Below is the review I did of my Gargoyle and kept working on for about the first year of ownership. I will try to update more. I know that I continued to work on efficiency and did have numbers up at one point in the last year or two of 40+ shots that were usable.
Gun: RTR Gargoyle, 1st run #11
NOTE: this is not a one time review it is a collection of thoughts, facts and numbers from almost a year of using the gun. Much of this, many of you have already read but, here it is all in one spot.
First day of testing, the gun has seen fewer than 100 round through it.
12ie - Leland
Paint - All star bought 12 days ago, didn't find any serious dimples or deformities in the paint it was in pretty good shape but a blow through test did find that the bore match was not quite what I would have liked it to be. The fit looked fine at first but the ball did stick at one point in the barrel air traveling past it at two points and two points (these points were 180* apart) in contact with the barrel holding it in place, picture an oval stuck in a circle.
Temp - low 60's
Total shots taken - 34
Data -
Chronograph speeds - 288, 297, 291, 000, 309, 273, 289, 279, 285, 289, 276, 303, 278 285, 301, 286, 288, 290, 282, 280, 300, 271, 280, 260, 276, 277, 259, 244, 237, 206, 000, 000
000 means I did not get a reading.
OPSERVATION - I'm assuming that this is due to the lip created by the new feed design but once a ball rolls into the "ready position" above the breach it pretty well stays there I lifted the gun to about a 85* angle (almost vertical) before the ball rolled back into the feed and out of the "ready position".
Second Testing a few weeks after getting the gun still less than 500 paintballs through it
So I was all set up to test the Gargoyle side by side with the Phantom, even changed the stock Gargoyle main spring for a blue Phantom on so that it would be more "apples to apples" I go to shoot the Phantom for the first time and as I'm bringing the barrel up the paintball falls right out the end of the barrel So I tip the barrel down on the Gargoyle, nothing happens, I shake it a little trying to get the ball to roll out and still nothing, I raise the gun to the chronograph and fire 238fps. So the ball apparently did not stay in the breach but the detents did prevent the roll out, I guess a slow shot is better than a blank. I ended the testing there for the day; I'm going to get some paint that better matches the barrel before I run the test between the two guns.
Pump Pandemonium Note –
Gun worked great. I did get over excited at one point and chopped a ball, on my way off the field I looked at it and thought to myself "damn that’s going to take forever to clean" about 3 minutes after arriving at the dead box the gun was ready to go again, no tools just paper towels and a cooler to set parts on. I have no doubt if it was my Phantom I would have either had to play with it dirty or be out several insertions to clean that mess.
What is very obvious now that I have been using this gun more is that it is a gun that was made by someone that, not only knew what they were doing in the shop, but knew the kinds of things that players encounter on the field and in the dead box and came up with great user friendly ways of dealing with these problems.
January 1st private game.
Setup is a hard (red) valve spring and soft (blue) main spring from a Madman kit. I played today (tradition) it was about 26*F out and a foot of snow. With this spring combo I was shooting about 240 (brittle summer paint caused me to lower the usual 260ish I generally try to shoot at) I'm proud to say that I was getting around 20 good shots off of a Leland 12ie, with a paint to barrel match that was not very good and the balls were in pretty rough shape but they were all I had.
Thoughts so far-
-I love this gun. Equals or outperforms my phantom in every category. The trigger and pump stroke are extremely smooth
-I honestly think that I will be able to get this gun over 60 shots per 12ie when weather warms up (stay tuned to see how that works out for me)
-I do occasionally miss my offset SC feed.
-I’m really glad that I decided to get a stock.
-Those of you that own or have owned Phantoms doubtlessly understand what I mean when I say that Rodney must have got to the CCI school of customer service.
-This is a true players gun. Always works, quick and easy to clean.
- The flat black does show any rubmarks or scratches, rubmarks are cleaned up pretty easy with a damp rag
Gun: RTR Gargoyle, 1st run #11
NOTE: this is not a one time review it is a collection of thoughts, facts and numbers from almost a year of using the gun. Much of this, many of you have already read but, here it is all in one spot.
First day of testing, the gun has seen fewer than 100 round through it.
12ie - Leland
Paint - All star bought 12 days ago, didn't find any serious dimples or deformities in the paint it was in pretty good shape but a blow through test did find that the bore match was not quite what I would have liked it to be. The fit looked fine at first but the ball did stick at one point in the barrel air traveling past it at two points and two points (these points were 180* apart) in contact with the barrel holding it in place, picture an oval stuck in a circle.
Temp - low 60's
Total shots taken - 34
Data -
Chronograph speeds - 288, 297, 291, 000, 309, 273, 289, 279, 285, 289, 276, 303, 278 285, 301, 286, 288, 290, 282, 280, 300, 271, 280, 260, 276, 277, 259, 244, 237, 206, 000, 000
000 means I did not get a reading.
OPSERVATION - I'm assuming that this is due to the lip created by the new feed design but once a ball rolls into the "ready position" above the breach it pretty well stays there I lifted the gun to about a 85* angle (almost vertical) before the ball rolled back into the feed and out of the "ready position".
Second Testing a few weeks after getting the gun still less than 500 paintballs through it
So I was all set up to test the Gargoyle side by side with the Phantom, even changed the stock Gargoyle main spring for a blue Phantom on so that it would be more "apples to apples" I go to shoot the Phantom for the first time and as I'm bringing the barrel up the paintball falls right out the end of the barrel So I tip the barrel down on the Gargoyle, nothing happens, I shake it a little trying to get the ball to roll out and still nothing, I raise the gun to the chronograph and fire 238fps. So the ball apparently did not stay in the breach but the detents did prevent the roll out, I guess a slow shot is better than a blank. I ended the testing there for the day; I'm going to get some paint that better matches the barrel before I run the test between the two guns.
Pump Pandemonium Note –
Gun worked great. I did get over excited at one point and chopped a ball, on my way off the field I looked at it and thought to myself "damn that’s going to take forever to clean" about 3 minutes after arriving at the dead box the gun was ready to go again, no tools just paper towels and a cooler to set parts on. I have no doubt if it was my Phantom I would have either had to play with it dirty or be out several insertions to clean that mess.
What is very obvious now that I have been using this gun more is that it is a gun that was made by someone that, not only knew what they were doing in the shop, but knew the kinds of things that players encounter on the field and in the dead box and came up with great user friendly ways of dealing with these problems.
January 1st private game.
Setup is a hard (red) valve spring and soft (blue) main spring from a Madman kit. I played today (tradition) it was about 26*F out and a foot of snow. With this spring combo I was shooting about 240 (brittle summer paint caused me to lower the usual 260ish I generally try to shoot at) I'm proud to say that I was getting around 20 good shots off of a Leland 12ie, with a paint to barrel match that was not very good and the balls were in pretty rough shape but they were all I had.
Thoughts so far-
-I love this gun. Equals or outperforms my phantom in every category. The trigger and pump stroke are extremely smooth
-I honestly think that I will be able to get this gun over 60 shots per 12ie when weather warms up (stay tuned to see how that works out for me)
-I do occasionally miss my offset SC feed.
-I’m really glad that I decided to get a stock.
-Those of you that own or have owned Phantoms doubtlessly understand what I mean when I say that Rodney must have got to the CCI school of customer service.
-This is a true players gun. Always works, quick and easy to clean.
- The flat black does show any rubmarks or scratches, rubmarks are cleaned up pretty easy with a damp rag