first game with Micromag AND q-loader

[jwalker87]

I don't know if anyone really cares, but I decided to do a writeup on my first day of paintballing with my micromag and q-loader.

Bought a used Micromag (from SanDiegoMag...great guy to deal with) which got delivered SATURDAY, and today (sunday) I played with it. Came with a Lapco Autospirit barrel. This was also the first game I played with my q-loader, and I was a bit nervous since all the reviews I've read of it say to be patient; that it will take time to get used to. Well, this wasn't the case with me! I bolted it on Saturday, cut the hose to the correct length so it wouldn't chop paint when I removed the pod, and went! Both the q-loader AND the mag worked flawlessly their first use. I am so happy! I have a ReTro valve and Level 10 in the mag, and I didn't chop a single ball the entire day. Also, for those who are skeptical of the 100rnd capacity of the qloaders, it is noticeable. However, you can just glance at the tube every once and a while, and you know EXACTLY how many balls you have, which is more than you can say for most loaders. They're really quick to load too, especially if you want to just leave the tubes on the ground. I'm a neat freak, so I put the used pods back in my harness, and I was still probably faster than filling a normal pod.

Also, I was the player of the day. With the mag and the qloader, everybody wanted to know what it was, how it worked, and to hold it. Even the refs there were in awe of my qloader, and asked me to tell them how it worked for me; that they would have to get one if it did well. Out of the, I think, 8 games we played, I only got marked out twice; once was friendly fire and the other time I was the only one left against 4 of them :( . Also, after we were done, the ref asked for my name and number; that he could use someone like me in some of their scenario and other games. Again, I don't know if anyone really cares, but I felt the need to share my GREAT day of paintball with a great marker and a great loading system with you.

[ZapTheMad]

I care! It's better to hear about a great day ballin' instead of hearing about how your GF broke up with you and moved out taking everything leaving you with an empty house!

[APowers365]

Hey, I was thinking about getting a qloader so maybe you can help me...Say you play a game and use 50 paintballs from the qpod, how long would it take to reload the qpod?? Just wondering because I plan on the 2-pod starter thing. I don't shoot much. Alot of games I dont even use 100 rounds so I would need to reload the pod between games.

LMK, thanks.

[jwalker87]

its really easy. You just click the pod into the reloading silo (just like you click it into the gun), and wind the paintballs into it. The fewer paintballs you need to put in, the less time it takes. You don't have to empty out the whole thing, if that's what you're asking. I would highly recommend it.

[Empyreal Rogue]

Yeah, I back up everything he said. ;)

[APowers365]

What about prewinds?? Do you have to do that garbage every time u put paintballs back into the qpod??

[fcpchop]

thats cool, you should post a pic of your gun, how much did u pay for the q loader?

[Halliday]

This thread is almost worthless w/o pix! :eek:
It is good to hear about a good day of paintballing :)

[dwab3000]

i think the ref was hittin on you :eek:

good to hear about your day at the feild...

and zap, im sorry if my GF steals 50% of my things and i need help from AO :D

[DementedChild]

hows your profile from behind the bunker with that q loader, cause where i was yesterday hopper gun hits are a kill and i was nailing people like that, people were getting pissed at my cause my profile is like my half my head and the gun barrel i run a warpedcocker btw

[jwalker87]

about the prewinds; I had heard about those, but I have no idea. I've never taken my pods apart, and that might have something to do with it, but when you load paintballs it winds the spring as it winds the paintballs in, so that your spring tension is proportional to the amount of paintballs in there.

I'll get some pics of my gun up. Right now I have a 12" barrel, and the qloader sticks out about 2.5", but I have a 14" Freak kit that I just need a 'cocker back for and then it's be perfect. I got the 5-pod qloader system for $140. The 2-pod is $80.

NO, THE REF WAS NOT HITTING ON ME! He was a middle aged balding guy, but it was cool.

From behind the bunker, the qloader is awesome. No profile, and the best part is you don't have to shoot it straight up. Several times when leaning left I would just turn the gun upside down and hold it with my right hand instead of switching hands.

[the larch]

I have a q on my mag also. With a ule warp like I have. THERE IS no profile except the barrel tip, the detent and the hose to the valve..and your right eye.
The jury is still out for me on the q-loader though. I REALLY think the concept is the future of paintball, but the Q is still a young product.
I keep my vertical feed and halo in my bag to strap it on quickly just in case :D

[jwalker87]

yep I think the qloader is the future as well, but this one has a few bugs. I think one of the biggest flaws is the reloading silo; it takes sooooo long to reload just because the balls won't feed from the silo into the tube that's connected to the pod. You have to shake it for a minute for 10 seconds of winding. But other than that, I've been extremely pleased.

