[Robotech]

I have to say, I love LAPCOs work, you should find that adaptor to be very well made. I have their FSR barrel with a Hush Shot extension and .50 cal style muzzle break...all very well made.

[ubermick]

Originally Posted by The Inflicted

Did you try contacting Flasc about that defective adapter?

I did, and to their credit they're sending me a replacement (already ordered the Lapco, but nice to have a backup, I suppose, and am already eyeing other Phenoms to create a magfed, so will come in handy there if that happens.)

Another question for everyone (this is basically my catchall thread now for idiot newb problems and mumblings) - I know you should really use your paint within a couple of months, which makes sense - but does that period of a couple of months come from date of purchase, or date of manufacture?

I say this purely because I was in Sports Authority yesterday (wife looking for yoga gear) and noticed they were selling Draxxus Midnight paint for $29.99 a case. Did a quick search while she was trying stuff on (nothing else to do...) and read quite a few people claiming that this paint was actually pretty good, far better than the stuff sold at Wal Mart, but the shipping dates on the cases had them arriving at Sports Authority back in January, so been sitting on the shelf/warehouse for 9 months now. Assume that even at a good price, said balls should be avoided?

[Henchman]

Buy your paint from a paintball store.

[Robotech]

Originally Posted by ubermick

Another question for everyone (this is basically my catchall thread now for idiot newb problems and mumblings) - I know you should really use your paint within a couple of months, which makes sense - but does that period of a couple of months come from date of purchase, or date of manufacture?

I say this purely because I was in Sports Authority yesterday (wife looking for yoga gear) and noticed they were selling Draxxus Midnight paint for $29.99 a case. Did a quick search while she was trying stuff on (nothing else to do...) and read quite a few people claiming that this paint was actually pretty good, far better than the stuff sold at Wal Mart, but the shipping dates on the cases had them arriving at Sports Authority back in January, so been sitting on the shelf/warehouse for 9 months now. Assume that even at a good price, said balls should be avoided?

Generally speaking the fresher the better. Paintballers are a bit funny when it comes to paint. They usually only buy their paint from paintball stores or the field they play at. Thus, those places cycle through paint at a fairly reasonable rate. This is not always the case but sometimes it is. This means fresher paint.

While the paint you saw at Sports Authority (SA) may be a good brand of paint, the fact that it's been sitting since January is not. Paint has weight. As those boxes sit, the weight of the paint at the top of the bags inside the boxes press down on the paint at the bottom of those same bags. Where the balls touch one another (remember we're talking round balls here so there are air pockets between individual balls) flat spots, or dimples, will develop and flat spots cause for inconsistant flight patterns when you shoot them.

This is why people talk about "rotating" their paint when they store it for long periods of time. Rotating the the paint (picking up a bag and shaking it up a bit to get the balls to rotate a bit in the bag and then placing the bag back in the box in the reverse orientation it was in when you took it out) will help prevent flat spots from forming.

There are also issues with how the shell degrades over time which can lead to the rounds being rubbery and harder to break against a target.

[ubermick]

Originally Posted by Henchman

Buy your paint from a paintball store.

Always have (erm, both cases so far, at least). Issue for me (like many, I suppose) is that the closest field/store is an hour's drive away (and via a crappy stretch of 101 that often tacks another half hour onto that) whereas the local Sports Authority is 15 minutes. But figured they wouldn't be worth it with the length of time they've been sitting on the shelf. I had ASSUMED tho that in woods/outlaw ball, it'd be less of an issue, but defective is defective, and I'd rather pay $40 a case for something that'll work, as opposed to saving a few bucks and having to strip the marker a half dozen times in the field thanks to crap paint.

(Will be sure to come up with other moronic questions..!)

