Best Beginner Paintball Gun 2023 the Tippmann 98 Custom
What is going, guys? It is Tony from Lone Wolf Paintball and today I'm gonna talk to you why the Tippmann 98 Custom is the best beginner paintball gun.
[Mark] What? That old gun, that's the best?
Yup. So, '98, this gun has been around for a long, long time. We've used this thing at our fields for rental guns. As you know, if you go somewhere to rent something, you don't care about it. It's not yours, you're not taking it home with you. You're gonna throw it in the mud, the dirt, on the ground, it doesn't matter. Tippmann 98's have to be one of the longest standing workhorse paintball guns in the entire industry. Hands down, 100%. Like I just said, we run these things as our rental guns at all of our fields and they're absolutely amazing. One of the biggest features of the gun that actually makes it what it is is the all aluminum receiver that the body is made out of. So, there's no plastic here. None of this is plastic, it's all aluminum. So when you... You drop it on the ground or you drop it on a table, nothing's gonna go wrong with this thing. Very, very easy to maintain. Easy to use. You drop it, say in the mud, the dirt, the water, all you gotta do, you can run a little bit of water down this, through your feed neck and out the front. Get the mud, the paint, the dirt, out of your barrel. This thing is an absolute workhorse. So, if we wanna talk about maintenance or anything like that, fortunately, the newer style, the ultra basic model by Tippmann, it does have a front receiver part and a back, so you can split this thing in half to work on the front if you need to replace a ball detent, anything like that. Or if you need to work on the back, they come off in two different sections here, so that's very, very nice for maintenance and stuff like that, which ones again reverting back to making it one of the best beginner guns of all time, really. So, Mark.
[Mark] So, let's keep going on the maintenance. So, my big concern with maintenance on any paintball gun is-
[Tony] Yeah.
[Mark] -can I get the parts, right?
100%. Parts are always readily available. We have tons of them here, in the store, or on the website, lonewolfpaintball.com. And GI and Tippmann is still making full parts kits available for these guns. I mean, realistically, other than needing to replace the orange ball detent piece upfront, which that stops paint balls from rolling down the barrel during play, you're gonna need a hammer O-ring, possibly, which is very, very cheap. You need a little bit of oil to maintain the gun, but other than that, I mean, realistically, parts are readily available, and these guns are super, super easy to work on.
[Mark] So, I know that's a mechanical-
Yes.
gun, right? Is there a way to make it electronic?
You... They did sell electronic kits for these, currently right now, I don't know if they're still making electronic kits, but they do have the Response Trigger or the RT trigger, which is an air-based system that goes behind the actual trigger itself, which you can kind of rapid fire and you'd be able to adjust it from this side here to kind of, how quick do you want that gun to shoot? So, yes there is definitely modifications you can put under the gun if you don't want to keep it just basic. Including, we're talking, you can run the gun on C02, wouldn't really recommend it. I would probably recommend running a HPA tank. These tanks are right around 50 bucks. High-pressure air, nitrogen, whatever you wanna call it. You can also throw on after-market barrels such as like the Deadly Winds, something along that line. If you wanted, you can't really put a price on accuracy, so if you really want to be extremely accurate out there, get yourself an upgraded barrel. It comes stock with an 8 1/2 inch Micro Honed barrel though. So this is the stock barrel that comes on. If you wanted to get a little upgrade, you can hit something, like I said, here. And even just your basic hopper. You might think this is a basic, just a standard gravity-fed, this one is actually called the Empire Splitter Hopper. I think these things are 10 to 12 bucks, and it actually on the inside has like shelf in there that helps the paint balls feed better than just an empty shell which as we know is the standard gravity-fed. This ones got different shelving on the inside, so the paint balls actually feed down into the breach better. So, there also an, and obviously you could go electronic which is costing you more money but there's tons of upgrades you can do to a very, very basic and extremely durable gun.
[Mark] It looked like there's a lot of Picatinny rails, too.
Yes.
[Mark] So, I could even hide it with a lot of little modifications to make it not look like a typical 98, as well.
