Tippmann 98 Custom Paintball Marker: Product Review
This paintball gun is an open bolt blow-back marker. This means when the trigger is pulled, it trips a sear which slams a bolt into the air valve releasing gas. Some of the gas pushes your paintball forward, and the blow-back gas pushes the bolt back to be fired again.
There are many good things about this gun. First of all, this gun is very sturdy. I have gotten paint and dirt inside of my gun and it still functioned very well. The occasional drop of oil into the ASA (Air System Adapter) will keep this marker running very smoothly. Second of all, this gun is very customizable, hence the name.
There is almost unlimited setups/possibilities you can do to make this marker function the way you want. First of all you will want a new barrel. The stock barrel that it comes with is very inaccurate. It is only 8.5 in. long. A recommended barrel length is around 14″ for the most accuracy. The barrel I have on it now is a 14″ J&J ceramic barrel. If a ball breaks in the barrel, it cleans itself out when you shoot it, but thats for another review.
After a new barrel, you may want to go for more firepower. This would involve getting either a device called an e-grip, or a response trigger. With an e-grip, you can select different firing modes and make your 98 shoot faster. I have no experience with either one but I have heard some pretty good comments about them. I was unlucky enough to get an older model of the 98 custom and I can’t accept and e-grip. I could however get a response trigger. A response trigger uses the blow-back gases to push your trigger back instead of using the normal spring. This can make your gun cycle very fast and is useful if you need a lot of firepower.
If you do get an e-grip or a response trigger, you may want a new hopper. The standard hopper can make your gun chop paint if you are shooting too fast which isn’t very good. You may want to look into an electric or agitated hopper. These make your paintballs drop into the gun faster than a normal gravity feed and will keep up with your response trigger or e-grip.
Another thing you may want is a regulator or stabilizer. I have just put a stabilizer on my gun made by Palmer’s, but have not shot it yet. These additions will keep your velocity consistent and will make your marker more accurate because consistency goes hand-in-hand with accuracy.
There are many other upgrades you can get for your gun but too many to list them all. Another thing you can do is search around for mods or modifications to your gun. Some mods I have done are a pen spring trigger spring. This replaces your normal trigger spring and makes you trigger pull lighter so you can fire faster. You can also saw off the foregrip of this gun and attach either your own homemade grip, or you can buy a rail to replace it so you can attach other additions to the bottom such as a flashlight.
My current Tippmann 98 Custom setup is a 98c with polished internals, adjustable CAR stock, remote line, Palmer’s female stabilizer, sawed off foregrip (currently making my own horizontal wooden one), custom made wooden grips, and a 14″ J&J barrel. In conclusion, this is a great paintball marker for any player. It comes at a great price too. It may not be able to keep up with the really expensive electric markers, but it is still considered a great, customizable, sturdy maker for any player.
