Thinking of picking up some entry level guns (and safety gear of course) for my son and myself. We've got friends, dads and their sons, who are into it as well as family, plus we live out in the country with a lot of woods around so we've got plenty of opportunity and space.
What is decent? What is junk? Is $200-250 reasonable for 2 people to get started?
Educate me.
The cheaper and E36 M3tier, the better when it come to having FUN with paintball, stay in the woods. If the gun is mostly metal, its more than adequate. Get a nice enough mask to have a 2 pane lens(it wont fog).
Tippman. Not fancy speedball gear but great ultra-reliable perfect for woodsball. Lots of options to upgrade and customize later too.
I still have my old SL-68II PUMP gun. I wouldn't trade it. Much easier to hit your target in a couple of shots then just spray paint.
In reply to Ranger50:
Forgot, definitely go with pumps and basic semis, avoid ramping, full auto, electronic trigger, or whatever the hell $1200 billet thing the kids have now. If you're burning more than a bag of paint per day per person, you're doing it wrong.
Just for fun? Spend 35-85 dollars a mask for decent ones that fit. Find a local field and ask them for advice on masks or if they have a few you can try on.
http://www.ansgear.com/JT_Paintball_Masks_Goggles_s/17.htm
The cheap as hell 25.00 masks are decent with a good lens, but by then you're spending damn near 50 bucks anyway. "thermal" is the phrase used most for the dual pane lens. After that, go on craigslist and buy the cheapest kingman or spyder marker you can, or a tipmann 98/a5. Some of the BT guns are good as well. There is a reason they're used everywhere as rentals. Orings and lube will usually bring back all but the most dead of em. Feel free to PM me and I'll help as much as I can, Also a FORCE feed loader makes life alot better. The aggitated ones are better than gravity feed. The proto primo is another good one. gravity feed, but it has shelves inside that keep things from clogging up the works.
If your are mainly playing from home, you have two ways to go. Either purchase a pair of low end hpa or nitro tanks, low end steel ones can be usually purchased for around 30$ new, and the get a few scuba tanks with a fill station attachment. More $$ up front, but less wear and tear on the guns with more consistency down to the last few shots on the tank. The other is to stock up on a few CO2 tanks each. On a properly tuned gun a 20oz tank should get you a 1000-1200 shots, 9oz gets you 4-500. Co2 is very temperature sensitive, you will have to chrono the guns throughout the day using it as the pressure in the tank will spike as the day warms up.
Want something that takes more skill? Find a cheap used pump. Autococker pump or sniper is almost dead nuts reliable and as I said. It takes WAY more skill to use one effectivly than the pulll the trigger over and over guns.
Played lots of paintball with son #2 when he was a teenager, 8-11 years ago. We used Tippman 98 with a autofeeder battery powered ball holder thingy. We found the extra money was better spent on decent paintballs.
Plus, we paid a little extra to go to a well set-up and managed field. Safety is an issue! The palce had regular refs (marines, usually). I would often ref so the kids could play.
Go to places that have both competition fields and wooded areas, both types of play are fun. We also went to a couple of weekend two day adventure scenarios too.
In reply to Kenny_McCormic:
HEY I RESENT THAT! 
I run a pump 99% of the time I play, and yeah a box of paint usually lasts me about a month playing every weekend. But there are days it's nice to burn a case in a day and see droves of people walking off the field with my paint on em.
Sput has a point that I completely forgot. A chronograph is a must. 300fps stings like an SOB even through pads. watch a few youtube videos of pro paintballers there is a reason they move with a hand near their face. But I've been bruised from seriously long range from a "hot" gun. Most fields limit recreational players to 250-280 fps. 250 is the norm with younger players on the field.
As for scenarios, man I can't say enough about them. I left tournament ball, and went to scenario play. Spend most of the weekend with friends camping, and playing paintball. doesn't get much better. You can go nuts with the gear if you want, but I've had guys in jeans and a t-shirt by our side in nasty fights where experienced guys have said no thanks and left. Not to mention, its a heck of a lot cheaper than tournaments.
Old lady Tippman FTW! Those things are tanks. Not too fast, not too accurate. But when everyone's wonder gun was down, Ol' Lady Pro-Lite keeps hammering away.
Don't discount used guns. When the newest, bestest comes out, the "old" guns are pennies on the dollar. Just make sure who's selling gives you a demo beforehand.
In reply to Appleseed:
The old metal ones. Yes! The newer plastic ones? Not so much. Though who am I to talk? Last scenario I broke out a splatmaster when everything else I had broke.
Sometimes those fancy auto-trigger guns are a disadvantage. I once used a semi-auto tippman to totally own on a guy with a fancy ass electric auto trigger speed gun out in the woods. I realized we were just out of effective range. Lobbed three balls at him. Duck back under cover wait for the barrage of dozens. Lob three more. Repeat. Took about a minute for him to burn through his full hopper and give me the time to storm his position.
I do it all the time with a stock class gun. (12gr Co2 and 10 shot capacity) Remember less is more 
pump guns make you pick and choose your shots and make em count.
I tend to advocate paintball to parents wanting to get their kids out of the house, physical activity, teaches problem solving, angles, team work, with all the action of a video game. If its a decent field owner it should also teach sportsmanship. blatant cheating, and fit throwing shouldn't be tolerated. Unfortunately I see a lot of parents just drop their kids off at the field, and that is where the veteran players have to step up and coach them. (one of the things I enjoy most about playing with recreational players).
I should also add I preferred to play with CO2 in the woods, all the water vapor you would get out of the barrel on wet days made for better tactics. I quit playing when the people I were playing with all switched to Ions and $peedball, $60 would put a lot of 2009 priced 87 octane gasoline in my first car.
Every field around me has gone to only HPA instead of co2, I would recommend the entry level/cheapest autocockers.....heck, Dunham's sells an autococker starter kit for $100. In the past, I would have recommended tippmann, but their quality has gone downhill with everything coming from overseas. The last tippmann developed in the US was the A5. A company I deliver to designed all the old tippy prototypes.....I oogle the Factory F/A in the displaycase eevery time I go there though.
Personally, I used to run stock class with a cci phantom for scenario games, and a spyder amg for speedball. Its amazingly fun.
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