...I was hella surprised.
Back in 1996, I bought a Pro-Lite new because my observation back then was that players who ran Pro-Lites didn't spend much if any time in the staging area messing with their hardware; they reloaded and went out on the field, no problems. Once I had one, I loved it. Now, time marched on and I gave up paintball for a long minute (about 20 years actually) and my old Pro-Lite sat in storage.
Recently I've dug my old gear out with the intention of wanting to play again (which I have, paintball is still awesome) but I've assumed my Pro-Lite which sat in a shipping container for 20+ years was basically dead. And why wouldn't I? Sure, Tippmann markers have a legendary reputation for toughness and reliability, but come on...rubber is rubber, y'all. This marker sat in the worst conditions for two decades. I've been basically assuming it needs a full rebuild at least to get it going, and thanks to how its a fundamentally antiquated design I've shoved rebuilding it to the back burner.
Last night though, in a moment of "what happens when I poke it with a stick?" Levels of wine-induced whimsical curiosity, I decided to just screw a modern HPA tank onto my old Pro-Lite. I figured disaster was imminent. Instead, the fucker aired up. Like, it sealed without a problem. I could absolutely not believe it. I dry-cycled it a couple of times like "what in the AK-47 levels of sorcery is happening here??" but no, the seal seemed to hold. Then, I fetched my old Viewloader, loaded some paint into a hopper, took my Pro-Lite outside and shot it. The paint flew...and then a ball rolled out the barrel. After a quick check I determined that the detent "nubbin" had been ripped off. Some Google work confirmed that modern Tippmann detents work with older models (thank you Tippmann) so while I was at the local paintball shop today to explore Black Friday deals I picked up a new detent for my Pro-Lite. Total cost? $3.50. And it feeds paint just fine. And the store determined that it was actually shooting hot (like 310-315 fps) so I need to turn it down if I want to play with it.
Y'alll...This is a marker that sat in storage and received no care for over 20 years, and it runs just fine fresh out of that situation with less than five bucks in parts. To me, that is absolutely wild.
Back in 1996, I bought a Pro-Lite new because my observation back then was that players who ran Pro-Lites didn't spend much if any time in the staging area messing with their hardware; they reloaded and went out on the field, no problems. Once I had one, I loved it. Now, time marched on and I gave up paintball for a long minute (about 20 years actually) and my old Pro-Lite sat in storage.
Recently I've dug my old gear out with the intention of wanting to play again (which I have, paintball is still awesome) but I've assumed my Pro-Lite which sat in a shipping container for 20+ years was basically dead. And why wouldn't I? Sure, Tippmann markers have a legendary reputation for toughness and reliability, but come on...rubber is rubber, y'all. This marker sat in the worst conditions for two decades. I've been basically assuming it needs a full rebuild at least to get it going, and thanks to how its a fundamentally antiquated design I've shoved rebuilding it to the back burner.
Last night though, in a moment of "what happens when I poke it with a stick?" Levels of wine-induced whimsical curiosity, I decided to just screw a modern HPA tank onto my old Pro-Lite. I figured disaster was imminent. Instead, the fucker aired up. Like, it sealed without a problem. I could absolutely not believe it. I dry-cycled it a couple of times like "what in the AK-47 levels of sorcery is happening here??" but no, the seal seemed to hold. Then, I fetched my old Viewloader, loaded some paint into a hopper, took my Pro-Lite outside and shot it. The paint flew...and then a ball rolled out the barrel. After a quick check I determined that the detent "nubbin" had been ripped off. Some Google work confirmed that modern Tippmann detents work with older models (thank you Tippmann) so while I was at the local paintball shop today to explore Black Friday deals I picked up a new detent for my Pro-Lite. Total cost? $3.50. And it feeds paint just fine. And the store determined that it was actually shooting hot (like 310-315 fps) so I need to turn it down if I want to play with it.
Y'alll...This is a marker that sat in storage and received no care for over 20 years, and it runs just fine fresh out of that situation with less than five bucks in parts. To me, that is absolutely wild.
Comment