Archive for the ‘Guns/Markers’ Category

Phantom Stock Class

Phantom Stock Class – Paintball Gun Review

I have always wanted to do a paintball gun review on the Phantom Stock Class marker. And by always I mean since I first shot one back in 1990. CCI the manufacturer of the venerable Phantom is based in my home town. I actually owned Phantom Serial #000012 up until 5 years ago, when I made the mistake of selling it. Never have I regretted selling a paintball gun as much as that historic marker.

Paintball Gun Reviews – the Format

The process of reviewing a paintball gun needs to be solid. If I allow my personal bias and friendships to influence my paintball gun reviews then I do you a disservice. I will rank each of 4 things on a scale between 0 and 5. Given that here is the criteria I will base all of my reviews on:

1. Initial quality – How well made is the gear? How good is the finish? How does it feel?
2. Reliability – This is based on long term durability out in the field and is often hard to determine from a short paintball gun review. How I will make this determination is based on the quality of materials used, and the percentage of returns, and defects.
3. Performance – Accuracy, rate of fire (if appropriate), ball breakage, upgradable (how many after market parts are available?).
4. Price – How well does the price equate to the performance?

My Phantom Stock Class – Paintball Gun Review

Time to get at it. I have a huge bias towards this particular paintball gun. It was my first real purchase as an informed paintball consumer, and it was made by a local business. I even played for Phantom Force for a few years, and yes we were sponsored by CCI, shooting Phantoms. So now that we have full disclosure I should also state that I bought the Phantom because it was the best marker available at the time, and I played for Phantom Force because they shot Phantoms.

To this day CCI makes one of, if not the best Stock Class Paintball marker in the world. It is a light and durable marker that has been upgraded and enhanced over the 20 years since it was first introduced. Over the years rather than creating a semi-auto and then an electro paint hose, CCI chose to take what they did well and do it even better. The modern Phantom Stock Class marker is about as refined and perfected as it can be.

I love having the opportunity to do this paintball gun review. The Phantom is a dream and I highly recommend anyone who plays stock class to purchase one.

1. 5 for Initial Quality. It comes out of the box, about as good as it gets.
2. 5 for Reliability. With a Stock Class marker there is very little that can go wrong. Even given that caveat the Phantom is as durable as they come.
3. 4 for Performance. This would be a 5 as the Phantom is one of the most accurate paintball markers on the planet, but I just cannot in good conscious give a stock class marker a 5 being that one of the factors I consider when doing a paintball gun review is rate of fire. Stock class is a much slower game so I knocked only 1 point off.
4. 5 for Price. the particular Phantom Stock Class pictured here is about $290. But there are less fancy models for around $200 and at that price this is a steal.

Overall the Phantom Stock Class marker averages 4.75 out of 5. Right now this is the top stock class marker in the world that is not a fully custom, one of a kind. I would say that it is the best of it’s category but In the future, I hope to do paintball gun review for other stock class markers and we will only know then.

I can still remember buying my first paintball marker. On that day, 20+ years ago, there were no Internet message boards or online retailers related to paintball. Heck the Internet itself was only a tool of universities and the military. My only option was going down to the local army navy surplus store, and buying what I could afford. I had three choices, cheap, just right and mind blowing expensive.

Today, the opposite is true you have unlimited, styles, colors, features, brands and retailers to choose from, making the task of purchasing you first paintball marker a very daunting proposition. Beyond choosing a price point there is the question of style of play and role. Given so many options, how can you be sure what the correct marker (a.k.a. paintball gun) for you is?

I’m so glad you asked.

This is a question that every retailer I know of will shy away from, no one wants to give you their straight opinion. They reserve making this judgement call, because they have incentive to sell you different products than the one I recommend, even though we all agree it is and long has been the best beginner platform on the market. They know that selling you a cheaper, inferior product will require you to spend more money with them in the long run. SO they hide this simple truth.

Tippmann Paintball Markers are the paintball guns I ALWAYS recommend to new players. Ask most players who have been around for a while and they will agree.

The Tippman 98 is the least expensive of the brand, and is a reliable workhorse, with plenty of options to upgrade once you feel the need. It is a rugged and reliable paintball marker than can be trusted. It is also one of the most common guns in the world, often used as a field rental. Finding upgrades and on the rare occasion when it needs work, repair parts and knowledgeable air-smiths for this marker is very easy.

The Tippman A5 is the fully loaded model in the Tippman arsenal and cost more due to all of the built in features that come standard. If I never played anything but woods ball, I would honestly buy an A5 and use just it. Like all of the Tippman guns they are reliable, rugged and dependable. With the built it cyclone feed the marker really has a feature that is unique in paintball. To get the same performance from a hopper on any other gun would require an electronic hopper, which adds considerably to the cost.

All of the Tippman models have the option of a Reactive Trigger (RT) and a Flatline Barrel kit. The RT gives the Tippman Paintball marker it is installed on, an equivalent fire rate to that of the expensive electronic paintball guns. And the RT runs off of the same CO2 source that propels the paintball, no need for batteries. The Flatline barrel kit DOUBLES the range of the Tippman paintball gun it is installed on, by creating backspin (Similar to the hop-up system in an airsoft gun). No other brand in the world offers these two features, only Tippman.

These 2 paintball markers are all the gun you will ever need in paintball, unless you get into tournaments, and most players never get that serious. If you go down the tournament path, I have other, more expensive recommendations, however for your first paintball gun, no matter the road you go down, the Tippman 98 or Tippman A5 are two markers I highly recommend.