My Guns Anyone who really knows me (and a few people who don't) know that I enjoy collecting paintguns. Some I've collected throughout my years of playing paintball, some I've collected because I've purposefully sought them out as an enthusiast of history and how it applies to paintball, and some, well, I've just come into. I love paintball, and any paintball player will tell you that a major part of paintball is enjoying that feeling you get walking through the staging area with that hot new gun; that's a rush I've never gotten over and I suspect I never will. This gallery will always be a work in progress, as I constantly add, chance and alter my collection, so check it out often! Mags Tom Kaye is one of paintball's great innovators. Though he's retired from the industry to pursue other interests (long ago and far away, as he'll tell you), his contributions to paintball technology are amazing to say the least. Since the first time I walked into a paintball store, I've loved, coveted and desired Automags. All the cool people I envied and looked up to in my early days in the sport had them, and the Automag was the first thing in my life I truly worked hard to obtain. Since then, I've been blessed enough to befriend Tom Kaye, learn the Automag and its history, and now, so many years later, I'm a collector. XMag #9 I played my last seriously competitive tournaments and taught paintball clinics and camps with this luscious XMag, serial number nine. For two years I played almost every weekend in everything from 30 degrees to 110 degrees, and I'm pleased to say it has never once seen a chopped paintball thanks to its perfectly tuned level 10 system. It's tuned so well, in fact, that I've never actually turned the anti-chop eye on! When TK retired, I hung it on the wall, where it stays today. It sports a nearly matching Shocktech mini-drop and ASA, along with a nice, smooth Powerlyte one-piece barrel. -- Tactical EMag If there was room, I'd put a bumper sticker on my Tactical EMag that said "my other electronic Mag is an XMag" but there isn't room. So instead I just shoot people with it. Light, fast and robust, this black beauty is ridiculously accurate and seems to have better range and accuracy at that range than most guns that cost over a thousand dollars today! It holds a matching Smart Parts barrel when it hangs on the wall, but on the field I prefer a DigiCam St!ffi Switch barrel for reduced weight. With its CCM low-rise feed neck and Eclipse on/off, this machine really rips. -- JewMag The ultimate combination of parts and pieces creating a ridiculously light, fast, reliable and non-electronic Automag, the "JewMag" as it was dubbed before I converted to Christianity features an XValve with perfect Level 10, blue ULE body with CCM low-rise feed tube (with matching blue band), ULE trigger kit for a non-existant pull, Intelliframe, blue CP direct-mount on/off bottle adapter, simple fore-grip, steel-braided hose for reliability and a basic but tack-driving Powerlyte one-piece barrel. -- RedMag I built this red bad-boy out of spare parts about a year ago, and what began life as a leftovers Mag has taken on a life and look of its own. In case it hasn't been documented, my color is blue, but I had a pile of leftover red parts lying around, so I started slapping them together and the result is gorgeous. An XValve with snappy Intelliframe, red ULE body with CCM no-rise (with matching band) and red CCM rail and on/off are accented by a set of red Contract Killer grips I came into somehow, and the black "bicycle grip" makes this thing handle just great. Another Powerlyte one-piece is the barrel of choice here, as it looks great and shoots darts! Not bad for leftovers gun! -- Stock RT This is the third RT I've owned, and I've loved each and every one. After coming into my own on the fields of northern Virginia with a Mag in my hands, I took another step into my paintball life with an RT, this time during college in the woods and speedball fields of the Carolinas, in the Traumahead Sportz Circuit and around Fort Bragg. My first RT was number 1314, a serial number I remember to this day because of how well that thing worked. My current stock RT really doesn't need upgrades. The stock double-nubbin barrel shoots ridiculously well, the single trigger is reactive and snappy, the rate of fire is great and with good paint, it doesn't chop even without Level 10. I love it, and have shot people with it that were looking at me from behing $2,000 machine guns of today! -- RetroMag These are the leftovers of one of my original Automags