(Copyright 1995, Panther Free Press... And so on... Permisson to do whatever yo want to it, except sell it for profit, as long as my name remains on the text. Contact me if you're that desperate to steal a Typhoon opinion piece...)

Originally posted on Date: 10 Feb 1995 05:20:12 -0500

Ok, a quick review, I hope.

Some major background first. I've never liked semi-autos. Under my paintball guise of 'Catt' I've written about the evils of semis. How they ruin the game with lots of firepower. I don't like hosers who depend on paint over brains. To this day, I still don't. I own a vest with all tubes (the 10 round type...) that says 'Just say no to semi-auto'. I still believe in it.

Anyhow, I won mine at the St. Louis big game 3 last year. Up to that point my main gun was a pump. Specifically, a 'Nasty Boys SI' which is a bushmaster clone. With this thing I can hit almost anything at any range providing good to decent paint. I should also mention that it's main configuration is 12 gram powerlets. No C/A tank.

So now I win this thing. Instant karma? Dumb luck? The gods of paintball smiling upon me? Who knows. I'd test-fired and played with 'mags, Pro-lites, and the occasional 'ulti-pro' (don't ask...) Now I own this.

My first question was to Dave Rudig (AKA "Paintball Dave", VM-68 god...). I asked him if he could make a remote line. He said "Yeah, why?" I showed him the Typhoon and mentioned I just won it, and it's screaming for a remote line. The look of disbelief was priceless. "You won that?!?" was the most intelligible thing he could say...

I called home to tell my teammates about this one. As I was told later by Moondragon : "I came in the house that night. Roger (his roomie at the time) told me you won a semi auto. Then the power went out for thirty seconds." Omen? Hard to know.

I drove back to Minnesota to collect both my wits and my friends. We were due to go to a big game in Racine the next weekend. Everyone wanted to see it, fondle it, and so forth. We didn't have a c/a tank to our names, so we never fired it at all. We piled into my Honda (3 of us...) and drove out to the Racine game, stopping at Dave's. There I bought a 9 oz tank, a 100 round view loader, and he gave me a short remote line that fit my needs. I felt good...

We test fired it at the range using some of the Bullseye he sells. Wow. We walked it all the way back to as far as we could go on his range, and I could hit his smallest target with precise accuracy. Wow.

The first day of the Racine game I played with my KP-2 and my normal pumper. Traditional to that point was to use the KP-2 in bigger games. The second day, I brought out the Typhoon. Gassed it up, chronied it (WHAT A BREEZE!) and hit the field.

Had some god shots, like on my stomach, over the opposing shoulder and across the body, one shot one hit to the torso... Incredible! I noticed I could lay down the paint with the 'Mags and 'Cockers when I needed to, but I still had the long-range accuracy and pattern I got from the old Piranah Long-Barrels. (In fact, that's the original gun it was!) Well, to make some long stories short, I've played quite a bit this season with the Typhoon. I took it to the World Record game with me and racked up a few elimination's (very few, I was tired...) It's gone all over the place. I've played indoors and outdoors with it. Speedball to sniper. And here's my review of it, in a nutshell.

Technical:

I don't like the vertical bottle, it's kinda not my style. I may send it to Glenn to have it bottom-lined or get the work done by another good 'smith like Dave. It's kinda awkward to my style of play, and how I run the gun.

I personally run it with a Smart-Parts remote line and the 100 round Viewloader. The remote has an expansion chamber, which does reduce velocity in colder weather. But it's nice to have it when you need it. The remote makes the gun more maneuverable when I play speedball / indoor.

The bolt in the back is removable, while the barrel is not. A pull squeegee is very nice to have with you. Under game situations I have pulled the bolt, run a squeegee through, and replaced the bolt in around 15 seconds. Some say that the non-removable barrel is a drawback, but I argue why screw around with perfection?

The end is spiral-ported much like the Smart-parts style. It makes the gun noticeably quieter and (as Glenn will point out no doubt...) a lot more accurate. I don't know about the latter, but I know quiet. I never shot the gun previous to the porting, so I can't say anything good or bad.

While playing indoor at 'Futureworld' I was shooting on an opponent. A player says "Dude! You're almost out of air!" I look over and say "No way, Homes!" As I dump 20 rounds into an area as suppression fire at 248 FPS. He gawks at me. "What kind of gun IS that?"

Velocity changes are a breeze with the dial on the back. I've noticed you need to keep an eye on your velocity, the screw loosens and tightens under heavy shooting. A cheater-point, I've found that I can adjust the screw with my finger if I wanted to. I've had to occasionally when I can't find my allen-wrenches, but in the wrong hands this could be bad. There's also a dial on the front for adjusting gun pressure, which you do seasonally.

I've had only minor feeding problems when I need to rattle the loader to get a feed (AKA : "The Semi-Auto Shakes") But that's rare. More often than not I'm shooting till the paint goes dry. I'm never good at counting that...

