The hopper dilemma

[TheLamb42]

Hi guys,

There seems to be a lot of talk about the best marker for people and the best mask. I understand that these are important but could I get some advice on the best hopper to get.

There seems to be a lot of people sporting Dye Rotors, but after them what is the next option for a beginner?

 

[Dusty]

Empire prophecy can be had for very little money, even halos are still good loaders. Rotors are popular for a reason though.

 

[Ballantin]

Got a Z2 and a Virtue Spire. Haven't tried rotors myself but lot of friends do, and I preffer the Spire over the other 2. If you don't want to spend a lot, Z2 is a great option.

 

[MattNiemier]

Spires and rotor are the best
then prophecies and then halos, me and my brother both have halos and they're really good, but we play woodsball so we only really need to go to about 15 bps

 

[TheLamb42]

So I have been playing a while, just converting from woods where you can get away with gravity fed.

So what makes a good hopper? Do the cheaper ones cause breaks or is it just their speed?

 

[The Turbot]

It is not speed, as almost any electro loader on the market can keep up with the limits set on fields and tournaments in the UK as most are capped at 10.5 following millennium rules. What makes them good in most peoples opinion, other than personal preference on the styling, is ease of maintenance and reliability with the Spire and Rotor requiring no tools to strip and clean, can't speak for the prophecy as have never owned one but I believe they are also tool less disassembly.

 

[Tom]

So I have been playing a while, just converting from woods where you can get away with gravity fed.

So what makes a good hopper? Do the cheaper ones cause breaks or is it just their speed?

Speed / jams

The rough pecking order of hoppers is:
Basic gravity (fondly known in the old school as shake & bake as you may need to shake to dislodge jams at the top of the feed, good old mechanical guns had enough kick, or the act of pumping a pump handle keeps the paint going). Obviously has a maximum feed rate at the speed of gravity
If you shoot quickly then you can chop a paintball in the breach - unless you have an eye system etc which will wait for the ball to be safely in the breach

Next are gravity 'shelf' hoppers such as the proto primo, the shelf lines up the paint neatly giving you more paintballs ready in a line. Jams are not impossible but should you ought to have moved enough by the time you go through the lined up paint

Electric agitated hoppers - these have a motor shuffling the paint to save you shaking, still has a maximum feed rate at the speed of gravity. Not realy worth bothering with anymore.

Force fed hoppers - electrically fed into a mechanism pushing the paint into place. If it can feed faster then the gun can cycle then a ball will be ready when ever you shoot. In theory you would not need eyes in the gun
A force feed hopper can be bought very cheaply with the halo etc. This should be capable of keeping up with any event legal rate of fire

The 'better' top of the range force feeds come with added feature ls such as easy stripping etc
However fast stripping is not an essential. If you are in a tournament with an ultra fast turn around then you realy want a spare hopper and a pit crew. An easy strip hopper could be a disadvantage if you don't clip everything back or fail to lock the clip and the top of your hopper flies off in game

 

[lettucecheesecake]

I've had them all and got a spire and a z2 at the moment. Always seem to use the z2.

 

[Big_jim]

Z2 is my personal favorite having owned both the rotor and the spire as well. Both of them were sold long ago and the z2 remains.

Have got both a machine Gear and a Pinokio speed waiting for me to collect from the local sorting office so may change but who knows.

I have bought z2's for as little as £70 brand new and sealed in the last 6 months for team mates so definitely the best value loader out there if you can find them cheap.

 

[TheLamb42]

Thank you very much guys! Extremely useful for me! I'll be buying my first set up soon (as soon as a mate gets back to me with some details).

I'll be picking up an axe with freak kit and red line board, possibly with just a 3k aitlr system till I can save up for a 4.5 carbon bottle. So the advice your giving me will hopefully save me money by not buying the wrong hopper!