New MR1 review and thoughts

[Frat]

I have not played paintball in about 10 years and while I have some of my older guns (Montneel Z1s) I wanted a newer one as well. I have looked for about a month decideing on what I wanted and I finalley settled on the MR1. I liked the following things.

Appearance
Offset feed
lay out particularly the stock
picatinny sight rail
Spyders reputaion
price

The other gun I was considering was the Tippman A5. After looking at both, the MR1 seemed to be the best bang for the buck so I purchased one from Gear On USA out of Texas. http://www.gearonusa.com They listed one on eBay NIB for 129.99 shipped which seemed to be the best deal out there. I paid for it on Sunday and it delivered on Tuesday. I think probably one of the best ebay transactions I have ever had.

Ok the gun. finish and feel were excellent with very good shouldering The gun has rudimentary sights milled into the body but they sit too low to be used with the stock and the front post is blocked by the cocking knob. Disassembly: Disassembly was straight foward and easy. At this point zero problems and great gun.
Reassembly: The gun is very easy to get apart not so easy to get back together. The bolt and hammer are linked by the cocking knob which is held in place by a detent ball. I had difiiculty getting the hamer and bolt to line up and when I did I found that the cocking knob can be inserted too far and the recoild spring will be blocked from entering the hammer. It took about five tries to reassemble the gun. I would not try to take the gun apart on the field.
After reasembly I found the second problem with the gun. With the mask on I could not get a sight picture behind the rail. The stock while it shoulders well needs to have a drop in it so you can use the sight rail.
Shooting: I used my 20oz on a remote to power the gun and loaded up the hopper which is just a gravity fed VL. I shot about 300 balls wih zero breaks and about a hundred or so as fat as I could pull the trigger. The gun shot great and the stock barrel was fairly accurate considering I was using cheap paint. I did not have any bobbles in the hopper and as far as I could tell the function was flawless. I have played with guns that I have spent over twice as much on that did not function nearly as well.

In summary
Things I did not like:
The stock. If you do not use sights it will not be a problem. I would like to see one redesigned so you can use the rail. I would also like to see it attached by a quick release pin instead of the screw it uses.
Reassembly. this is just a learning curve thing I believe.

Things I liked.
About everything else about it. It does not fell like a toy and it points and handles very well. Based off first impressions I think it would be hard to find a better marker for the money. I would be curious to see how the MR2 is in comparison

[wayleft]

any one with questions like "should I buy this?"

search around and read this.

Frat, good review!
To answer, to the best of my ability. I was impressed with my buddies MR1. I have an MR2 which i really enjoy but I think the MR1 would haved served me nearly as well. We play a lot of "urban scenario" and I really like the 3-shot burst and auto capabilities of my marker, Feels like Im using a "real" submchine gun. On the other hand ifyou don't spray a ton of paint, an MR1 with a red dot sight is more than adequate to tagging a guy through a door frame and a window at about 50 ft.

[new_Faction64]

The MR2 features a raised sights, so that may be a solution to that problem, but obviously not for the MR1. I'm glad you like the MR1.

[lilc]

Originally Posted by new_Faction64

The MR2 features a raised sights, so that may be a solution to that problem, but obviously not for the MR1. I'm glad you like the MR1.

Because it uses a different cocking system, the MR2 rail is different from what would be needed on the MR1. Spyder should have included a raised rail (just like they included a stock) with the MR1, rather than give it sights that can't be used and a rail that is very difficult to mount things on. It's my one real beef with an otherwise very thoughtful design...

I've been curious to see if a Viper M1 raised rail (from USPB) will fit (somehow) on an MR1...

PS: Nice review, Frat.

[new_Faction64]

Originally Posted by lilc

Because it uses a different cocking system, the MR2 rail is different from what would be needed on the MR1. Spyder should have included a raised rail (just like they included a stock) with the MR1, rather than give it sights that can't be used and a rail that is very difficult to mount things on. It's my one real beef with an otherwise very thoughtful design...

I've been curious to see if a Viper M1 raised rail (from USPB) will fit (somehow) on an MR1...

PS: Nice review, Frat.

I think what Spyder/Kingman was going for was more incentives for paintballers to spend more $$ and go w/ the MR2, that's my guess to why there is no ACS, no non-moving cocking system, and no sight

[kies]

The mr1 is a solid great handled gun I dropped it on the field when I was playing d-day it fell off the boat about 6 feet I picked it up and it was as good as ever! This gun can handle anything!

[TheRogueGnome]

got an MR1 ive played one full day with it..i also dropped it off the back of my jeep which is about 3/12 feet off the ground and it works fine and didnt miss a beat.