[spymongoose]

I am looking to pick up one of these two markers, new probably, and I am somewhat at a loss. Indulge me a little, most of this post is me thinking out loud trying to get my head straight about what direction to go. I am willing to hear about the pro's and con's of what I see as the top dollar "high firepower" pumps, I just ask that you guys not get too offended if you hear something about your precious top dollar pump that may be derogatory.

My needs are pretty specific. I need a marker that can go toe to toe with with electros, and do so on shoddy paint. I shot roughly 400 rounds last day I played, using a 50 round hopper and I carried 200 rounds in 10 round tubes. Playing with a sniper equipped with a deadlywind barrel and CCM autotrigger, I reportedly did "pretty well" from several accounts. The truth was I was not playing as well as I would have liked, it was windy making long range shots impossible and the really sub-par paint made aimed shots at medium range (40-50 feet) pointless. The only thing I had going for me was the autotrigger and reckless abandon. I knew I needed an improved setup if I was going to keep competitive as a pump holdout. I needed lighter, I needed good accuricy, and I needed the good old autotrigger fallback. I want to be able to put a red dot sight so I can make those shots where I shoot from cover through a window, past 2 adjacent bunkers, and through another window to hit an elbow or a hopper, because well thats what pumps do. Doing that with 20 shots is not impressive and more often gives the "victim" time to move the hopper or elbow.

The CCM S-6. Without a doubt the staple of modern competitive pump play. Its what the pros like blowfish and pumpenstien use. I have been using CCM pump kits and snipers long before they went into fashion. I have a lot of experience with snipers and I prefer them to any other pump I have come across so far. The strengths of the S-6 is its light weight coupled with its rock and roll autotrigger. My deadywind barrel would only play to these strenths. I have never been able to aim vert feeds very well, although people can do it. I have used occluded red dots, where you keep both eyes open to aim, however there isnt a vestigail sight rail left on the S-6. I have been on the recieving end of fire from vert feed CCM pumps, and those who can aim without a red dot can do so pretty well, I just am not one of those types yet. My other problem with CCM snipers is efficiency. I have owned several with CCM innards, as well as having seen others with this same problem, is well I simply dont trust a CCM gun to get more than 500 shots off of a 20 oz co2 tank. Nobody really wants to stand in line and get air fills in the middle of a day of paintball, and I dont really want to play with a 20 oz tank on a super light gun... kinda defeats the purpose of having a light gun.

The Palmers Pyre. The new boy on the block, the magic gun. Supposedly shoots lousy paint great despite having only a brass barrel, also supposedly efficient. I would love to play with a 7 oz co2 or even a 4 oz and play all day (~400 shots), that would make my setup light indeed. I could aim a vert feed because I could put an occluded red dot on it. If it shoots lousy paint decent enough and if its even half as efficient and consistent as it reported is, it really would be the ultimate marker. For the money I could get a left feed and a sight hood and maybe a brass bead front sight... that would be awesome. But its just ugly. Like unforgivably ugly. You know the girl from high school that nobody dated cause she was so unforgivably ugly, you know that she was probably smart and funny and probably would do things other girls wouldn't do cause she was desperate for dates but you just couldn't bring yourself to bee seen in public with her long enough to take advantage of a girl like that... that kind of ugly. Maybe I can get past being shallow long enough to get one... My local friend has one, stickyskunk's little brother... I havent gotten around to getting over to his place to see it in person. That may be the real deciding factor, how it feels and how it shoots. On paper, the perfect marker. I will have to see it in person before I really decide on this matter.

To recap: (Again subject to my interpretation)
CCM S-6
Pros: Light, fast autotrigger, a dream to pump, very pretty, compatible with awesome barrels
Cons: Cant aim it effectively (yet), horrendous on gas.

Pros: good on air, good on poor paint, available in left feed, autotrigger (untested by me but I can only imagine it does the job well enough)
Cons: unibarrel... I kinda dont want to have my DW turned down to fit it. Ugly.

Thats my thoughts, what do you guys think?