[durtysoufcraka]

pics pics pics.
necesitamos picturas. (sí, hablo español)

[jwalker87]

some pics! First one is just of the whole thing. Second is closeup of the gun, and third is at attempt at the profile; its an awkward camera angle though, so I couldn't get the camera steady.

Yes, that's a 12" barrel on there right now; im still waiting for the 'cocker threaded Freak back for my kit. And my tank is at Smart Parts getting checked out right now.

[the larch]

Mine:

http://www.jayloo.com/lib/get_file.php?id=2478 http://www.jayloo.com/lib/get_file.php?id=2477

[jwalker87]

whoa thats nice man. I don't like the vertical setup of the qloader though; too bulky. I like it riding right alongside the barrel. I really like your grips and frame though; I am tempted to get the logic frame, but I'm holding out for the Hairtrigger; that thing's gonna be sweeeeeeet. I especially like the wooden grips.

[viperx1_1000]

Why don't you run the q horizontally on your warp body right off of the feed tube? I had a q loader once, it never worked, then i got it to work and i sold my gun, there is just no end to the torment. The prewind thing does get annoying. Especially when your reeling in the balls and one isn't fully in the breach and chop, it then drools down your pod making all the balls in it useless. Cleaning it can also be a pain at times. Overall it's a great design, without reliability. Don't get the tournament set, it has just that many pods to go and break. Also, do you think i'm ready to go throw my 25 dollar pod on the ground and have people sliding and running into it?

[thatguy68]

wow. I was thinking about running a q loader on a mag. so it works flawlessly for you eh??? I['ve heard more bad then good about the q loader. Did you get it for 140 on qloader.com. Last i checked it was 160 on there.... :D

[jwalker87]

if he did that, the tube would have a 180* bend in it, so it would stick out real far. The way he was it works well; almost no hose sticking out.

About the ball breaking in yours, was it in the gun or where the pod engages into the tube? Because that's a problem with you cutting your tube to the right length if it is there.

About the tournament kit; if you get the $80 kit, you can only shoot 200 rounds in a game. That's it, no exceptions. The tournament kit lets you shoot 500 rounds in a game. I've yet to exceed 300 rnds with it (you become more aware of how much you can shoot when you can tell how exactly you've shot).

Yes, the qloader worked PERFECTLY. I had heard both ways about it too, but not a single thing went wrong with mine. And the capacity isn't that much of a downside, as it's so quick to switch out pods.

[tihul]

any downsides you can see from the q loader from the first day of play other than the ball capacity.?

[jwalker87]

nope; like I said, the ball capacity just takes a little getting used to. And it's really nice in that just by looking at the side of the pod you can tell within 10 balls how much you have left. The only other downside I can think of is how delicate they are. I wouldn't want one to fall in the mud, or get stepped on. Whenever I changed out pods, I stuck the empty one back in my harness, which meant reloading took longer, but I never got tagged while reloading, so I'm not worrying about it. I would definitely recommend it. Mags are very compact markers, and the qloader adds to that very nicely.

[durtysoufcraka]

thul, welcome to AO. rock on. viperX why dont you recommend the tourney kit. you get 5 pods and you can use them...was your arguement that the more that you own the more you will break? thas silly. and i wanna know downsides to the Q also.
-durty

[viperx1_1000]

no,no, no. I meant that he takes off the 90 degree fitting and puts on the q loader directly to the feed tube, no hose. I don't know why i'm so against them, it's a new company, these are new items, I recieved a set that would constantly not work leaving me high and dry when it came to playing. A few pieces broke, i tried to get in touch with them, but never could. I just had a bad expierence. Also, i would not reccomend it on an autococker with a 15* asa, there is no where to bolt it on. But, they have that other mounting system comming out so that would be nice. Yes, i just found out my hoses were not cut right, but when reloading the pods i just can't get used to it. I reel, they feed, then, it jams, i unfeed try again... Or it will feed fine then i go to play a game, switch pods and all the balls just stay there. What the heck, it's wound and everything they just won't come out? I don't know there are no real downsides to this product other than that it's new. In a year or so all other loading systems will become obsolite, just wait and see, i would say poick one up before the prices skyrocket.

[gc82000]

It is god to hear about your day and the pics are nice. keep us posted on your lay becuase there might be a conversion or two if you do.

[jwalker87]

a conversion would be for the better. As far as bolting the qloader straight to the feedneck, that wouldn't work. The paintball path of the two pieces are both female, so it would not be able to mount at all. THat would be neat though; possibly a modification. I'm sorry you had that much trouble with yours, mine's worked better than I could've hoped. My friend just bought a ULE mag with qloader, so we're the qloading magging duo. It's gonna be sweet. We're starting a 3-man team with us 2 and another guy with a 2k autococker.

