Smart Parts Ion Starter A Paintball Gun Kit - Black

Product Details

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• ASIN: B000XQM0RM
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #313,564 in Sports & Outdoors (See Top 100 in Sports & Outdoors)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A decent marker, September 11, 2008

By 

Jonathan Mettin (Philadelphia, PA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Smart Parts Ion Starter A Paintball Gun Kit - Black (Misc.)

The Smart Parts Ion has quickly become a staple of the paintball world, bringing electropneumatic guns down into the price range that most people can afford.

First, the good things. The marker is quieter than most other markers and just as accurate. The velocity is adjusted by turning a nut on the bottom of the foregrip with a wrench - much easier to use than the velocity nuts you see on many entry-level markers. The standard double trigger, besides being adjustable, is also very light, meaning it's easy to get high rates of fire, even in semi-auto mode. The gun itself if ergonomic and built with speedball in mind, but there are several kits out there, like those from specialopspaintball.com, that can adapt it for woodsball play by adding stocks and such.

Don't be fooled though, the marker has some drawbacks too. My big thing is the maintenance - the gun is a chore to take apart. On my first day out with it, the screw holding the top half of the gun to the bottom half came out, taking me out for the rest of the day. In all fairness, I had taken the gun apart when I got it to inspect it and install a Special Ops body kit on it, but I'm no newbie when it comes to taking markers apart and reassembling them (been doing it since 2001). The fact that a screw came out after less than two hours of use bothered me, but it may have been a fluke. Speaking of modifying it, the stock feed neck is a boar to take off, which is a requirement if you want to get to the internals properly or install the popular q-lock feed neck. Also - and this is just personal preference - there's no manual safety on the gun. The instruction manual states that the on/off switch is the safety. The 'switch' is actually a button you have to hold in for a given amount of time, and if you don't get the timing right or just forget, that plus a hair trigger is a recipe for disaster - as a rule anyway, you should have your barrel sleeve on as soon as you're tagged out and not remove it until you're reinserted, but even then it'll leave a mess you have to clean up.

The Ion has its shortcomings, to be sure, but all in all it's a good entry level marker. If you play woodsball I would pass it up in favor of the less fancy, more rugged, and similarly priced Tippmann A-5, but if you're into speedball or you are very comfortable with maintenance you should definitely consider the Ion.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great entry and beyond gun, October 25, 2008

By 

anthony aleman (florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Smart Parts Ion Starter A Paintball Gun Kit - Black (Misc.)

The smart parts ion paintball marker is a new step in cheaper eletronic guns. stock it shoots 17 bps in ramping and semi. the gun is very quiet, especially with an upgraded barrel not to mention acurate. it is extremly lightwieght and compact, the gun is made for speedball. the gun has very good air efficentcy and can be custimized excessivly. also ive had this gun for a long time 2 years almost and never had a break the eyes work perfect.

There are some not so great things however, the stock feedneck is horrible you have to jam your hopper in because its too small, you can buy a q-lock and replace it though. The second thing is the on/off "safty" button is a pain because you have to hold it in.

All in all this is great gun and very cheap in price, not in quality. If you make this purchase youll be very happy from entry level and better. Many high level players still use upgraded versions of these or keep them for backups.