Hello all. As you may or may not know I'm from the TIPPMANN Forum and wanted to introduce to you guys an idea that's been done before, but where I've enhanced it greatly. What the mod does is reduce the sound coming from your hopper during movement, that's one less indicator of your location. Now, this is a viable option anytime, night or day, but it was originally geared towards night and CQB play. I have my A5 and X7 hopper mods being field tested now and some reviews have come back with flying colors; their only gripe being no lid coverage which I've remedied as of last night. Here's what a couple of the guys said about it:

Yomillio on the A5 pattern: I found very little wrong with the actual installation. As you may see, the first side I put together had some pretty large gaps, but none that should be big enough to allow the arc of a ball to enter so functionality wasn't compromised here. Once I got a hang of how to apply them best and where to put them for ideal placement, the second side came out much better with smaller gaps and a cleaner look. The only way I could really see anything here improving is making a numbered diagram and putting numbers on the back of the pieces for ease of application, but the average user should have no problem figuring out what goes where. I didn't.After all was said and done, I did a little bit of home testing. First, I checked the new capacity of it, and measured it out to be about 175 balls. A little reduced, but nothing serious. It really doesn't matter all too much - it still holds more than a pod.Second, I checked how well the sound-deadening worked by putting about 40 balls in and shaking it around. The sound is greatly reduced (and when I say greatly, I do mean it). The only time I could ever hear a ball is when one hit either the lid or the collar area with no foam (the part that actually goes into the Cyclone. Because it will be in the Cyclone feed when playing, you probably won't hear the balls hitting against it as prevalently as I did just shaking it around). You could also hear the balls hitting the uncovered areas where the screws actually screw into the hopper. It wasn't too obvious, but it was still there. Both the lid and these areas could be fixed with more foam - a circle to cover the lid (it could be an option, as some will probably still want to have semi-visibility through their lid) and maybe some small pieces to cover the screw area. Also, after the game inspection turned up well. The padding held up fine to the oils and crap of paintballs, with no real difference or irregularity in texture and the pieces stayed in place no problem. Seems like you may be on to something Techie.

Matt(Yo's friend) on the A5 pattern: The padding on the inside of my hopper really helped me stay quiet when I was sneaking around in the woods. Except for the occasional rattling of against the lid of the hopper it was silent. When i was playing paintball a little while later with my old hopper I really noticed how loud I sounded without the additional padding. I don't think I'll ever go back to the stock hopper.

Reb Cpl on the X7 pattern:They took a few minutes to figure out how to install them, but not a whole lot of effort. I did it while I was watching Jeff Dunham, so I was fairly distracted and still managed get them installed correctly. Note: make sure that your hopper halves are clean and dry, or the sticky side will not adhere to the plastic. I had an issue with one of the thin pads that go up near the lid because I didn't dry it properly. The pads line up nicely together, and after dumping a pod of paint into the reassembled hopper, the rattle factor was cut down significantly. Not completely, but significantly. I was impressed. The 'noise points' were the protruding tubes where the screws connect the two halves, and the inside of the lid. I'm not too concerned with any of that however, since it wasn't all that bad- some may choose to put a pad on the inside of the hopper lid, it didn't matter that much to me. All in all, I like it. It doesn't cut down the capacity of the hopper enough for me to get excited about, and it limits my ball rattle quite nicely. Well done. The template was perfect by the way, no tweaks or adjustments are necessary for the X7 hopper.

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You may further peruse the original thread HERE. The reviews will continue to roll in and while that's happening, I'm in the process of creating Ricochet R5 templates and soon following, Revvy templates. Here's what these mods look like:




The A5 pattern cut.


Basic lid coverage.....



.....which you can cut whatever pattern you like.

I'd like to offer an opportunity for the 98OG community to get in on the testing as I will some other sites, but before I do, I'd like to see what kind of 'buzz' this idea stirs up. So, if you have some input I'd like to hear it. Being woodsballers and scenario players though, this makes mucho sense. Let me know if this is something you'd like to try and if I get enough interest here, I'll set it loose on this forum as well. Thanks for reading through this thread and hope to hear from you guys. HAPPY HUNTING and Stay SAFE! =techie=

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I'm doing this to my 98 before I play this weekend. My buddy just did it with his X7 and there has been a noticeable difference in the amount of sound he makes when he moves. D P.S. Smilies no work for me (n)

Can I ask what kind of material he's using? Is it self-adhesive? Does it repel liquids? How thick is the material? I've addressed many of these issues with this mod as some have failed and from my best guesstimation, my hopper mods thus far are better than what I've seen on the net in pattern design, liquid repellancy and sound deadening quality. The only guy that could rival my design is the guy I got this idea from, BORG-TECH out of Croatia.

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Some craft material with spray on glue. Not sure how will it works with repelling liquid. I'll ask him when I see him at work today. I'd be interested in "your" mod, depending on the price.

so do you loose ball space with this? both these hoppers are "200" rounders, but i'm sure you can't fit exactly 200 rounds in them. however have you counted how many balls you loose due to the decreased space from the padding inside the hopper?

Yes 'cooler' there is a reduction in capacity, but not anything I would consider significant. With the X7 hopper there's a loss of roughly 25-30 balls and the A5 around 20-25. Here's a VIDEO I just did for these liners.

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Whew, I finally completed my R5 liner templates as of last night.

Now on to the Revvy's!

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Ok guys, I'm offering up my X7 and R5 Hopper Liners for field testing and review to the OG community; 98, A5 and X7 as well as the TIPPMANN Forum, so grab a spot! However, I will impose a 'fee'. What is my fee? That you give it a good run through and then to post your findings to the best of your ability here in this thread for all to see, that's it. This will allow me to make enhancements as needed in order to produce a superior liner and you'll be helping by providing a better insight for fellow ballers that may be interested in these hopper mods. If you agree to my fee, shoot me a PM with your address and I'll mail one of these liners out to you for free! If there are people interested in testing the A5 liners, post up. If I draw enough 'hits' for it, I'll offer that one too. I look forward to your participation.

X7 Participants:
1. Reb Cpl[TIPPMANN Forum reviewed]
2. nchittendon[98OG]
3. greasegun1964[98OG]
4. KRA SHARPSHOOTER[A5OG]
5.
Ricochet R5 Participants:
1. oldpnoob[TIPPMANN Forum]
2. Shartley[A5OG]
3.
4.
5.
Revvy Participants:
COMING SOON!

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What's the "fee" amount to? My buddy with the X7 said the craft material he used is water resistant and costs $2 a sheet. And he only used like half of it.

I did this on my Riccochet and it quiets it down quite a bit from what it used to be...

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