Gobble Gully owner expects to add to the attrarction

The owner of the newly opened Gobble Gully Paintball, just north of Turkey Creek, says he plans to “start slow” and gradually grow the business as word of the attraction spreads.
Frank Butler, who grew up in Turkey Creek, owns Butler Tree Service. That business provides plenty of wood chips that he uses to top the trails he has placed along the six paintball fields on the six acres of paintball fields at Gobble
Gully.
He said about 80 percent of the people who have come to the paintball fields have never shot a paintball gun before, but they quickl;y get the hang of it.
The younger ones normally start out with the lowest of the three levels of paintball velocity that paintball guns at Gobble Gully are capable of firing. Gobble Gully specializes in low impact paintball, so children as young as six years old can participate. Those include games tailored to low impact paintball shooting, and a field that has low-impact equipment.
People can come alone or in groups. Butler will divide groups of 10 to 15 people into two groups and take one group to a location where they will “defend” themselves from the other group. Butler has built a number of bunkers, and even a “Western Town,” and has laid paths where one group can advance on the other group. Shooters are provided with chest protector pads that are black on one side and camoflauge on the other, so the two groups can be distinguished from a distance.
People who are shot three times are considered “out,” Butler said, and variations of “capture the flag” are also played on the paintball fields. The fields also are used for archery events.
Butler said sometimes entire families have participated in the paintball events, or the parent can see their child with others from an observation area. Gobble Gully also can take equipment offsite -- including inflatable bunkers -- for a customized paintball party or other event at a school, company, park, residence or other location.
Smoke grenades are also available, and Butler said as paintball has become popular, more items have become available. He said paintball guns cost from about $200, including the paintball tank, to $1,500 for the more demanding shooters.
An enthusiastic promoter of paintball events, Butler said they instill leadership, communication and problem-solving skills, teamwork, and provide healthy physical activity for people of all ages. He said he is encouraging towns, schools, even churches to form teams.
Butler says he expects to add activities, such as movies, and he may add a water deck where people can go to rinse off the paint, which is easy to remove and is biodegradable. He tells the kids by telling them they don’t see many used paintballs because the zombies come out at night and eat any paintballs left on the ground. Zombies are a recurring theme at Gobble Gully.
And he has fun with groups of kids he goes with on zombie rides where the kids are placed behind mounted paintball guns on a trailer pulled by a tractor to places where the zombies lurk.
Butler said even zombies need employment, and his business is contributing to the economic value of the parish in other ways, by offering another activity to attract visitors who might come to stay in Chicot State Park, participate in sporting events, visit family or for other reasons.