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Well I guess I'll start off with AGD's Automag because it is what I play with most of the time. It is an exceptional gun, with no question Automags are one of the best guns that you can get. Thier high rate of fire and ease of care is phenominal. I haven't used/worked on a gun that was easier to take apart than a Mag. BUT, I am kinda getting sick of it's extreme dislike of liquid and cold temperatures. I am currently thinking strongly of getting it off of CO2 and going to Compressed Air (C/A), That is once I get up enough money. But in the end, I'd still suggest getting a Mag to anyone, I'd just suggest a different air setup than I used. For information about my gun go here

If you like to play pump and shut down semi's, this is your gun. This is one of guns that I own and play with. Just to clear up the confusion around this gun, It is not the pump version of the Autococker, the Autococker is the Semi-auto version of the Sniper II. Let me explain. The Bud Orr Sniper was around long before the Autococker, back when all the guns were pump. Someone, possibly Bud Orr, took a Sniper and added a Pnuematic ram that would recock the gun instead of the pump arm. So the autococker is really the little brother of the Sniper pump. To see My Sniper II click on the link.

Autocockers

I've never played with an Autococker, I have only goofed around with a few within the confines of the local shop. I know alot of people that play with Cockers and I have a TON of respect for them and thier guns. I know there is a whole Cocker/Mag Dispute among the owners, I don't even want to get into that. I've seen plenty of Cockers chew up mass amounts of paint and cause thier operator/owner to almost want to go home for the day. But on the other hand I've seen Cockers in good hands do pretty amazing stuff. I am too lazy and could never keep up with the care of a Cocker.

Boston Paintball Reflex Cocker

The reflex is an aftermarket part made by Boston Paintball that allows the Autococker to shoot full-auto with out the use of electronics, it is purely pnuematic. Currently (3/20/99) they are not really available for retail purchase. They are still working through the design, only a few have been released and sold to the public. One of the particular reflex cockers I was playing with in the store was the second prototype to be made. You could see by looking at it that it was completely custom, there was rough milling on some parts and bolts and screws coming out of strange places. The ROF currently is around 14 BPS with no ball breaks beacause of the spring loaded bolt, pretty impressive. It works like the reactive tigger of an automag RT, there is a small piston in the trigger frame that kicks the trigger back out after each shot. So when you depress the trigger with a little pressure, the trigger will bounce off your finger and go full auto. The kit is really simple, it consists of the trigger frame with the pnuematics in it, a Special spring loaded bolt, and all the other pnuematics you would need. you could essentially buy a Sniper II and they add the reflex package to it and make it a full auto, the kit is that complete. When they do go retail, it will cost just about $400, decently reasonable for a fully automatic paintball gun.

This is the gun that I started with, a compact P. I only stayed with it for 2 months before I sold it and got the Automag. See the wall I came up to was that I wanted to take my Spyder and get a new barrel, bolt, grip frame, and I wanted to bottom line it with an expansion chamber. Well after pricing these mods next to an Automag with a similar configuration, I could spend $100 over what I wanted to do to the Spyder and just get the Mag, and a Mag is a better gun anyways. The Spyders that I have seen have so many different roughnesses due to poor manufacturing. My bolt after 2 months of playing was showing signifigant rubbing on the side of the powerfeed. Also it is quite a process to dissassemble the gun for usual maitnence. They are good guns for someone who is just looking to play every once and a while and does not want to sink a HUGE amount a cash into it.

Tippman makes a nice durrable gun. They are built a little too much like a rifle, too long for me. Also with the right barrel, they can almost not be heard at around 70ft away. But my major complaint is that ALL Tippman guns are a PAIN IN THE ASS to take apart. The SL68 II pump is a good solid gun, really solid if you have ever seen one. But once again they are difficult to take apart and they have a really heavy pump action.

This is the other gun that I own and play with on a regular basis. Overall the best gun that I have played with. It only costs $100 and it is quite effective in the right hands. Without tools you are able to strip it down in the field and do whatever you need to do to it. Because of this gun, I haven't used my Mag in over 4 weeks. Pumps are just more fun/economical than a Semi, Especially an Automag. For information on my gun go here

These guns are a year or two from going the way of the dinosaur in my opinion. They are Huge air hogs with too many large moving parts. There is a suspiciously large amount of screws and pins holding those together. How can one be accurate with a gun with a recoil of that magnitude? Only one VM-68 owner that I have personally talked to is happy with the gun, but he is a whole different story.

This is a gun that I am pretty sure that not many of you have seen. So I will give you a brief history of the Nova 700. The company that makes this gun, I think they are also called Nova, is known mainly for Pnuematic T-shirt cannons. What a T-Shirt cannon does is fires a rolled up Shirt out over a crowd for promotional reasons. The main mechanism of the gun is a recipricating barrel. So put into laymens terms, what the gun does is the barrel moves forward so a ball can drop in, then the barrel moves back and hopefully does not crush the paintball. The trigger is like a Cocker in the sense that when you hold the trigger back, the barrel stays back in the firing position till you release the trigger. So it is quite easy to short stroke this gun and chop a ball. The other thing that I noticed about this gun durring the games that I played with it was that the accuracy and velocity were quite eratic. The shots seemed to sway left and right of where I was aiming, also there was alot of shot drop-off when firing quickly. As far as I know, this gun was made in limited production, apparently didn't catch on. One of my firends was lucky/unlucky enough to get one.