General maintenance is a breeze as well. You just dump it in warm water, shake, shoot it once or twice, use 12-15 drops of oil, shoot it a few more times, clean the barrel with a squeegee and you're finished. 10 minutes if your distracted heavily.

Opinions / observations :

I put accuracy down here because it's more of a 'feel' than a measurement for me. As far as accuracy goes, I can do some amazing tricks with the Typhoon.

I won't go too analytical, but suffice to say that with good paint I can do great shots. If all I got is a loader and a barrel to shoot at, I'll aim it. And, usually, I'll *GET* it in 1-3 shots.

The weight of the gun in my hands feels right. The remote line makes it comfortable for me to throw it around. And when I play speedball with it, can't touch it for the feel. Fast to manuver, and compact to do some serious barricade work.

The nickle plating on it makes some people scared when they see it. Which is good and bad. The intimidation factor is high. (It's mainly for the rare appearances that you get this.) Once people see it in action, they do get a respect for the gun, and the user it they're good.

Which brings me to a major point. The gun plays your game. Let me explain. When you buy a paintgun you have to 'break it in', learn what it's good at. Then you modify it to play how you want it to. Then you learn it's quirks and you play. Then you possibly buy more parts to make it more suitable to your style, then you moddify it again to meet standards.

With the Typhoon, I just play the same way I always have in the past with my pump gun. Stealth, stop, aim, shoot, stealth... Like that. With no problems, it can be accurate 'out of the box'. It can also adapt.

You need to make your first shot count, it can do it. If you need to lay down the paint thick for cover fire, it can do that too. In one day I played speedball to sniper, and it handled the switches easily and quickly.

On the bad side, it has it's flaws. Not many, but they're there. First, it isn't as air efficient as I'd like it to be. But keep in mind that I post this in mid winter. I've noticed my 9 oz. Chrome-molly take gets 500 shots per fill at 260-275 FPS (+/- 25). That's great, but I feel it's something that I'd like better.

The velocity I've had problems with as well. I can't get it over 265 lately, but again that's the mid-winter thing again. In Racine (October) I dialed the bolt all the way down and got it at 262. Not a bad speed, but I like that extra zip at 275 or so. Conversely, when it does run hot in mid-summer it dials down very easily.

The rate of fire isn't as fast as, say, a 'Mag or 'Cocker. But at a comfortable 6 balls a second (rough guess) it's fine for me.

One last mention. Before the summer ended Hobbes Patrol (my team) went to a 'big game' where the prize being given away was an EXC-68. I won it. (Don't ask...) We got it working that day, and I gave it to my teammates to use. I've never used it.

Nor do I intend to. My Typhoon is a fine piece of machinery, why switch? I may get an Automag as well when I'm in the mood to not lug that weight around, but it'll cost a lot to build it to what I want. The Typhoon works just fine for me for now.

For those who want to know, the Typhoon goes for $480 US (Vertical Bottle). There are other styles available, including a double-barreled (sic) version that runs $695 US. It's unnessary, IMHO. But, hey, it's your money.

They're available from Palmers Pursuit Shop, (916) 923-9676. Glenn Palmer is online, but not just now. (Computer problems, last I heard) Tell him Catt sent ya. (Not like it'll do anything, but it's good publicity for me. He did give me a free paintgun, ya know...)

Update : July 15, 1995

Well, I haven't really played with the Typhoon all this season much, so far. Mainly due to my lethargy to send it back to California. Something blew in the line somewhere, so it's kinda non-operative with a slow leak. I'll get it back in time for the Fall season, I hope...

But, some new things. I played in St. Louis for the Celeb Big Game 4 in the End of April. Miserable weather would be giving it credit. It was raining. It was cold. It was muddy. But, with my Typhoon and a Minnesota attitude, I played on. One of my teammates, Matrix, bought my KP-3 off of my hands and had it converted to a Hurricane. And, with both our paintguns, we went out to play St. Louis. And the guns performed.

The automags froze up. The 'Cockers froze up. Almost all the semi-autos froze. But not the Typhoon or the Hurricane. It shot for distance repeatedly! The tank iced, it still shot. I tossed the remote line after the first game, and I got better performance still.

Bottom line, it worked very well in the worst weather playable.

Right now, as I type this I hope the Typhoon is in California, and hopefully in Sacremento. :) I'm having a bottom line installed and I'm gonna put the remote away till further notice. I may end up getting a larget tank, or I've been thinking about running Nitrogen as a possibility for winter paintball. But, that'll have to wait 'till I can get the tanks refilled somewhere in Minnnesota.

And, aslo, I've seen a removable-barrel Typhoon out there with my own eyes, and I'm not impressed. I actually prefer the fixed barrel style. I can tear out the back bolt and run down a qguegee with no problems. It's actually more entertaining than watching a mag barrel getting torn away... :)

I like my Typhoon. But, between all of us here... I still like playing pump too! :)

Anyhow, that's paintball. :)

-Tyger
http://www.luminet.net/~tyger
tyger@luminet.net

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