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.
It could have had some slight problems with it. Plus the original barrel was poop. Try shooting someone elses mag next time, maybe you'll change your new opinion on them.
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