PaintballX3 Magazine June 2014 | Page 73

73 rienced AR15 shooter would expect to find them. Just as exciting to experienced AR shooters is the ability to swap out the included M16 “Lone star” grip for any AR pistol grip, like those available from Ergo Grips or Magpul. Mounting points for bolt-on accessory rails enable players to set their marker up to best suit their personal preference or any mission by adding fore-grips, bipods, sights, scopes, lights or lasers. Speaking of selector switches, that’s a big deal with the M17. While most other paintball guns achieve fully automatic fire by way of an electronic circuit board, batteries, solenoids and wires, the M17 gets to “rock and roll” mode mechanically, with the flip of the selector switch from “pew” to “pew pew pew.” Milsig’s HEAT me- chanical core, with only two regularly-maintained o-rings, is simple to service and provides consistent, rapid full-auto firepower. The only shame of the whole thing is that the magazine included with the marker, capable of handling either .68 caliber paintballs or the more accurate First Strike rounds, can only handle around 18 paintballs. In fully-automatic mode, the shooter can burn through an entire magazine in the blink of an eye, making practicing fast and efficient mag swaps a necessity. Set aside a few bucks for plenty of extra magazines as well. While the M17 is capable of being swapped over to feed via a hopper thanks to an included, bolt-on elbow, that’s not mag-fed so that’d be some kind of mag-fed faux pax. WWW.PAINTBALLX3.COM