I’ve played paintball for years, and with 8 years of paintball under my belt, I felt the desire to own a flawless paintball gun. See… I’ve shot everything from Ego’s to the reclusive War Machine Assualt 80, and had yet to find an ultra-reliable paintball gun for my collection.
Fully electronic paintball markers are great and all, but the constant stress induced by fear of firing the gun by breathing on the trigger, issues with the solinoid, the feeling that I had to constantly upgrade to keep up with other players, and the fear of it breaking after dropping it was all too much for me. Don’t get me wrong, I love to shoot streams of paint at opposing enemies, but when all is said and done and the day is over, I’d rather have money left over to come back the next day. So I set out on a quest to find a fast mechanical paintball marker that would never fail me (because time is valuable to me).
Ever since I first started paintball (with a slingshot that is…), I had always kept an eye on Insight Component Engineering, the creator of the Epic paintball marker. What caught my eye about this marker was it’s unique trap door technology. I was amazed at how simple the gun worked, but put off by the price tag, which was $450 at the time. I decided that if it ever lowered I would make the investment and purchase one. It wasn’t until a couple years ago (2004) that they finally lowered the price to $350, which was good enough for me. After a couple weeks of waiting my ICE Epic finally arrived, and after opening the box I was immediately struck with surprise at how small the Epic was. It was much smaller than I had anticipated, but in a good way! It was lightweight and transferred easily from my right to left hand, and the trigger was the perfect pull. At that point I didn’t even need to shoot it to be happy, but hey… I don’t know anyone that can resist shooting a new paintball marker.
In essence, the ICE Epic opperates like a pellet gun. Just a couple of moving parts, and none that push or move the ball into the barrel, which makes this marker unique. The regulator is easy to operate, and it comes built into the grip of the Epic. Just turn it in, add your air source, and back out the allen key until you hear a “piff.” Its as easy as that, and you just keep turning the allen key if you need to turn the velocity down.
In all my years of owning an ICE Epic, I have never had any problems with it and have had very few ball breaks. Its gone through scenarios, a couple of tournaments, and a lot of recreational play, and has yet to fail me. It fires quickly, quietly, and can spit out rounds as fast as an automag or souped up autococker. Just to give you an idea of how fast it shoots, I’ve easily been able to outshoot my 12vlt revolution hopper.
All in all, the ICE Epic is a great paintball marker. It has a unique design, simple mechanism, and awesome speed. If you are looking for a reliable paintball marker, or just one that will turn heads at paintball fields, then I highly recommend the ICE Epic. Its a gun that compliments my playing style, sparks up discussions at the field, and requires hardly any maintenance, what more could I ask for?