History
 

        Steve Maranzana and myself were fortunate to spend some time with Bob Long, Captain of the 1998 NPPL 10-man Champions, California’s Team Ironmen.  Bob is also a proud sponsor of his affiliated amateur team, The Diggers.  Located in Concord, his store Delta Archery (an archery store combined with his paintball store), sells a wide variety of paintball products, including his Bob Long series products and Digger shoes.
        Bob Long was first introduced to paintball by a friend, Rick Cendejas, (who now plays for the Paraplegic Turtles - amateur team) and he has been playing ever since.  Starting in 1978 with Archery and 1985 with paintball, Bob has had his share of professional hobbies, including car racing.  With an attitude to give it his all, to be the best at what he does he sets goals and works hard to achieve them. Bob clearly demonstrated this by leading the Ironmen to a NPPL 10 - man Championship.
        Bob set foot in the paintball industry with his own products when he could not get what he wanted from his distributors.  He realized that there was demand for paintball products that were not currently available.  His first product was his own line of Bob Long Signature Series vertical feed cockers.  The STO Autococker from WGP followed it to the market one year later.
 

Manufacturing and Products

* Click Links to see pictures of Bob's exclusive products

        Manufacturing his own products for almost 2 years now, Bob has a variety of products on the market, ranging from custom bolts, barrels, and triggers, all the way up to inline pressure regulators and tournament paintball guns.  “The life of a product in the industry is around 18 months” according to Bob, and believes that “there should be a new product on the market every six months to keep the industry moving.”  Due to the huge success of the Kingman Spyder, one of Bob’s best selling aftermarket products is the Cyclone bolt, which has sold over 15,000 nationwide.
        Other popular products include the Long Shot barrel series, due to its availability in a large scale of bore sizes to fit any size paintball on the market.  The Bob Long Regulator is another popular item, which allows you to adjust the inline pressure with a simple twist from a dime.  The Millenium (available as a fully tricked assembled gun, or as an upgrade body for an existing Spyder) is Bob Long’s tricked vertical alternative to the Kingman Spyder.  Bob’s featured newest and hottest item is the Defiant, which should be hitting his store very soon.
 

The Defiant

        Doug Zander (of Benchmark) machined the first prototype of the Defiant for Bob (prototype is pictured on right).  Not satisfied with the first attempt, Bob teamed up with Jerry Dobbins from Indian Creek Designs (creator of the original Bushmaster, Pro-master, Desert Fox, and Thunder-cat line of paintball guns).  After the 98 World Cup, Bob realized that electropneumatic was the way to go in order to compete with WDP Angels and Smart Parts Shockers.  Bob called up Jerry with the idea.  Fortunately, Jerry had already had the same thought.  Utilizing the best concepts from existing designs, the gun in production now emerged.  It incorporates a ram similar to the Angel’s and the same 4-way solenoid being used in the Shocker,  Jerry came out with the Bushmaster 2000 for himself and a custom signature series for Bob Long called the Defiant.
        The Bushmaster 2000 and Defiant are almost identical in design except for a few key differences.  The Defiant has a custom double finger trigger frame that features a fully adjustable trigger.  The Defiant also comes with some milling and custom anodization.  The interesting difference is that the Defiant takes cocker barrels while the Bushmaster 2000 takes Indian Creek Designs barrels.  A big plus for current cocker owners with an existing barrel collection.  Check out all of the features.

The Defiant also features:

- Built-in Inline regulator
- Quick release bolt.
- Different size barrels
- Custom milling
- Double trigger
- Aluminum grip
- Aluminum body
- Vertical feed
- Special splash anodize
   (available in a variety of colors)

- Short and long barrel attachments
- Ball sizers
- Select fire (3 shot, 8 shot, and full auto)
- ROF of up to 14 balls a second
- Powered by 9-volt battery
- Fore grip
- Low-pressure operation (225-250 psi)
- Length without the barrel only 7.5"
- Almost same width as an Autococker!
- Averages around 800 shots with a 3k psi 68ci HPS (also C02 Compatible)

Additional Pictures:

- Zach Long shooting his cobalt blue Defiant.
- Picture of Steve and Bob at the store.
- New HPS cradle from Bob.
- Bob poses for the camera.
- Custom Bob Long Vertical fed Autococker.

        Bob says that he is probably going to play one more year before he retires from professional paintball.  He admits that he has been neglecting his team, due to trying to keep up with the high demands for his products.  With the recent success of his Milleniums and soon to be Defiant, Bob expects to have his hands full in the future and will be putting his efforts into the Paintball industry.  “You have to put goals on things to be successful”, says Bob.  Great motto from a great guy - keep up the good work Bob.

You can visit Bob Long's Webpage by following the Link in the MPN Link section.

You can visit his store at :

        Delta Archery
        1820-D Arnold Industrial Wy.
        Concord, CA 94520
        (510) 685-7141

Sean Takeda and Steve Maranzana
Columnists, The MPN