Paintball

[HurtCow]

I just picked up an old 68 Special from Carter. It looks to be in great condition and all, and I have a couple questions, since this is my 1st 68.

1- I know it needs a syphon tank. What would be a reasonable size to get a decent amount of shots? I'm assuming they're not terribly efficient, but if I don't need to run a big 20oz off the back, I'd rather not. How many shots could I expect from, say, a 12oz?

2- Any other quirks I should look for/be aware of? I plan on actually using this thing on the field. I love using clunky old mech semi's and want to keep this one working.

[SN toter]

Not too sure about the shots per ounce, but I DO know that my old one had a very small bore barrel, like a .679ish so big bore paint is messy, just a heads up

[Phantom Power]

The efficiency isn't great, but a 20oz is certainly overkill on the backbottle setup. I get around 35 or 40 shots per ounce on mine (I estimated this from between 300 and 350 shots of my 9oz siphon tank). So off a 12oz tank, figure maybe 450 ?

Things to look out for ? Paintballs, especially smaller ones like to roll too far into the breach and start to protrude through the squeegee port on the side, directly across from the feedneck. They will then get chopped by the bolt when you fire. There were some aftermarket companies that made brass sleeves that went into the breach to stop this. I've got a detent system on mine right now that consists of a rubber band looped around the feedneck from both sides. Eventually I'll replace it with a proper wire nubbin style, when I get around to it.

[HP_Lovecraft]

I remember getting 500 shots from a 20oz. That wasnt that bad, when the competition got about the same (PMI3 and Golden Eagle). So, 300-350 from a 12oz sounds about right.

Assuming you can find a 12oz siphon. I do know that Cynthia at ADNH was selling 9oz siphons for $5 FILLED, which is a steal... though I don't know if they were exempt from hydrotesting (as they were definetly older then 5 years).

I LOVED my 68-Special. It was extremely satisfying to shoot. It had a distinctive "Ka-pinkkt" sound when it fired.

Common problems to look for:
1- Cracking feed. Don't overtighen. Use spacers if you need to.
2- Small paint. A CHEAP fix is to get a small piece of metal, or wire, and attach one side to the barrel mount, and bend the other side into the breech port to prevent small paintballs from chopping.
3- Cracking rod. That plastic rod will crack eventually if you try and fire through alot of chops. Just keep an eye on it, though its EASY TO FIRE if that rod snaps off by MANUALLY cycling the bolt.
4- also, those rod ORINGS are also easy to loose. Often, I'd replace the rod orings with larger, tighter ones to make sure they don't fall off.
5- Gas line. Its the weakest leak, and tends to blow. Getting hard to replace, and people often just rig up a side-tap by turning the valve 90 degrees, and drilling a hole into the receiver to a bottomline, or where ever.

For mods:
a pump mod takes about 10 seconds since the bolt linkage is external. NOTE: When you remove the rod, the FPS is actually much higher, so make sure you re-chrono if you switch to "pump mode".
Those old Tippmann barrels are hard to find, but I've found that lots of barrels actually fit, as long as you grind off the threads...

nick

[HurtCow]

Thanks for the info. I dropped a 12oz off at PPS last week for a syphon install, so I'll be 'ka-pinkkt' ing it this weekend at the field. My Golden Eagle goes 'Ka-chunk' with a big ol' kick, so it'll be interesting to compare the noise/recoil.