WarHamster

I already posted this over in the Armotech forums, but now I realize the gun review forum might have been a smarter place to post it:


First the cons:

-The gun is finicky. I spent nearly a week (most of that waiting on a new spring though) fixing random things on it before I got it firing properly. Either I had a bad Gun, or Armotech doesn't check these things enough when they leave the factory. See the bottom of this post for a list of problems I encountered and how they were fixed.

-It's fairly heavy. While I was at the field today I was wishing I had a remote system (which I conveniently bought on the way home).

-It can be a pain to clean if paint gets into the wrong parts. i.e. the sight adjustment knobs or into certain areas of the gun.

-The gun shoots entirely too hot. Even turned all the way down, I had to cut three rungs off my firing spring to get it firing under 280fps.

-The gun is too bulky for speedball. There were a few scenarios even in woodsball where it was a bit too bulky for my bunker and firing it was awkward.

-The velocity adjustment screw must be taken out to access the spring, striker, etc. This means you must chrono again EVERY time you open you gun up to clean, oil, or whatever.


Now the Pros:

-It may be that the gun is just new, but my gun was shooting considerably farther then even the high end guns at the field. (I had 3 guys swearing I was shooting hot because of how far my shots were going and when I went to chrono I shot a 256, 262, & 259)

-It's far more consistent then my Pirhana or my friend's Spider. (for those who say that it's just a Spider in costume) While I'm not going to lie and say it's better than an angel or timmy (as I've never really had a chance to use either of those extensively), it was on par with any autococker I've seen.

-It's extremely quiet for a paintball gun. While it's not the most quiet gun I've ever heard, it was pretty damn quiet. I managed to pick a guy off from thick brush at about 20 feet without his friends knowing exactly where I was.

-The gun is easy to work on ONCE you get the hang of it. As I said it can be a finicky gun, but once I got used to it there's nothing that's very hard to fix.

-Obviously the gun looks amazing. I had a good 1/3 the field stop by to look at my gun. Even the people who knew what it was were checking it out. When I asked my friend to hold it while I adjusted my throat mike, 3 or 4 guys behind me who I didn't even know were like "I'll hold it!" Even if everyone didn't actually come over to look at it I think everyone at LEAST stopped and did a double take when they first saw it. Finally, there's nothing like newbies who think a the gun makes a paintball player good (not vice-versa), having their jaws drop and a look of awe come over them when they see it.

-The time I had to call tech support (about the tangled spring I talk about below). They were EXTREMELY kind and helpful. The guy there sent me 2 replacement body pins without even thinking twice cause mine were a bit loose. Likewise when I told him about my spring (again discussed below) he sent me a new spring no problem (I had to pay for a second one, but still).


Now the problems I encountered working on it

-When I got the gun the two pins that held the body halves together were loose.
Armotech sent me replacement body pins free of charge that work beautifully

-The first time I fired the gun, it burped my entire tank dry before I could disconnect the air. When I opened it up it has trashed (tangled) my firing spring and shredded the O-ring on my striker.
Again armotech sent me a replacement spring. However, I had to pay $5, for a second spring, since I asked him to send me 2 springs

-After I got the new spring I realized that the problem lies in the velocity adjustment. If it is in too far, it messes up the spring and causes the gun to burp like it did (i.e. the end of the spring is in farther then the face of the thingy you screw it into). However, when you consider it's shooting nearly 500 fps like that I guess it's to be expected...
No real solution for this, however it's not really a problem if you just understand that with it in all the way you're shooting 500fps+ and that can't be good for the gun

-Since I got the new spring and got the gun firing, air leaks out of the barrel when I have the gun uncocked with air on. As soon as I cock it it stops and it's fine, and obviously it recocks itself so this isn't really a problem.
Armotech tech support said this is a common problem and they've yet to come up with a good solution. They simply suggest cocking the marker before attaching an air supply to avoid the problem

-The parts are very rare, as it seems next to no one carries armotech products. I went to 4 paintball stores looking for a spring and even a hardware store to see if I could have one MADE before I broke down and called armotech.
I had planned to solve this by machining the gun to take Spider springs after my 90 day warranty is up. However, after seeing my gun my field store was quite impressed and plan to start carrying armotechs this fall, so parts shouldn't be a problem for me anymore

-The gun shoots too hot out of the factory. Even with the velocity screw as low as it would go, I couldn't get it firing under 400 fps.
I clipped 3 rungs off of the velocity spring and now it fires at 280 when the screw is about about 3/4 of the way in. Armotech now also offers pre-broken in springs that fire in the legal range right off the bat (figures AFTER I got mine and had to clip the spring)

So yeah, there are the problems I've had with it. As you can see it IS extremely finicky, but I've managed to get past all of it, and now the gun works wonderfully.

Conclusion
Was the gun a pain in the butt when I first got it? Yes. Was it worth it for how cool the gun is once I finally got it working? Definatly yes. It performs beautifully now. Not only does the gun perform with the best of them, but it looks amazing to boot.

While I can't reccomend it as a first-time gun due to the many problems I encountered getting it working in the first place. I would whole-heartedly reccomend it based on my experiences so far, for someone looking for a milsim gun or a good woodsball gun. Just make sure you're not afraid of tinkering around inside your gun a little!