The accuracy of this review is disputed. Please see discussion below.
Period of Product Use:
Less than a month
10 of 13 people found this review helpful.
Paintball Experience:
3 years
Similar Products Used:
None, nothing like it.
Marker Setup:
Angel A4
Smart Parts S/S Freak Kit
Halo B w/rip drive and Victory Board
Kapp Drop
Crossfire 68/4500
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Smart Parts Ion
Green Body Kit
NDZ Roller Trigger
NDZ QEV
Smart Parts S/S Freak Kit
Smart Parts Dove Rail and ASA
Q-Lock
Lucky Stage 1, 2, 3
Recommended Paintballs:
Cannot shoot paint through this barrel.
Strengths:
Accurate, durable, great for practice, no paint needed
Weaknesses:
Price
Review:
We recently picked up a dealership with Predator games, hoping to stock their products. In Michigan we have a problem with practicing speedball in the winter due to the snow. Our team was looking at these, so I decided to purchase one and test it to see if it would suit our needs. Last week I opened the box which was well padded, and inside contained my 'manual', the receiver, and the barrel. The receiver and barrel already come with batteries.
I ordered my barrel in Spyder threads because you can purchase adaptors to fit nearly any marker. I threw on my Angel adaptor eager to start using it. It only requires a source of air. It's just like dry firing your marker. The barrel uses the vibrations from the gun to shoot the IR beam. You can use CO2, N2, or Air on your marker, it doesn't matter.
I set the receiver up, about 20 feet from me on top of the couch. When you shoot this thing is pretty darn accurate. You can usually get within 2 or 3 inches of the receiver and it will hit, this is pretty good at that distance. This barrel works great for improving your snap shooting skills. I recommend it to any tournament player who wants to hone their skills, or anyone who just wants to play a 'high tech laser tag'.
I talked to my team about it, and I think we will all end up ordering them, then setting up bunkers indoors and run practices with them. The great part about it is no mess. No paint is being used, this cuts down on practice costs.
Although the IR beam does not convey the actual trajectory of a paintball (the curve and velocity loss at certain distances) it works great for just practicing.
Conclusion:
I recommend this barrel to anyone who can afford it. If you have the extra amount of money and want to run off season pracitce, go for it. It is a great investment and will in the end help you develop your skills as a better player.
Kinda off of what FadetoBlack was saying, but also, a laser goes 984,000,000 feet per second. A paintball, as we all know, has a typical muzzle velocity of only 300. Once it goes downrange it begins to digress in speed. According to math, that laser in The Predator is going 3,266,666.67 times faster than a paintball! I say all this to say that playing "laserball" is not entirely realistic. You can dodge paintballs, heck, I have done it scores and scores of times, but there is no way you can dodge this laser. So any time someone aims at you with this thing, you're out pretty much no matter what.
I currently haven't used this product yet but I like the Idea and would consider purchasing one. I agree this won't accurately simulate shooting paint since the lazer will have a straight path. But for the milsim, players including myself, this would be a better simulation of the real thing. No "slow balls" to do matrix moves with. You just get hit and your out. Yeah this would be difficult to dodge, if it's possible, but just think if you use this to practice your movement on the field. When you switch to a "slow moving" ball you'll be use to a much faster system and you should be able to avoid getting hit by a paintball easier. For all you who spent 100's of dollars on our markers this system would give us another opportunity to enjoy the money we worked for. Yes some people are afraid of being hit by paintballs this would give these people a chance to play "lazertag / paintball" with a paintball gun without looking like the Stay-puff Marshmallow man with all the extra padding. Although I would like to see a lazer that doesn't get bigger the further away you get. What rifle can create a 30 inch diameter kill zone at a distance of 150 feet? Meaning you really don't have to hit your target at further distances.
Last edited on Thursday, September 21st, 2006 at 9:09 am PST
I am assuming that you need a clear line of sight to the receiver? What I am thinking of here is if your opponent is hiding behind a 3 stack, pops up and you gog him with the IR "paintball" will his receiver (which, I assume is mounted on his chest) register the hit?
Woodsball is another issue - will leaves and branches break up the IR beam (like they deflect a Paintball).
This sounds like a great training aid - and I disagree with some of the folks who say people only use this because they don't want to get hit with a PB - after all, if you don't want bruises, that is what body armor is for :-)
Dude same results as this barrel, buy a dollar store lazer and tape that sucker to your barrel.... there you go, you just saved 99 dollars.
Dry firing is a waste of time imo.
Reballs is a way better way to practice if your are concerned about the mess. As for the trap to catch them, a laundry basket with a few towels in it will work fine.
Now, just throwing this out there, but wouldn't this be lazer tag because your not using paintballs? I mean, your playing the sport of "paintball" and your using "paintballs", but if your using a lazer beam to shoot each other it would be called "lazer tag".
I have a better IDEA of this, I practice a lot and lots and lots... So to save money I use the MISSION PAINTBALL! I push the button on the regulator and it hides my player, and I hide the same time, thus I do snap shoot all the time. I kill different targets. Sound better to me... your gun even re-cocks if you want. I go as far away from the TV. MISSION PAINTBALL is a video game you attached to your TV...it is like a version of Duck hunt but a little better, and it is made for paintball.
ya it is pretty bad...its nutting like the real thing and its so stupid. They say retarded things when u hit the players in a hic voice and theres like 100 of them vs 1 of u.
Last edited on Saturday, December 16th, 2006 at 7:17 pm PST
There's a fantastic review of this product on paintball.com that discusses a lot of the objections that many people are raising on this thread. Of course there are some cons to this system. There are cons to any system or ides. But there are also benefits.
Recognizing that there are pros and cons to this system, it's now up to each consumer to decide if the pros outweigh the cons for him or her. Yes, the laser flies straight while paintballs curve downward, so you adjust the target to compensate for more accurate drills. Of course it doesn't actually shoot anything and is more akin to Lazer Tag, but is that a better option than spending my extra time picking up 500 Reballs that I just shot and might scratch my marker or barrel? Plus I don't have to spend the additional money on training paint. For me I think all this outweighs the cons and could provide a valuable training aid.
A few questions, however. Aren't the purpose of these threads to dispute the veracity of the reviews and not simply bash people or products? I'd contend that the original review was solid in the eyes of the writer. If you have factual data to dispute any claims, then that's one thing, but that's not what happening here. Also, I'd challenge any of you to come up with a practical system that answers all the objections raised here: providing valuable practice, eliminating cost of paint, realistic flight path, re-usability, and ease of use.
