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It’s a contortionist!
One of the things I have always looked for
in Paintball markers is flexibility. Sure it’s great to have a
reliable gun that you’re comfortable with for recreational play, but
what happens if you want to play a scenario, or speedball, or maybe
something in between? These qualities are what drew me to the
Line SI Bushmaster, the VM-68’s, CCI Phantoms, and many others.
It’s a great thing to have the option to reconfigure your marker to
meet the needs of whatever game you’re currently playing. It’s hard
to get bored with a gun you can change as you your game changes,
improves with you, and doesn’t limit you to a certain playing style.
The New Trracer is just such a gem, and like its ancestors, offers a
lot of flexibility at a bargain price.
I found a slightly used “New Trracer”
online for just under $100.00 including shipping which was a great
price since we only due unbiased independent articles, and
everything comes out of pocket. We simply don’t except “gifts” in
return for articles, each item is bought and paid out of already
thin pockets, just like you do. Included in the deal was
a BT-SA17 horizontal spring feed. BT had a stroke of genius when
they standardized some of their various marker parts between models.
The resulting compatibility allows the New Trracer to not only use
the direct feed (with a nice clamping elbow) its boxed with, but
also the horizontal feed from the SA-17 pistol, and even there “rip
clip” fast feed system with some minor modifications to the rip
clip mount. The marker includes a stock medium bore barrel,
and some Allen keys and extra ball detent. Our purchase did
not include the velocity adjusting rod, but hey, were old school,
already have one! We also invested $20 in a used 18” Autococker
threaded , Apex II tipped barrel, and another $50 in a used RAP IV
R-Tube, dual 12gram tank and collapsible stock. If your
following, our total expense was $170.00, and other tanks and
hoppers used came out of the authors existing parts bins.
So many sticks, so little time...
Another stroke of brilliance, the New
Trracer is threaded for Autococker™ Barrels! The original
version had a unique thread and as a result, the barrel selection
was limited. Not so with the new version, it will accept the
ever popular Autococker ™ threaded barrels, making your stick choice
almost unlimited. You do have to keep in mind that the barrel lives
inside the pump, and the pump must
 be
able to slide freely over it. There can be a downside to this, many
barrels will have a smaller outside diameter than the original,
causing the pump handle to wobble.
-ump wobble is annoying and affects your accuracy, but there are
solutions. We’ll talk about those in the modifications section later
on. The important thing is that now you can use your favorite
old All American, Hammerhead, freak back, or other a/c threaded
barrel, with the brand new pump. I immediate screwed in
my favorite new old stock cocker threaded Armson stealth and it fit
perfectly!
Its inflatable!
At first this was a head scratcher, I
wondered why Empire retained the old back bottle configuration and
didn’t just produce it with the ever popular bottom line.
Still scratching my head, but in doing so found there are several
options:
·
After
seeing that the grip frame does indeed accommodate a bottom line
(another nice option) I am less concerned about it. BT does not
appear to offer a complete bottom line kit for the Trracer, though
they offer assorted parts that one could be assembled from. The best
bet here is just to give your favorite paintball supply a call and
they can put a kit together for you. This will allow you to pop on
your favorite drop or cradle and use HPA short field style. Combine
that with a shorter barrel and you have a fairly tight speedball
package.
·
I
personally like back bottle set ups for some markers and quickly
imagined an several options:
o
Considering the marker is very mil-sim oriented, with picatinny
rails and a tactical look I was surprised when I could not find a
collapsible stock option for the Trracer. Coincidently I came
across a RAP IV 12 gram/ R
stock set up at a great price and well, the rest is history. The
12gram cylinder kit uses two 12 gram disposable co2 capsules and has
piercers internally on both ends of the cylinder. In effect, once
the 12grams are pierced, they vent into the entire cylinder, and it
becomes a tank in itself. If you fill your own co2 tanks like I do
(disclaimer, proceed at your own risk!) you can skip the twelve
grams and fill the tank direct. It is a SMALL tank about 32 grams (I
measured it close to 1.5 oz) and it’s not even worth it unless you
can get a good precision fill of liquid co2. After some practice,
and chilling
 the
tank well, I was able to get over 100 shots out of it. They won’t be
filling this at the field for you so once you’re out, your back to
12 grams. The R-tube is adjustable and the receiver plate fits very
nicely against the bottom of the air system adaptor once the
receiver tube is snugged in, keeping everything nice and tight
without any modifications to the New Trracer itself. Having an
adjustable stock, with both small capacity tank and 12 gram ability,
along with the milsim look and feel make this a very cool option to
have.
·
Of
course there just a simple bucket changer option as well, if you
like stocks you can add a basic t-stock and run the
classic Phantom style, or add a tank and a line to your
t stock and go California style!
·
And
then you have some of the old school options , if your old gear bag
has a Micro Ca , or other drop out changer those will work just
fine, a 7oz tank will work, and you can dig your old nice butt plate
for it as well for that no non-sense “fear me for I AM old school
presentation.”
Feeding it well:
Being a stock class type of guy, I prefer
the optional horizontal feed (BT sa16 unit at about $30 retail.)
