Smart Parts Ion Paintball Marker

Old Review:
The marker with the 360 QEV (Quick Exhaust Valve) and SP (Smart Parts) two piece barrel shoots fast, consistent, and straight as an arrow.. I bought it for my gf, but I want to trade her for my Proto SLG UL, hers performs that much better. No ball breaks after 4 cases of paint. The gun is a pain to breakdown and clean though. Be careful with your banjo fittings and eye harness when reassembling the gun. This gun is a buy for sure. Oh, and lets not forget that the ION is one of the most upgradeable guns around like most SP offerings.
Two weeks later:
Board crapped out. A banjo fitting broke. The macro line was super difficult to reattach to the new board. No longer fires consistantly. Not a good experience. I have moved on to a pair of invert mini. If you have the money get an invert mini or an empire axe. If you dont have the money get yourself a really good spyder instead of this mediocre difficult garbage. If you must buy an ion, buy it new. You will likely be glad you did because of the warranty service.
If you are trying to decide on a marker watch some tear down videos of the marker and watch how easy or difficult maintenance is on the gun. Also watch some out of the box test fire videos too. Do your homework. I did not and now I and my gf lost out.

I really like the smart parts Ion it is pretty easy to work on and fine tune. I have 5 of these gun I got three of them here off of eBay. They are simple parts are cheap and they are very easy to tune. I have had no problems with mine as of yet. The bolt is a pain to take out and clean, but during normal gun cleaning most people tear they whole thing down and relube it anyway. The gun stock is ok with a few modes it really will impress you. I would say a trigger and a feed neck are the first two places to start. I have upgraded boards and unless you are going to play in a tournament I honestly don't think the gun needs it. Third on my list would be a new bolt it will make the gun quiet and stop a lot of the kick. Then I get a better barrel and end it all with a QEV. I saw a review saying that the a hose blew off and something else. It sounded to me like the person that was working on it did not know what the were doing. The gun is very simple and you only need one allen wrench to take apart the whole gun. I would agree that you need to watch your eye wires when you are putting it back together so they don't get pinched but other than that the gun is great!!! And you can do any mods to it you want pretty much any color body kit billet upgrades with different annos. This gun really is a great bang for your buck!

Throws paint like top end guns, out the box it's an awesome marker but changing a few minor parts will make it nearly invincible.

only problem i really have with the gun is the lack of B.O.B. but still fixable if u get a body kit upgrade

The Ion is a very upgradeable marker and I love to upgrade them. I purchased this Ion to work on and improve performance and of course play with.

The ion is also very durable and and easy to maintain. It is a great starter gun for new players and can easly be upgraded to a tournament grade marker.

For anyone looking to get into paintball or wanting to upgrade I would recomend trying an ION.

The Smart Parts Ion is a paintball marker that was developed by the company Smart Parts to compete against competitors in the $200 range when it first came out in 2006. It's light weight body and simplicity made it an instant hit with all paintball players.

Pros-
Light weight
Simplicity of internals and board
customizable
Price

In Between-
dependable

Con-
look
stock parts
upgraded parts/price

Overall an average gun nothing spectacular but, great for anyone who wants to jump in and begin!