A Good Cheap Paintball Gun

by PhantomII
(Tampa, FL)

I am a cheapskate when it comes to paintball, that doesn't mean I want something that I can't depend on and won't give me great results. Therefore my choice was the Tippmann Custom 98. A Good Cheap Paintball Gun. I bought the package that comes with the marker, goggles, tank, and squeegee for under $100.00. The first thing I had to get was a better barrel the stock barrel is really inconsistent, so I found a discontinued 14" Evil Driver for $12 bucks on E-bay it is very accurate and I only have about 1 curve ball per 20 shots unlike the 3 to 4 with the old barrel. The next thing was I wanted a stock to aid in stabilizing the gun so I found a knockoff car stock for $15 on E-bay. I also replaced the CO2 tank with a HPA 50/3000 that I found on sale for $50, it really aids in the consistency department. CO2 tends to change with temperature changes and I was also getting tired of the smoke and pieces of ice coming out the barrel. I am now in the market for a better hopper, I have found that I am having to shake the stock hopper just to get balls in the chamber and it has cost me 3 games so far, there is nothing worse than having the perfect shot and end up dry firing and getting tagged. I'm probably going to get the Tippmann SSL 200 hopper it looks nice and I haven't heard anything bad about it from owners I know that have them. I found one for $50 at a local shop so I will probably pick it up this week. My son-in-law just got out of the Army and came with us for my sons B-day to play paintball, he doesn't own his own gear so he had to rent, he played 3 games and complained that the rental marker was way too inconsistent it was a PMI Spyder knockoff with stock everything, after the 4th game I sat out the 5th and loaned him my marker with the above upgrades, it was amazing watching an infantry man with good equipment at work he ended up shooting 6 out of the 12 they were playing against, needless to say his team won. So in conclusion you can have a really great setup for under $250. Oh I almost forgot I use either Diablo Heat or RPS Stryker paintballs I have gotten them for $34 for a case of 2000 and for the price they really are accurate and consistent.