BruiseLee
Member
I Bought My New Paintgun
My final decision was to spring for a new Smart Parts Ion for $200. The final cost with a Halo B with RipDrive ($125) and a regular aluminum 48/3000 Pure Energy Tank was over $400.
I actually talked to 3 guys who were trying to sell their used Ions. They all wanted more for their used guns than the guns cost new - one wanted $85 more! Stupid kids - I got quotes from 3 local stores and all were cheaper than what these geniuses wanted.
O.K., here are some observations after playing with the Ion for a day.
PROS:
O.K., this gun shoots wicked fast. It will pump out 17 balls per second in semi-automode, and it has a 3 round burst and full auto mode which I think is like 30 balls per second! Just squeezing the trigger in full auto mode sounds scary!
This gun is way more reliable than my ancient Nelspot 007 pump. It has "eyes", which means it actually has a laser which detects if there is a ball in the chamber ready to fire.
The Halo B hopper - it failed to feed electrically on my second game. But, using the RipDrive to manually feeed my balls, I was back into action in seconds. This was probably due to my inexperience with my new gear. It fed reliably for the rest of the day, and even took some wicked hits during a firefight. But, the cool thing is when i was really pumping out paint, you could hear that electric motor going, loading paint...man, I felt like I was firing a minigun lol!
Players respect this gun! When you go on the field with one of these, you already have a psychological edge if you are playing against walk on noobs with rental guns.
CONS:
This gun has a hair trigger. I have been shooting since I was 9 and I'm 45 now and I've never had an accidental discharge in all that time. In one day with this gun I must of had at least 6 different accidental discharges. The gun does have an adjustable trigger; I'm going to try to adjust it to have a heavier trigger pull. Right now it probably has like a 6 oz. trigger pull!
The gun's accuracy with the stock barrel is just so-so. It's not awful, but my old Nelspot is more accurate (with a longer aftermarket barrel).
O.K., some of these cons are more from the point of view of using the paintgun as a training tool for serious social encounters.
I hate the fact that the hopper is right where you iron sights or scope should be. In other words, there is no way to really aim the gun, or even point it by sighting down the barrel like a shotgun. You just point the gun as best you can, shoot balls out, and watch them fly downrange like tracers, then walk them onto target. I dunno about you guys, but I don't fire too many tracers rounds normally, nor can I concieve of any situation where a citizen would be pumping out 17 tracer rounds a second.
The handling/pointing characteristics of this gun are horrible. You can kind of use the tank like a stock, but it's piss poor ergonomically. Length of pull is all wrong, you are trying to rest the bottom of a metal tank on your shoulder where normally there would be a rubber recoil pad, etc.
I don't like the red safety led at all. The old Nelspot had a simple mechanical crossbolt safety. Easy to see or feel if the gun was on safe or not. The Ion has a red flashing led. OK, I'm playin in Southern California in the summer and it's 90 degrees out. The sun is bright! That flashing led gets washed out - especially if you have been hit in the goggles by a few paintballs.
The same goes for the status led of the Halo B electric loader - next to impossible to see it in bright sunlight.
MISC:
This is probably not the fault of Pure Energy, the tank manufacturer, but I felt I should mention this anyway. My tank broke the first time I tried to refill it. Something about an O-ring or a nipple ring busting.
The reason I don't think it's the fault of the manufacturer is that the guys working at the paintball field I played at were total Bozos. The reason I say that is because when I got the gun it was set-up on full auto mode. They only allow semi at this field. I don't know how to change modes in the Ion, so I ask the guys that work there for help. The guy tries to push in the led button with a Phillips screwdriver! And I mean force it! I was horrified and immediately told him to stop! Luckily I had brought the Ion manual with me....
Then, like I said, when I gave them my gun for a refill, they broke my tank to the point that it wouldn't hold any air! At least they had the decency to loan me one of their tanks so I could keep on playing with my Ion.
My other friend's Dye paintball marker had problems, too. He wisely decide not to play at all, other than risk these guys monkeying around with his gun!
The trigger is huge, set up for rapid fire two finger shooting. This is great for the sport of paintball, which of course is what the Ion is all about. However, it's not a good thing if you are trying to replicate a real firearm. I can live with it, though - I try to think of it as an M1A with a winter trigger.
CONCLUSION:
It may seem like I had more negative things to say about the Ion than positive, but the positive things were major (rate of fire and reliablity), and the negative things were minor (except for the hair trigger and iffy safety, a real safety problem in my opinion). Overall, I am happy with the gun, and am looking forward to playing my next game with it soon (after I get my brand new tank repaired, grr.)
One last thing - ya I agree with you guys about pbnation.com. The people there can be damm rude - a lot of kids trying to outcool each other that think they know everything. Everything is "old news" or "just do a search." I had the same experience when I bought a Fast-and-Furious-type car and started asking questions on one of their websites. Totally rude punks with nothing to offer other than hive-mind mentality answers or smart ass insults. When I deal with the older guys who run classic muscle cars, the people are insanely knowledgable and polite and happy to give you detailed help and answers. It's like day and night.
