Best setup for Rainy Weather

[Ghille-Man]

Anyone use those moisture absorption silica pacs inside the hopper? I bet a sealed lid and silica pack would help prevent swell. Could tape it to the inside top part of hopper.

[lew]

A piece of electrical tape over the power feed port effectively seals it against rain incursion.

My Cockers have always faired very well in the rain. Even after tearing them down post-game, very little water got into the system.

[Chuck E Ducky]

Boonie hats work great especially you hit them with a lil scotchguard water repellent spray. I keep one in the car at all times it’s my go to camp hat.

[Grendel]

Too many years of playing in crappy weather because "I got'sa play". Now old and like my comfort too much (plus a laundry list of old injuries)

[glaman5266]

Excellent idea with the elbow inserts! Never would’ve thought of that.

[Meleager7]

Ok, rain proofed my gear a bit. Found a 16" sp tear drop tip I don't use too often, and gave it an electrical tape job to seal of those ports. My JT Revvy, and my VLocity loaders still have their regular lids , so I'll pack those. I'll bring a couple mech cockers, and probably my pro-carbine, keep things a bit simpler this time out. I think i'll lose the visor on my JT, and bust out my boonie hat as well.

Great advice above everybody! Stay dry!

M7

[Meleager7]

don't play!?? I gots ta play, man!
I like the tip the gun downward when possible, great idea!

[Chuck E Ducky]

If it’s not raining hard I throw a micro fiber over the speed gate. Pull it off just before I play stuff it in my pocket for when the point is over throw it over the feed gate. I always have one handy for cleaning my mask anyway.

I have a plastic cover that I found one day playing. It’s made by HK and designed to just click on and off one of there speed feeds works great on my rotor with a exalt speed gate. But I rarely dig threw my gear bag for it. Most of the time I use the microfiber method.

[MrBarraclough]

I'll start off with some proposed solutions: For a field-expedient one, maybe a flap made from some athletic tape or duct tape that could be taped securely to the top of the hopper body and then drape over the speedfeed, with maybe a little tab of tape to secure at the bottom? The loose part of the flap I would make by doubling the tape sticky side to sticky side.

For a more prepared solution, I was thinking maybe a small nylon dry bag (perhaps cut fairly short) that would either fit over the entire hopper or just over the back end, and attaching a small length of elastic strap or cord to the open end on opposite sides, so it would fit onto the back of the hopper like an extremely wide but stubby barrel bag.

My other thought was to take a small, narrow nylon dry bag and cut the bottom off/open. Insert the back half of the hopper into the cut off bottom and secure it with tape. Leave the mouth of the bag open and just let it hang down under its own weight. So I'm picturing something resembling the hood on the back of an old (like 19th centrury) camera.

[MrBarraclough]

Loader/hopper with a lid and the rest of my gear pretty much stays the same. Might select a barrel with the least porting among what I've got with me. I'll shoot an electro instead of my Automag because I currently have a powerfeed Minimag body on it. Got poured on in April but still had fun, though if given the choice I'd much rather play dry than wet. I certainly shot more conservatively in order to minimize the number of times I had to open my hopper lid.

RELATED QUESTION that I was just about to post as its own topic when I came acros this one: Let's say you find yourself at the field with clouds rolling in and all your hoppers have speedgates. You left the lids at home. What kind of solution would you improvise to to keep rain out of your hopper, or at least minimize it?

Similarly, if you were preparing a solution in advance, what would you buy/make to cover a speedfeed without reinstalling a lid? Let's say, hypothetically, that a Halo Too were a real pain in the ass to disassemble in order to swap between lid and speedfeed (I know, crazy, right?), or maybe you bought a Rotor off eBay that came with only a powerfeed and you're too cheap to buy a $30 color kit just to get a lid. If you had a little time to plan and gather materials, what would you craft that could be easily thrown on a hopper to keep rain out of the speedfeed but still be reasonably easy to move/remove to reload?

[Grendel]

1. Don't play in the rain (preferred solution)
2. Mech/Pump (stacked tube with ability to field strip bolt and pass a squeegee through)
3. hopper that has a top that seals closed (Revy or like)
4. Keep barrel unvented or with a "raincover" installed
5. Keep marker pointed down
6. Smaller pods with good sealing tops
7. Multiple sets of goggles so you can swap them out occasionally

By the way my preferred Mech for rainy scenarios long ago was a Power Fed Mag. We (SC Roadkill) had little slip on shields th covered the PF port but still allowed air to vent freely. We made them out of the Elbow inserts that came with 1" 45 degree elbows that allowed you to use them on 7/8" RF.

[Chuck E Ducky]

I keep a roll of electrical tape in the gear bag just for this reason. If it drys up you can just take it off easy.

[MrBarraclough]

That's why I always have at least one hopper in the collection with the lid still installed instead of a powerfeed.

For me it's an old Empire Scion I rescued off of eBay just because I thought the translucent smoke shell looked really cool.

Edit: Sorry, braincramp. For some reason I was equating "powerfeed" with "speed feed" for a minute there. Yeah, I wouldn't whip out the Minimag in the rain without taping over the huge window in the powerfeed first.

[Spider!]

Yeah, porting on the barrel should be short and larger diameter (if any). Little port diameters hold water. Use a large HPA tank to avoid filling and/or fiddling with the ASA/changer. Put the tank on in a shelter and leave it attached. Consider leaving the air on the marker until you can disassemble in a dry area.

Also, a larger loader keeps you from having to open it as often.

[Ecapnation]

Something (anything) with out an open feed, ported barrels or a speedfeed on the hopper.

I used cockers, emeks and various pumps in the recent times