CCM Gives Pump Players the Best of Both Worlds!

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CCM Gives Pump Players the Best of Both Worlds!

Written by Josh Silverman

Tuesday, 31 August 2010 08:33

I freely admit I’ve been playing paintball a long time. I also freely admit that I’ve been working in paintball for quite some time, most of it in the world of paintball magazines where I’ve been fortunate enough to have pretty much every new paintball gun to hit the market put into my hands for review. That said, it all means that I’ve reviewed a lot of paintball guns, from entry-level blowbacks to thousand dollar tournament machines. Why am I telling you all this? Because I want everyone to understand that after dozens and dozens of paintball marker reviews, hundreds of photographs taken and tens of thousands of paintballs shot and words written, it takes a lot to excite me about a new paintball gun.

After all, this is the twenty-first century and while we don’t quite have our flying cars yet, we have more or less figured out how to make a paintball go “that way” pretty effectively. Gone are the days when, quite literally, some companies actually put out paintball guns that just didn’t work out of the box. These days, with people far and wide connected via the Internet and customers savvier than ever, putting out a sub-standard product and hoping to make a little money before everyone figures it out simply isn’t an option. Technology has evolved, manufacturing has improved and for the most part, every paintball gun, from the hundred-dollar blowback to the top-level electronic models, does what it’s meant to do pretty well. The differences now are the nuances, from regulator placement and air efficiency numbers to ease-of-maintenance and, of course, how much gun a customer can get for the price. For these reasons, I’ve come to fully expect every paintball gun a company puts in my hands to shoot well and do what it’s advertised to do and I’m rarely surprised by what I find.

The pump paintball guns manufactured by CCM are by no means an exception to the rules I’ve mentioned above. Rather, they are a perfect example of what I’ve been talking about. CCM has a reputation for building what are perhaps the best hand-crafted pump paintball guns in the world and with each new model they’ve handed me over the years, from the SS-25 and Series 5 to the Series 6 and T2, they’ve consistently impressed me. I’ve come to expect excellence from the California paintball artisans at CCM and they have never let me down. Their legion of loyal customers will probably back me up on this, as they pawn possessions and mow lawns and work overtime to save the money, simply to own a rare paintball marker they have to manually cock before each shot. In a world of electronic, twenty ball-per-second markers and fully automatic Tippmanns, that’s saying something.

To quote Magnum, PI, “I know what you’re thinking.” You thought you were going to read a review about CCM’s newest pump marker, not an editorial about why most paintball guns shoot pretty good now. And you’re right. The reason I’m telling you all this is to make everyone understand that as I opened the box containing my new CCM 6.5 marker, I fully expected it to be an outstanding example of a top-end pump paintball gun and didn’t expect to be surprised. In this case, however, I both received exactly what I was expecting and got surprised in the process. The CCM 6.5 is an outstanding pump paintball gun that oozes hand-crafted excellence and delivers the performance players have come to expect from the CCM name. That wasn’t the surprise. The surprise was that I expected all that, and watched as CCM raised the bar yet another notch higher.

Between the Series 6 and the T2, one a full-bodied Sniper-style pump marker and the other a half-blocked pump, you’d think CCM pretty much had their bases covered where it came to pump marker models that did the job. Evidently that was true, up to a point, as I was told by Melissa Thompson of CCM. She said that there were players out there cutting up and half-blocking their Series 6 markers, so the minds at CCM set to work creating a combination of everything the Series 6 and the T2 had to offer. The result, the Series 6.5, combines the best of both markers, creating a half-blocked hybrid CCM pump that is as light and sleek as it is faithfully reliable.

Pulling the 6.5 from its box, I was presented with precisely what I’d come to expect from CCM after years shooting their markers. A light, Sniper-style half-blocked pump greeted me, lusciously anodized in a gorgeous all-black polished finish that shone and reflected, accenting the purposeful, subtle lines and cuts of the marker’s receiver and grip frame. All the standard features were there, from a CCM clamping feed neck and CCM vertical regulator to a .45 grip frame with slender panels, a CCM on/off bottle adapter and dovetail rail and an auto-trigger kit, allowing the shooter to fire as fast as he can pump. Why I’m typing “CCM” before every part I have no idea, as literally every appreciable part on the 6.5 is made by the people at CCM, from the body and barrel to the feed neck, grip frame, bottle adapter, rail, regulator, air fittings and pump handles. Speaking of the pump handle, the handle on the 6.5 is a light, small Delrin model that is comfortable in the hand. A pump return spring is standard, and all the hardware of the marker is stainless steel. The bolt bore of the body is diamond honed and the trigger features a roller bearing where it engages the sear. A basic aluminum stock barrel was included with the 6.5, featuring a few lines of small ports and a complete kit of small Even the smallest details of the 6.5 are high class.

The form and features of the CCM Series 6.5 were precisely as expected, a cut above. Again, this was as expected. The surprise happened after I installed the dovetail rail, on/off bottle adapter and macro line, got the gun ready for play and hit the field. As this was a pump marker, not requiring air to do the re-cocking work for me, I didn’t bother with my 68 cubic inch bottle, opting instead for a 45 cubic inch, 4,500psi system from Ninja Paintball as it was smaller and lighter. This made for a package that was very compact when pulled into the shoulder, though as I have “Tyrannosaurus” arms, this wasn’t a problem. Those with longer arms may wish to use a longer bottle or move the rail further back on the grip frame to create a more comfortable set-up. To keep the weight low, I used a Viewloader Revolution hopper for all testing, as anything faster would be unnecessary. The total package was very lightweight, easy to handle and comfortable to shoulder and shoot.

Over the chronograph, with a Ninja compressed air bottle and fresh Valken Redemption paintballs properly sized to the barrel with the proper adapter, the CCM 6.5 shot very well. Out of the box, the gun was shooting precisely where it needed to be, with shots coming in between 287 and 294, further proof that when this company says each marker is tested before it leaves the factory, they aren’t kidding. Still, this was entirely as expected. When I went to the target range, the surprise I’ve been talking about happened.

Using the stock barrel provided with the marker and fresh paint, I was expecting the 6.5 to be accurate, like the rest of the CCM family of markers I’ve been shooting for years. However, I got much more than I bargained for. My first aimed shot with the 6.5 was at a chain link fence post sixty feet away. I hit that post with an audible “ding.” Still, that wasn’t the surprise. The surprise was that when I pumped the marker and fired again, my second paintball not only hit the same fence post at 60 feet away, it actually hit the splat from my first shot! Surely this was a fluke, I thought, and I fired again. Yet again, the shot hit the fence post sixty feet away, this time not on top of the others, but within an inch of them. Shaking my head, I switched to a different target, a tree fifty feet away, and fired ten shots. What I got was one large, dripping, orange splat. No matter what target I tried, near or far, the results were the same and the only conclusion I was able to reach was that the CCM 6.5 is the most accurate marker I’ve shot in years.

The CCM Series 6.5 pump paintball gun is outstanding. Its build quality is top-notch, its list of standard features is long, its accuracy is stellar and it, like the rest of the CCM marker line, is backed by an amazing warranty. While it’s no bargain pump marker at a retail price of just over six hundred dollars, for those serious about pump play, it’s worth every penny.

www.ChipleyMachine.com

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