Day trippin…

I don't sell "sear trippers".

The term is a derogatory title given to electronic guns that use to be mechanical. Kingman did it to their Spyders, Tippmann did it to their guns, PMI to their Piranhas as did the double dozen other companies that have knocked off the basic "blow back' design.

The reason?

Actually there are two reasons.

Number one is they are not reliable.

Why? Grab a cold drink and get comfortable.

Imagine trying to run street tires on a race car. Think what might happen if you were to bolt a jet engine to a hang glider. How far would you get up a mountain if you used baling twine for climbing rope?

Street tires and hang gliders and baling twine are designed to do one thing. Race tires and jet engines and mountain climbing rope are designed to do another.

Mechanical guns are designed to do one thing. Electronic guns are designed to do another.

Street tires would tear apart on a race car. A hang glider would fold up and crash the moment you fired up its jet engine and baling twine would break if you tried to climb a mountain with it.

A mechanical gun will eventually self destruct if you try to run it at electronic speeds. And I don't mean eventually as in years from now!

Consider the workings of a mechanical gun. You pull the trigger that trips a sear that releases a very heavy hammer so it can move forward (under spring pressure) along with the bolt that is attached. The very heavy hammer hits a valve that releases CO2/HPA down the barrel to propel the paintball and releases CO2/HPA to push the very heavy hammer and bolt back so it can be caught by the sear.

Pull the trigger to release the sear and the very heavy hammer moves forward to start the process all over again.

Ok, so I didn't emphasize very heavy just to be cute. There's a point to be made here.

A mechanical gun is designed to allow that very heavy hammer to slap back and forth inside the body of the gun at a rate of 4 or 5 or 6 shots per second. Stick an electronic trigger on that same mechanical gun, make NO attempt to beef up the internals, let that very heavy hammer slap back and forth inside the body of that gun at a rate of 15 or 20 balls a second and you have, ummm, well...Sooner than later the grip frame screw begin to pull away from the body (destroying the threads), the sear and hammer (the most expensive parts of a mechanical gun) wear out faster than acceptable, the back of the gun around the field strip pin starts to deform, springs collapse, valves get smashed closed, electronic connectors tear loose - and I haven't even mentioned how many 9 volt batteries you will need to keep this beast fed!

When electrons flow from a battery through your IPod they don't (relatively speaking) get as stressed as the clectrons that flow from your battery and through a mechanical solenoid that trips the gun's sear. Think of it as electrons running through a rain storm versus electrons running against hurricane force winds. It takes more electrons to gather up enough strength to push through the wind.Mechanical guns turned into sear trippers eat batteries like popcorn!

So why don't tournament guns that shoot 15 or 20 or more balls a second fall apart and eat batteries?

Simple. They were designed from the git-go to shoot 15 or 20 or more balls a second and not eat batteries.

And a good electronic gun - a GOOD one (there are poorly designed, poorly made git-go electronic guns) will cost you between $600 to $1200 plus $200 for a proper high pressure system and another $100 for a hopper designed to keep up with gun's rate of fire. Not to mention maintenance cost (orings, lube) which triple due to the higher rate of wear and tear.

And did I mention earlier that there were two reasons I don't sell sear trippers?

Reason two:You don't need them to play (and have a good time) at T-Square.Hell, to keep the game safe, fun and fair for all levels of players you're only allowed to shoot 3 balls per second here. And that has to be done with a civilized pause between each set of three shots!

Bringing a sear tripper or $1600 tournament gun to T-Square is like bringing a Formula 1 car (or in the case of the sear tripper - a FAKE formula one car) to a go-kart track. It might sound cool at the shooting range but it's going to be kept on a tight leash on the field.

The only advantage to a higher priced sear tripper or an over priced tournament gun here at T-Square would be if pulling a mechanical trigger 3 times a second was to tough a physical challenge for you.

Save your money for paint!