Black River Paintball — Local services in Coats

----Beginners play = 3 stars ---Experienced play = 4 I am a decently experienced player who's played 5 or 6 times at mostly different locations in Texas. I came in a 3 person group (2 other male newbies aged 23 and 13) Facility Pros: Fantasic website experience hands down. Staff was very courteous and friendly. Location screams paintball and lots of in between prep-hangout room for the family n friends who are or are not participating. Safety/Instruction video is outstanding. Rental gun was better than i've experienced at almost all locations.

Facility Cons: Check in time (took us 50 minutes from walkin to being ready to play... by far my longest experience)

Head protection lenses for all 3 of us were incredibly scratched and had very poor visibility and we didn't want to waste anytime going back to the rental outfit because we had already been there an hr and hadn't played yet.

Seemingly not enough refs: (we only played Barnyard 2 times in a row) It was the only one being called even though there were plenty of people to occupy multiple fields at the same time and keep the over crowding out of the game which speaking of... Not sure why more fields weren't being used in the rotation other than not enough refs...

Overcrowding: The Barnyard map says 3 acres but our second round had at least 16 to 18+ per side... and paint was flying within 10 seconds of the go signal. (It didn't feel at all like 3 wooded acres). I've been on fields with equal crowd sizes but you might not see anyone for 5 or 10 minutes of go. I completely get fast action on the intended smaller fields but for those of us who like the large field suspense (i didn't find it here).

Field Boundaries: Only place I've been to that didn't have taped boundaries which make it ez... The instructions on the larger maps about boundaries at the beginning of the game are confusing as heck for those of us who never played that location.

Gun Speeds (Non Rentals): My gun clocked 225 fps and i think the max was 285... I was good w my gun speed but i could DEFINITELY feel/see the difference btw the a rental gun vs a non-rental gun. And i didnt see a whole lot of people getting their guns tested and with so many younger players w their own equipment i would wager there were some rule oversights.

Beginners Overview ( 3 stars ) : Beginners Good: You get better than average rental gun equipment. This would be a FANTASTIC experience for a closed group aka a work outing or large birthday party where everyone on both teams were of equal experience levels. Beginners Cons: I've never seen a higher ratio of very experienced players to newbies/less experienced anywhere... Combine this with over crowded play on smaller fields you might walk away as my 2 newbies did (Scared to death). Beginners advice: Unless you are going in a larger group of equivalent experienced people (10+ people) this is not the place you want to get your first paintball experience either individually or in a smaller person group.

Experienced player Overview (4 stars) This is indeed THE PLACE for you by far (4 stars). You will be surrounded with like minded people of a competitive skill level to really challenge you. The line of trophies inside the office indicate this place competes very well along with the overly well equipped people arriving in the parking lot who clearly skip the rental section. Refs are naturally more tuned into the more experienced players, allowing the more experienced players to make suggestions about team split-ups and game objectives even if at the expense of the sparsely newbies mixed in. (I saw this on my first match and thought uh-oh) This place clearly brings in repeat players and i can see why. I'm surprised they don't have larger fields, but i would imagine the reason they don't have tape-offs so it allows them to combine fields if they want for larger play. So my only knock for advanced is the rotation we played for nearly 2 hrs was all barnyard which felt incredibly small for a big field... so i didn't get a big field experience...

