Auto-triggering

Maybe it’s because I’m older than the average paintball player, but I really don’t like high rates of fire. It was confirmed again this weekend during West Coast Pump Weekend. I played most of the day on Sunday during the “recreation” portion of the two day event.
There were a couple of times where I was “lit up”. It was by pump players using auto triggers. For those of you that don’t know what auto-triggering is, basically it means holding down the trigger of the marker and then pumping the pump handle of the maker continuously. Each time the pump handle is cycled, one paintball will be shot. So basically you can shoot as fast as you can move your hand (theoretically .68”) back and forth. Depending on how smooth (easy) the pump stroke is, auto-triggering can be quite fast. With the “hitman” mod, basically all a player needs to do is hold the trigger down and pull the vertical part of the pump arm, much like a trigger, approximately .68” and it’s not a whole lot different than any mechanical semi-automatic.
I’m an experienced player and getting hit 5 times in the span of a second or so, wasn’t that big of a deal for me. I certainly didn’t freak out on my assailants. As a matter of fact, I said nothing at all to them. But that doesn’t mean that I was happy about it. It just meant that I wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of letting them know I didn’t enjoy the experience.
Paintball players have always looked for an advantage over their opponents. Pump players are no different I guess (at least some of them). During the evolution of our sport, auto-triggering was a big contributor to creating an advantage over other players. It’s interesting for me that history seems to be repeating itself.
In general, I feel pump players play pump to get back to the “honour” of the game. Back to a time when things were more mellow and more even for those who took part. Yet just as in the past, there are those that want an upper hand.
I don’t know if there is anything that can be done about the situation. It’s just an interesting observation. History does tend to repeat itself.