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Period of
Product Use: |
Only tested |
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Paintball
Experience: |
More than 5 years |
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Similar
Products Used: |
Tons of similarly priced "Big Box Store" brands. |
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| Marker Setup: |
Tipman A-5, 16in SmartParts Linear Barrel
Spyder TL-R, stock |
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Recommended
Barrels: |
Empire Apex 2 |
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| Strengths: |
Bright Fill |
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| Weaknesses: |
Dimples
Brittle Shell
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| Review: |
First off, the product I actually bought looks like this:
http://dxspaintball.com/spotlight/?id=90&DXSpaintball=re
cball
However, after reading the reviews on this website I figured DraXus just upgraded the packaging and it was the same product...dead wrong.
Each bag of 500 balls in the case (which was pristine so I doubt any kind of mis-handling occurred to the box, or the ball inside) was sealed in its own bag, which I liked a lot for humidity and ease of pouring purposes (easier to cut a corner and fill with one hand). However on just a "standard pour" into the hopper I noticed more dimpled balls than I would have liked.
Play for the next 3 hours revealed the balls to have adequate accuracy up to 30 feet (chest sized target), but quickly scattered to a 3+ foot "shotgun" circle at 50 feet. What's more there were far too many "wild veers" where the ball would be going in one direction, then shoot randomly in another. This problem got worse as a ball broke in my hopper and the rest got coated in paint.
Post game, I ran a couple of tests...first I pulled several hand-fulls of balls and separated them into "good", "slight deformation" (small flat spot, but no more), or "bad" (dimpled). Of the 30 balls I pulled, 4 were good and another 4 "slight deformation". You can do the math on how many were just plain bad paint.
Continuing on the separation, I eventually got ~30 "good" balls and ran them through my marker while under a chronograph. I then repeated with the dimpled balls. Long story short, I was seeing a 20-30 FPS reduction. Now this is to be expected, but my point is all aspects of my game (accuracy, distance, and reliability) were being affected and because of the randomness...I could never adjust (other than just assuming I wouldn't hit the guy I was aiming at and trying to get closer before pulling the trigger).
Finally, I had a "random handful" of paint put through my friends A5 (with the Empire Apex2 barrel). He showed a marked decrease in accuracy in his long range shots (basically doubled the area), though the number of "wild veers" seemed much reduced.
I ended up playing once more within a week and used the same case to see if my problems would persist...this round the balls kept drier (didn't have a break in the hopper) and the same 30-50 foot accuracies held true. The number of "wild veers" was not as prevalent, but I still put it at close to 10% (originally close to 30%). |
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| Conclusion: |
I simply cannot recommend this product on any grounds. At $40 a case it puts it solidly in the "mid-grade" range of prices yet the sheer number of dimpled balls makes it wholly un-useful for anyone except those playing nothing but CQB...at which point why not save yourself $10 or $20 and go for the cheap stuff? I understand not all paint can be perfect, but when you are literally running close to a 66% "bad paint" rate I just can't see the reason to buy it. |
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| Rating: |
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