs, MOLLE holsters and belt holsters as of now, with shoulder holsters on the way soon. 

As always, email me at connor@greyops.net or info@crypsis.ca for more info.

Ottawa Milsim Coalition Shuts Down For 2011

Those who've attended the 2 OMC events held so far this year, "The Sword" and "Eagle Down", were told that there would be 2 more events held in the Ottawa area this season. Originally, that's what was planned - "The Battle For Colombia" and "Blood Diamonds", held in October and November respectively, would have closed out our 2011 lineup. Unfortunately, both GREEN_MACHINE and I are facing substantial time constraints over the next 2 months, and the outlook for 2011 OMC events is looking bleak.

Paintball: Sherman vs Marx - Guest Post by Doug Brown

There was one last economic force yet to play out in paintball. Market consolidation. When Brass Eagle went public a lot of what I called “hot money” sat up and noticed. I have since learned that the term “hot money”  was already taken, but I still use it because I don’t care to get into the distinctions between private equity, venture capital, growth capital, and a bazillion other names for companies with more money than they know what to do with. The first of these companies was Summit Partners. They didn’t buy Tippmann (they pointed that out to me once) they just gave Mr. Tippmann a bunch money and run his company (whatever dude). Imperial Capital bought Procaps (and later merged it with ZAP). Angelo Gordon bought what was left of NPS and PMI and re-named it Kee Action Sports. That’s a lot of market consolidation. The interesting part is when it happened. Tippmann 2004. Procaps 2005. KEE 2006. I think this would be a good point to put the chart back up.

Riot Ready AKA LLL (Lazy Less Lethal)

There's definitely some oddball and downright laughable technology being marked as "less lethal" technology on the internet. But Riot Ready's BFG might just take the cake.

Kitanica: The Shirt

Kitanica's continuing to expand and now brings you "The Shirt", check it:

CADPAT AR Gear at WTFPB

CADPAT AR is now a standard offering at WTFPB, adding to their already considerable roster of camouflage patterns. This makes them now amongst a select few manufacturers that offer gear in CADPAT AR, and at their competitive prices probably makes them the best choice for CADPAT AR paintball, airsoft or real world gear.

First Aid Face Off with Tactical Survivor Blog

If you haven't checked out The Tactical Survivor Blog yet, it's your loss. Evan (a personal friend of mine) has begun to create a great treasure trove of information, and does it in style.

I recently decided to through down the gauntlet with him in a first aid kit build-off, specifically for paintball/airsoft etc., with the following criteria:

"Criteria:
- Specific materials for problems/situations that arise playing paintball
- Simplicity of assortment and selection
- Capable of being carried on a paintball field (in whatever fashion)
- Affordable and capable of being built with local supplies (you shouldn't have to order anything in from a specialty store)"

Here was my result:

Cidasoft Goes Green... and White

Cidasoft has quietly announced on their Facebook page that they will soon be using biodegradable/compostable grenade shells, and will be offering them in the attractive white/black combo seen above. Now all we need to do is convince Tiberius Arms that biodegradable materials are worth investing in...

Killjoy Tiberius Adjustable Triggers

Killjoy Industries has been making accessories for Tippmann markers and the like for quite some time, and doing it quite well. They're known for their affordable and unique products that cater to both ergonomics and general badassery. Coming soon are their custom made triggers for Tiberius markers, which will feature an adjustable trigger stop (cool) and a CNCed aluminium construction. Below are some prototype pictures for your viewing pleasure:

Grey Ops Advertising Changes This Winter

As of November 1st 2011, Grey Ops will no longer be in any advertising contracts, and I'm taking this opportunity to create a paradigm shift in how advertising is done on the website. The new system will go into effect as of the 1st of November. Because of the first-come, first-served nature of the new advertising, I'll need a list of those interested as soon as possible (so you can get in on the ground floor). I believe the new system will be of great benefit to those wishing to advertise, and am excited to reveal more as time goes on.

If you are interested in advertising on Grey Ops as of November 1st 2011, please email me at this address with the subject line "Grey Ops Advertising". Those interested must have an organization whose audience is congruent with that of Grey Ops,  and be an established and reputable online or physical presence.

Crypsis Fall Sale

www.crypsis.ca

Paintball: A Study of Free Market Capitalism - Guest Post by Doug Brown

Connor's note: For Doug's first post, please click here: "Paintball and the Economy".

Free market capitalism is a pretty basic concept. It is defined by Wikipedia as “… a market in which there is no economic intervention and regulation by the state, except to uphold private contracts and the ownership of property". The basic idea is ….you don’t make deals knowing they are bad deals. The “self-interest” of the two parties involved in an exchange of money will protect them. The government just gets in the way. You hear a lot of politicians talk about it. Between the EPA, OSHA, the clean water act and a bazillion other government agencies, it’s a wonder anybody can ever make a dime doing anything. There was an economist called Milton Friedman who, more than anyone else, was the greatest proponent of Free Market Capitalism.  Mr. Friedman taught at the University of Chicago and was without a doubt the most influential economist of the late 20^th century.

    

Milton Friedman

A buddy of mine and his wife both work in government circles in Washington DC. They both play paintball. I’m a big believer in making things as simple as possible (making paintball products will do that to you) so I asked them “As simply as possible…tell me how Washington works”. Without hesitation the wife says “You have a bunch of 30 year olds running around telling 60 year old politicians what to do”. The moral of that story is… governments (like economies) are extraordinarily complex. You can’t understand, much less know, it all. So when you hear a politician talking about economic theories like Free Market Capitalism, he probably knows about as much as I do... which is not much.  

Distribution/Purchase of Genuine Issue CADPAT

A lot of apocryphal "facts" and conjecture surround the distribution and purchase of genuine issue CADPAT apparel and gear on the internet, so let this serve as means of dispelling rumour and searching the truth in the matter. As always, comments and opinions are welcome (and we don't censor opinions or block comments on Grey Ops, so shoot away), and if you believe the things I present in this article are mistaken or flat out wrong, please point me to a better source of information on the matter.

A civilian using non-genuine CADPAT for paintball.

Let's break this down into easy-to-manage chunks of information:

T8/T9 Magazine Extenders Coming Back

MOATI, formerly of Special Ops Paintball (and who is now completely disenfranchised with it and involved in all sorts of drama) has started the process of selling the once very popular Special Ops Paintball product, the T8/T9 Magazine Extenders. These cool doohickeys allow you to have 17 paintballs in a Tiberius magazine as opposed to 8, which also allows for some cool MP7 mods (by using an aftermarket MP7 shroud). You can find the pre-order page here.

Paintball and the Economy - Guest Post by Doug Brown

Connor wrote on my facebook page the other day and asked if I would like to write about “paintball economics”.  Being one of my facebook friends, Connor is subjected daily to my tirades on what is wrong with the economy, who caused it, and how to fix it. The more I thought about it, the more I thought, why not?  I’ve read enough “economic theory” over the last couple of years to come to the conclusion that the truest statement ever made about economics is... economics is the only science where two identical experiments can result in two completely different outcomes. There are two major economic theories.  John Keynes’ theory says when it all goes sideways, print money (deficit spending). This is what America has been doing the last couple of years. The other school of thought, promoted by Friedrich Hayek, is to cut government spending (austerity) when it all goes sideways. This is what Europe has been doing for the last couple of years. Looking at things that way… it appears you can conduct different economic experiments and get the same outcome. I suspect there is a lesson to be learned there.