Virtue Upgrade Boards - By Eric

One of the biggest performance upgrades you can get for any electronic paintball marker is a new board. A new board will allow you to adjust every little detail about how your gun shoots. They also usually have more firing modes than the stock board. There are many different aftermarket board companies, but one of the biggest and most popular is Virtue.

Virtue makes upgrade boards for most of the popular guns on the market including the Dye Matrix, Bob Long Intimidator, Smart Parts Ion, Planet Eclipse Ego, and many more. The Virtue boards feature an unlimited rate-of-fire, which is only limited by the physical capabilities of your marker and the speed of your loader. Virtue boards are designed to be legal in any tournament you will ever play in, so you will never have to worry about not being allowed to use your marker. Along with the different firing modes, Virtue boards will also allow you to adjust the dwell, eye sensitivity, anti-bolt stick settings, and any other gun-specific settings you might need.
All Virtue paintball boards have 7 different fully adjustable base modes: Semi-Automatic, Ramping, Breakout, PSP Ramp, NXL Full-Auto, Auto Response, and Full-Auto.

· Semi-Auto is the basic 1 shot per pull mode.

· Ramping Mode is a special mode that adds shots after you start pulling the trigger at a certain speed. It can greatly increase your rate-of-fire and is fully adjustable so you can set it up exactly how you want it.

· Breakout Mode will make the first trigger pull after you turn on the gun Full-Auto for as long as you hold the trigger. After you release the trigger, the board will go into Ramping Mode based on your Ramping settings.

· PSP Ramping Mode makes your first 3 pulls Semi-Auto and starts Ramping on the 4^th pull. After the trigger has not been pulled for 1 second, the 3 shot count starts again. This mode is meant for PSP style tournaments.

· NXL Full-Auto is similar to PSP Ramping, but it goes into Full-Auto on the 4^th pull instead of Ramping.

· Auto Response Mode makes your marker fire on the pull and release of the trigger, doubling your Semi-Auto rate-of-fire.

· Full-Auto will make the marker shoot at your maximum rate-of-fire, or as fast as your loader will feed until you let go of the trigger.

Each of these modes can be modified, which gives you thousands of different possible modes. Virtue made their programming as simple as possible so anyone can use their boards and set the modes up exactly the way the user wants.

Virtue also makes an upgrade chip for the Viewloader VLocity loaders. The chip upgrades the speed of the loader and also improves battery life. Virtue's VLocity chip has many different settings to adjust to make your loader perform at it's maximum potential in any circumstances. It is approved by Viewloader, so it will NOT void your manufacturer’s warranty!

Virtue is so confident in the performance and reliability of their product they offer a LIFETIME warranty on all of their boards. All Virtue boards, except for the special edition Russian Legion Shocker board, cost $134.95 so you can upgrade the performance of your gun for much less than simply upgrading to a new gun.

Smart Parts Ion XE - By Eric

The Smart Parts Ion XE is a new gun for 2008. It is based off of the original Ion, but Smart Parts made some improvements over the old design. One of the biggest complaints that people had with the original Ion’s design was that it did not allow the user to clean the bolt without taking the gun completely apart. Smart Parts fixed this problem with their new Bolt-Out-Back design. This allows the user to quickly remove full bolt and valve assemblies with one allen wrench. It is now possible to disassemble, clean, and put the marker back together in 2 minutes instead of 15. Smart Parts also redid the styling of the marker for a better visual appearance. The Ion XE operates the in the same basic way as the original Ion and has the same modes: semi-auto, Rebound, full-auto, and 3 round burst. It offers the same tournament level performance at an affordable price that made the original Ion so popular for the casual player. The Ion XE retails for $225, which is $75 less than the original Ion when it was released, and is in the same price range as the Tippmann A5 and Spyder VS3.

Pod Packs -- By: Richard

No one likes to be left out on the field having to call yourself out because you’re out of paint. A standard hopper is going to end up holding around 180 to 200 paintballs; if you are shooting speeds of 15 balls per second that hopper is going to be empty in a matter of seconds. Paintball pod packs provide you with the ability to grab a pod of paintballs off your waist and reload a hopper when you are on your game.

Pod packs come in a variety of sizes and styles. Starting around $10, entry level packs usually have thin, 2 ½ -3 inch nylon belts that fasten around the waste and hold anywhere from 1 to 4 pods and possibly contain a spot to hold your tank if your running a remote line. Mid-Range packs tend to have a thicker Velcro belt that will fit snug to the wearer and not be shaken off even in the most extreme dives. High end packs are designed to hold the most paint possible on a players back, and to be able to get it in their hand in the most effective way. Use of spring loaded straps to eject pods, and extra comfortable padding is the luxury you will receive with a high end pack.

A Common question when shopping for pod packs is how many pods a “3+2” pack can hold. When a pack says it is “3+2” it means that it has “3” main spots to put pods that will be strapped in and secure but along with that it has “2” extra straps to put more pods if needed. The extra spots will not be strapped in like the main 3 but they will allow you to carry more paint onto the field.

As for pods the best thing to look for is a strong and sturdy lid that is not going to pop of easily. Our Extreme Velocity discount pods come with one of the strongest lids available and do not come open easily when running around in a pack.

Pod packs can be one of the best field gear upgrades for you to purchase, they keep you in the game longer and give you the extra boost for working out even the most dug in player.