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Smart Parts Ion Paintball Gun Review

General Description

Smart Parts has earned the reputation of being a leading manufacturer of high-end paintball guns. Many players regard them as one of the top paintball companies in the world. They have numerous guns for sale, their most famous to date are the Smart Parts Impulse and Shocker. Their guns have a reputation for being extremely reliable and not being over priced. Smart Parts has outstanding customer support as well as many accessories for their guns, from their top selling "max-flo" regulator to one of the best barrel systems on the market, the "Freak."

The Smart Parts Ion is their latest marker, and it is rightfully dubbed as being high end. It comes in four colors: black, blue and black, yellow and black, and red and black. Smart Parts has introduced a new feature with the Ion, interchangeable body kits. This allows a player to have a yellow marker one minute and a red marker the next, with a minimal amount of time and effort. The gun is nice looking, though the looks aren't anything spectacular. The body kits give the gun a plastic look, though I personally liked the way the gun feels. The marker itself is actually made out of Aluminum, and the body kits are made out of a high quality composite material that is resistant to scratches and fading.

The Smart Parts Ion has four firing modes: semiautomatic, rebound (ramping), full auto (US only), and three shot burst (US only.) The semiauto and rebound modes are capped at 17 balls per second (bps), whereas the 3 shot burst and full auto modes are capped at 10 bps. The gun comes with break-beam eyes (which work nearly flawlessly). A great list of features for a gun with a suggested retail price of $300.

Features

The Smart Parts Ion comes with a .45 grip, a two finger trigger, low pressure regulator, vertical feed, and Smart Parts own 12" barrel. The marker uses Impulse threaded barrels and weighs 2 pounds 2 ounces (minus the tank and hopper.) This makes for an extremely light and maneuverable marker. The Ion uses an open bolt, which is an electro-pneumatic blow-forward design similar to that of the Automag. It is a low pressure gun, operating in the 140-200 PSI range. This allows the paintball gun to maintain a consistent 1000-1400 shots out of a 68 cubic inch 4500 PSI tank. The marker has only one button (with the exception of the mode switch inside of the grips,) an on/off button. This is one of the marker's few downfalls. The on/off button is extremely stiff, to the point where you can't tell if you have it pushed in or not. Also, you can only tell if the marker is on or not by a small red flashing light inside of the button. This is frustratingly difficult to see when you have your finger over the button. Once you work with the marker a little bit and get used to it the difficulty starts to decrease, but when your struggling to turn the marker on after three weeks of use it can get a little upsetting.

The Ion uses a 9 volt battery which can be found pretty much anywhere. It does not have a built in battery charger, so you must be willing to either buy a charger or extra batteries. The marker gets about 15,000 shots per battery, so a single 9 volt should last quite a while. The stock barrel is quite impressive. When I first noticed it I had my doubts due to the lack of porting (the last 2 inches at most are ported.) After shooting a few hoppers worth of paint through it, however, my worries disappeared. This is one of the best stock barrels I have used. At 25 yards I was hitting a 12 inch target 70-75% of the time. Impressive. The barrel should be one of the last things that you will need to worry about upgrading. In addition, the Ion also accepts barrels threaded for the Smart Parts Impulse. Also, the trigger is adjustable with nothing more than simply turning a couple screws. You can adjust the length the trigger needs to be pulled in order to shoot, as well as the distance the trigger can move after firing. This customization allows any shooter to adjust the snappiness or sloppiness of their trigger to match their shooting style.

The Good and the Bad

The Ion has many good things going for it, and only a few downfalls. Starting off with the good points… The gun is extremely light. At only 2 lbs 2 oz this gun is about as light as it gets. I guarantee you will be impressed by how the Ion feels. And even though it looks like plastic, it feels great in your hands. The gun is easy to hold and handle, and is small enough for a front man to use without worrying about his gun sticking out. The only exception to this is the drop forward. The Ion doesn't have one, and with your tank attached it feels like your holding a rifle. Get a descent drop forward and this gun is extremely compact. The break beam eyes are fantastic. Shooting through over 5 cases of paint now, I have yet to break a single ball, and that's using the Ion's rebound firing mode and shooting at 17 balls per second. The barrel is great for a stock barrel. I would leave it alone unless you can afford to get the Freak or another barrel kit. The regulator was also quite impressive, I didn't experience any shoot down (loss of velocity due to decreasing amount of air going into each shot) even while ripping strings of paint on rebound mode.

