West Plains war zone: NiteHawk Paintball serves up colorful fun

Business offers out of the ordinary family day trip

By RYAN LANCASTER

Staff Reporter

Just off Highway 231 a few miles north of Reardan, a group of friends and acquaintances gathered last Saturday to hang out, have some laughs and hunt each other down without mercy.

For the past five years, Dale Burbridge has operated NiteHawk Paintball on a 26-acre wooded plot he purchased after getting hooked on the sport in 2004. He began organizing monthly scenario games – think zombie attacks, war movie reenactments, etc. – and the field's following started to grow. Business is steady, he said, although winter months are sluggish and the economy has slowed it down even further this year.

Burbridge, who develops game scenarios with the help of the field's regulars, said the largest game is the annual Armed Forces War in the spring. Last year roughly 230 people split off into Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines teams in March and shot each other up. “It's always a big spring event – kind of a kickoff to summer,” he said. “There might be four inches of mud and it's raining but still people will come out to play.”

Burbridge also organizes charity events, like last month's “Turkey Hunt,” which raised over 300 pounds of food. He said he and others dress up like turkeys with plenty of padding and run through the woods to be pursued by two teams – hunters and PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). “PETA's job is to coral the turkeys while hunters try to shoot the turkeys,” he said. “If we get shot the hunter gets a turkey tag. If PETA gets us into the coral they get a turkey tag. Last year it was within 10 points.”

Games like these attract both adults and children, who pay about $10 to play all day and can rent guns, paintballs and Co2 cartridges at the site. Before games start for the day Burbridge requires a waiver to be signed by all participants and gives a rules and safety speech. Laws include no arguing, no wiping paint off if hit and keeping masks on at all times during play.

Burbridge said other than his Web site (www.nitehawkpaintball.com) and a few flyers for special events advertising is strictly word of mouth. As this is the only paintball field in the area, however, people from all over the Inland Northwest and even Canada come out to play.

“We sometimes do two-day events where people bring their RVs in from all over the place,” he said. “People can sit around the campfire while the kids play and it's kind of like a big campout.”

While Saturday's third annual Santa vs. the Grinch event to support Toys for Tots didn't get the same draw as past games due to freezing temperatures, about 30 people showed up to play. Melissa Conn and her young son Ethan drove an hour from Coeur d'Alene, Idaho; it was their second time at the field. Ethan said he's “a natural” at paintball, which he's been playing for a few years now.

“I'm a very good shot and I'm smaller than everybody else, usually,” he said. “They don't see me because they don't look in the smaller bushes.”

“He really likes the strategy involved,” Conn said of her son, adding that she'd never seen an actual paintball field before moving to the Inland Northwest from Kansas. “Back there he and his cousins would just kind of use each other for target practice,” she said.

Burbridge himself has two boys, aged 7 and 10, who have been playing since they were around 6 years old. He said paintball is a way for them to connect as a family and to have a good time in the outdoors. “It's a family event. You get outside and you get to play army guy; that's what my boys like,” he said. “You're hunting someone down and they're hunting you down, it's just a rush.”

Ryan Lancaster can be reached at [email protected].