Kingman Eraser
Matt recently learned of Kingman's new Eraser 11mm paintball gun and was very excited about it. I liked it, too and promised him that if here were to order, I would as well so that we could play. (Actually, I decided that I would order two. I didn't expect him to order almost immediately but, well, I made a promise and our guns arrived this week. He and Daniel came over yesterday and we had a chance to try them out.

I've read some reviews by people who thought they were ugly but they were mostly by paintball enthusiasts. It looks a lot like a real firearm, though a little bulky. With the 12 gram CO2 cylinder and 9 round magazine in the grip, it's a bit long so someone with small hands might have a little bit of a problem. It also makes it a little tough to reach the magazine release with your thumb. It's almost as easy to reach around the grip and activate it with the second finger. I wonder if I could find a mag release extender at a gun show.

We got the Eraser model. Kingman produces the Chaser which is half a pound lighter than the 2.4 pound Eraser. We chose the all aluminum for the ruggedness but holding it out at arms length for a while can get a little tiring. It is a lot more like a real gun, though.

Without a hopper on top like a conventional paintball gun, it has a proper sight picture. I had a tendency to just point and shoot and found I aimed low. I think Daniel took a little more care in lining up the sights and tended to be deadly accurate. He would fire off two or three rounds and hit with each one.

A conventional paintball gun fires a 68 caliber paintball at up to 300 feet per second. That places the energy at about 11.8 joules of energy. That really stings, leaves a significant welt that can bleed if impacting on exposed skin and requires a full face mask. I got hit in the face once at arms length by one of these (in the days before full face masks became widely available) and I still carry the scar.

The Eraser uses 11mm or 43 caliber paintballs at 200-250 feet per second. The energy there is between 1.6 and 2.0 joules, significantly less than a conventional paintball but twice as much as a 6mm airsoft pellet at 0.8 joules. With that we learned that it stings and may leave a little welt but not very bad. Not enough to break skin, even at close range. I played with only goggles and was shot in the face several times. One shot hit my upper lip and broke on my teeth. (Blech!) Yea, it stung but only the lip shot really hurt and swelled up a little, but even the relatively delicate skin of the lip was not split by the impact. It was decided that some sort of head covering would be preferred, such as a balaclava or a shemagh would be more than adequate protection.

The spec sheet says that a 12 gram CO2 cartridge should be go for 80 rounds. That should be nine 9-round magazines. We found that we would get something closer to 7 or 8 magazines out of it but that could be in part because it's difficult to keep track of round you fire and are likely to empty the magazine and then fire off a few more before realizing you're out. We took to carrying the extra two round in the left hand for rapid reloading. When changing the CO2, you need to make sure your turn it hard and fast to crack and seal the cartridge or the CO2 will leak and you will only get a magazine or two out of it. The knob has a extendable lever to aid in that.

Paintball is expensive. While bulk paint costs are pretty much the same between the 43 caliber and 68 caliber paintballs, using the pistols leads to shorter ranges and less shooting so more savings. And, given those shorter ranges, one can play in smaller area (such as my back yard) thus the biggest savings is in not having to pay someone like Buddy at Riverside Renegades $30-plus for the privilege of using his woods or his inflated field paint costs.

At the next gun show, I'm looking for holsters. Kingman sells a holster for $50 but I'm pretty sure I can find something for a lot less. I would definitely carry this gun as a backup at a conventional paintball game as it has more firepower and is more reliable than the Sheridan PGP I normally carry as a backup. I have two so I could well imagine carrying both of them onto Buddy's field and terrifying the kids by rushing them in their bunkers, John Woo-style.