Overview

The Palmer's Pursuit Shop's Typhoon is one of the only custom built guns on the market today.  Literally built from the ground up the customer has several option to customize his or her gun to their specifications as a player.  Let's take a look at what that Typhoon is all about.

The Typhoon is a Sheridan based, fixed barrel Paintball gun.  It fires the standard .68 calibre round used in Paintball.  The Typhoon claims its origins to Camille, Glenn Palmer's first creation.  Camille is accredited to be the World's first gravity fed semi auto.  Both the Typhoon and Camille fire in the closed bolt configuration.

The chassis of the gun starts out as a two tubes of brass.  Why Brass you ask.  Well according to Glenn, brass is the best material for Paintball.  The lower tube houses the hammer, valve, Rock pneumatic regulator, velocity adjuster, and gas input.  The upper tube forms the barrel and Wedgits are stamped in. (See figure 1)  The bolt is housed in the upper tube.  There is a 2 inch dovetail style sight mount soldered on the upper tube.  The feed port of the gun is also made of brass.  The ram housing is on the left side most of the time. (See figure 2)  This tube is located towards the back and is soldered right in the middle of the lower and upper tubes. (See Figure 3)

The grip frame is a Sheridan based frame.  The material in which it is constructed of is Aluminum.  The Grip frame houses the Quikswitch, sear assembly, and trigger assembly.  The grip frame is covered by either Palmer's Battle Grips or PMI Rubber Wrap around grips. (See figure 4)  The grip frame can mount a specially made bottomline or a Universal Mounting Bracket (UMB).

The fore grip is a Tippmann SL-68 pump arm.  Palmer's buys these from Tippmann and then the shop mills them to fit the gun.  The fore grip is made of Carbon Fiber.

The bolt is Aluminum.  It is known as a Quick Strip bolt because of its removal speed.  Some can remove the bolt, clean the barrel, and replace the bolt in a matter of seconds!  (See figure 5)

Performance

The Typhoon is considered by many as a done gun in its stock form.  There is a very limited upgrade path to choose from.  Just about everything on the upgrade path is purely cosmetic such as the classic finish.  In short, the gun is pure performance right from the start.

The valving is generally set between 500-650 PSI.  These PSIs can go up or down depending.  The Typhoon can run as low as 400 PSI in certain conditions.  Running on Co², a 575 PSI input off the Secondary regulator seems to work the best.

The Valve of the Typhoon is designed for Co².  According to Palmer's the valve gets 80 shot per Co² ounce.  Standard spiral porting lessens the count by 10 to 70 shots per ounce. (See Figure 6)  One can achieve these figures if a player shot once every 10 seconds.  The amount of shots per ounce decreases the longer the player is on the trigger.  Co² also has better properties for Paintball according to Craig, Glenn's son.  Co² Expands slower allowing the paintball to reach its maximum potential during launch.  The slower expansion of Co² makes the Typhoon quieter and run a bit lower if the gun was running on Compressed Air.

High Pressure Air (HPA) will work with the Typhoon.  The Typhoon's full potential is robbed when HPA is used.  First, one of the biggest differences is noise.  The HPA is louder.  This is due to a rapid expansion and the requirement of needing more air.  HPA does not expand fully and the ball is robbed of a complete launch.  Typhoon's were meant to run on Co².  They can run on HPA but HPA does not do the job as well.

A Stabilizer is a good investment for a Typhoon no matter what power source you use. (See figure 7)  This will control the gun's velocities to extreme tolerances.  The Stabilizer has been known to block liquid Co² better than most regulators on the market.  When using Co² on gun it is a good option to have an Anti Siphon tube installed in the tank.  This will prevent liquid from going into the system and causing "hot shots".  This A/S tube will also help the gun gain even better consistency and performance.

Velocities on the Typhoon are very good.  Even with unregulated HPA, the Typhoon can maintain a tolerable spread.  Most get a ±10 FPS difference from the average FPS.  The Stabilizer can narrow that down to ±1 to 5 FPS.  I have run my Typhoon on Co² and achieved this spread using a Stabilizer.

I have never personally attempted to figure out the shot count for the Typhoon.  Theoretically The Typhoon has a 1600 Shot count on a properly converted A/S 20 oz tank.  Of course this number would probably be reduced to approximately 1250 shots depending on the rates of fire, playing conditions and style. HPA is has about the same shot count per fill.

Upgrades and Accessories

As I said before, the Typhoon is really limited in the upgrade department.  There are a few things that can really customize a particular Typhoon.  Upgrades or options include the Pro Touch trigger job, Spiral Porting, 2 finger trigger shoe, regulator set ups, Anti Siphon tanks, UMBs, pump kits, sight hoods and Rubber grips.

Typhoons themselves come in several configurations.  The models are the Vertical Bottle, Back Bottle, Dual Bottle, Bottomline Vertical Bottle, the Nasty, and the Classic.  The Nasty is a double barrel Typhoon.  It comes in two version Side by Side and Over and Under.  The Classic is basically a fully upgraded Typhoon.  It has a special finish too.  Classics can be become Nastys.  Remember Palmer's is a custom shop.  As long as you have the money and the idea Glenn will build it for you.

Feed tubes of the Typhoon are Right side stand.  The tube can be order for the Left side or the Center.  The center style costs $40 more than the right or left side.

The Aluminum parts of the Typhoon can be anodized in any color a player would want.  Black is the standard color.  There is a special finish known as the Classic finish.  This is a Nickel plated Tiger Stripe looking finish.  Parts of the chassis are highly polished and other parts are standard matte nickel finish.  Each pattern is different.

Overall

The Typhoon to some is an old brass gun.  To others it is a piece of equipment that holds its own among the most popular guns.  Palmer's overall success with this gun is from word of mouth.  While the Automags and Autocockers took off in popularity on the Tourney circuit, the Typhoon keeps chugging along.  As Automag s and Autococker s lose popularity on the Tourney circuit due to the introduction of the Angel and the Shocker, the Typhoon still keeps chugging along.  These guns don't
need a ton of upgrades to make them perform correctly.  Glenn built a gun that did not need upgrades to work.  Glenn basically built the gun to work right the first time and not require upgrades to work.  The only reason why there are some upgrades for the Typhoon is the player's who demanded something different and the younger generation.(i.e. Craig)

Glenn's lack of willingness to create a gun that does not require upgrades to work might have been his anti tourney defense.  Early in the Typhoon's life Glenn did work with Tourney teams but when the Autococker came out, Glenn sat on the sidelines and watched his greatest work of all.  The advent of the closed bolt semi auto.

The Typhoon is truly in a class of its own.  Like snowflakes no two are alike even if they are both the same configuration.  Even that's built in because each gun is hand built from scratch.

My Personal Typhoon Specs

- Vertical Stab set approximately 575 PSI
- PMI Rubber Grips
- Nickel plated, angle cut sight hood
- Muzzle Brake

Alan Mendel
MPN Columnist