Just don't do it, Paintball gun wannabe's. save up and get a real gun. and the same opinion follows through to thier paintballs. If you are looking for cheap paintballs in abnoxious colors that you will never see on your opponent because they always bounce, then this is your brand.
Here are some examples of Brass Eagle paintball gun induced denial.
Talon Owners Group
Stingray II Owners Group
Raptor Owners Group
See also: 101 uses for a Talon

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Masks

JT

From My experience, these mask are far and away the best masks that you can buy. I own both a JT X-fire (single lense) and a Spectra thermal. The X-Fire is an ok mask for the money, it was my first mask. It is pretty good about not fogging and is decently comfortable. But the Spectra is my primary mask for good reasons. First off it is the most comfortable mask I have tried. Also it has NEVER fogged up on me, no matter what I am doing. I have played in the rain durring the summer and below freezing temps durring the winter, Still never fogged. In addition I bought an amber replacement lense for the Spectra, it really makes the greens pop out while playing.

Vents

I have never used a vents mask. I have only had one experience with a vents mask that I feel was slightly questionable. I was playing paintball at my girlfriend's father's house with her father and brother and a couple of others. Well the point of the story is that I was hiding waiting for her brother to come upon me, I could hear him coming. When I saw him I put two shots on him, the first in the mask and the second in the center of his chest. Well, I had been sitting there for a bit in the summer with a mag. So what happened is the first shot out that hit his mask had a little more speed behind it that normal and it cracked the faceplate over his mouth where it hit him. The shot was from perfectly normal distances, I admit it may have been a tad hot due to my gun's tendency to shoot hot for the first shot after waiting for a while in the sun.

Scott Bad Ass

A total waste of way too much money. It would make a pretty good cheap single lense if it didn't cost $89. If you haven't seen a "Bad Ass" it is a single lense mask that uses the theory that if you put enough air space between you and the lense, it wont fog up. Well I have yet to see this mask make it through a day in the most normal conditions without fogging up. Two of the people that I regularly play with were talked into getting a $89 Bad Ass over a $77 JT Spectra, Bad choice. Not only does it fog up when it comes in contact with the Earth's atmosphere, it has "Bad Ass" written across the top of the lense in white letters. So what it works out to is not only are people sitting there making fun of this poor "Bad Ass", but he cannot see them through the foggy semi-translucent lense. Just say no to "Bad Ass"

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Paintballs

note: The barrel on my gun, 12" PMI Perfect Bore Ceramic, is really tight and only works well with smaller paintballs.

RP Premium

RP Premium is good paint at a good price. I unfortunatly sometimes have trouble with the size of the paint in my barrel. There have been a few times where I couldn't shoot RP premium with out a high chance of breaking. I have a tracer pump that works really well with RP premium. The colors are bright and the fill covers pretty nicely.

RP Premium Gold

RP Premium Gold is a little on the pricey side for everyday use, but it is one of the few balls that my Mag is consistantly happy with. Premium gold is what I buy most, Firerock. I have found sometimes in other guns that these paintballs are almost too small and sometimes are not held by the ball retainers. These balls in my experience have a pretty low bounce ratio, they are very reliable.

Diablo

Diablo is a pretty recent addition to the paintball market. The only reason I ever used this brand was because it was the only thing the field sold. I was kinda weary at first, I was afraid that my gun wouldn't like it. Over time I began to actually like it. I played two full days of painball and went through a case in total. The first day I didn't have a single break. The second day I had a couple breaks, but I put fault on stupid equipment problems and not the paintball. I did notice that they did happen to bounce everyonce and a while, A little more frequently than more expensive brands that I usually use. But the price is respectable and they worked well with my guns, so I think I am going to get them again and see how they do. Oh, the paint fill is really good, shows up nicely.

ProBall, ProBall Platinum

Proball are my choice after RP Premium Gold. Proball are best suited for those games where there is someone who is a "Wiper" on the other team. When these hit you they leave quite the noticable mark. A white powder has been added to the fill of these paintballs so that if you try and wipe it off it will turn into a large white patch, not easily hidden.

Big Ball

Big Ball are perfect for that first case just after you buy your first gun. Because you know that you are just going to go into the backyard and paint anything and everyting that you can see. The fill in Big Ball Paintballs is about as clear as it gets, that and the colors resemble bodily fluids. But for the price of $50-$60 for 2000 rounds, they are prefect to use to get used to that new gun of yours.

Brass Eagle

Hmmmm. These are the hardest paintball you will find, which means they will more readily bounce of your would-be "kill". They are not the cheapest paintball you can buy but they just might be the worst. Hey, it is the only paintball that Walmart sells. What, didn't you know that is where all the real serious paintball players get thier gear.

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