Stats on 98 Custom with Low Pressure Kit

Sup folks, here's a post for the newbs: some information I gathered on the 98 Custom with upgrades and it's level of efficiency with CO2 (the most common paintball propellant for the average Joe).

My 98 Custom has:
- Bigshot Barrel
- Palmer Stabilizer and Gauge
- Low Pressure Kit
- Standard 200 round Hopper

The Bigshot Barrel is a tiny bit shorter than the 98 Custom stock barrel and the Palmer Stabilizer I have situated just in front of the 98 Custom's ASA below the grip handle. I removed the foregrip of the 98 Custom and have a line going from the Stabilizer into the Vertical ASA. I might post pictures of it in the near future.

For my test I used a 9 oz. tank filled to 7.2 oz for safety reasons (so that my chest doesn't explode if the 9 oz. tank were to shoot off from the ASA from over-pressure--which is nice).

The tank is not anti-siphoned. The average CO2 tank is not anti-siphoned so that's why I didn't modify the tank. I plan to use Blue Rhino's CO2 exchange program at Wal-Mart.

I got the velocity up to 301 fps with the Palmer reg (jumping around between 289 and 310 initially), and then with the 98 Custom velocity I got it down to 250-269. So the velocity was, on average, around 260 which is a fine middle-point for shooting ReBalls (what I used for testing) and regular paint.

The Regulator read slightly more than 400 psi, which is above Tippmann's Low Pressure Kit's 300-400 advertised range. Perhaps the Stabilizer needs some more breaking in since it takes firing a paintball case or two to do so? Before this experiment I probably shot 600 or 700 paintballs using the Stabilizer.

Onto the results:

At 400psi (from reading the gauge on the Stabilizer) you get 350 shots per 7.2 ounces of CO2--a 9oz tank. 350 shots equals two and a half pods.

This means you get 48 shots per ounce.

When the tank of CO2 has only 1/5 of CO2 left, velocity starts to dwindle slowly with each shot until there's not enough pressure to operate the gun and the tank empties itself through your gun (imagine going from 250 to 239 to 238 to 222 to 223 to 210 etc., etc.). The level of CO2 output also dwindles from 350 psi down to and below 300, 250, 200, 150 psi and etc. which causes the gun to stop recocking.

I found that even with a regulator you will have a variance of output, and differences in ball velocity in feet per second, depending on how filled the CO2 tank is. Although, when the tank got to about half-empty or just before getting half-empty (right after I had finished fine-tuning the adjustments), the shots were VERY CONSISTENT within 10 fps.

So potential buyers of Palmer Regulators, their product will not magically transform your CO2 into HPA which is what I assumed from reading reviews. It will only keep liquid CO2 out of your marker (which is very good) and keep your feet-per-second within safe level with adjustment.

I used a RadarChron, a clothes hamper to catch ReBalls, and ReBalls the reusable paintball.

In the not-so-distant future I will post my findings on the accuracy of 8" Lapco Bigshot barrels when used with the above setup.

I will also make updates to this post when the Palmer reg "breaks in" if it hasn't already done so to post even more accurate findings. Or make an entirely different post about Palmer Stabilizer consistency.

I hope someone learned a lot from this experiment (I have) so if you got questions I will try to answer them or perhaps more knowledgeable folks on this forum can answer them.


Edited by Brainless - 16 November 2007 at 2:54pm

Nope I have the older 98 Custom.


Edited by Brainless - 16 November 2007 at 9:31pm

I know Google is my friend and all that, but where'd you get information on bore sizes because I couldn't find anything definite? Is there a resource on the web on what sizes different paintballs are? Because they don't tell you on the box or anything when you buy the paintballs. Pbreview sometimes has the information I need but is usually vague or hard to find.