Paintball

[VVulfe]

I recently received a Hardcorps Torque 440 Loudmouth for my '03 Viking. I needed something fast and wanted to give the new guy's product a try.

This past Saturday - at Tunaball II - I got a chance to put the Torque through its paces and found it to have a well built drive system, but to suffer from a few flaws which keep it from leaping ahead of the competition. If Hardcorps were to release a new set of shells that addressed these, I'd recommend the Torque for any application.

Torque Variants

A little history. The Torque exists in two different drive configurations and two different shell configurations. The original 150 drive is the cheaper, slower option. Wanting to feed a Viking, I opted for the 440 drive, which is a bit more expensive and a bit faster.

The original shells (i.e., those which are not the "Loudmouth" shells) have a purported 150 ball capacity and a 63mm mouth opening, while the Loudmouth shells offer a reported 180 ball capacity and a slightly wider mouth size.

To the best of my knowledge, no speed lid-style caps are available yet for the Torque loaders.

The Good

The Torque is fast. Terrifically fast. On the notoriously quick AKA Viking, I failed to ever come close to outshooting the loader.

The profile is low and tight when compared to the popular Halo, and the Torque is the lightest force-loader currently on the market, weighing in at just over 20 ounces with two 9v batteries.

Battery life seems to be at least decent - I had no issues running all day on the same pair of 9-volts. More use is needed before I can comment more thoroughly on this.

Unlike the manual rip drive, the Torque has a powered reverse button to clear jams. Easy to use and effective.

Lastly, the loader is gentle on paint. Not a single break shooting ProCaps.

The Interesting

The Torque offers has two features which made no real difference to me, but may be important to other players. It's a tool-less hopper, requiring nothing other than your fingers and a little effort to break down. I could see this as being appealing to some, but I don't mind using tools.

The drive is "always-on", using a clutching mechanism to disengage from the feeder-fingers when the marker isn't firing. When loaded, the whirring is barely noticeable, but I could see this being annoying for some.

The Bad

The Torque has two flaws which, if corrected, would make this the perfect loader for me.

1) It's just too small. Even with the loudmouth shells. I don't want a huge hopper but it's annoying to find that an entire pod cannot be emptied into the hopper unless it's completely empty. I like to reload before I'm completely ammo-less.

2) The lip-style closure on the lid can be annoying. It could stand to be replaced with a magnetic closure.

Overall Impression

For players wanting a fast, gentle hopper - the Torque stands out from the pack. Due to it's limited size and annoying closure mechanism, however, I can't recommend it without reservations at this time. If Hardcorps were to address these issues, then I'd have no qualms about lauding the Torque as one of the finest loaders on the market.

[sparky]

Interesting, it only holds 150 rounds? That's a good thing in my books.

Nice review, I knew nothing about these things until now.

[In My Sights]

I got to give one a try a few weeks ago and liked it better than the Egg III that I had been borrowing. Because the Egg, sometimes, would not pick up the shooting of the Mag.

And as for the hopper size, I only run with 100 round pods, so I had little problem with filling.

[iq666]

Is it just the lighting in the picture, or did you beat the hell out of that already? If that's how you're going to treat your birthday presents...

I hope it continues to treat you well!

[VVulfe]

I never claimed to be gentle.

[VVulfe]

Originally Posted by sparky

Interesting, it only holds 150 rounds? That's a good thing in my books.

Nice review, I knew nothing about these things until now.

Theoretically the Loudmouth shells hold 180 - but...

[Shiba-Kun]

Is the hinge on the lid now spring loaded?

BTW: I too have an (original) black shell, the glossy NIB lustre did not remain that way for long. But it's just as scratch/chip resistant as any other loader IMO.

[VVulfe]

Yup, it's now spring loaded. What I dislike about the lid is that when closed, it secures with a lip-fit which takes some attention to properly shut. A magnetic closure would be a very nice change.

[Mr.Blue]

I could easily see that on a sniper with a pack of 100 round fatboys. NOT FOR ME of course, I'll stick with my winchester.