paint magnet
09-16-2002, 03:38 PM
Well, about two weeks ago, I had my first chance ever to play with an Automag. (well, it was a MM but same difference) After hearing all the wonderful things and being somewhat biased to mags, I had great expectations of it. I had about 350 bucks at the time and was looking to buy a good used gun, for when I'm too lazy to use my Phantom. (although I get more eliminations that way) Soooo... I walk into the building and there is a nice spiffy Minimag on the wall, with a huge d/f and a Crossfire 68 3k for sale. It came with 2 barrels (armson and a SP) and he was asking 350 for everything. "wow", I thought, "here's my new gun", but just to make sure, I asked if I could play with it. I got to play a couple hours with it, and I'm glad I did.
First I had to clean some yellow soup out of it, but I got it all shiny and clean on the inside, and fumbled getting the twist-lock barrel on. ( you can say what you want about the twist lock style but in the time it takes me to put it on I could have put on 5 cocker barrels) I was using the SP 12" first. I went over and chrono'd. 270, 261, 272, 268. Well, +/- 10 fps is pretty bad for a 'gun with two regulators, esp. since Crossfire is supposed to have the best preset tanks. The paint was Diablo Blaze, but it was not thin shelled, I got about 4-6 bounces with Tom's test thingy.
Anyway, I went to shoot it on the field. Now keep in mind that I'm used to a Phantom. But even with my Phantom shooting 242 (and it was more consistant with unregulated CO2 than the mag with dual regulated N2) the balls from the mag fell about 20-30 feet shorter and were really lacking in range, even when compared to other open bolt guns.
That was the first thing that really bothered me. The second was that I broke paint like crazy in that barrel. When I'd take it off to clean it, the revvy went crazy and dropped about 15 balls before I shut the stupid thing off. So I changed barrels to the Armson stealth. The paint breaking was virtually eliminated and I got a little better accuracy.
I also did not like the fact that the gun wasn't quite as compact as I had hoped. The accuracy also left something to be desired. I noticed several times that at a range of about 15 feet, I could see a corner of a hopper, mask, etc. sticking out of a bunker, somehting easily hit by my Phantom, a cocker, or virtually any other gun, especially with what are very nice aftermarket barrels. However, I was never able to hit it. This is because the balls always seemed to be 1 or 2 inches off, just enough to miss.
Aside from everything I didn't like, I really liked the trigger ( it had a benchy 2x on it) Nice and crisp, a little sloppy but good overall. And I like the reliability issue. But seing as I have 5 other guns, that's not that big of a problem. To sum it up, after playing with it, I bought a used cocker they had on the wall instead.
First I had to clean some yellow soup out of it, but I got it all shiny and clean on the inside, and fumbled getting the twist-lock barrel on. ( you can say what you want about the twist lock style but in the time it takes me to put it on I could have put on 5 cocker barrels) I was using the SP 12" first. I went over and chrono'd. 270, 261, 272, 268. Well, +/- 10 fps is pretty bad for a 'gun with two regulators, esp. since Crossfire is supposed to have the best preset tanks. The paint was Diablo Blaze, but it was not thin shelled, I got about 4-6 bounces with Tom's test thingy.
Anyway, I went to shoot it on the field. Now keep in mind that I'm used to a Phantom. But even with my Phantom shooting 242 (and it was more consistant with unregulated CO2 than the mag with dual regulated N2) the balls from the mag fell about 20-30 feet shorter and were really lacking in range, even when compared to other open bolt guns.
That was the first thing that really bothered me. The second was that I broke paint like crazy in that barrel. When I'd take it off to clean it, the revvy went crazy and dropped about 15 balls before I shut the stupid thing off. So I changed barrels to the Armson stealth. The paint breaking was virtually eliminated and I got a little better accuracy.
I also did not like the fact that the gun wasn't quite as compact as I had hoped. The accuracy also left something to be desired. I noticed several times that at a range of about 15 feet, I could see a corner of a hopper, mask, etc. sticking out of a bunker, somehting easily hit by my Phantom, a cocker, or virtually any other gun, especially with what are very nice aftermarket barrels. However, I was never able to hit it. This is because the balls always seemed to be 1 or 2 inches off, just enough to miss.
Aside from everything I didn't like, I really liked the trigger ( it had a benchy 2x on it) Nice and crisp, a little sloppy but good overall. And I like the reliability issue. But seing as I have 5 other guns, that's not that big of a problem. To sum it up, after playing with it, I bought a used cocker they had on the wall instead.