Magazine Fed Paintball Markers
by: Evan Shlom, Westchester Rise Paintball Team

There is a relatively new trend of paintball feeder that has been under the use of many dedicated players.  For those who enjoy tactical/Military Simulation type play, there has been a recent trend in magazine-fed paintball markers.  Since their beginning, paintball markers have always been fed their ammo by a container that sits on top of the gun called a ‘hopper’.  Recently, however there are now several paintball gun companies who are producing military style markers that are fed by magazines – just like real rifles!  It is a completely new way to play paintball and it makes it seem like you’re playing with real guns.

Not only do magazines cast a more realistic image on your paintball marker, but it also is the definition of low-profile play.  “Low-Profile” means stealthy and subtle styles of movement during the game, consisting of sometimes a complete non-exposure of the player and his/her gun and position on the field.  Hoppers stick out from the top of the gun and often give the paintball player’s position away while ruining sneaky takedowns or flanking maneuvers.  The magazine of a gun is designated a little behind and below the handguard, virtually right where a forehandle would be located.  This allows for players to slyly peak over or beside their bunkers and shoot without a big, bulky piece of hopper plastic sticking out, waiting to be shot.

Although magazines greatly enhance your stealth on the field, they also have less capacity for paintball storage versus a hopper’s.  This results in reloading your gun more often (which is also an entirely different experience with magazines), causing you to carry numerous more magazines for extra ammo; this can get bulky.  Some of the latest guns even offer to use a magazine and a hopper on the same gun.  This is RAP4’s new Splitfire Adaptor system on all their T68 Gen6 tactical markers.  This way you can have the realism of shooting/loading with a magazine but the extra storage capacity of a hopper.  When you run out of magazines, simply turn the dial and switch to your backup hopper. 

Just as a warning about paintball magazines – realize what you’re getting!  You can buy decorative magazines for nearly any paintball gun, however they are not functional magazines.  Decorative magazines do not feed paintballs into the gun.  There are only four companies that make paintball markers with functional magazines; these are RAP4, Tiberius Arms, Real Action Marker (RAM) and MilSig tactical markers.  All other paintball guns are hopper fed and will only take a decorative magazine (if one exists for it).   

Decorative magazines also look cool and function as a storage compartment for tools and such.  If you don’t have the money to get a new magazine fed paintball marker, it’s much cheaper to find a decorative magazine and attach it to your existing paintball gun.  Most tactical looking markers have a magazine that will fit their specific brand.  Adding a magazine to your marker will give it a new fresh look and make you want to keep shooting it. 

The debate rages on however about whether to use a marker that’s magazine fed or loads by the traditional hopper… or both!  Some of the really hardcore woodsballers use magazine fed markers only!  They want their game to be as real as it gets and magazine fed guns are all the rage.  When deciding on whether to use a magazine feed or hopper, consider how long your game might last.  If you’re in a big scenario game (like D-Day), you might be on patrol or a specific mission that could take hours (if not days) so carrying ample ammo may be necessary.  In this case you’re better off having a gun with the Splitfire option so you can have both magazine and hopper action.  If you’re going into a speedball type match or short mission, then the magazine fed is the choice!

The hopper fanatics rave that the magazine-fed guns could become disabled if the magazine itself malfunctions.  This is a realistic fear; the magazines have springs and working parts inside of them and there has been some to malfunction.  This is yet another reason why if you’re a die-hard magazine-feed only dude, you would still want to consider having the Splitfire Dual Feed System so you have the hopper as a backup.