Back up marker

[Payney]

Hey people. As the thread title suggests, I'm wanting to know if having two markers is a good idea. I shall be collecting my first marker at paintfest however I'm looking at a back up for if and when something happens to my main. Now my big question. Do I for another electro pneumatic or a cheap mech?
I assume most of you have 2+ markers. I have a dye rotor hopper so I'm good to go pretty much.

All thoughts and suggestions welcomed.

 

[frenchy2475]

Hey if your running a Planet Eclipse gun then there is no need for a back up

 

[mike "nemo" berry]

What's your primary marker?

 

[Payney]

My primary will be a gog extcy

 

[mike "nemo" berry]

If you want a cheap backup a second hand invert mini can be picked up for £130ish or just keep your money and invest in some kind of barrel kit or carbon fibre tank if you haven't got those already

 

[Payney]

I've been looking at investing in a freak kit. Been told they are very good. I have the use of an air tank at events. Though this will be remedied in the coming months.

 

[mike "nemo" berry]

The freak kit would compliment your extcy nicely, also 68/4500 such as guerilla or fuel tanks will last you most of your playing life

 

[shortland]

for a back up get a tpx pistol

 

[Tom]

Speaking as a man with the contents of my cabinet shown below, to a degree this is 'do as I say not as I do', but I think the opinion will run true.

With your first gun don't worry too much about a backup.
It's much more important to maintain your gun, understand how it works and be able to diagnose & deal with an issue.

Pistols are fun, and the Tpx (with remote line air mod) is a good choice.
But is expensive to spend on a 'spare' or 'sidearm'
A sidearm for when your main breaks down or is empty of paint is an added weight to carry - you should maintain to prevent it failing & look into possible ways it can fail, if it fails on you then try to sort it in game, then drop out of the game and sort it in the safe zone. If carrying a sidearm for when your hopper is empty then monitor your paint use and learn to load before empty and while firing

However it is convenient and easy (perhaps too easy - you don't learn to maintain) to have a reliable spare. Such a spare should be an 'old reliable', something that you know you can grab out of the bag and know it will work.
A mechanical spare tends to tick a number of boxes, typically because they don't need batteries and are simple - and classicaly these are what people have bought first and learned from the start. But this does not mean you should buy one just to be spare

The Gog Extacy should be reliable, it's essentially a Smart Parts Ion. They are not highly complex and are simple to maintain. The Ion has been the donor to numerous specialist modified builds.
Put together a spares kit - o rings, banjos, internal air hoses, macro line, air fittings and lube. Add a small toolkit starting with either a paintball multitool or screwdrivers, hex key set(s), chrono spanner, o ring pick (or dental pick) and a macro line cutter
Look around YouTube for how to maintain the gun

Plan your future paintball purchases, before buying more guns consider your goggles, air system (more 3000psi cylinders or going to fibre - and the right size for you) and possibly a chrono

There are many threads on such subjects

 

[Tom]

The next thing brought up is a barrel kit.

This is useful, but again is a fair bit of money to splash out on what won't be heavily used.
By definition a barrel kit should cover an assortment of bore sizes - as many as possible, but you will find yourself using a small number of them.
You can just as we'll start to collect individual barrels giving yourself choice and varying bores. This will work out cheaper then a barrel kit with sizes that you rarely or never use

Getting the right bore size is not everything. You can always 'overbore' and there are things to be said about both underbore and overbore.
What the right bore size does is to give you control, efficiency and consistency (assuming your paint is in good condition and consistent
Overbore will always work, it won't be 100% air efficient but it will work

Before you do go too wild on buying a barrel kit or assortment of barrels consider what your gun future will be. You don't want to buy hundreds of barrels for the Extacy and then buy your next gun with an autococker thread.

The first barrel kit I bought had sized backs and not inserts as with the freak system. It was an autococker threaded set so that was not a major issue as I have many cocker threaded guns (even my ion has had the breach switched to a cocker thread) but i have also always had guns with spyder & Tippmann threads

This is where the freak set (and other insert based barrel kits) come in
With extra backs I can fit my freak to any gun I have (except those with fixed barrels!)
But this doesn't come cheaply - I have a full freak set plus extra backs and extra fronts