[Raine]

LOL Nice one Chromey. I need to learn about paintball.. I'll keep that in mind. But just so you know, I have played with the following markers in Tourneys, rec, woodsball, etc.

Angels
E-Bladed Autocockers
Every spyder I can think of
every tippmann with the exception of the A5
Bob Long Intimidators
Pirahnas, Mongooses, JT's, and other spyder clones
Impulses, Shockers, and Ions (which is what I shoot)
DM4's, DM5's, and Matrix's
etc.

Any idiot can use a Tippmann? Any idiot can use any paintball marker. It's not rocket science. Sure you might wanna play for a while and do some reading before investing in a marker with eyes, changing the detents, etc, but for the most part a marker is a marker, plain and simple. Irrespective of Low Pressure setups, nitro vs co2, bore sizes and whatnot, a paintball marker breaks down into a few basic parts: trigger frame, body, bolt, feedneck, and barrel. Once you figure out how to maintain each part and determine how one betters from the next, you're set.

For Anthony, the part that effects the accuracy of your shots is the barrel. A progressive barrel, tho made by smartparts, is not a whole helluva lot better than most stock 12 or 14" barrels. Concerning yourself with accuracy isn't really a big factor in a lot of paintball games tho, as your drop off with a paintball is so extreme. With and average cap on most indoor and outdoor fields of around 250 fps (feet per second), your marker will only have a couple hundred feet of range. Most games these days fall into the trap of speedball, or something like it. More often than not, it ends up being better to assault your enemy with a barrage of paint rather than try to pick him off with one or two super accurate shots.

To that end, an Electronic Marker is what you really need to do anything worth while on the field. Ask Habmann, who has played with both, the electronic allows you to play the field, whereas a mechanical leaves you as a camper, hoping to not get shot and trying to pick people off where you can without getting heard or spotted. Sure, there are people that swear by Tippmanns, Automags, and other markers that are considered "high end mechanicals" but go to any decent sized field in Ontario on a day without a group of people you know... if there are people there, they're likely to be people that play the game more often than most... and those people tend to own their own markers. Most of the markers sold nowadays are electronic simply because when you go to a rec field, you're just gonna get pounded with paint if you can't unload a hopper in less than a minute. I'm not saying don't get the tippmann, I'm just saying for that price, it's not worth it. You'll have more fun with an electronic marker, because you'll be able to keep up to the pace of play. It's like buying an HDTV and running it on regular cable.. sure you've got the stuff you need to enjoy the awesome picture quality and surround sound, but without an HDTV tuner, it's still just a regular TV.. does the job, looks nice, but you're not getting the full experience.

Oh and Chromey, the Imagine, E-99, Pilot, Fenix, and Electra all shoot 13+ bps out of the box. In fact, the lowest rated Spyder Electronic marker that's being produced in 2005, the base Imagine LED, is rated at 14 bps... the new electra is 30 bps... just so you know.