PaintBaller.ie - Gear Reviews

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After the 2009 PSP World Cup in Florida, where industry legend Richmond Italia and GI Milsim brought .50 caliber paintballs and equipment to the world with a massive splash, another industry heavyweight, Arthur Chang, made it clear his company was behind the concept. That company, Spyder, changed paintball forever when they made semi-automatic paintball guns more affordable than ever in the mid-nineties and the company remains an influential one in the paintball world today. That they would so enthusiastically throw their name and clout behind the concept turned more than a few heads and the world of paintball has been anxiously awaiting Spyder’s .50 caliber offerings ever since. The waiting is over: the top of Spyder’s .50 caliber line is the Advancer, a light, small, affordable electronic marker loaded with features. After more than a decade of building stacked-tube, blowback semi-automatic paintball guns, Spyder has the formula for success with that operating system figured out. They know what works and what doesn’t, so transitioning such a simple system from .68 caliber to .50 in a “ready for prime time” package obviously didn’t need to be terribly complicated. This is proven by the fact that their flagship .50 caliber marker, the electronic Advancer, so closely resembles their most recent .68 caliber offerings like the Electra and Pilot. This is a good thing because both the Electra and Pilot are solid mid-level paintball guns that perform well for their prices and even manage to look good in the process. Should Spyder be able to translate that simple yet effective, attractive and affordable combination from .68 caliber to .50, they could likely take the lead in the new caliber by making it attractive to consumers as a legitimate alternative and bringing plentiful product to market.

The Advancer .50 caliber marker brings every feature to the table that Spyder knows how to hang onto it. A semi-automatic marker with an electronic grip frame running on a nine volt battery, the Advancer boasts a magnetic, blade double trigger, a circuit board developed by the brilliant minds at Tadao, break-beam anti-chop eyes, a vertical, clamping feed neck, a top-cocking bolt that removes in seconds for cleaning, an inline pressure regulator, a ten-inch ported barrel and a new “Eko” valve. This new valve is advertised by Spyder as extremely efficient and when combined with the fact that propelling a .50 caliber paintball at the same velocity as a .68 caliber ball requires much less air, Spyder says the Advancer is capable of up to 3,500 shots from a twenty ounce CO2 bottle! This alone is pretty important, as it could allow players on a budget, using CO2 as their propellant, to play all day at a local field or even in the back yard at greatly reduced expense, a notion that might help make paintball more attractive to the general public. Also included in the Advancer’s box is a basic gravity feed hopper holding 350 balls, a cute little barrel plug, owner’s manual and a few basic tools and parts.

In the hands, the Spyder Advancer feels and handles like any other Spyder, though its smaller proportions make it feel odd at first. Its grip frame is wide but comfortable and between it and the gun’s aluminum receiver, the marker is fairly light at precisely two pounds. No battery is included with the Advancer but Spyder advertises it as compatible both with their own 9.6 volt rechargeable batteries or with more practical and convenient nine volt alkaline batteries. A high quality nine volt from Furious Paintball was used for testing and was relatively simple to install. Buttons to switch the marker on and off, control its anti-chop eyes and firing modes are situated at the lower back of the Advancer’s grip frame. A basic bottle adapter bolted to the grip frame delivers compressed air or CO2 to the inline regulator via a durable, steel braided hose.

Making the Advancer ready for play takes only a few minutes. Inserting a Furious nine volt battery into the grip frame was the most time-consuming part of this. Threading an air tank into the bottle adapter, dropping a Spyder Rapid .50 caliber motorized loader into the clamping feed neck and threading the barrel into the receiver were all it took. Once the hopper was filled with GI Milsim paintballs, the Advancer was ready to go bang. The Tadao-envisioned electronic board standard with the Advancer is extremely easy to use, allowing the shooter to switch the marker on and off, change its mode from semi-automatic to ramp and back again, and control the eyes with the use of only two buttons and a simple, clear and bright display. Fully loaded and ready for play, the Advancer can be carried onto the field weighing around five pounds.

Over the chronograph, the Advancer started out low, with velocities between 200 and 220. A few turns of the included Allen wrench inserted into the velocity adjusting nut at the rear of the receiver, which increases or decreases spring tension on the striker, quickly raised velocity to the mid 270 range. Consistency was solid, with velocity varying barely ten feet per second from 275 even during long strings. Thanks to the crisp, snappy trigger pull of the Advancer, even in semi-automatic mode a practiced shooter can attain ten shots per second and maintain it without fear of chopping paintballs, as the marker’s anti-chop eyes function perfectly. During testing, the Advancer did not chop or break a single paintball. Even though the Advancer’s stock barrel possesses only a few ports at its tip, the marker is relatively quiet while firing. Accuracy at close range was superb, with shots at fifty feet landing in a group only a few inches in diameter. At longer ranges, groups opened up significantly however, with shots at one hundred feet landing in a group two to three feet in size.

Light, simple, affordable and user-friendly, the Spyder Advancer is a marker that might go a long way towards legitimizing the .50 caliber concept by introducing it to players new to paintball or those on a budget. Spyder’s flagship .50 caliber marker is a well-made, feature-rich piece of equipment more than able to handle the rigors of recreational paintball.