[sobersteve323]

Originally Posted by ubermick

Always have (erm, both cases so far, at least). Issue for me (like many, I suppose) is that the closest field/store is an hour's drive away (and via a crappy stretch of 101 that often tacks another half hour onto that) whereas the local Sports Authority is 15 minutes. But figured they wouldn't be worth it with the length of time they've been sitting on the shelf. I had ASSUMED tho that in woods/outlaw ball, it'd be less of an issue, but defective is defective, and I'd rather pay $40 a case for something that'll work, as opposed to saving a few bucks and having to strip the marker a half dozen times in the field thanks to crap paint.

(Will be sure to come up with other moronic questions..!)

Personally for myself if it's only a couple of months old I'd get it out of convenience if the price was right since driving time is valuable to me. But yeah at 8 months the balls are probably all lopsided or dimpled since you can pretty much guarantee they don't rotate the paint around.

There's players that want the freshest paint and then there's players like some of my friends that will shoot anything even if it's over a year old and been sitting under a mattress in the garage. Just depends on the player and if you care if the paint is going all over the place or not lol.

[Robotech]

Originally Posted by sobersteve323

Personally for myself if it's only a couple of months old I'd get it out of convenience if the price was right since driving time is valuable to me. But yeah at 8 months the balls are probably all lopsided or dimpled since you can pretty much guarantee they don't rotate the paint around.

There's players that want the freshest paint and then there's players like some of my friends that will shoot anything even if it's over a year old and been sitting under a mattress in the garage. Just depends on the player and if you care if the paint is going all over the place or not lol.

Also depends on what you're shooting it for. If I'm testing my gun and or other equippment and accuracy/breakage isn't an issue (repairs, certain modifications, etc) this is where I shoot my old paint. Old paint like this is fine for those kinds of things and plus, you're not wasting your good paint. You could pick up a case of that paint for things like this.

[ubermick]

That's true - although would assume that bad paint (more likely to break) could make you think that a problem exists where there isn't one?

[Outlaw Torn]

If you're thinking about going magfed, look at the new tacamo mkp2 kits with the dmags. I just got a mech phenom and the kit and I really like it. Haven't gotten it out on the field yet (I'm planning on going out this Sunday. Sadly, not to Decay, though.), but it feels really nice and the mags seem to be a good quality for the price.

[ubermick]

Well, considering that I've dropped over $1,000 in the space of six weeks (jesus wept!) I'll need to keep my hands in my pockets for a while now on this. Next order of business, other than getting my Phenom working, is to find the time to actually get out and play.

[Robotech]

Originally Posted by ubermick

That's true - although would assume that bad paint (more likely to break) could make you think that a problem exists where there isn't one?

Depends on the problem. If I'm trying to figure out why the gun sear won't drop when I pull the trigger or whether or not a screw is going to stay tight if I keep firing for long periods of time shooting bad paint won't be a problem. Usually, bad paint doesn't become more brittle, it becomes less brittle. The issue with paint breaking in the gun is either it's the wrong size for your bore or it has swollen. I won't shoot paint that breaks in my gun no matter what so that's usually out but I will shoot paint that is dimpled and so hard that you can bounce it like a rubber ball if I'm testing out other issues.

[XiPaint8BallaXi]

Getting my TIPX this weekend, shot one before and it's pretty dope. Throw some ups on there like a hammerhead, zetamags, and remote line. You're set

[ubermick]

Haha, well got the new Lapco barrel adapter in, yanked the Flasc one and tested it out - first ball broke. Then I noticed that I'd grabbed the wrong barrel bore size off the workbench, so replaced it with a wider bore and....

...100 shots later, not a single break. Hooray!

Although lot of skipped balls in the cyclone, seems like the feed can't keep up with the full auto mode, so looks like I'll have to pull it apart and take a look at that.

[Henchman]

Originally Posted by Outlaw Torn

If you're thinking about going magfed, look at the new tacamo mkp2 kits with the dmags. .

Or wait until I get my DMAG magfed Enmey bodies done.

Hoping to make getting into Magfed inexpensive.
Hopefully under $350, and that would include 10 DMAGS, the magfed body and an Enmey.

[ubermick]

Originally Posted by Henchman

Or wait until I get my DMAG magfed Enmey bodies done.

