I will be doing this page over
soon as I am getting a lot of Updates.
When I get a chance I’ll condense this
Into
a better review.
I
just got this new hopper. As soon as I
try it out I will update this page.
For
now here are some pictures of it along with a 12volt Viewloader for comparison.
Both
on a cocker, so you get the idea of size, which the Ricochet does not fit very
well.
It
works on my Angel with no problem but does not fit my STO feed neck or the ’99
very well.
In
these pictures it is in the feed neck only about ½”. With paint in it I am sure it would fall
Out. I have emailed them and will update when I
hear something.
First
Impressions – Pretty cool! About 20-30
dollars over priced! We’ll see how it holds up!
Does
10-12 BPS. Cost is $109 plus shipping.
Get
one here: http://www.ricochet-2k.com/
UPDATED 5/06/01
Ok,
so our hot gun was there today. Thanks Wes
for the help sorry for the mess. He CAN
shoot more
than
12 bps, so I let him rip on a hopper of marbs.
Well, pretty much as expected, he had a black & decker
paint
sprayer after ramping up to speed. We
tried it a second time with fresh batteries and same results.
So
yes the Ricochet only does 12 bps guys & gals. It will not keep up faster than 12 bps. He had tried the
WARP
Feed, I know because I gave it to him, to try and no that doesn’t keep up
either. So right now I don’t
know
of a hopper that can keep up with slick fingers. Tests were performed on his Angel set to 17bps
and
with the standard plastic high rise with both new and used batteries.
However! I lent my test marker (see picture below) to
a couple of tournament player’s today to play walk-on
with. I also let several people shoot a hopper of
marbs with my test marker. Everyone had
favorable
comments. No one had any problems, misfires or chopped
balls. Everyone liked the tight fit of
the hopper.
I
would say 90-95 percent of the people would find this a good hopper
choice. The only complaints have been
the
price. If it was somewhere in the
$75-80 range it would be awesome. The
other complaint was how the
hopper
feeds (see down below) flat vs. on the tilt with the Viewloader.
Every
time I use the R2K I am impressed with it.
As a tournament player any chance of eliminating a potential
hit
is worth it in my opinion. The
deflectoid thingy as I called in when I got hit with the hellfire (see down
below)
Does
work. In the last two weeks (about 4-5
times playing) I’ve had no breaks on my hopper, the neck yes
As
with any hopper, but not the R2K. It’s
like your hopper is invincible or something or I’m just lucky. Either way
if
it brings luck or it works, and yes it works, I’ll take it.
Still
have a fine impression of the product.
No problems, no broken balls in hopper, no bugs to be worked out
and
no complaints minor or major yet. The
R2K still Rocks On!
UPDATED 5/01/01
I have been corrected about a few items so lets make
sure everyone is on the same page.
I’m
just kinda old and have been forgetting to push the reset button. Ah ha! I have been informed that
it
goes off “after reloading the reload alarm will sound after every 155rounds
fired, so it will sound at
155
then at 310 then at 465 and so on”. One
(non) issue solved!
Also, about the necks, understanding
the Viewloader issue and the need for the opposite solution.
Being
the need for the Dye or Custom products hopper expanders.
(See
review here: http://www.theperrys.net/waynespb_miscbits.htm).
Ricochet
has taken a different approach. I would
have to agree that this is a better approach.
I like a snug fit
on
my hoppers. I have personally knocked off the hopper on my teammates marker at
the start of a tournament
game. He was using electrical tape instead of the
Custom products expanders! It wasn’t a
pretty picture.
So here is Ricochets response as
promised:
“Due to the varying sizes in risers we made our neck to fit
the older style risers. As soon as we finally got our product to
production the gun manufactures started making the
risers smaller. Go figure... So to try and accommodate as many
people
as possible we decided to stay with the larger size
neck. This way it fits the older stuff and you just need to sand down the
neck
to get it to fit the smaller risers. We figured
sanding it down is better than some of the fixes (i.e. tape, duct tape, tissue
paper) I
have seen people do to get the VL to stay on because the
neck is too small.”