Look at the pictures as to what we purchased. This review had to be edited due to it's size. Now on to the bad. First, the parking lot, it was surprisingly very small. Most of my party guests had to park down the dirt road. Second, the bathrooms, port-a-johns, needed some serious cleaning. Third, the lady in the office/store front, seemed completely unaware/untrained as to what needs to happen with a party. She seemed surprised that we were there for a birthday party. Fourth, we were fortunate to get a picnic table, as for it was quite busy when we got there. There was no "private" picnic area and no "private" birthday bunker! When we asked the lady in the office about the private birthday bunker and picnic area, she was completely confused and said "Oh, just go pick which ever picnic table you want out front." So much for our paid Private birthday bunker and Private picnic area! Fifth, there was no provided food as stated in the package that we bought. No hotdogs, burgers, or chips. The lady in the front said that we are getting pizza, so which would we like, cheese or pepperoni. We were like ok, thanks for the curve ball, cheese will be fine. When we did get the pizzas, unfortunately we only received 2 medium pizzas. We asked the lady how many pizzas are we suppose to get for 15 players and she stated that we will only get the 2 pizzas. Clearly 2 pizzas will not feed 15 players plus a mom. Thankfully we thought ahead for the guests that were not playing and brought food for them. Because of this, we used the extra food we brought, to feed the players who didn't get pizza due to not having enough of the pizza. Sixth, we initially only received 12 cup cakes. I had to go back inside and complain to the office lady stating they did not give us enough for the amount of players we paid for; let alone the amount of guests we actually had. Seventh, the unlimited drink refills was a joke. Their drink machine was frozen, so the only thing they had was water and gatorade. And that was limited to one per player. It also made it inconvenient that Mom had to stop playing to go play hostess and get drinks for the players. Thankfully we brought extra drinks. Eighth, the birthday girl did not get the upgraded rental equipment like the website stated. She had the same equipment as everyone else. We had to pay for the vest and pods for her. The paint gernade was terrible. The birthday girl attempted to throw it and all it did was bounce on the ground; and yes the pin was pulled before throwing it. Then her grandfather tried throwing it and yet it did not break. When I tried throwing it, Toby stated that I should try to throw it against a hard surface like the metal connex. After I threw the gernade, it finally burst when it bounced off the connex, a solid plastic vertical tube, then back on to the connex. It does not work like the video on BR Paintball website. Ninth, the pricing on the 2000 rounds case at the store is not what is stated on the website or on the pricing board outside the office. The website and pricing board both stated that the price for 2000 rounds is $60. When we went to purchase more, the lady stated that the case was actually $65 plus tax. I brought it up that the board and website said $60, she said "Oh we changed our prices several weeks ago and just haven't fix it there yet." Lastly, we had to ask multiple employees as to where do we get our 2000 rounds that are supposed to be supplied with the package. Thank god for Toby or we would have never received them. In conclusion, this place made us feel like we got ripped off. We will never be coming back here for another party ever! Nor will we let any of our friends or family members come here. We will immediately tell them to go to Black Ops Paintball. We only chose to go here because they were supposed to provide food and extra perks for the birthday girl. That didn't happen at all. The website lied "But we do not stop there, we supply all the bells and whistles so that mom can enjoy the party instead of...

I took my 14 year old son and 5 of his friends here yesterday for his 14th birthday. We purchased a package that included all gear and 1000 paintballs. Overall, the staff was very nice and friendly, the facility was about what you'd expect, and they really enjoyed all the fields and had a good time. The equipment was either in like new condition, or they take really good care of their stuff.

Having said that, we did have a few issues.

#1 - We signed up for the 2-4pm slot on a Sunday, and got there 20 minutes early as they recommended to get checked in and ready to go by two. I don't know if it was that they were busy, disorganized, or both, but we did not play our first match until just after 3pm. It took longer than expected to check, get our gear, and get the gear checked off on. This part was disorganized. So instead of a two hour window, we got around 50 minutes of playtime.

#2 - This was a much bigger issue, there were a group of 10 or so men who had been drinking and broke almost every rule there. They were shooting each other in the setup area around kids and people who weren't wearing eye protection (only happened once that I saw, but it was enough), cursing loudly, and shooting other contestants during games, some of them in their early teens multiple times even after they surrendered. They were also walking around the setup area without having the barrel sleeve in place, with fingers on the trigger and waving their guns around. To their credit, the referees tried to control them, but were not really successful.

This more than anything ruined the experience for us. Bad enough I had to watch out for my son, but also look after 5 other kids who weren't mine, and this made for a very stressful experience. After watching the safety video, they should have all been kicked out but for some reason were not. Once the teenage refs realized they could not control the situation, they should have gone for the adult manager or owner.

So, overall the place was great, playtime was shorter than expected, and experience not so great due to some of the...