Right...my 2p.
I used to shoot a PM6 and thought I'd get a Mini just to mess around with. After very little time using it, it soon became my primary marker and my PM6 was reduced to the kitbag. Having also shot a PM7 and other reasonably new markers, I would still go for the Mini - For the price, think of the amount you can save for green fees and paint.
Mini's are of course small, but I'm pretty tall with long arms and have no trouble at all in using the Mini. Everyone also seems to be screaming and shouting about the fact that it doesn't have an OOPS and therefore must be sh*t, but lets face the facts. On a tourney or training day - How many times will you actually need to unscrew the bottle? Maybe once. At the end of the day.
The initial few batches of the Mini had blowback problems due to an undersized vent hole in the poppet. KEE would happily switch this out free of charge. The vast majority of Freekz shoot PM/DMs and like to poke fun at the Mini, but in any training/tournament situation it is
always those markers that break down whilst the Mini remains consistent and has never let me down. Look after it (which isn't at all difficult), and it will look after you.
I've had my Mini for a few months now, it has been used most weekends for training/tourney and in that time I have had
2 chops. Sure, I've had plenty of barrel breaks - But thats down to the paint-bore match on the Un1tec barrel I'm using.
As for maintenance, the Mini is as easy as DM's to tech. The bolt slides out the back just as easily after undoing a screw on the underside of the body and can then be cleaned/lubed and refitted. As for general disassembly - The Mini blows DM's away. Remove two screws on the body (one of which is for the bolt also) and the frame can be pulled away from the body. The air transfer tube can be unscrewed, along with the solenoid, and then its just a few open screws to expose the gasket and the eye board. As for the electronics, you just have to loosen 2 screws and the entire foregrip slides off.
To comment on what others have said, there is no real need to have an LCD screen as it is so damn easy to change the settings on the Mini. A screen is just an extra entity that can get clogged up with paint or broken. The stock trigger isn't great, but on ramping (which is all I use it on) its extremely easy to hit and maintain the ramp point. I thought I had a sweet aftermarket trigger on my PM6, but I could never hold the ramp for very long with my off-hand. I'm playing KoTH next Sunday which is semi-only, and after just 10 mins of trigger tuning I can quite easily maintain at least 10bps without bouncing.
As most people say, its all about personal choice, but there do seem to be too many 'tards in this thread who are quick to voice their opinion over how unbelievably amazing their 05 Ego is (or similiar), when most have not had the opportunity to shoot a
working, well-maintained Mini and base their performance on ones from the initial batch that had teething issues. Just give it a rest.
Flame away