The ability to customize the trigger is another great improvement. Whereas most triggers take quite a bit of practice and some skill with tools to adjust, adjusting the Smart Parts Ion's trigger is as simple as turning a few screws. I have heard from other player's with Ions that the magnet on the trigger was too strong for their tastes (it did not bother me in the least,) but if this is the case there are directions on the internet on how to remove the magnet. The instruction manual that comes with the Ion is very well put together and extremely detailed. It gives you a list and picture of every single piece that the Ion is made out of and gives detailed cleaning instructions for all the major systems of the marker (ie. the bolt assembly, the regulator, the break beam eyes, etc.) Last but not least, the price is unbelievable. For the $285-300 dollars you will spend on this paintball gun, nothing else will even come close to it. This gun outperforms some of the $600, $700, and $800 dollar guns out on the market!

There are only a few bad things about this marker. The first is the on/off button. Not only can it be difficult to find the first time you use the gun, but it is also difficult to use. A better button design or softer membrane button would have been a huge improvement. Also, the vertical feed tube uses o-rings to secure the hopper in place. Though this is effective, it is not nearly as versatile, effective, or easy as a clamping feed neck. Loading my Ricochet Apache in there was a pain to say the least. I had to remove both o-rings from the Apache in order to get it to fit, and every time I remove the hopper one or two of the Ion's o-rings would come out with the hopper. A simple clamping feed neck would have gone a long way in improving the Ion.

Also, though not a completely horrible thing, it should be noted that though the Ion will shoot CO2, it is highly recommended that compressed air be used. CO2 will tend to freeze the gun, which is very likely to damage the internals and the electronics. If CO2 is the only option, use a tank that has an anti-siphon tube to prevent liquid CO2 from getting into the marker. Also, even though the marker is low pressure, get a high pressure tank. Tanks that are preset as low pressure tanks often can't keep up with the marker's firing rate. The Ion already has a regulator on it, there is no need to use a low pressure tank. A high pressure tank with a built in regulator will work just fine.

The Short Story
Firing Rate : 17 bps semi-automatic and rebound, 10 bps full-auto and burst
Input Pressure : 140-200 PSI
Propellant : CO2 or Compressed Air (compressed air highly recommended)
Weight (marker/barrel only) : 2 lbs 2 oz
Cost : $285-$300 (Great!)

Pros:
Break Beam Eye
High Rate of Fire
Extremely Light
Minimal Kick Even on Rebound
Low Pressure System
Inexpensive
Adjustable Trigger
Interchangeable Body Kits

Cons:
No drop forward
On/Off Button Difficult to Use/Read
O-ring Feed Neck Instead of a Clamping Feed Neck
Use of CO2 Not Recommended (but is possible)

Recommended Upgrades:
Drop Forward
New Vertical Feed Neck

Overall

The Ion would be a wise investment for anybody from the greenest rookie to the most experienced tourney players. It offers rookies a great tournament ready gun without costing them an arm and a leg. It also allows experienced players a primary or backup gun that is great for frontman, middleman, and backman positions. Hey! It's also a marker that is fun to shoot. The marker is made by Smart Parts, so customer support and after market products are a guarantee. You will not be disappointed by the quality of the marker. It has a ton of features usually only found on more expensive guns such as break beam eyes, ramping, etc. I would happily rate the Ion a 9 out of 10. I would all but demand anyone who does not already own an Ion to go out and buy one right away, you will not regret it! This looks to be DirectPaintball.com's number one choice for paintball guns in 2005 when considering "performance and price!"

Reviewed by,
Jim Carrow IV
http://www.directpaintball.com/review_smart_parts_ion.html

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