[Empyreal Rogue]

That friend of his would be me. :P

To clarify the Pre-Wind question: Yes you do have to Pre-Wind every pod before use. All that does is put pressure on the spring which allows it to feed through the tube into your Marker. From my understanding Pre-Winding is very different from loading each pod. Each time I've used the Q-Loader was with Pre-Winds, then I loaded it and it worked fine. I never noticed any increased tension on the balls or anything after loading the Q-Pod after Pre-Winding it.

One thing I love about the Q-Loader + Automag with Level 10 is you have a pretty much 100% guarantee of never chopping a ball; ever. The Q-Loader constantly keeps one round in your chamber using spring tension and you can't out shoot it. The reason you can't out shoot it is because the tension keeps one round loaded at all times and can keep up with any Marker shooting 30+ BPS. I know of no Marker that can do that. heh

[GoatBoy]

Hey, I was thinking about getting a qloader so maybe you can help me...Say you play a game and use 50 paintballs from the qpod, how long would it take to reload the qpod?? Just wondering because I plan on the 2-pod starter thing. I don't shoot much. Alot of games I dont even use 100 rounds so I would need to reload the pod between games.

LMK, thanks.


OMG teh q-lodar is soooo hard to reload, OMG OMG!!!!!!!!





I made this clip the FIRST night I had the thing. I didn't even have enough paint to fill the whole thing up, but I'll let you guys use your fertile imaginations.

I know it's only 100 rounds a pop, but which do you think is faster? Winding paint into a Q-Loader pod, or fill-shake-top-off of a regular pod?




Reloading the pods isn't the weak point of the Q-Loader. I do admit, the Silo thing is pathetic, but as you can see, that's easy to work around.

BTW, need video hosting...

[Empyreal Rogue]

It's pretty difficult to reload each Q-Pod, I'll give you that. And it's also easier to load each 100, 140 and 150 round tubes but it's a lot quicker to load a Q-Pod into the mount system. But that's just from my personal experience.

Plus, think of it like this: Each 1 Q-Pod is 'equivalent' to 1 hopper. I would certainly rather reload a Q-Pod than a conventional hopper. Sitting there popping open a tube and the hopper to reload, close the tube then close the hopper isn't something I'd like to do. Therefore, I purchased the Q-Loader. :D

[GoatBoy]

It's pretty difficult to reload each Q-Pod, I'll give you that. And it's also easier to load each 100, 140 and 150 round tubes but it's a lot quicker to load a Q-Pod into the mount system. But that's just from my personal experience.

Plus, think of it like this: Each 1 Q-Pod is 'equivalent' to 1 hopper. I would certainly rather reload a Q-Pod than a conventional hopper. Sitting there popping open a tube and the hopper to reload, close the tube then close the hopper isn't something I'd like to do. Therefore, I purchased the Q-Loader. :D

I was being sarcastic :) Did you watch the clip?

I'm betting if I adjust that setup in the pic, I can fill a pod with paint in about 15 seconds. The clip is me winding the pod left handed (I'm right handed) while trying to point it at the camera.

[SanDiegoMag]

Hey now, it WAS mine once too! Im glad he gets good use out of it. Im almost regretting selling it to him :D but its a good thing that he uses a qloader.

[the larch]

First. Thank you VERY much for the praise of my marker in the above pics. I made the grips myself, and when I refine them, I will probably offer them on AO.

Second. No offense to those who complain about reload time off the field, but WHO CARES. This thing has NO PROFILE ON THE FIELD. You can put it anywhere if you are creative, it loads faster than you can possibly shoot and there are NO batteries or circuit boards.
THIRD. Once again, no offense to those who complain about pod size, but I would rather think every now and then about the number of paintballs left than CONSTANTLY think about how big of a target the BLIMP on the top of my marker is. If you are going to make a move, toss in a new pod. If you cant do it in 100 rounds, you cant do it in a 1000.
The only valid discussion on this thing is it's physical reliability and consistancy.
This type of loader (not necessarily the Q) is the future of paintballl IMHO. Marker manufacturers need to seriously look at making BOTTOM feed markers for this type of feed system.

[Empyreal Rogue]

I was being sarcastic :) Did you watch the clip?

I'm betting if I adjust that setup in the pic, I can fill a pod with paint in about 15 seconds. The clip is me winding the pod left handed (I'm right handed) while trying to point it at the camera.

Well, I didn't watch the clip. :\

I guess 'difficult' isn't the right word but awkward is a better word. The silo isn't aggitated and there's no funnel at the bottom, makes it somewhat annoying. At least it's that way for jwalker and myself.

SanDiegoMag, he's enjoying the MicroMag, trust me. ;)

[jwalker87]

don't worry; im taking good care of it.

