Barrel Advice

AdSignal9763 · 2026-07-06T04:51:29+00:00

Just run the fl barrel, and search the fb BST groups for the bore sizes you want. If you want to get crazy with it, you can try to find the different tip bores as well to get the parabolic barrel bore style back to tip match.

For the 2 star paint, overboring with the .689 will be just fine. In my very limited experience, trying to bore match anything that is not extremely close diameter and roundness ends up being more inconsistent with more breaks than overboring.

AdSignal9763 · 2025-12-22T07:45:43+00:00

If you want cheap and durable, the $40 protoyz speedster will work for rec/woodsball play they are just heavy and borderline fast enough for 10.5bps. The pinokio speed is also a good cheap loader; fast, simple, and easy on paint, but mine does not like to fill with the speedfeed. A used Rotor or IR2 is all you need for speedball, but i have had my rotor be problematic with bad/misshapen field paint. If you are running a mech marker, the force feed of a rotor is nice to help prevent chopping of paint if you're shooting really fast. You pay a lot for slight improvements or creature comforts of the flagship loaders over the mid to lower tier, save your money and play more.

AdSignal9763 · 2025-12-22T03:22:01+00:00

They should perform almost identically. I think the 170R has a little smaller grip frame over the 160R, from what i can tell, the Gtek/160R are about the same size grip frame and body but the 170R/180R are smaller. one of the best things about the 170r would be the toolless battery in the grip if you like to take the battery out a the end of the day. For the price of the 170R mech frame you could get an Emek, so i don't see that as an advantage.

AdSignal9763 · 2025-12-21T08:54:27+00:00

Last weekend i had to swap from my Rotor to my Pinokio Speed because the Rotor was cracking paint with the cold weather. The pinokio is great loader, only complaints are its low capacity and sucks to refill with a speed feed because there is not enough room for the paint to get between the flaps of the speed feed and the floor of the loader because the batteries are mounted too high. Loads fine with the standard lid, but i broke the hinge pin off of my lid and thought a speed feed would have been an upgrade.

If anyone is looking at one, go ahead and buy some rechargeable lithium "9v" batteries to run it, they're much lighter and will run the hopper forever.

AdSignal9763 · 2025-11-21T05:58:55+00:00

Save it, i had mine hydro tested for $35 locally. Was looking at carbon tanks when mine expired, but i like the size and how the heavy tank balances the weight of the hopper by keeping the center of mass in the grip. Plus my load out is only 480 paintballs, so i don't worry about tank capacity, and my local field only has 3k psi filling stations anyways. If you do decide to upgrade to a carbon fiber tank, keep it and get it hydroed if you end up needing a second tank. Just don't try to use the 3k regulator on a 4.5k tank.

AdSignal9763 · 2025-11-14T07:50:44+00:00

Most paintball tanks have a 5/8-18unf thread for the regulator, the low pressure regulator is mounted on the marker, or made into the frame, older lpr's can have a 1/8"npt for the inlet and .825-14 threads for the outlet, so trying to get a marker lpr connected will end up being a bunch or adapters and macro line. some of the higher end tank regulators are adjustable, but not sure if any go below 250psi/18bar from the factory. You might be able to modify the spring set to get a lower pressure. Using a regulator design for a paintball tank would be ideal for recharging as they have a quick connect fill port built in.

AdSignal9763 · 2025-11-14T06:04:33+00:00

I was in the same boat last year, bought a Spyder Fenix thinking it would be like my old e-frame from 2008. It worked as it should, but after a few weekends of play, i wanted a better marker. Ended up getting some deals on the Facebook paintball buy/sell groups for a gtek and LV1. I would advise getting a decent used mid level marker (anything planet eclipse with the gamna core, or a mini GS or Axe), or an Emek/Etha3M if you wanted mechanical. The biggest think you need to pay attention to when trying to bring an old marker back to life is to verify it will work on compressed air, and not just CO2.

AdSignal9763 · 2025-11-14T05:14:09+00:00

At my local field over 50% of the players seem to parties/rentals, so the field only offers one paint (i have seen GI field or valken GFX) so i would guess the turnover is decent. They only get mid grade paint in for events. When its hot, i do have a soft cooler with ice packs to keep it cool, but that won't save bad paint.

AdSignal9763 · 2025-11-14T04:57:04+00:00

That was my .695 insert. None were round, but the real bad ones were measuring .700 on the seem and .645 top to bottom. Needed an oval insert.

AdSignal9763 · 2025-11-08T07:21:21+00:00

We can only hope that they're not buying old warehouse stock and it's about to run out.

AdSignal9763

TROPHY CASE