12:59pm UK, Wednesday July 16, 2003

A new craze is sweeping through America's paintballing fraternity - hunting nude women.

The hunters pay £3,000-a-day to pursue the naked targets across the desert before shooting and 'mounting' them.

180 paintballing

A paintballer on the prowl

Dressed in camouflage gear, the paintballers chase up to three women at a time who wear nothing but tennis shoes.

After hitting their targets, they are photographed with their 'prey' and given a photograph to remember the occasion by.

Back at the ranch, the women allow the hunters to 'mount' them on the wall as trophies.

Hunters from as far afield as Germany are queuing up for the kinky field sport, being played just outside Las Vegas.

New Yorker George Evanthes said: "We got a hit. I got her in the behind. It was sexy."

But experts don't share George's enthusiasm and fear someone will be blinded, as the pellets fly at 200mph.

Feminists and psychologists are also up in arms over the game, dubbed Hunting For Bambi.

However, the female participants, who earn £1,600 if they don't get hit and £700 if they are 'mounted', aren't complaining.

The game's inventor, Michael Burdick, defended its safety risks and said contestants were told not to shoot above the chest.

"I don't go deer hunting and see a deer with a football helmet on, so I don't want to see one on my girl, either," he told the Daily Star.