Curious about my Phantom...

[Drunkscriblerian]

So, I was perusing the "Custom Phantom" thread and admiring the pretties when I noticed how none of the guns I saw matched mine exactly; there were always some weird differences. With that in mind I was wondering what's up with mine. The differences;

-The "CCI" logo on mine doesn't match what I see. In place of the fancy logo, it just has "COMPONENT CONCEPTS INC" printed above the safety in plain capitals (the paint has entirely worn off but you can still see where it was)

-On the feedneck side it says "THE PHANTOM" in the same logo, but the logo looks to be way smaller. It could be due to how again the paint's entirely worn off but I dunno. Are those logos supposed to be painted on?

-Everyone else with the wraparound pump handle has a spring on their pump arm, mine's never had that.

-The barrel is gray, the rest of the gun is black. I've always wondered about this because I've never seen a solid gray Phantom (they're always either basic black or custom anno'ed) and I've never seen another Phantom with a mismatched barrel. The barrel itself has no trademarks on it from any aftermarket makers so I'm gonna guess its from CCI.

I bought this gun used in (I think) 1998 from a guy in the parking lot of a field I played on for $80. The price was a steal even at the time so I jumped on the deal. It shot well, but I remember having issues with the occasional "blooper" (really low-velocity shot) even back then. By some miracle it still airs up (even though I haven't taken it apart yet) and although the shots look a little sluggish on HPA it still shoots using old swelled-up paint.

The serial number (or what I presume to be the serial number, stamped on the bottom of the trigger guard) is "14300", and whoever put it there was having a bad day; the numbers are misaligned and the last two are way deeper than the first three. I don't know if that matters.

The one modification I've made was swapping the grip from the standard plastic "M-16" grip with one off an ICD Thunder Cat. Other than that, what you see was what I bought circa 1998. Is there something odd about my gun? Or is it just somebody's rando experiment? I did buy it in a parking lot after all.

[XEMON]

I have 2 in my bag that are an exact match to yours 👍

They are early phantom, before they were lasered frame and CNC serial numbers ...

The inside is probably the straight hammer with the allen adjuster.
The barrel is aluminum and nickel plated.
The print return is an option/upgrade.

In function of exactly how old it is, the barrel thread might be different enough to not fit, don't for newer barrel in if they don't fit.

[Drunkscriblerian]

Barrel is nickel plated? It sure doesn't look like it on my end, it looks anodized. Was it some kind of matte finish? Do you have pictures of yours?

[iamthelazerviking]

Early Phantom frames had different looking logos. Pump return spring helps I feel, I always prefer on the around the barrel handle but not totally necessary.

Barrel looks like it's just from a different colored Phantom

[XEMON]

Barrel is nickel plated? It sure doesn't look like it on my end, it looks anodized. Was it some kind of matte finish? Do you have pictures of yours?

Here is mine, the second frame is MIA right now 😅
The barrels are rifled for the last inch or 2 from the end, no porting.

[Drunkscriblerian]

Interesting.

Mine is smoothbore to the end. Still, the finish looks close and the painted marks definitely match on the frame. I can shoot more pics of the barrel if you want, it seems like mine is close to yours but not the same.

[XEMON]

Mine is full dark grey in color, and the texture definitely confirms its nickel plated. They might have done some onoed of similar grey too ...

[Drunkscriblerian]

@XEMON: I think they might have done anodized versions too, I've seen nickel-plated stuff and my barrel just doesn't look like that. It looks anodized in gray.

Still, my gun's frame looks exactly like yours, so that part's right at least.

[coyote]

Back in the day the Nickel barrels were offered for sale on their own, and as an upgrade option from CCI.

The bore on those barrels is either a tad smaller or larger than the stock barrel. I don't remember the specs.

[Drunkscriblerian]

Okay. Here's a closeup between the finish on the body and the barrel of my gun. I think it looks the same when I'm looking at it, but the camera insists on making it look different. Not sure what that means.

[XEMON]

That looks anoed, it doesn't have the grainy texture of the bucket coating.
Definitely same era as the ones I have 👍

They're phantoms, they shoot well and are bullet proof, but the pump stroke can be a tad stiffer than on the newer ones😁