i installed level 10; had problems; but wow

[Richter]

I installed level 10 today on my old automag cf21***; it took me about 2 hours to do. I highly suggest that anyone with an older valve not to do the quick installation because all i did was ruin the oring on carrier with two grooves on it and 2 shims. This marker wanted the smallest carrier (the one without markings), it took one shim and the orignal bolt spring; it was the only spring it liked.

I shot it with paint in sub 30 degree weather out on the back porch. I shot paint that broke usually with a three to 4 bounces. I had some paint that was on the 1 and 2 bounce test. mind you i didn't take ten of them and average the bounce; i took two or three and gave them the bounce test. I shot some out of round almost year old hot pink advantage rp, some old tc, some old diablo rec sport, some generic white box cheap crap, and some old misc.

i shot about five hopper fulls out in the back yard. I had one ball crack in the powerfeed. I beleive it was too fragile for the halo a or already broken. i had some oblong balls and one of those broke down the barrel. No paint by the bolt.

I use this same paint in below 40 degree conditions last week on dragon and it broke about 5 out of every 10 balls.

I am highly impressed with it.

i just thought it was wierd that my marker wanted the orginal bolt spring.

I have yet to chrono it; it look like it might have been shooting hot.

its late....
later folks
Shane Richter

[joeyjoe367]

Kinda funny, my RT didn't like either of the springs I was using yesterday either. Only the standard spring. Kinda odd. I wonder what the deal with that is.

[BlackVCG]

What results from testing did you see that indicated it didn't like any spring but the stock one? If it's venting too soon with the longer springs, then replacing the piston will fix that.

[Army]

Black, it's not too unusual. My Minimag will only run LX on the stock spring, but the Emag will vary between the middle and longest.

[AcemanPB]

On my new minimag, LX will only run on the stock spring. I can get the gun to fire with both long and middle springs, but not under 300FPS. I can get the middle spring down to about 310FPS before it stops firing.

[fuzzbubble]

i'm finally glad to see someone else has to use the smaller carriers, lol, everyone i talk to tells me to use the 2.0 or 2.5, but mine has to run on the .5, glad to hear you got it working, even better that you like it so much, good luck with it

[digitard]

Sweet, i'm glad you like it ...

I was gonna get the lvl10 kit to prevent ball chopping before I got my Retro valve, but I'm going to wait until the X VALVE is out and I'll pick it up so it has the new retro (just a lil lighter i think) and the LvLX already installed.

Hoooray!

Sincerely,
Dave K

[Duke of Lawnchair]

LX...

I thought I was the only one that had to use the stock spring to achieve any sort of reasonable results.

I burned through 500 balls of brittle RPS Wal Mart paint, which my friend chopped once with (he's not used to 'mags and short-stroked consistently). When I'm behind the trigger, asolutely no chops. A couple broke in the barrel, but no chops.

There was a case of 5-6 year (that was about the last time I played paintball before college and the start of my career) old paint in my bedroom @ my mother's house. I kid you not, this is when they used to pack them in two 1250 bags to get 2500. With this in mind, we threw about 300 downrange without a single chop OR break in the barrel.

The setup I'm currently running is:
Carrier: 1.5
Shims: 2
Main Spring: Original
Ambient Temp: 60 F per CNN weather
Fuel: CO2

Needless to say, my gas efficiency dropped. Where as I used to be able to rattle off ~1000 w/20oz, now I can do ~800.

I don't mean to hijack someone else's thread, but do the 'mags require ~800+ PSI for a HPA setup? Right now, I am currently looking @ the Crossfire 68/4500 preset bottle/regulator.

Take care,
Jim

[BlackVCG]

800-900psi input pressure is ideal for LX.

[Duke of Lawnchair]

BlackVCG, thanks.

[Gijim]

Same problem

I was wondering if anyone could guess why older mags can't shoot under 300 with either the long or middle spring. I resorted to the original spring to get it below 300 with a new piston. Just wondering if there is anything we can do to get it to work with the other springs. Its nice to know others have had this problem, thought I was the only one.

[Duke of Lawnchair]

serial #

Gijim,

My current setup is posted in this thread, but I forgot to mention my serial #. It is CF12xxx. Yes, it is OLD and I notice the same LV10 results w/older 'mags. Purchased in 1994, used and abused till 1998 then mothballed up till a few months ago. Since my return to paintball, I have upgraded it with nearly all the AGD goodies except for the RT Valve (soon to come).

Jim

[Gijim]

????

I'm guessing no one has any ideas as to why the older mags shoot over 300 fps with middle and long spring. Only the stock spring works, jusy wondering if anyone might have a clue why. Could it be the old valve vs a retro valve?

[Evil Bob]

If you're using a tight carrier (.5, 1.0, even 1.5) and the largest spring, it will take more air pressure to overcome the initial resistance the combination of the tight carrier and the longest spring exert on the bolt. Higher pressure through the bolt = higher velocity of the paintball. The only way to reduce the pressure required to overcome the initial resistance is to lower said resistance, ie. go to a larger carrier (reduce resistance on the piston) or the smaller spring (reduce resistance pushing aginst the bolt).

I used the #2 carrier and the largest spring with 3 shims in an old school high rise RT, it would chrono solid at 275 (field limit on a local outdoor field) but turning it below 265 would result in the RT not firing (bolt stick), found this out when I went to play indoors with a 250 limit. Switching to the medium spring cured the problem and allowed me to chrono from 240 - 300 without problems.

-Evil Bob

[minimag187]

My minimag has the carrier with 2 grooves, and teh longest spring and it works just fine. I can easily put my finger in or put a paintball in the breech with the bolt bouncing off.