Nova N3 Abyss

[Grendel]

While at the Fulda Gap 2022 on Friday night before the event I was able to visit the Nova booth and buy for myself an Nova N3 Abyss.

Side note, Jake (Superman / Bearded Works) saw this marker at the factory around a week before and predicted it would be the one I bought

Here are some eye candy to help placate the audience:

[Grendel]

Well first off if you get an opportunity to visit the Nova booth at a future event do so. Everyone at their booth was super friendly and willing to talk with players. I got to spend quite a bit of time talking to Chris (creator) and TJ originally talking about the new markers but then found out we knew a lot of the same people and were at the same events in the olden days. They [Chris and TJ] are just plain friendly people, passionate about what they are doing and have a definite appreciation for us the players.

I went to Fulda Gap hoping that the N3 was available for sale. When I got to try one out at Paintball Charleston that Jake (Superman) had to play testing I really came to enjoy shooting it. SO when I found out they had announced the N3 was for sale I could not wait for their booth to get setup and make a visit. I had planned on buying either a solid Black or solid Grey N3. I tend to be more of a function over form person and fancy anodization has never really pulled hard on me when making purchases. So I spent sometime looking and listening to Chris and TJ describe the markers and systems. I looked several times and Jake had mentioned he had seen some special anodization on some of the N3 at the factory. Well he predicted that I would buy the Abyss. The Abyss is really nice and because of the darkness of the anodization it looks grey/black from a distance but the closer you get you can see the colors start coming out and what colors you see is really dependent upon how you hold it and the angle of the light. Aesthetically I could not be happier.

So I purchased an Abyss N3 with a full set of inserts then TJ made sure the reg. was preset and the dwell adjustment was well centered. I immediately got a hopper on it, sized the paint for insert (0.679) and headed to the chrono. I was able to fairly chrono in at below 280 fps even give the fact the paint was egg shaped and velocity was fairly erratic and the chrono referee did not understand the concept of average of 3 shots.... After chrono I decided to buy 2 more tickets for paint to bring me up to 3 cases (unheard of quantity for me at a scenario) so I could just play without worrying about running out of paint.

Saturday morning we loaded up are gear and paint and headed out to the field. Overall I had I think a better time then some of my teammates on Saturday. I think it was because I had a new marker, plenty of paint and I want to just bang head to head with the Warsaw. I am very happy with the N3 it performed well and drew a fair amount of attention from players. I was amazed that players would stop while we were actively shooting to ask questions about my marker. I even let a few of the shoot it some as well as a referee. There is a poor victim of a close shot when the ref. handed me back the marker and it accidentally discharged into the side of his head at could not be 3 ft away.

That brings me to one of the things about the N3 is trigger pull weight and distance. It is super light and super short and given that I have never been a high volume mech or electro shooter this was new for me and cause a few accidental discharges. I really blame me more then the marker, I am used to riding the trigger on my pumps when playing and that is not something you can do with this marker. By the end of the day I gone a long way to shifting my habit of riding the trigger to holding it against the trigger guard. The marker does come with a trigger safety and I started using it every time I was walking off the field to help prevent testing my barrel sock (which did get tested once coming off the field).

The marker sounds different when firing, the barrel reciprocates when firing (which player find cool it seems) and it does have some recoil (minute). Really after using it for a few minutes all of that just fades away. As fast as I could pull the trigger and hopper feed the balls it fired and never once broke a ball. Currently I have a little over 1.5 cases through it without any breaks in the breach or barrel. The trigger is so light and short even I can get a prodigious amount of paint down range and it was very consistent. I spent a lot of time pinning red players in their bunkers or punishing them when they tried to push across the open. Muscle memory was not there for fast reloads and getting my damn pods back in my harness, been too long since I played on a competitive team but it eventually started to come back and the N3 just kept chugging away.

I did have one problem later in the day on Saturday, where I started hearing a faint hiss coming from the body below the feed neck area. Even with this the marker was still shooting fine so once I ran out of paint then got myself eliminated I took it back to the Nova booth. TJ took some time to troubleshoot and fix the issue. What it turned out to be is some trash on the main seal the barrel seals against. You could not see anything wrong with the O-ring and most likely could have just been wiped off but since it was torn down to that point TJ went ahead and replaced it. Back up and working but sadly that was the end of the day for me.

Sunday turned out to be a quagmire and the guys I went up to play with and myself decided that was enough for us. I have played in the mud and rain (anyone who has gone to EMR has ) enough that I do not need to do so anymore. SO I have another case and a half that I suppose I will make the trip down to Paintball Charleston and finish running through my new N3. Other then what TJ did for the leak I have no intention of tearing this down until either is stops function/leaks or I hit 4 cases done. I want another mechanical marker in my bag that I can depend on just working and I am hoping the N3 is just that marker.

.... more to come ...

[Grendel]

Reserved for longer term update (4 cases)

[RuleOfSines]

Was tempted to grab one of those too, looks even better than the pics they have on the site.

[Grendel]

Definitely, there are a lot of color combinations that come out in different light but overall from a distance looks like a glossy black-ish

[superman]

Told you so. lol
It looks better in those pics than it did in the shop lighting for sure. Other options i had in mind for you was the black and the black to green fade, but i knew that was the one. lol


Some playing pics i found of ya so far.

[Grendel]

,,,,see I actually play....

[superman]

now we have proof!
Hopefully there are some pics of me laying by the net. lol

[Grendel]

Initial review added, also collecting some more action shots from the photographer. Have paid for some already just waiting on the email with attachments.

Oh, and seriously thinking about getting the longer barrel. The barrel the Abyss came with works just fine just used to playing with a longer barrel and there were a few shots that hit my bunker because of the shorter length.