[chris99506]

almost everyone that i hear bad things about the q-loader from, doesnt have one. i just got mine and a few of my friends have one. and we are all very happy with it. i'd rather deal with 100 ball capacity than deal with hopper hits and lids breaking and batteries. and out shooting my hopper.
no loader is perfect, but the q-loader is the closets thing so far.

[jwalker87]

I agree. Though it's interesting that most of what I knew of the qloader before I got one was based on this really good review, done by an average joe, who bought one. He said that his first day of playing was, at first, plagued with problems with his qloader, but after he figured it out, it worked bodaciously. I just find it odd that, right out of the box, mine worked like a charm. The main modifications I would make to the qloader are:

1) motorized silo; feeding paintballs from the silo into the tube is the most annoying aspect of the qloader by far (not loading the pods; getting the paintballs from the silo to the tube)

2) more durable pods. I don't know how they would do this, but I'm constantly fearing I'll break one of them.

3) make it harder to load the pods incorrectly. It's fairly easy to stick the pod in half an inch off, and have to spend 5 seconds getting it back out again.


THis is, though, as many have said, the first of its kind, and I believe it will spark a revolution in hopper design.

[Naby]

GoatBoy, love the sound effect in the clip :)

[jwalker87]

hey GoatBoy, I just watched your clip. I'll have to try using a hopper to refill the q-pod; looks like it works a hell of a lot better than the silo

[tjmpaintball06]

Yea, the hopper would be the better choice.

[GoatBoy]

Naby: Thanks. I thought it was a little bland without any accompanying audio, so I thought I'd spice it up a little.

jwalker87: The best way that I can see to make it work is to get yourself a short, firm, clear tube (or maybe an opaque tube with a window slot cut in it for viewing) and make it sort of like a high-rise for the hopper to sit on. This gives the hopper a little bit of a buffer to work with while you wind, and it give you the user the ability to know if you need to stop winding so you don't get gaps in the feed. I think if you set something like this up, you should be able to reload pods at nearly the full speed of the hopper. My problem in the video is that the halogen lamp and weird angle I was holding the thing at were causing glare, plus I was using black paint, so I was having a hard time spotting breaks in the paint feed... so I had to kind of wind it slowly.


It makes you wonder why AIC didn't offer a solution like this. It's probably a little backwards to recommend using a hopper to fill a hopper, but it's better than offering the Silo as a solution. Everyone should have a backup hopper; why not put it to use?



Which then makes me wonder... what could I use the Silo for? *Imagines mounting the Silo on top of his gun for 500 rounds of non-agitated power!* Nah. I'd probably use it as a beverage dispenser.




Edit: Just thought of something... maybe you could get one of those clear spyder straight feed adapters that they use on the vert-feeds.

[jwalker87]

hey, i have one of those! maybe it would work...

[Archangel-6]

Heres a pic of mine on my WG65 I'm still setting this up, and have yet to play with it tho....

[jwalker87]

man that looks sweet! Put some pictures up of the whole marker though. The only problem I can see with that is that it looks like you used the qpod to mount it by; this means that you won't be able to reload. Maybe I'm seeing it wrong though. You should mount it by the adapter, not the pod.

[Archangel-6]

The socket is mounted through the magwell housing using the same technique as the Qloader comes default. The front bracket is a prototype, there is no pressure on the pod, it slides in, and out. The bracket was designed to flip forward, and the pod to drop out, but the barrel extension hinders this.

I'm working on a billet swivel type bracket that will swivel to the side for pod removal/install. As of now all that needs to be done is unlock the pod/socket twist the barrel 1/4 turn, and remove/replace the pod..etc it involves as much time as reloading a conventional hopper.

The gun is not complete so I only posted the neat part I'm waiting for my curved 30rnd mag mod, and airsource hardline mod before I post everything. I am doing writeups for these mods that will be posted on www.Calstrategies.com

Here is a pic of how it mounts in the magwell housing

[jwalker87]

man thats crazy custom

[Archangel-6]

Thanks...thank GOD for the dremel...I will most likely slice most of the mounting stem off of it, and weld a threaded lug to the mag well housing as a final setup. It's hard to get the slots on the housing perfect with the dremel, and placing the 90* bends in the bracket can get tricky. Of course when the new M4 grip frame/mag well comes out this will have to be totally reconfigured, but for now it should be fine!


BTW didn't mean to hijack, or change the direction of your thread....

[Archangel-6]

Put some pictures up of the whole marker

As you requested..the trigger frame isn't connected yet as I'm waiting for my E-trigger.

[jwalker87]

nice; the qloader makes that thing look a lot more real than a Halo or some crap like that.

[Archangel-6]

I was going to go with a Rico 2k, but I got the Q loader sealed for less that $60...so i figured why not