100%. Like Mark just said, Picatinny rails up on the top. If you wanna put on a scope or a flash lighter, you know, people really get into it. So, whatever you wanna do, it has attachments, really the same size as any standard gun per se, so.
[Mark] I think this is a great gun for, "Hey, I'm a dad. I wanna get my kid into the sport."
100%.
[Mark] "I need something that's gonna last, and he can literally do pretty much anything to it and not ruin this marker."
100%. 'Cause a lot of the other guns, obviously, the electronic stuff is for more of the advanced guys getting into it. This gun, yeah, literally, you can drop this thing in a pond, in a creek, dirt, mud, and water. Pull it out, maybe put a couple drops of oil back here near the hammer, the receiver, and this thing is gonna fire for you, guaranteed. I mean I've seen, literally seen these guns, places and unfortunately, burned down in a fire and these guns will still be functioning. Little charred but they still work. They're absolutely workhorses. If you are thinking about getting into paintball, I would highly recommend these, so. I'm going back to the Picatinny rails though, Mark. I like that you brought that up. There's a button here, push button. You can easily access the inside of the feed neck there if you broke any paint, if you need to replace a ball detent, you need to clean it, you can flip of a button, push of a button, you're in there, clean it, swab it out, and you're back on the field, ready to go. I mean, even these, very, very the elbow on these things, you can easily replace 'em, they are fully adjustable as well for any hopper that you guys are using out there on the market. You just stick your Allen wrench in there, tighten it or loosen it to however you need, and you are ready to go. You're back in the game.
[Mark] And that's a steel braided hose, too.
This.
[Mark] That's not a little plastic or rubber hose.
No. This is a steel braided hose that actually has a self-locking system into the valve. So, right here, you can actually adjust this. Say you're out there on the field, you do take a bad fall, a bad dive, and you here a little hissing coming from this area in here. All you're probably gonna need to do is take a crescent wrench and just tighten this down. They changed the design from the early model 98 to this self-locking system here. So this, that's a very, very nice and just overall highly recommend the gun.
[Mark] And it's got a safety, correct?
Yeah, oh yeah. It's got a trigger safety, so obviously, Mark mention dads out there maybe buying it for kids, it's got the trigger safety back and forth. So, that's gonna keep, other than your actual barrel cover that goes on the end, yeah, that's just another added safety feature that I like. It does in the back, as well, have a sling mount. So, you guys that are, you play long scenario games, you're out in the woods for awhile. Yes, this is not the lightest gun made, but it is very durable. You wanna put that sling on here, with the sling mount, right there. So you can take some weight off your arms if you're carrying it or charging through the woods after a long day of play.
[Mark] Can I? Let's touch on one troubleshooting thing.
Yeah.
[Mark] A lot of times, beginner players, the first time they screw their tank on, they go out in the paintball field, they take the barrel cover off, and the gun won't shoot, why not?
The gun probably won't shoot because you didn't cock the receiver back. So, as Mark just said, you're out there, you're ready to go, you're excited, you guys make sure this is cocked back in the firing position, and then you're ready to go. It is semi-automatic. You do not have to cock this back every single time. Once air is engaged, just continue to pull the trigger as fast as you can.
[Mark] All right, I think that pretty much covered everything.
Yeah.
[Mark] Like I said, guys, we know there's a lot of other options out there. The EMEK's a real popular one for a beginner gun. But like I said, to me and for us I think, it's just that this is a super durable, it's almost impossible kill these things.
Pretty much, yeah.
[Mark] And if you're gonna have somebody start get into the game, and you're not sure that they're gonna take care of their stuff, they're a little rough on things, this is a great option.
And there's a reason why this model has been alive and well for over 20 plus years, it's because it is the workhorse of paintball. Thanks for watching, guys. I hope this helped some of the beginners out there kind of figure out what gun you would wanna jump into paintball with. If you're watching this video, hit up the website, lonewolfpaintball.com. And as always, give us a call at the store if you got any questions, we'll answer 'em. Instagram, Facebook, YouTube. Take it easy, guys.
[Mark] See ya.