You can remove the spring by unscrewing the magazine cap, and add a
bucket changer to be closer to true stock class, but this marker
does have an auto-trigger, just like the original so it will never
be truly stock class without a custom built or modified replacement
trigger. Don’t worry, there are very few pure stock class
games played these days, in most cases an auto-trigger is okay,
after all, phantoms have them too. The feed is
reversible, so you can use tip up, or tip back style loading, but
with the spring in, it’s a moot point. It also opens up the
possibility of a “long bow” configuration; by using a much longer
and higher capacity feed tube.
 I
did try a 15 round action markers unit, however the outside tube
diameters are different and it would require a spacer to fit
properly. On the upside, the feed hole on the horizontal feed
will hold a normal ten round tube, vertically. A note on this
setup, it is a pain to reload quickly. Under fire, the turn plug is
hard to maneuver and not at all intuitive. In talking to players on
the field, some recommended removing the spring and adding a phantom
style ball gate. Another option is too simply add an extended lever
to the turn plug, giving you more leverage and a faster and more
accurate turn.
 If
hoppers are more your speed, the marker comes stock with a nice
clamping feed neck allowing you to add the hopper of your choice.
It’s a simple matter of depressing a pin and sliding it onto the
Picatinny rail. The rail itself is a composite sleeve that
bolts on the metal breech frame of the unit. A simple an
effective design that allows great flexibility and cross platform
compatibility.
Marksmanship badge:
If you are a fan of first strike, the
Trracer also allows that option, but only with the direct feed, and
there are limitations. With the clamp feed neck installed you can
move it forward and load a FS round by hand; apparently it’s a
tricky maneuver that takes some practice. There are some
modifications to the pump rail on line to make this easier that
include removing some material from the handle.
Make it go:
The key element of a pump marker is the
pump itself, and the new Trracer has a chunky one! Like the
original, the new Trracers pump is made of a polymer composite
plastic, but that’s about where the similarities end. Gone is the
old round , smooth “bike grip” style pump, it has been replaced with
a chunk of plastic adorned with vents, ridges, and picatiny rails.
The pump arms, and there are still two of them, are dog legged
rather than straight giving it a more industrial look, but it works
the same as all pumps do with added advantage of being able to mount
accessories both on the top and bottom of the pump. Mounting a
vertical grip “hit man “style is popular and some prefer it.
Overall it is adequate for the job, but may take a bit of getting
used to.
Guts and glory:
BT Has made a big deal of advertising the
internals are compatible with the original Trracer, and technically
this is true, but there is not 100% compatibility, here the run
down:
·
The
bolt and hammer on the New Trracer are the same approximate
dimensions of its predecessor, but the set up is entirely different,
this is a plus as there is a traditional power tube rather than a
spilt air passage.
·
The
valve
 body
on the New Trracer is longer than old, will not mate with the old
style trigger frame.
A
complete internal swap may be possible, but there will be no mixing
and matching between old and new internal components, or barrels
.The old style detent was a small spring, the new is a plastic
nubbin not interchangeable.
So while the claims of interchangeability
are technically true, your options are limited.
Giving it a go:
We took the New Trracer™ out to
Battlefield Orlando, for their first annual Rocky Horror Paintball
Show scenario. We set it up with a 13ci HPA tank, a 100 round
hopper , and a 18” Apex tipped barrel. At the chronograph we
registered a string of tens shots between 164-176 fps, not bad for
an considering the HPA tank output of 800psi.
The apex barrel is much too long for my
tastes; however it is so much fun to use it made me forget I didn’t
like it! There is something inherently cool about being able to tag
someone out from 125 feet and make the paintball curve around a
tree! The gun was still fairly new and stiff, even after
liberally oiling it with synthetic oil, but after the first hopper
it was much more comfortable. I found the trigger to be a
little odd, it has a nice adjustable stop to shorten the pull,
however, that adjustment only applies to back ward motion. The
trigger moves so far forward that there will always be a rather long
pull to it. I think there is opportunity there for a custom
modification by adding a forward stop. When I changed over to the
horizontal feed I found the reload process a bit frustrating, and
being left handed did not help at all. I do thing either the lever
option or the phantom feed gate option discussed able will make a
dramatic difference. Otherwise, it performed flawlessly, no broken
balls, great range with the apex barrel, and somewhere between
150-175 shots to a 13ci tank.
The end is near:
Overall I really enjoyed playing with the
new Trracer. For the money it’s a great bargain and add ons are
common and inexpensive. This winning formula provides an excellent
low budget platform that is very effective. The Trracer, just
as its namesake original , will never have the feel or inherent
smoothness and comfort of higher end markers like Phantoms, and
isn’t designed to. What it will do is shoot dependably and
accurately, give you a ton of options to personalize your set up,
and once worn in a bit, will fit you like an old comfortable glove
for a price that wont shred the budget too much. Most importantly,
I had a great deal of fun using it. From someone that has grown
accustomed to custom built pumps, that says a lot, so hats off to
Empire for doing an awesome job with the New Trracer™ !
Acknowledgements and references:
-
Maverick
Buy Stock and pump Gear at the Official Stock Class Players Network
Online Store,
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