Anyone doing tippman vs the world this year? By bil is doing it and i might go with.

I have a tippman 98 custom. I'm looking for either a 14 or 16" barrel. Didn't have to be top of the line but accurate and most of all doesn't break balls. Recommendations?


Also need a mask


Thanks.

Back in the day, I used Lapco barrels for my 98 and a-5

Lapco

I have a Smart Parts 14" on my 98 Custom, works great. RARELY breaks a ball. Really nice barrel. Also have reactive trigger and expansion chamber. Never made it to air.

Paintball is dead.  The greedy old school company founders really hacked it up along with field paint only policies.

I used to play tournament ball from 2000-2003, it's a shame at how companies just ruined everything.

I'll never get rid of my paintball gear. I love my SL74.

I got my old Angel 4 fly sitting in the garage.

My etek3 has been sitting for years unused.



Also, 14 is fine. Zero benefit to going 16. AFAIK 14 was the optimal length for efficiency.

Back in the day I had two Tippmanns and I used a J&J ceramic, just got back into it this past summer and picked another up.  Noticeable improvement over stock barrel without breaking the bank, I think they are around $25 on amazon.

Then I went and bought an Empire Axe, hpa tank, Dye Rotor, etc etc . Take a minute and think how you will proceed with the sport before sinking a lot of money into the Tippmann($25 barrel is worth it though)

I don't plan on making a habit out of it so just something decent.

I had the dye boomstick on my 98. 12" I believe. Thing actually was a sniper rifle. People would hold their heads down and blast away but as soon as they peeked up... Splat. "WTF"!!!

Chopping is all about paint to barrel match and not out shooting the hopper. Since it's a basic C98 you won't out shoot a hopper so try to find a barrel that matches the local paint and weather best. JT Pro-flex is an awesome cheap mask.

Yep. This.


Played semi-pro with a 90% sponsorship and still managed to blow a lot of money in one year. Unless you have some back woods, a compressor, and a bunch of friends it gets too expensive to play, especially at major tournaments and big games. $90-100/case, plus admission, plus fill charges.

On top of that the cost of the new guns got way out of hand. My gun cost $1500 alone, no hopper, tank, or anything else.

ACI is what you seek

Autococker with lapco ftw

The model 98 flatline barrels work really well at field-mandated speeds.  If buying, I'd do that.  It's a big plus on that field.



Breaking or not breaking paint will totally depend on the field paint at the event.  I didn't go to any big games at HS this year but the past few years the field paint has been absolute shit, with many cases having broken balls in them already.  Open your case on the spot and make sure there are no broken ones in there.



If breaking paint is your main concern maybe get stubby barrel, or just keep the factory one if it is already a stubby.

I have no idea what the Best barrel is now but I have had great luck with this for over a decade.
I have a longer front somewhere for inflatable bunkers but I can't find it right now.
No idea about current paint but the stuff I used to use could change size throughout the day depending on temp and humidity.
I have not played in a year or so.

I had a 98 custom with a Flatline barrel.  It was pretty accurate, and real chopping issues.

I still have my tricked out autococker, I love the way the thing works, it's like a steampunk gun. Really cool mechanical workings.

Haven't gone paintballing in years.

I took my autocoker out after a 5 year brake a few years ago.   Good luck!  
I love them but they can not keep up.

It must be a NY thing...


Paint isn't 90-100 a case.  Tournament grade paint gets up there, but many fields and even tournaments has paint as low as 30 a box if you want to shoot cheap shit.  Air is free at pretty much every field and tournament... many of the big outfits have multiple self serve stations.  Admission isn't bad either anymore.



New guns aren't even that much anymore, prices totally tanked.  Tanks are so cheap now, you just replace them instead of re-hydro.

It's sort of dead.  Big reason wasn't company founders.  Big reason was patents - when patents expired AGD, WDP, SP, and all the other big ones bailed ship because cheap Chinese knockoffs were making it unbearable to compete.  $100 autocockers?  Who can' compete with that?


