Hey guys,

  Haven't posted recently because I've been spending too much time either playing or working on making our various practice fields better.  And it was this that gave me an idea for a thread I hadn't seen recently, bunker construction ideas.  It seems that 90% of the bunkers you see (on rec/woodsball fields) are either natural soft cover, mound-type bunkers, or are constructed of pallets.  These all work well, but each have their downfalls.

  We play in several wooded fields on 15-20 acre lots.  The property isn't ours, but we've been given permission to use it as long as we don't trash up the place or attract undue attention.  For this reason we've looked at alternatives to discarded materials as bunkers, opting instead for something that won't be as obtrusive.

  For this we've come up with something I don't see elsewhere, we've taken 3ml shrink-wrap plastic (I know some of you won't have access to this, but to those of you who have access to warehouse materials, it's no harder than getting pallets).  Each piece of plastic is draped over a piece of cable which is tied between two trees or staked into the ground (though we have made some free-standing bunkers with 2x4's sunk into the ground a foot or so).  The two bottom ends, which should be loose are then stapled into a 2x4 the length of the bunker to add weight and keep it from blowing or shifting.  From here soft cover or spray paint can be used to disguise the bunker from sight.  It's worked well and is easily removed should the field ever need to be cleared.

  I appreciate any other ideas, as we're trying several things that haven't been played out by others.

Thanks,
Long_Shot

  I've considered just about everything, trying to find a new place isn't impossible, but the field is convenient for all our practices and scrimmage sessions.  The plastic will not be permanently secured, instead it will be hanging from cable and attached to a 2x4 at the bottom.  Aside from that there's not a great deal of choice for the situation.

  We're buying 50 gallon drums as secondary bunkers, but they're too expensive to try and use them as our base bunker.  Pallets are easily obtained but very hard to transport the mile and a half 'nature trail' to the field.  The 3mm plastic seems to be the strongest option for the result.  We will be using pallets to fill in the dig-in bunkers we've made so you're not knee-deep in mud, but otherwise they're usefulness is far exceeded by the work necessary to get them in place.

  Once we've completed a bit more work, I'll post some pictures so I can see what you guys think, all the bunkers (aside from dig-ins) are easily moved, so reconfiguration isn't much of a hassle.  And if anyone has found a site with decent plans for paintball bunkers it would be most appreciated if you could drop me the link.

Long_Shot

You know, there might be some old 50 gallon drums in a junkyard somewhere. I wouldn't doubt a local junkyard in your area... you might as well check...

Try spools. Those wire spools. You can probibly get them free from your local power company, cable, or phone company. Or if you can find a huge electrical company, they might have some empty spools laying around. Although, you will have to transport them. (to get them into the woods, you can just roll them) Most spools range in size from 4 to 12 inch plastic (useless for paintball), or from 12 inch to 6 foot wood spools. Some are even larger. But those extra huge ones will be hell to transport (the huge wood ones are as heavy as... <insert bad words here>).

You can use some logs that are laying around (or you could always "borrow" a few limbs off of a tree). Just arange them in a bunker. You can use large bolts, construction screws, or rail road **edited**es to hold them in place (although all of those do get pretty expensive).

Plywood and some 2 x 4s works wonders, but it gets expensive, and uber heavy.

If I were you, I'd go look around local construction sites (but don't piss the workers off, trust me, they hate that). Be real polite, and ask the guys if they have any scrap material you can take (especially wood). Most of the time, they won't care, beacuse they would have to get rid of the scrap anyway, you're basically doing some of that disposal for them. But seriously, ask permission, and be really polite...

Hey put some pictures of it to give an idea so i can see wat to do.......................................................... ............................................................ .........................................................and also you can take a shovel about normal size and dig a hole about 2ft deep and trust me its easy and then you pil sticks in like a diamond shape around it and pile dirt around it give you extra protection but make sure you have someone watchin ur back so u dont get bunkered

A-5 auto wrote: u can find the plastic at Freds or Walmart probably even at dollar tree and at ur local garden store and dont get bunkered

Yeah... but what happens when it rains?

Sump-pump, anyone?

Why dont try using the trees to make yer bunkers, Im sure theres plenty of branches or a dead tree layin around or if you could ask permission from the property owner/management if its possible to chop down some trees to make the bunkers and you may never the property mgmt/owner probably has plans of taking some down trees...

yea trees and mounds of dirt are about the best way tro go because they are natural and ur land owners dont get pissed off

we use berlap bag's for our bunkers we have the same problem we cant trash the wood's out with skid's and stuff

Wink

Well I have some friends who sometimes play in a junkyard lol. Premade bunkers everywhere!!! If your location wasnt a mile and 1/2 walk i would recommend loading some scrap metal up as a more sturdier base. Simply find some old sheet metal to substitute for the 2x4, bend them outwards bout 3 inches from the top (precautionary reasons) and you could have yourself a sturdy base bunker.

Also foxholes are great, usually unless you are looking for them you'll fall right into them or go right by them.