Gun enhancments.

Well most of us have tippmanns so something like a Flatline barrel is an option to increase your accuracy and distance. Soon ill be buying and testing the option that is available to everyone else, the APEX barrel. This device is supposed to add backspin to the ball and even allow trick shots. Ill post a review up once ive had the chance to fully test one out

I will be purchasing an Apex for Field Testing Soon. Contact Spark, He already has an A5 with a Flatline.

Yes I may purchase a flatline for a side by side comparison of the two products. It seems that the majority of our team plays with tippmann guns do the flatline is a great option and I think half our players will actually be using flatlined. But due to certain criticism about the flatline being super picky about highquality paint I am going to test it's competition. Looking forward to it

I have the rap4 assault barrel on my tippmann 98. I believe it is the same barrel as the T68 Terence has and it seems pretty accurate. It also supposibly creates small cuts in the ball improving ball break.

Yes i have the Assault barrel on my T68. I have a 14" tactical Barrel as well that allows for straight shots at up to 250ft before dropping off. VERY ACCURATE!!!!!!!

well ill be testing the apex tomm. lets see if i can nail some trick shots

[img][/img]

The drop forward practically renders the bipod useless for anything other than a stand.

Oh , also I need tips and suggestions for mounting my hopper to the side. Which would be best ? Perhaps a different feed neck , 45 degree adapter, or a whole hopper kit? Whichever would be best and affordable. My red dot sight wont fit on with the hopper and I would like an unobstructed view down my gun.

they make OFFSET hopper necks, this may be something you want to look into, this way your hopper still sits upright but just out of the way. Personally, if you can afford it, Upgrade to a Cyclone Hopper System. Its the same as the a5 and the X7 / X7 Phenom. It ONLY loads as fast as the gun fires and RARELY ever breaks a ball. I cant honestly say ive ever had one break in my loader and you know i fire like crazy. Force fed hoppers are available but they are just as pricey and can break balls by FORCING them to load. Obviously the best ones dont do that often but they do require batts and they can be noisy. not something you want when being sneaky like

http://www.rap4.com/paintball/os/tippmann-98-clamp-style-feed-neck



heres a link to one on RAP4, its around 30 dollars

Yeah I already have an tippmann electric hopper but its kinda big and bulky. However I dont know that I really need it or a cyclone. The fastest I wanna fire at is 3rd burst and the stock hopper seems to work fine with it. My gun has act and it seems to work really well at preventing ball breaks.

well the link above was mainly to answer your questions about moving the hopper to the side, i hope it helps. If your happy with what you got i say dont change it. The worst thing is being happy, spending shit loads of money. then being unhappy.

Today i fired off about 500-700 rounds of paint through the APEX barrel upgrade. These shots were fired in a non-combat situation. With out a portable CHRONO i was unable to truly calibrate the barrel for optimum performance.

However, what was immediately apparent was that the range of fire was greatly increased. It is reasonable to say that the range was increased an extra 50-100 feet or MORE. I think it was MORE.

The slight incline of the weapon needed to counter the APEX's tendency to shoot at a downward angle at first, does make targeting nearly impossible any other way then watching your paintball's last trajectory. This isnt to say that you can not hit the same target area twice or quickly switch from one to the next, it just takes some getting used to.

As far as trick shots go I am sure they are possible, the curve of the ball is noticeable but the thing about trick shots is, they're tricky. So i cant speak to that aspect of the barrel just yet. But i will say there is most certainly the potential to make them happen.

To attach the APEX barrel it required some slight modification to the STOCK X7 barrel shroud as the APEX barrel is MUCH thicker then standard barrels, I do not know why this is but it may be an attempt to lower the audio report of the marker.
It was a simple enough procedure using a dremel tool kit and should not discourage anyone from getting this barrel for their own guns. (this may have been because {they are supposed to be exact matches} i used one labeled A5 as an X7 one was not immediately available)

As I stated earlier the range was significantly increased. Let me expand here. THE RANGE was increased. Accuracy at that range was variable by a, 3-4ft, window. Now that area is huge when your only talking about 50-100 feet combat zones, which on average is what youll be fighting in. Since we are talking about 150-200 feet, the distance you'll be capable of hitting, i would say its not bad at all. I think its fair to say with this barrel i could hit the fortress at orbital from the attacking start position. I may not be able to hit my target on the first few shots, but id get him long before he'd ever get a ball to roll up to my toes.

On the flip side to this, Accuracy was increased so much so that within a 75ft zone, you could land 8/9 out of 10 shots in the same 12 inches, i was able to hit the same 3 "inch" tree trunk over 50 feet away repeatedly, over and over again.

I will say that with out PROPERLY being able to calibrate the Marker/Barrel combination the initial tests are promising. Soon i will pick up a chrono and make more standardized test and truly calibrate the pair. Also i hope to field test it soon and see how its use under those situations is and whether its practical or not.

There are Apex adapters for all barrel's on RAP4's website.

Great Review...I will show you how to do bunker shots, Draw shots and Drift shots....you can do up shots too, but not to many people hide in trees.

So yeah I just went to my loca pb shop today and bought the cyclone system and offset adapter which also holds an additional 50 balls, so I guess im ready to throe some heat.

Nice. I think ull really like the cyclone system. Soft paddles are a good upgrade for it dwn the road. If it didn't already just come with them.

Wow that was from my phone cause my comp was down hence the spelling errors but I think im pretty good as far as gun upgrades I cant imagine needing more firepower for my style of play.