Rating - 9 out of 10

Website:  www.firstshotpaintball.com
E-mail Contact: info@firstshotpaintball.com



Beware of the lone player
Ok, let just say that you're out on a sniper mission. You're by yourself, holding a trail in between B.F.E and No Mans land. Down the trail comes a squad of 15 to 20 players. As a lone shooter, the best you can hope for is eliminating four or five before they turn to fire on you. That's were the Straight 8 comes in to play. They are billed as "Force Multipliers". With one mine, a single player can inflict the same eliminations as a squad of five. What the Angel was to speedball, the Straight 8 is to scenario play. 

How it works
The Straight 8 as well as the LOAD ( its 16 barrel big brother) work much like an actual claymore mine. You pack each barrel with up to 7 balls each ( although 3 was found to be optimal) with the provided plunger. Gas it up with the Co2 cylinder till the gauge reads 600psi, point down range an fire. The firing mechanism is a switch with a safety cover attached to a 30' lead ( 60' & 90' leads are available). Simply flip the switch to "ARM" and hit the fire button. The valves are activated by a solenoid. With just 8 balls loaded (one per barrel) the chrono speed was just under 240 fps (using seven .68 caliber balls, the max load, the speed drops to 140 FPS). The mine lets out a deafening pop when fired, which further adds to the effect. Very high on the cool meter. According to the manufacturer, each shot uses about 1oz of Co2. 

Front toward enemy
Each barrel is individually mounted so that they can be aimed at different angles. This allows the user to focus his shots in a specified area, or spread them out to cover about a 10 foot path. The restrictor plate on the front prevents focusing the tubes into a single point. With all barrels spread out, 30 feet out the dispersion pattern is almost 15 feet wide!! That is a lot of coverage. 

Quick set-up
Although the unit is a little on the heavy side, the quick set-up makes up for it. FirstShot advertises that you could have it ready to fire in about 1 to 2 minutes. We were able to clock ourselves at just under a minute with 3 balls per barrel. The provided plunger is chained to the unit, so everything is right there ready to go.  The unit is self standing and also comes with a carrying handle.  

Durable and cleanup is a breeze!
The entire unit is machined from aircraft grade aluminum and has stainless steel barrels.  A garden hose to the barrels and she was good to go. Not that this is even necessary, since you could load almost any kind of paint that would roll down the barrel, including field drops or out of round stuff that has been sitting in your garage since last winter. Now that's economical!!

Final thoughts
If you play scenario paintball, this is the toy to have kids!! Useful for Snipers guarding their back doors to Tank mounted anti-personnel measures. Players have been dreaming of a mine-type device for years, and now our prayers have been answered. As safe as a 3 man team packing Angels. Much like the Law rockets and Full Auto markers, responsible use is once again going to have to be placed on the backs of the players. In our preliminary testing, we found that a player would have to be closer than 12" away from the mine to receive a full impact from all barrels. At just 2 feet out, the amount was cut in half (12 balls). Because of the divergent shot pattern, at 30 feet the pattern is 15’ wide with the high ball at 5’ and the low ball at 1’ above the ground, it makes it real hard to pound someone with more than 2 or 3 balls at a time. Compare that to a 5 man team with Super guns who can put 13 focused rounds a second in the air per player ( do the math, that's 65 balls per second). That fails in comparison. I like the Straight 8. Its diversity is its strongest point. Very ingenious product.

Rundown

Pro's:
        Excellent ambush weapon. Quick setup. Very paint friendly

Con's
         Heavy  (20.5 pounds)

Specifications

Constructed of aircraft grade aluminum (available in flat black or custom camo)
12 inches  at its widest point, front to back
8 inches at its widest point, side to side
9.75 inches at its widest point, top to bottom
weighs 20.5 lbs. without C02 tank
8 Stainless Steel barrels    
Regulated, low pressure launch (600 PSI or 41 BAR)
Paintballs chronoed at 250 FPS. using one ball per barrel (using seven .68 caliber balls, the max load, the speed drops to 140 FPS.)
Remote fire via hard wired trigger (standard cord lengths: 30’, 60’, 90’) custom lengths available
Battery powered (requires two 9 volt batteries)
Fires all
brands of paint (never jams) including .40 and .50 caliber paintballs
Can fire between 8 and 136  paintballs during a single launch using a combination of .40 caliber and .68 caliber paintballs!

Cost
           Call for pricing