I thought I'd post up some of my thoughts and mental notes after playing a full recball game with my new N3. Stock configuration, no changes or tweaks (pressure was dead on 160 out of the box).
-Overall performance rocks. I'm not one to sling loads of paint, especially in recball, but when I needed fast bursts the N3 didn't let me down. Never felt outgunned even in a couple of intense firefights. Not one single chopped ball or double feed (caveat below).
-I had a couple of early double feeds that were somewhat confusing. Given the way the detent works I figured double feeding an N3 was basically impossible, at least via the usual method of a ball rolling past the detent. Turns out it was my own fault. Early on, I would show interested parties how the barrel reciprocated back to the breech. And of course, that stuffed the paintball into the mouth of the insert, at which point another ball would fall into the breech. Lesson learned!
-Handling the N3 at home I wasn't a fan of the loose trigger. At the field, I never noticed or even thought about it. It's so light and easy that a reset spring would detract from my enjoyment, I think.
-Air would leak from behind the trigger once in a while. Typically it'd clear up by pulling the trigger once or twice. I'm not certain what was going on there. It's something I need to try replicating in a controlled environment.
-I wish I could comment on the shot consistency but paint diameter was all over the place. I ran a handful through my sizer and got a sample range 0.674 to 0.686.
-My hopper was a V-Mech. Winding it puts occasional torque on the feedneck. Twice I thought the clamp had loosened (I couldn't actually see it due to the team color bandana around my feedneck). Instead, the feedneck itself was actually unscrewing from the body. I cranked it down by hand and it held for the second half of the day. Still, the clamp is off center now. Might re-center and throw some blue loctite on it.
-The N3 got more "what the heck is that?" attention than any other marker I've used. Two separate people asked how old it was, and seemed pretty shocked when I said 6 months.
Great excuse to chat about Nova and the N1/N3. Really positive feedback, especially from the couple of people who shot it.
Can't wait to bring it out to play again!
-Overall performance rocks. I'm not one to sling loads of paint, especially in recball, but when I needed fast bursts the N3 didn't let me down. Never felt outgunned even in a couple of intense firefights. Not one single chopped ball or double feed (caveat below).
-I had a couple of early double feeds that were somewhat confusing. Given the way the detent works I figured double feeding an N3 was basically impossible, at least via the usual method of a ball rolling past the detent. Turns out it was my own fault. Early on, I would show interested parties how the barrel reciprocated back to the breech. And of course, that stuffed the paintball into the mouth of the insert, at which point another ball would fall into the breech. Lesson learned!
-Handling the N3 at home I wasn't a fan of the loose trigger. At the field, I never noticed or even thought about it. It's so light and easy that a reset spring would detract from my enjoyment, I think.
-Air would leak from behind the trigger once in a while. Typically it'd clear up by pulling the trigger once or twice. I'm not certain what was going on there. It's something I need to try replicating in a controlled environment.
-I wish I could comment on the shot consistency but paint diameter was all over the place. I ran a handful through my sizer and got a sample range 0.674 to 0.686.
-My hopper was a V-Mech. Winding it puts occasional torque on the feedneck. Twice I thought the clamp had loosened (I couldn't actually see it due to the team color bandana around my feedneck). Instead, the feedneck itself was actually unscrewing from the body. I cranked it down by hand and it held for the second half of the day. Still, the clamp is off center now. Might re-center and throw some blue loctite on it.
-The N3 got more "what the heck is that?" attention than any other marker I've used. Two separate people asked how old it was, and seemed pretty shocked when I said 6 months.
Great excuse to chat about Nova and the N1/N3. Really positive feedback, especially from the couple of people who shot it. Can't wait to bring it out to play again!
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