Paintball

[Greywolf]

My bad. I was thinking of the Barracuda. Still, I've never played with a Golden Eagle.

[HP_Lovecraft]

Originally Posted by b-cuzz

As far as function goes, ya know how just about everybody copied Spyders? Well, it's my personal belief that kingman copied their basic operation from the VM.

It is no secret. Kingman copied the LineSI Promaster. Most of the parts are interchangable. But this was back when everything kingman made was clones (ie Traccer clone, Sterling clone, Tippmann clone, etc). Back then, people considered them a company like USI, or TASO.

Was the Promaster adapted from the VM? Maybe the general "stack tube" layout. But the great thing about the VM is that it does not look like any other stacked tube blowback on the market. STBBs today all look the same. Dull and annoying.

As for dual tanks, or even 3 or 4 tanks on some VMs... the original purpose was never really dual tanks. The reason was that back in the early 90s, there was no standard "tank position". Some guns had back bottles, some had vert tanks, some bottomlines, some cali-rigs, and front ASAs like the VM.

Some companies would offer different versions for people that liked different tank setups (ie minimag/automag, minicocker/autococker, etc). Others took the approach to have a single gun with multiple ASAs (ie minilite, MegaZ, VM-mag, Panther).

Like Greywolf said, you don't need on/offs to run dual tanks. There was a time when I thought that running 2 9oz tanks gave me better balance then 1 20oz tank. Stupid, yes. But I go used to the routine of screwing in tank #1 until I heard a slight hiss, then back off just enough to stop. Then screwed in tank #2 all the way, then #1 all the way.

Removing the tanks is the same, unscrew #1 until you hear a slight hiss, then back in slightly. Remove #2, then #1. The trick with this method is BEING AWARE OF YOUR TANK ORIENTATION. If you have non-siphons, you want the tanks upward when screwing in. If they are siphons, then pointed down when screwing in. This is the mistake people make, and generally the main reason why orings get chopped.

[Dave-D]

I like taking my VM out at the end of a days play and spend the last couple of games getting rid of paint. Twin tanks (rear ASA and a second bottle mounted @ 45* in front of the trigger guard) with a siphon tank it makes a nice loud Boom, Ping! Boom. Ping! on every trigger pull.