by Richard "Defiance" Slaughter
photo Courtesy of Richard Slaughter
photo Courtesy of Richard Slaughter
First of all, a description. The marker is a solenoid controlled open-bolt design, very similar to the popular open-bolt blowback design found in Spyders. The primary difference is that instead of a blowback recocking on a spring-loaded striker, the bolt is locked into a slider in a dual-pressurized chamber. Thus, the back of the chamber is pressurized to move the bolt forward, and the front is pressurized to move the bolt backward. This allows for a very low cycling pressure, as well as much less cocking recoil. This slider is controlled by an electronic solenoid that uses the same size hose as a ‘cocker 3-way. The marker includes dual regulators, one for the cycling mechanism and one for the firing mechanism. The regs are mounted atop each other, with adjustments facing forward, both are 3 dimensionally milled, and both use a standard allen key for adjustment. All functions are electronically controlled. Settings are changed through a 2-button, approx. 1”x4”(quick, top of the head estimate) backlit LCD display. Rates of fire are variable from 8.1 to 14 bps, firing modes are semi auto, full auto, 3 shot burst, 6 shot burst, turbo (1.5 shot burst, basically), and reactive (2 shot burst, basically). Also included is an infrared anti chop eye, a set of sensors mounted in the bottom of the breach to restrict firing until the ball has completely loaded in the breach. This allows you to set the rate of fire as high as possible, whatever your feed rate may be. Considering the variable nature of today’s loaders (most revs vary from 10 to 15 or 16 bps), this allows for an extremely high rates of burst fire, and keeps you from setting your firing rate ‘too fast’ for your loader. The trigger is fully adjustable, with adjustments for spring tension, pull restriction, and firing pull. The gun will perform on CO2 or HPA/Nitro, but seals and o-rings will (as usual) have a much longer life on HPA. It has two small predrilled, threaded holes in the top for use with an optional sight rail. The bottom of the regulators is a standard ASA-threaded hole, for an expansion chamber or a gas-thru grip.
The marker also includes a ‘built in drop forward’, which, although most don’t like the look of it, and though it doesn’t replace a good drop forward, it does help to balance the marker. It comes out of the box weighing 2 pounds, 10 ounces, and measuring 22.5 inches long, 10.5 inches tall. The warranty on the gun is somewhat foggy right now... It states in the paperwork 90 days, but Bob has said that’s only for wiring. My experience has shown that generally speaking, Delta will fix whatever problems arise, as long as the terms of the warrantee are valid (meaning, don’t take a table saw to your ‘gun or anything) for longer than I’ve owned any of their markers (which I’ve owned several of). One of the biggest selling points of this one, though, is the completely radical look. Out of the box, the gun comes stock with 3-d milling like no other marker I’ve seen (at least, not from the factory). Some like it, some don’t, (I’m one of the former) but you’ve got to admit, it’s definitely different. Now, first thing first, as soon as we pulled it out of the box, we were awed. The milling on this marker is perfect. No burrs, no swirleys, nothing but beatiful curves, slots, etc. Ano is just as nice. We got a gold to copper fade job that is competitive with any of the custom jobs I’ve seen. But enough of the looks, now for the fun.
First thing, we put a cheezy p.o.s. expansion chamber we had sitting around on, and hooked up some co2. It POPd, and started spewing Co2 from a seam in the body... Not a good sign...But I took the gripframe off, and the solenoid uses cocker 3-way style hoses. One of the little hoses had popped off. Turns out, the LPR was set a bit too high ( it never needs to be above 100psi ). I set it back down to about 70, Hooked it back up, and haven’t had a prolem since. Um... Just for those who’ve said this gun is a spin-off of one gun or another, uh... no. This one’s all it’s own. Yeah, there are a lot of similarities in different portions of the ‘gun, but never has any of it been implemented in this fashion. Back to the fun, though; we set the marker on full auto 14bps, eye minimum delay, put new batteries in the rev, and let ‘er rip. This thing blazes. It started having a little bit of shootdown after the 7th or 8th shot (I think; it was kinda hard to count), but I think that was just the low quality expansion chamber I was using. Other than that, it shot amazing. Great accuracy, more speed than anyone will ever need. So, we switched it into turbo, then... Same rate, but it felt better, since we had a bit more control over the rate. That was pretty much it for day one; we ran out of gas.
Ok, a couple more points to show. See the close-up of the feed? That thing is TALL... Nice feature, especially considering the rof. Also, this thing has three trigger adjustments... Pull length, firing point, and spring tension. Anyway, it’s adjusted, stock, to be pretty darned short, with slightly more stiffness than a defiant.
Finally, cleaning. (we set it to f/a, 14bps, with a vl, and bypassed the eye, to make it break a ball). See the little plunger-lookin’ pin on this one? THIS THING ROCKS!! The pin pulls up, not out, and the whole assembly slides out the back. Works great, no chance to lose the pin. And takes much less time, pop-slide, it’s out, clean, then slide,pop, it’s back in. Oh, yeah; One more thing. The wiring in this baby is very nicely done. They beefed up the wire guage in comparison to the defiant, and they put in those little snap connectors on all the wires. So, if for some reason you need to disassemble, the wires easily disconnect and reconnect. Plus, the reasons for having to do this are severely reduced, as the battery is put in a position where it can be easily accessed without pulling any wired segments of the gun apart.
Weekend came around, giving us a chance to get to our field... Which means, we have nitro, now, and we have game testing. Will decided to set her up with a Hyperflow 201 68/4.5k adjustable system. So, we got it, got it set up on the gun, and went to field test. Now, we were already impressed with the co2 performance, but nitro performance on this gun blows the co2 out of the water. Consistency, and thus, shot to shot accuracy, was absolutely amazing. The stock barrel (a matched ano J&J two piece barrel) was a slight bit loud, but shot great with the Diablo Blaze we were using that day. We put it through test after test before taking it to the field, and not one disappointed us. But the most impressive was the VL full auto test. We put a standard VL (not a rev) on, set the gun for full auto, 14bps, eye on minimum delay, and ripped. It emptied the entire VL without a single chop or misfire. This eye is one nice little piece of equipment. Every time the loader would slow down, the gun would too, and as a string of balls would break loose, the gun would rip for a second, then wait for the loader again. Real nice. Efficiency ended up a little over 1200 shots with a 68/4.5k set at around 500psi (Delta’s recommendation). Only real complaint I’ve had was the grips. If(when) your hands get a bit sweaty, the plastic grips get a bit slippery. So, I called Delta, just to check, and they told me they were already working on upgraded grips; rubber, alternate colors, etc. Should be coming available pretty soon.
Conclusion? This is one awesome marker.
Excellent performance, even on co2. If you’re in the market for a
top of the line guns, add this one to your list for consideration, it’s
definitely worth it. And for it’s price, it’s by far the best equipped
marker out there. If you’re looking for a bit more in-depth info
for the Intimidator, I wrote this to be a bit more
in-depth and a bit less opinionated.
Richard Slaughter
MPN Guest Columnist