from the mid-nineties. It's since been upgraded with a black Teflon powerfeed body, ReTro Valve, Powerlyte single trigger frame, Smart Parts foregrip, Powerlyte drop and first-gen Shocktech bottle adapter. It's so old it's not even an on/off adapter, so on the other side I've got a quarter-turn ball valve. The barrel is a first-gen Powerlyte twist-lock two-piece that was responsible for making me love Powerlyte's barrels. Yes, I know, somehow I lost my banjo bolt. If you find it, ransom it back to me! -- MiniMag People are already calling me old, and I admit it, at least to some extent. I prefer to think of myself as an old fool, from the old school, who's so cool, so here's a shovel can you dig it, fool? Well ok, it's not a shovel, it's a more or less stock MiniMag, upgraded with a Smart Parts six-stage expansion chamber and angled duckbill, as well as a sixteen inch Smart Parts All American purple splash barrel. Even on CO2 this gun shoots out of its mind perfect and I love it. If I could go back in time to the mid-nineties this is the gun I'd take with me. -- Sydarm The Sydarm is an impressive piece of Mag-lore, a pistol designed for military and police training that paintball players gobbled up because, well, it kicked butt. Next time someone challenges me to a paintball pistol duel, this bad boy will be the piece I defend my honor with. Now if I can just find the holster. -- CCM Guns Rocky Knuth, my buddy from the Naughty Dogs, introduced me to a friend of his a while back. His name was Jason Chipley, and he was busy cranking out hand-built pieces of paint-shooting perfection that looked a little bit like Autocockers. His pumps weren't too darn bad either, and CCM continues on today making what I consider to be some of the very best pump paintball guns in the world, along with clamping feed necks everyone should have. If you don't know, find out, because they're hot. Series 6 If I had to play pump paintball for money tomorrow, the CCM Series 6 is the gun I'd walk on the field with. It's light, the pump stroke is smooth and the 86 degree frame is ergonomic to the "enth" degree. Any pump gun with a roller bearing trigger is serious, and the inline regulator, Delrin bolt and vertical clamping feed neck don't hurt either. Upgrades? Why? It's purely pumptacular out of the box. -- SS-25 Pretty much everything I just said about the Series 6, copy and paste here about the SS-25, except a year go. The only problem with this amazing pump killing machine? Well, see, it was STOLEN. That's right, stolen right out of the CFOA trailer while it was parked at Adventure Beach Paintball near Myrtle Beach, SC. If you know anyone in that vicinity playing with one luscious SS-25 with a carbon fiber barrel and all the trimmings, tackle 'em and drop me an email. Reward? You bet there is. -- Series 5 Pump Simple and sexy, the Series 5 is everything you need in a pump and nothing you don't. It's smooth, light (not quite as light as a Series 6) and accurate. This one was a bit of a hookup from the good people at CCM, a sexy polished black/blue combo with a sniperiffic CCM aluminum barrel and 86 degree frame with slider trigger. -- Series 5 Basic Speaking of simple and sexy, CCM's newest pump is...well...basic, like the name says. Dust finished with the halmark smooth pump and new .45 degree frame with snatch grip, the Basic doesn't come with an auto-trigger, but if you'd try hitting what you aim at you wouldn't NEED one. It's a steal at a shade under four hundred bucks, too. If you find fault with that statement in any way, go buy an Ion and hide behind something inflatable. -- Blue J2 The edgy milling and angled lines of the early J2 semis from CCM looked sharp to me so I had to have one. Luckily he had an all-blue one so I jumped on it, and even found a one-piece Powerlyte barrel that almost but not quite matched. It's polished while the rest of the gun is dust, but hey, when it looks this good...anyways, I added an old CCM mini-drop and CP on/off to compete the package, and thanks to some tunage from guru Mikey Paxson, this semi has a short and crispy trigger pull. The last time I played with this gun, it was alongside Maurice Gibb at the Grand Finale. -- Faded J2 This second-gen J2 is smoother and sexier than its predecessor, but no less a pneumatic killing machine. With a gorgeous, polished blue to silver fade and light CCM/Site carbon fiber barrel, this sucker is amazing. It needs an o-ring for the leaky three-way, but other than that, it's perfect. Perfectly tuned, timed and milled, this J2 is one of the jewels of my collection. --