My final decision was to spring for a new Smart Parts Ion for $200. The final cost with a Halo B with RipDrive ($125) and a regular aluminum 48/3000 Pure Energy Tank was over $400.
I actually talked to 3 guys who were trying to sell their used Ions. They all wanted more for their used guns than the guns cost new - one wanted $85 more! Stupid kids - I got quotes from 3 local stores and all were cheaper than what these geniuses wanted.
O.K., here are some observations after playing with the Ion for a day.
PROS:
O.K., this gun shoots wicked fast. It will pump out 17 balls per second in semi-automode, and it has a 3 round burst and full auto mode which I think is like 30 balls per second! Just squeezing the trigger in full auto mode sounds scary!
This gun is way more reliable than my ancient Nelspot 007 pump. It has "eyes", which means it actually has a laser which detects if there is a ball in the chamber ready to fire.
The Halo B hopper - it failed to feed electrically on my second game. But, using the RipDrive to manually feeed my balls, I was back into action in seconds. This was probably due to my inexperience with my new gear. It fed reliably for the rest of the day, and even took some wicked hits during a firefight. But, the cool thing is when i was really pumping out paint, you could hear that electric motor going, loading paint...man, I felt like I was firing a minigun lol!
Players respect this gun! When you go on the field with one of these, you already have a psychological edge if you are playing against walk on noobs with rental guns.
CONS:
This gun has a hair trigger. I have been shooting since I was 9 and I'm 45 now and I've never had an accidental discharge in all that time. In one day with this gun I must of had at least 6 different accidental discharges. The gun does have an adjustable trigger; I'm going to try to adjust it to have a heavier trigger pull. Right now it probably has like a 6 oz. trigger pull!
The gun's accuracy with the stock barrel is just so-so. It's not awful, but my old Nelspot is more accurate (with a longer aftermarket barrel).
O.K., some of these cons are more from the point of view of using the paintgun as a training tool for serious social encounters.
I hate the fact that the hopper is right where you iron sights or scope should be. In other words, there is no way to really aim the gun, or even point it by sighting down the barrel like a shotgun. You just point the gun as best you can, shoot balls out, and watch them fly downrange like tracers, then walk them onto target. I dunno about you guys, but I don't fire too many tracers rounds normally, nor can I concieve of any situation where a citizen would be pumping out 17 tracer rounds a second.
The handling/pointing characteristics of this gun are horrible. You can kind of use the tank like a stock, but it's piss poor ergonomically. Length of pull is all wrong, you are trying to rest the bottom of a metal tank on your shoulder where normally there would be a rubber recoil pad, etc.
I don't like the red safety led at all. The old Nelspot had a simple mechanical crossbolt safety. Easy to see or feel if the gun was on safe or not. The Ion has a red flashing led. OK, I'm playin in Southern California in the summer and it's 90 degrees out. The sun is bright! That flashing led gets washed out - especially if you have been hit in the goggles by a few paintballs.
The same goes for the status led of the Halo B electric loader - next to impossible to see it in bright sunlight.
MISC:
This is probably not the fault of Pure Energy, the tank manufacturer, but I felt I should mention this anyway. My tank broke the first time I tried to refill it. Something about an O-ring or a nipple ring busting.
The reason I don't think it's the fault of the manufacturer is that the guys working at the paintball field I played at were total Bozos. The reason I say that is because when I got the gun it was set-up on full auto mode. They only allow semi at this field. I don't know how to change modes in the Ion, so I ask the guys that work there for help. The guy tries to push in the led button with a Phillips screwdriver! And I mean force it! I was horrified and immediately told him to stop! Luckily I had brought the Ion manual with me....
Then, like I said, when I gave them my gun for a refill, they broke my tank to the point that it wouldn't hold any air! At least they had the decency to loan me one of their tanks so I could keep on playing with my Ion.
My other friend's Dye paintball marker had problems, too. He wisely decide not to play at all, other than risk these guys monkeying around with his gun!
The trigger is huge, set up for rapid fire two finger shooting. This is great for the sport of paintball, which of course is what the Ion is all about. However, it's not a good thing if you are trying to replicate a real firearm. I can live with it, though - I try to think of it as an M1A with a winter trigger.
CONCLUSION:
It may seem like I had more negative things to say about the Ion than positive, but the positive things were major (rate of fire and reliablity), and the negative things were minor (except for the hair trigger and iffy safety, a real safety problem in my opinion). Overall, I am happy with the gun, and am looking forward to playing my next game with it soon (after I get my brand new tank repaired, grr.)
One last thing - ya I agree with you guys about pbnation.com. The people there can be damm rude - a lot of kids trying to outcool each other that think they know everything. Everything is "old news" or "just do a search." I had the same experience when I bought a Fast-and-Furious-type car and started asking questions on one of their websites. Totally rude punks with nothing to offer other than hive-mind mentality answers or smart ass insults. When I deal with the older guys who run classic muscle cars, the people are insanely knowledgable and polite and happy to give you detailed help and answers. It's like day and night.
Apparently, they even BAN PAINT MARKERS IN ENGLAND.
