I've been wanting to try FSR for a long time and I've finally gathered the money and the income level to do it without worrying much.
I'm not too concerned about having something that can do what my DM12 can do. Pump is more than fine for me.
I've been looking into the Hammer 7, but I'm just wondering if anyone knows any platforms that could potentially provide more accuracy below $600. I know the SAR12 would be ideal for my situation but I just can't justify buying another $1000 marker, especially a bolt-action that I'd only use maybe 30% of the time. I can afford something much more expensive than the Hammer 7 but I'm not too interested in an AR replica like the MD5/MX3/T68/T4.
I'm under the impression that 90% of the accuracy of FSR markers are the First Strike rounds themselves, but I just want to make sure that my marker isn't bottlenecking my performance if I'm paying $0.60 per round.
Honestly I own a rap4 468 and I feel it is by far the best platform for shooting first strikes. The Dmags by far are the most reliable in the game at feeding the FSR once you put the proper spring in them. Also A riffled barrel helps tremendously. The best one I know of is the lapco FSR barrel. Also the milsi paradigm pro is a great marker to look in to also. Very reliable and great customer service.
There are a few people in the Hammer 7 opinions thread saying that it's not much of a sniper rifle and that it jams/chops paint. Seems a bit worrisome to me, seeing as FSR rounds are a bit expensive and having to clean jams in the middle of a match is frustrating.
Esmith is right it doesn't chop but that 9th round doesn't feed in properly all the time and sometimes gets stuck. I get better range and accuracy than a flatline or apex and don't have a rifled barrel yet.
Having trouble finding any actual evidence that rifled barrels help with FS. All I've found suggests that it makes it worse if anything by damaging the fins on the way through if it's tight enough to actually impart any spin. We know for a fact that rifling doesn't help with round balls, just not sure where the idea that it works with FS comes from.
I have the Lapco barrel that has the rifling that matches the FS on my T9.1 and love it, but if I had a bigger budget and only wanted FS I would probably get a TGR2 or a T4.1. The TRG2 looks great, is quite accurate, and isn't super expensive. The downside is there is no hopper capacity, its 100% mag.
The T4.1 is about $400 more expensive, but comes with an airtank ($120) and the Lapco barrel ($99) so those things help bring it more down to the TGR2 price.
I love my T9.1 and I wish I could afford a T4.1 to tell you how much more amazing it was.
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Started in 2009, Woodsball only
Current Kit:
GOG G1
Deadlywinds 14" Fibur-X w/Apex tip
Cockerpunk did some testing, bench mounted indoors with more shots. Consider me convinced. Also simonized did high speed footage proving that the barrel does actually spin up the FSR.
Cool. I just like to be thorough - there've been enough bogus claims in paintball over the years to make you cry so it's good to see some legitimate work being done
Have you considered the trracer? No magazine, but its very consistent and cheaper than the Hammer. Ive always thought it was the best way to start off shooting first strikes.