New guy with A-5.

Hey guys. I'm new around here and to paintball.

Just ordered an A-5 with Egrip last week, and I'll be picking it up Monday morning.

I play woodsball, and have yet to play in an arena, though I'm sure I will soon.

Any recommendations as to upgrades I should make to the gun soon? Flatline barrel maybe? Double trigger?

Also, I've been using these Whack paintballs that I picked up at a local sports store. They're a lot cheaper than the Marballizers and other balls, but I'm wondering if I should invest in better paintballs.

Thanks.

Barrel, cyclone upgrade, hpa(high pressure air) don't worry about cosmetic yet, but before you go all out with the custom, play with it a bit and see what you need.

KillerBD wrote: I wouldn't worry about cyclone upgrades, mine is stock and I have no problems with it...

I'll second that. The only changes to my cyclone were the part updates a few years back and I only did that as a precaution. My cyclone never malfunctioned on me with the original parts and still hasn't with the updated ones. I'll probably be getting all the TechT upgrades eventually since I'm capable of outshooting it now but as long as I keep the gun capped at 15 bps it'll work alright.

As for your first upgrades, I'd play a few games first. After playing a couple of times you'll know exactly what you want to change on the gun. You'll most definitely want to change the barrel though, nobody keeps the stock one because it's crap compared to even the cheaper aftermarket ones. The J&J Ceramic is highly recommended here because it's a quality barrel and it's not very expensive. Other alternatives would be the Lapco Bigshot or the Apex/Flatline if you're looking for range. The Bigshot is about just as accurate as the Ceramic but looks different and is slightly more expensive. The Apex and Flatline will increase your range dramatically and change the flight path of your shots. The flat trajectory these barrels give you is where the Flatline got its name and it's very helpful in wooded areas with low-hanging tree branches or other obstacles. The Apex will do everything the Flatline will but gives more flexibility. You can adjust the amount of added range with the slider and you can put the tip on another barrel with an adapter. You can also find the Apex a little cheaper if you look around.

Flatline can be picky about paint...and sometimes a pain to tune but still not bad.

The ceramic will cost you about $30 before shipping and will give you good accuracy and standard range just like any other normal barrel. The barrel won't cause the paint to curve downward really but it won't fight gravity, the ball just passes through it in a straight line. The flatline will cost you about $100, will have better accuracy than the stock barrel and nearly twice the range because it puts backspin on the ball. Without getting into detail about the physics behind it, this backspin allows the paint to fly farther before it starts to drop down due to gravity. The result is a flat trajectory throughout your effective range and then a sudden drop towards the end of it as opposed to a gradual drop throughout the whole flight of the ball with a normal barrel. It's pretty cool when you see it for the first time. The Apex has a different way of creating a backspin on the ball so you can adjust it or move the tip onto another barrel to increase the range of another gun (you need an adapter though). The Apex usually goes for about the same as the flatline but Action Village has it for $67. Honestly, with the Apex at that price, I don't see any reason to go with the flatline.

An expansion chamber is meant to give liquid CO2 a place to change back into gas before it enters the gun. Liquid CO2 is bad because it can damage o-rings and cause velocity spikes. Modern guns are not designed to run on liquid CO2 so they don't usually respond well to it, hence the expansion chamber. It will stop most of the liquid CO2 from getting to the valve and it will eventually evaporate, at which point it will be usable by the gun. Getting compressed air is a good idea because the CO2 content is very low which pretty much eliminates the liquid CO2 problem. However, that's not the only benefit. Compressed air tanks can be left on the gun since they fill through a nipple on the regulator, the output is regulated and therefore more consistent, the regulator has a gauge which shows you how much air you have left, nearly all high-end guns will only work with compressed air, you don't have to empty the tank to fill it, and the bigger tanks have a higher capacity than CO2 tanks so you don't have to fill as often. Another thing to mention is that your shot-to-shot accuracy will likely be better since your velocity is more consistent and therefore all shots will go about the same distance.

Now that I told you all the great attributes of compressed air it's time for the terrible downside the just about balances it all out, hehe. A 20 oz CO2 tank goes for about $14 while a 68/4500 compressed air tank (roughly the same shots per fill) will cost about $160+. You also have to send it out to get hydro tested every 3 or 5 years depending on what the tank is made of. While compressed air is great, it does carry a high initial price to get it. For most people, it's just too expensive for a beginner. I didn't get compressed air until about the second year after I started playing because I just couldn't afford it. I had an expansion chamber and an anti-siphon tube in one tank as well as a remote for a short period of time and that worked alright as a cheap substitute but it still wasn't quite as good. You may want to pick up a few other upgrades before dropping the cash on a new tank. An anti-siphon tube (probably only about $10) and a regulator that can handle CO2 like the Palmer Stabilizer ($100) would be a nice alternative. The regulator is also pretty expensive but it will still be helpful when you make the switch to compressed air so it's not wasted money. I have used an anti-siphoned tank with a Stabilizer and it works pretty nicely.