Yet Another "Please Help a Newbie with Marker Suggestions" Thread

[plasticfish]

Good morning from Ottawa, Canada.

I have spent the better part of two hours searching these threads & there is so much information available, that I feel a little bit stupid asking for marker advice - it's all here, but I need help narrowing down my choices.

First, a little bit about my situation:

I first started playing about 20 years ago when the sport was pretty new (my first marker was a Splatmaster pistol...I loved that gun!) I was fairly active & played almost every weekend - I owned several markers along the way - but, with the arrival of a young family, paintball took a back seat...and, long story short, I have not been out for at least 17 years.

It's a funny feeling reading these posts and not knowing a damn thing - there are soooo many choices for markers now, that it's a bit overwhelming - there are so many names of markers that are, well, Greek to me.

So, here's the deal: my kids are old enough now that I can take more time to play the game I loved so much.

So.... I wonder if somebody out there wouldn't mind helping me narrow down my choices. I would welcome any/all advice for a good marker, based on the following criteria:

My budget is: between $500 - $1000 (for everything - marker, tank, etc).

I already have: nothing - it's all too old to be useful.

I play mainly: (woodsball).

The features I want in my gun are: I'm looking for a solid, well-designed, reliable, accurate marker. Something that is easy to maintain (I don't want to have to take it apart after each use), manufactured by a company that is known and respected for having high quality control. Most importantly - I want something that smoothly feeds paint into the marker & I do not want to have to deal with paint breaking in the barrel (maybe this is something they've perfected over the years...but, back in the day, I had a piece of crap BrassEagle product that wouldn't feed paint very well & every 20th painball broke before leaving my marker!) I really have no understanding of all of the different types of markers (electric vs mechanical???)...but, I would welcome any/all advice.

I am open to the possiblity of a used marker: (no).

Thanks, in advance.

Yours
plasticfish

[Wolffhardt]

I'll leave the mark suggestion itself up to someone else, because I don't play woodsball.. It wouldn't really be my place to reccomend the best for that.

I can tell you though, get a Guerilla Air tank and a good hopper can probably set aside 200 for that.

If you want brand new, you might look into a Bob Long line of gun as they are extremely reliable and very well known for being around for a while..

An A-5 is a good woodsball gun, as well.

[iliveforthis99]

Yeah get a GA tank and like a Halo/Reloader B, Reloader B2, Magna, Vlocity, or Torque for a loader. You'll also want a a good mask so you can expect to around $30-$100 for a nice thermal mask. A pack and pods shouldn't be more then $30-$40 as well. With your budget of around $1000 for everything that'll leave you around $600 or so depending on what you get. Now first off you don't need a woodsball gun to play in the woods these days. Speedball type guns will work just fine so that's something to consider. Ok finally guns, new you have like Marq 6 (maybe even Marq 7) from Bob Long, Protege also from BL, the G3 and F8 from Dangerous Power, the SR from WGP, '06 Cyborg from MacDev, and Mini from Invert. If you don't mind used you have a very wide range guns to choose from. Just a little note that poppet (guns that use a hammer to open the valve) tend to be more reliable and less maintenance needed guns. And when maintenance is needed there's only a few o-rings that need to be lubed. Now if more mil-sim/woodsball like guns are more of what you're interested in then take a look at the new BT TM7. The TM7 is made after the H&K MP7 and is built from the Invert Minis design. There's also the Smart Parts SP1 and SP8 both of which are built from the Ions platform with the SP8 being made after the H&K M8 rifle. Bob Long also has mil-sim gun coming out called the M-Tac and it's looking pretty nice. No word on price yet but there's supposed to be a few different variants of it to make for a few different price ranges. And oh yes there's also the pump guns from like CCI and CCM if pump might interest you as well as classic automags.

