Hi all:
I just received a brand new Alien Independence 2009.
Build/Appearance:
Right out of the box I was very impressed compared to the '08 ND. This is the perfect example of "form follows function". The matte anodized finish feels and looks invincible. The surface is hardened and resistant to scratches. It'd take a lot of abuse to see the underlying aluminum.
The marker feels solid, durable, and light-weight/balanced. This is probably due to the fantastic milling job. It's smooth, clean, and has a very nice tactile feel to it. No more appearance of "brush strokes". There is zero flex in the grip frame, the upper body, or the regulators into the upper receiver (body). The grip frame feels so nice when held with a full-fingered gloved hand. The palm naturally wraps around the grip and the fingers just fall into the right place.
What I love about this model is that it is unique to the paintball market. The appearance exudes a sense of speed, strength, and reliability.
On-Off ASA:
Small, light, easy to turn off and on. It has the feature of being able to de-gas the marker so it's easy to remove a pressurized bottle. To the guys who first get the marker, if you get a leak here remember you'll probably need to drop a bit of oil (silicon based only) onto the pin and work it in there by screwing the on-off back and forth. The o-rings inside are new and need a bit of soak in oil to seal properly. Great little component. I like the small size, matte finish, and ease of use. Jack didn't neglect the small things.
Feedneck:
Awesome low rise neck. Fits all loader types I can think of. Nice bike-lock type mechanism to tighten. Great!
Trigger:
Critical trigger design. We're mostly familiar with this. 4-point adjustments for getting it just right. Subject to opinion in terms of feel. Personally I love it. AlienPB had it setup perfect from the factory and I made no adjustments to it. I'm sure most will love it.
Shooting Function:
I've shot and played with markers from several major companies (eg SP, PE, BT, Tipps, DYE, etc). The day after I got the box from Alien, I hoped in a car to get air for my tanks. After a fill, I went to a teammate's backyard and tuned the regulators for a decent velocity. I had to do this because out of the box I was shooting ~350 FPS. At that velocity, I was shooting with a very straight trajectory. I was using the Mayday Barrel Kit (0.693) and month-old Draxxus paint. The madday barrel kit is awesome, by the way, but I'm sure if you've got a barrel kit already, the alien kit is just icing on the cake. Personally I love the mayday barrels.
With slow single shots, at ~350+ FPS I was not breaking balls. I'm pretty sure this is due to the way the bolt and sweep air-flow was designed. Instead of a spike of pressure on the paintball, the air sweeps around it and carries it forward. When I tried shooting at faster rates, paintballs started to break in the barrel; but we're talking about 350+ fps...so breaks are gonna happen.
We turned down the regulators, tuned them a bit, and got a nice, consistent 260 FPS. Mind you, this gun is brand new and it still needs to be broken in. The piston springs are stiff, etc. But, after a few shots I believe I was getting +/- 3 to 5 FPS. I liked that a lot.
So, I proceeded to walk the trigger (easily done with the '09 ND). No first shot drop off. No drop off at higher rates of fire. The regulators kept up with my shooting. I don't know what my BPS was, but my team mate walked my '09 ND as though it was on auto fire. No adjustments to the trigger. No ball breaks.
Laser beams would be jealous. With old draxxus paintballs, 0.693 bore Mayday barrel 14 inches, I got a nice 100-120 foot range with a straight trajectory and almost no deviation from center for at least 80 feet at 260 fps. This is a very consistent, smooth (zero kick!), dare I say quieter, and very fast shooter.
Electronics:
The board in the Alien '09 Independence is easily and fully programmable. Set and forget. Colored lights tell you what you need and a great manual will tell you how to program the marker to your liking. Enough said here. You could have an OLED screen in an Ego for another $200-400 bucks, or you could get an Alien '09 Indy with the same features without the OLED screen. Your call. I'd rather use my extra $$$ and get a new PS3 for my living room.
Sweep Bolt:
Compared to the '08 ND, this bolt has some new features. O-rings to seal air from going out back during firing (increased efficiency). The bolt has a "V" cut into the back of it so it matches the frame's milling. You don't see the bolt when looking at the marker from the side! All you see is the pin. It's cute and proof again that Jack doesn't neglect the details.
I love this bolt. I don't get why people aren't convinced with the sweep air technology. I've seen the difference on the field. I believe it does help get that straighter trajectory. Instead of a circular cone, the spread of paintballs from the Indy is not only smaller, but looks more like a squashed cone. There is less deviation in the top-down axis.
The rubber nib at the top of the bolt prevents stacked paintballs (from the loader) from getting compressed and nicked by the bolt as it shoots the paintball from the breach. A lot of paintball breaks are from the force fed loaders compressing paintballs too low into the breach. This causes bolt to fracture them while awaiting clearance. Jack has designed a soft rubber nib on the bolt which gently keeps the stacked balls in the feedneck from dropping too low (prevents "premature" activation of the loader's force fed mechanism),
and thereby reducing the risk of "loading fractures".
You know when you're getting bolt "loading fractures" when a ball breaks and paint splatters all over your bolt and eyes. A barrel break, well it happens in the barrel and most paint is found in the barrel. '09 ND has a design to reduce this from happening. I only know of the ego's cure bolts which may be analogous to this.
The '09 ND sits right next to and above all these high-end markers when it comes to actually shooting paintballs. You don't go to AlienPB to buy a paintball gun, you go to AlienPB to shoot your opponents' off the field!
At the price the '09 ND is selling for, you get everything and more when it comes to a more efficient, more consistent, and more accurate (*depends on paint quality/barrels, too) shooting experience. 1000 paintballs through the marker and you'll know what I'm talking about.
Remember, Jack designed these markers so you can maintain them in the comfort of your home or field. Once you set them up though, they won't require much attention except to adjust velocity.
Customer Service:
This is just as important as any feature on a paintball gun. Jack Rice has been on top of his product since I don't know when. He is a consummate businessman with a passion for his paintball markers that is freaking contagious.
Alright, thanks for reading. Now I'm gonna start putting another 500,000 rounds through this thing....