Michaelene
Parziale
Ricochet
Development
Also:
“To answer your question about the necks, we have decided to
leave them the same size, and are going to start including
a piece of sand paper in the boxes, we have found out that
just a little trim with some sand paper and the hopper will fit any
size neck snug and perfect. “
Kade Rushton
Ricochet Development
Thanks for the Quick response
Ricochet. I love a company that uses
technology to it’s fullest!
I’ve
had no broken balls in the hopper, no problems, the thing rocks! Get one quick and keep this thing
Around!
This
product gets thumbs up! 
UPDATED 4/27/01
Yesterday
I took my first official bounce off of the unit. It happened to be hellfire too!
They
were yelling at me to check my hopper during a practice and NOPE! Just a little smudge
Where
it hit and deflected. WooHoo hellfire
bounces!
UPDATED 4/20/01
OK,
So I played a day with it and here are my first thoughts. It is lighter than a 12-volt revolution.
The
Ricochet only runs on one 9-volt battery.
Directions say you should get 5-6000 rounds per battery.
(Not
included). Instead of an infrared
sensor it has a switch. (I have not
taken it apart yet).
Every
time you shoot the ball drops and triggers the switch. So it spins every time you shoot.
This
is a little hard to get used too. I
let Hippy, a local player, rail on it.
This thing kept up no problem
at
all. At the very end of the hopper he
chopped a ball. Otherwise it did not
skip a beat.
This
thing rocks! I used it through out the
day and put at least a case+ through it on my angel.
I
did not chop a round all day and we played some intense 4 on 4’s. I didn’t take a hopper hit so I
Can’t
say how deflection proof it is yet. It
is about two inches or so longer and a ½ inch or so shorter
than
a Viewloader. It is said to hold a
similar amount of paintballs. I will
test this out soon.
I
like it! I like it a lot! It is lightweight, fast, and I had very
little miss fires (operator error!)
Here
are some other things about it. It has
a counter on it so you know when to reload.
I
found this feature confusing at first.
I kept forgetting to push the reset button every time I reloaded.
So
it ended up being a shots fired counter.
It goes off when you hit 155.
The counter is somewhat
Adjustable. It has 6 adjustments you can make depending
on how you fire. This only effects the
Counter
and not the feed unit. The timer beeps
@ 5 and 1 minutes, 30 seconds and game end
With
different beeps. The screen flashes
when the battery is running low and you should have about
1500
rounds left in the charge.
I
found it hard to get used to it spinning all the time. I kept wanting to reload. Speaking of reloading.
It
is different than the Viewloader!
Notice the lid is flat on the top.
I kept tipping my marker down
To
reload and I couldn’t because you need to hold your marker level to
reload. Just a change of
Habit
that’s all. It will take a little getting
used to all the changes.
To clarify the first paragraph above: The neck on the Hopper is too big to fit my cockers correctly!
Currently
it will only work on my angel. I could
trim/sand off a little of the neck to make it fit but it is
perfect
for my angel. Maybe the next one I will
modify.
KC
Crusaders has some on order if you want one!
(as of 4/20/01)
Front
View Rear
View
On
my Cockers Time
function does minutes and seconds
Front
View - Viewloader about ½ “ taller Side View –
Ricochet about 1 1/16th “ longer
2000
Dark Angel/Ricochet 2k/Angel AIR 2000
Dark Angel/Ricochet 2k/Angel AIR
The WAVE of the Future is here today!
This will be
my test marker for future updates.
If you have
trouble seeing these pictures click here to see thumbnails and you can select
Which ones you
want to see. These are about 150k each
so they may take a while!
Last Updated
05/01/01
Changed pictures of the Angel with new drop forward and
added comments (05/01/01)
© 2001 By Wayne Perry