The other issue was electronics.  Electronic markers made the game a game of which kid had the most money or which guy could sling the most paint.  At first electronics were one shot one pull type thing and then it quickly escalated into cheater boards and eventually factory cheater boards.   Kids were dropping a couple cases of paint in an afternoon.  People with semi auto rentals or tight budget had no chance in hell to keep up.... it became miserable for new comers.


As with every sport that grows to fast, so did prices, markers were expensive if you wanted to keep up, everything became expensive.  People started dumping more money into the game than ever before.  Some areas I played you'd have kids running around (we're talking 12-14 year olds) carrying $1800 markers.


The other company that fucked the industry bad was smart parts who made a ultra cheap electronic marker, this brought basically every other company to its knees and effectively drove everyone else out of the business.  Walmart and the mass commercialization of the industry took a lot of the unique play that fields offered by basically getting cheap markers and accessories to everyone so that they can toy around at home with.


Now the latest is GI sports buying up everyone left over in the industry, no competition, no innovation, just stagnating.

The field I play at is $20 admission which includes all the HPA or CO2 you can use.
Paint is 40-65/case.  
basic monthly membership is $20 which includes unlimited air and admission, plus 10% off all gear.
Same package for 3 people (team membership) is $41/month.

20 bucks a month for unlimited play and air and 10% off, not bad... even a better deal for the 3 people package.

people still play paintball? i got out of it about 6-7 years ago to fund my lacrosse addiction which i backed out of to fund my Black Rifle Disease

Paintball is FAR from dead.

I go 2-3x a month and the fields we go to are always PACKED, both on the casual/woods/newbie side and the tournament teams playing on the concept fields.

The large and small tournaments are always sold out, every slot for teams sold.

*shrug*

As far as barrels for your model 98, just get a used one off ebay or Craigslist.

There's really nothing wrong with the stock one, for the level you're playing at.

Pro/Semi paint was regularly 90+ a case at a tourny.
Regular play paint was $90.
Big game was anywhere from 75-100+ a case.

Never, EVER, saw paint lower then 75 a case unless you bought a pallet at big game. That's after probably 15+ big games (D-Day, West Point, HiVi, a few others) and some speedball tourneys.

When you hear the term "NY is expensive", they weren't kidding.

I'm gonna go with this.

The fields we play at are 10-20 for all day air/access and the paint is 35 or 40 for decent stuff and 50 for the top end stuff (I shoot Evil and Redemption, in that order of preference).

These are GOOD fields, too, not Joe-bob's rinky dink pile of wood trash in the backyard...

Agreed, I also have an etek3

People use 16" because it's easier to move the inflateable bunkers around with a longer barrel, or to stick through brush in the woods.

As far as efficiency, that doesn't have a lot to do with the barrel length, but rather then engine of the marker.   Of course, on the extremes, very short barrels and very long barrels aren't as efficient as the middle length 12-16" ones.

The two fields around here charge $65 ($75 for big games) and $100 a case.  Skirmish is $100 a case plus $30 entry fee.  EMR charges $5 pre-register entry for open play dates (once a month) so it's much more reasonable than Skirmish but Skirmish has much nicer fields.  

$30 to get a tank hydro'd vs $150+ for a new tank I certainly don't just plan on tossing mine out in a couple years when it expires.

Grab a CP off ebay, they are pretty cheap usually and shoot fine.

EMR is very affordable I think.

Paint is $75/case, or $65/case if you pre-register or have a season pass.

I bought a pass this year, it paid for itself pretty fast with big games and the free campsites.

It costs the same as anywhere else up here away from the city.

There are a few local fields and I think entry with air at them all is $10/day, and paint might be $80 at the most expensive place for tournament grade paint. $60-$75 is closer to average.

Ahh, ok, so they're close to the actual NYC.  Yeah, I could see that then.