Deals.Woot

Being an avid paintball player since 95, I speak with confidence when saying this package might be nice for beginners or those who only play rarely.

Additionally, this deal isn't anything special. The "platinum series" 98 custom goes for $139 shipped all day everyday day online. Many times you can find it for cheaper. That gravity fed hopper is a joke. People can't give them away (I'm not kidding). CO2 tanks are a dime a dozen and can be found anywhere. And I would rather play with no pods and 1 hopper than wear that huge "vest" with all my hard pods in front of me. Lastly, the mask is a joke altogether. A low quality uncomfortable mask can easily ruin your entire day on the field. Think I'm joking? Go out there and play in a $5 mask, then try on a $70 mask and you tell me.

All in all, I'm just saying, if you want to get into paintball and own your own equipment... do yourself some justice and spend your money on something worth while.

The best part of this is the Tippmann gun. It's one of the straightest shooting guns out there, and it's a single-pull gun so you won't just be throwing away paint if you try a "two finger flutter" gun without knowing what you're doing. It's also heavy duty, easy to use/clean/disassemble, and very accurate. I prefer it over every other gun I've tried.

That being said, this is an okay deal if you're starting paintball and need a full set-up. Otherwise you're better off looking for the components separately. My biggest worry is the vest with the tubes on the front. If you really are going to be "sniping" then you're going to spend a lot of time on your belly, or front-to-object at least, and those tubes are going to get might uncomfortable if not break open outright. There's also no size listed for the vest so expect it to be too small.

Overall, don't worry about the CO2 tank or gravity hopper. Both work fine for casual play although you'll probably want compressed air later.

@romeojn: Accuracy is not determined by "the gun". Every marker pushes air out of the barrel to propel the ball forward. A ball flying at 280fps is the same regardless of the marker it left. It's simple physics. Shot to shot air CONSISTENCY, ball to bore size match, overall ball roundness and ball diameter CONSISTENCY are the only things that determine accuracy. Cheap egg shaped paint or a crappy inline regulator will give you poor accuracy.

Tippmanns are durable. I'll have to give them that. BUT I don't find myself running my marker over with a truck daily. Can't say ANY of my markers have suddenly fallen apart while making a superman dive behind a bunker. And while we're at it, the Tippmann 98 and A5 are a royal PITA to dissemble/clean. Apparently you've never owned a bolt-out-back marker. Done in 60 seconds versus splitting the entire marker in half with like 8 allen bolts :rolleyes:.

And you always want to minimize the hard objects on your front. More bounces. No vest.

@curtisuxor: I hear what you're saying and agree to some extent. But a majority of those 13 year olds play like crap regardless of how fast their markers are. Put a little paint their way and they duck behind the bunker. That's all the time I need to rush em and bunker em. If you have a friend that plays as aggressive as you, you can usually run that field.

And for some odd reason, I only like using pumps when everyone else is using semi-auto/ramping. Just gives me more of a rush. More bragging rights too. LOL