[plasticfish]

Yeah get a GA tank and like a Halo/Reloader B, Reloader B2, Magna, Vlocity, or Torque for a loader. You'll also want a a good mask so you can expect to around $30-$100 for a nice thermal mask. A pack and pods shouldn't be more then $30-$40 as well. With your budget of around $1000 for everything that'll leave you around $600 or so depending on what you get. Now first off you don't need a woodsball gun to play in the woods these days. Speedball type guns will work just fine so that's something to consider. Ok finally guns, new you have like Marq 6 (maybe even Marq 7) from Bob Long, Protege also from BL, the G3 and F8 from Dangerous Power, the SR from WGP, '06 Cyborg from MacDev, and Mini from Invert. If you don't mind used you have a very wide range guns to choose from. Just a little note that poppet (guns that use a hammer to open the valve) tend to be more reliable and less maintenance needed guns. And when maintenance is needed there's only a few o-rings that need to be lubed. Now if more mil-sim/woodsball like guns are more of what you're interested in then take a look at the new BT TM7. The TM7 is made after the H&K MP7 and is built from the Invert Minis design. There's also the Smart Parts SP1 and SP8 both of which are built from the Ions platform with the SP8 being made after the H&K M8 rifle. Bob Long also has mil-sim gun coming out called the M-Tac and it's looking pretty nice. No word on price yet but there's supposed to be a few different variants of it to make for a few different price ranges. And oh yes there's also the pump guns from like CCI and CCM if pump might interest you as well as classic automags.

This stuff is great - and the fellow who gave advice above above this quote re: hoppers, thank you too.

Just a few questions on above quote:

1) You mention "poppet guns" as being generally more reliable - which of the above mentioned guns are poppet guns?

2) What does "mil/sim" refer to in the above quote?

Thanks again for the advice guys.
plasticfish

[kevinyi911]

milsim is military simulation (and i probly speled that wrong) but thats what it means

[GrimAssasin]

Mil-sim refers to markers that are designed to look like real weapons.
Poppet valve refers to a type of valve used for controlling air in paintball markers. Most poppet valve markers are stacked tube designs, such as the Protege, F8, and '06 Cyborg. However, recent technology has changed a few things. Poppet valves can now be found in a wider variety of single tube markers, such as the Invert Mini mentioned. Usually poppet valves are compared to spool valve type markers. The poppet valves tended to win in efficiency and ease of maintenance, but the spool valve markers would win in sound signature and smoothness of firing. Recently though, companies have started producing markers of both categories that have characteristics of the others. Macdev Cyborgs are some of the smoothest poppet markers around, and Macdev has also created a spool valve marker, the Droid, that has incredibly high shot counts. Dangerous Power is a newer company, only a few years old, but has created markers like the G3, which use a "dump valve", I assume most closely associated with spool valve markers, but have incredibly easy maintenance (only 6 orings) and good shot counts as well.

Just some links for more information on stuff listed:
www.dangerouspower.com (http://www.dangerouspower.com)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paintball_marker
www.warpig.com (http://www.warpig.com)
www.boblongdirect.com (http://www.boblongdirect.com)
www.macdev.net (http://www.macdev.net)
www.invertpaintball.com (http://www.invertpaintball.com)

[Shifter19]

If your going for woodsball I wouldnt worry much about poppet valves and such. Your "basic" woodsball guns (tippmann, the Spyder MR Series) wont use spool valves. IF your looking for something High End for woodsball, I'd recomend the Tippman X7. New, various looks, and its a Tippman so you know its rugged.

Just my opinion, I dont want to object to anyone.

[iliveforthis99]

Since Grim took care of explaining poppets i don't need to go over it (yay!). If you want though i'd take a look at these, Marker Classification (http://www.zdspb.com/tech/misc/markers_index.html) and Marker Animations (http://www.zdspb.com/tech/misc/animations.html). They should help bring you up to date on how some of todays guns operate. Oh and Shifter the X7 isn't exactly a high-end, it's just an A5 in a different body. Even though i'd personally never use one an A5 or X7 wouldn't be a bad choice if you'll be playing in the woods every time.

[malcontent]

if your looking for decient spool valve woodsball markers, dig around ebay and the BST forums for a used Auto-Mag. you can get them in either mechanical or electronic varieties and they're fairly simplistic.

http://www.zdspb.com/tech/misc/animations.html

the above link is a website chock full of information on how specific markers function, with animations for each valve type and varients.

though, if your looking for absolute simplicity and ease of maintnence at low cost dig up a VM-68. (just NEVER try to take apart the trigger grouping... you shouldnt have to) they're heavy, they're reliable, they operate underwater.