Hoping to make getting into Magfed inexpensive.
Hopefully under $350, and that would include 10 DMAGS, the magfed body and an Enmey.

Er, this is more of a visual gag, but I'm doing that evil villian thing where I'm tapping my fingers together and going "iiiiiiiiiiiinteresting....!"

In otherwords, looking forward to seeing that. Anywhere there's more info?

[Henchman]

Originally Posted by ubermick

Er, this is more of a visual gag, but I'm doing that evil villian thing where I'm tapping my fingers together and going "iiiiiiiiiiiinteresting....!"

In otherwords, looking forward to seeing that. Anywhere there's more info?

https://www.pbnation.com/showthread.php?t=4023909

This is just the prototype, to see if it would work.
I have a machinist who is going to do a redesign of the actual body, and make it look by nice. And instead of the MKP, I might switcht I the MKV Magwell instead.

[XSVchild12]

i always tell new players to go with a top level gun from back in the day. so something like an ego 7 or dm 8. Eteks or PMRs. But if your looking for a moor woodsball look id look at a tm-15 and x7 phenom stuff like that. Defiantly give woodsball a shot because most new players dont like airball. its just too chaotic and confusing to a beginner. I havent taken the time to read the comments already given so will probably repeat others. Use youtube as a source of information when a real player isnt there. People like mick from ******. So if you have a friend who plays, borow some of his gear, go play and talk to the regualars and get there opinion as well. Also to stay under your budget, but used. No use in speding $400 on a new x7 when used ones are $200 and you have $200 to but a mask and loader and tank.

[Henchman]

And I stand by a new $129 Enmey, good barrel and a good electronic hopper and mask.

You will have a new warrantied marker that will be more consistent and accurate than anything else out there. And you'll spend more time on the field, than off of it trying to figure out why your cyclone is a blender, or why you are getting breaks in the barrel. Or why suddenly the airthru brass is leaking. Or why you are having to send it back, yet again due to a leak in the impossible to service at home power tube..

[splatthetick]

My Phantom shoots all p8nt and all peeps..."Speedballahs/Woodsballahs" no matter! You know not the joys of one shot...one gog! Wicked fun, bro!!

[[NA]WARLORD]

As a ( future) Tippmann Certified tech (my field runs A5's and 98's) exclusively, I will say they are a snap to fix and run months without maintenance. I work on them every weekend and the main issue with them is dirt in the cyclone or dirt around the hammer, other then that they perform as well as any other mech in it's class.

My thoughts on the E Class Tippmann's:

buy a lithium battery, it will last longer.
do not modify the cyclone in any way, stock parts work best.
buy a huge tank, they are gas hogs, even the Phenom.

As a former SP1 owner, I liked it over the Tippmanns because:

It had a reg
It operated on a low pressure
it ran off HPA or C02 with the change of a setting
It was half the weight of any thing Tippmann offered
It was way more efficient then any Tippmann

cons:

It ate batteries
It had a weak solenoid

I modified my SP1 with quick strip grips, ran a lithium, a Freak barrel and a GoG G1 stock board and a CP on/off, and an old school 12v Revolution loader. It was capped at 11 bps, but with the G1 board I could shoot PSP Ramp and thats all I ever used. I highly recommend them over a Tippmann as they will give you more bang for your buck then anything Tippmann has ever produced. Keep a spare solenoid in your tool box along with some Ion hose and a few banjo's and thats all you will ever need to keep it humming right along.

[Raibead]

Alright iv been playing paintball with an a5 for 4 years and I can say its never failed me. other than the time it was -21°C, and it wasnt really the guns fault it was the O-rings that got frozen up but I digress. The A5 is an excellent starter marker and you can upgrade it so it can be used by anyone at any level really. The good thing is its not electronic so you dont have to worry about batteries and water. There is an old saying that you could throw a tippmann off a cliff then run over it with a truck set it on fire and put it underwater, and it would still work just fine. Go for the A5. it wont let you down.