EXCLUSIVE First Shots of the Vanguard Demon

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EXCLUSIVE First Shots of the Vanguard Demon

Written by Administrator

Friday, 15 April 2011 07:21

Last month PaintballX3 brought you an exclusive preview of Vanguard’s new flagship marker, the spool valve Demon. At the NPPL 2011 Huntington Beach event, at least one prototype Demon was used by Vanguard’s factory team on the field in divisional competition, with great results. St. Louis Avalanche, Vanguard’s new professional team, played the event with Creeds while Vanguard finalizes the Demon for production.

Meanwhile, at the company’s booth in the vendor area, pre-production examples were shown and attracted a great deal of attention. Now that the marker is nearing production, Vanguard was willing to allow PaintballX3 to not just look at and photograph the marker, but actually shoot and play with one of the pre-production prototypes.

After years of success with the Creed marker, a balanced poppet valve design, the company has thrown their hat into the fiercely competitive world of spool valve markers. This is quite a jump for a company that made its name on, and has produced nothing but, a poppet valve marker. In some ways this has made the endeavor a more complicated one, as making a spool valve marker from scratch isn’t a simple or fast undertaking, while in other ways it has made the process more successful. The company isn’t confined to simply changing the milling of, or adding new features to, a design they’ve already had on the market for several seasons. The marker Vanguard provided X3 for test-shooting and review is one of the final, pre-production prototypes, containing a prototype drive train and using settings that had not yet been dialed-in.

The polished, black and green Demon provided to X3 for shooting differed slightly from the red and black prototype featured in the March, 2011 issue in a few subtle points. The red and black Demon provided for photography last month came with a multi-piece barrel that could have come straight off a Creed, while the black and green Demon we were actually able to fire was shipped with what Vanguard says will be production barrel. This barrel differs in that the barrel back shared similar milling cuts with the Demon’s vertical, inline regulator, bringing its milling cuts into line with something else on the marker, plus several “windows” cut into the barrel back. These cuts add some contrast to the colors of the marker and add an eye catching design feature that differentiates the marker and its barrel from anything else currently available. While the basic concept of the barrel is the same, a thin, light aluminum barrel with plenty of straight-line porting, the redesigned barrel back adds an updated, refreshed look that certainly cannot be mistaken for anything else.

A second difference between the red and black Demon from March and the black and green marker provided for test shooting was the marker’s box. The box in which the black and green marker arrived will also be the final box in which each production marker will be shipped. For the Demon, Vanguard has moved away from the classy leather cases shipped with every Creed, in favor of a more basic but very attractive padded box. The design printed on the box is somewhat gothic, in-keeping with the “Demon” moniker, but very eye-catching and should be good for retail display. Inside, owners will find their Demon packed in soft but firm padding along with a tub of banana-smelling grease lubricant, a barrel cover, two barrels in .685 and .689 and a box containing the marker’s battery charger and a very nice set of Allen wrenches. While not exactly a leather, padded carrying case like the Creed’s, the box is attractive, well-padded and will do its job just fine.

Once the polished, black and green Demon prototype was out of its new box, we added a Ninja 68 cubic inch, 4,500psi bottle and a Pinokio hopper, along with fresh Valken Redemption paintballs that matched the .685 Demon barrel perfectly. Eric at Vanguard US was careful to point out that the version we shot contained a bolt and drive-train system that was not finalized or ready for prime-time yet. So after signing 15 waivers promising not to photograph the bolt or tell anyone about the special blend of eleven herbs and spices we found inside, we got down to shooting paint through the Demon.

At first, the prototype Demon shot a bit low over the chronograph, with results in the 250 range but very consistent. Getting velocity up to a more competitive level proved a bit difficult at first, until a phone call to Eric at Vanguard reminded us that we had a prototype bolt and the dwell settings weren’t dialed-in for production yet. A few minutes on the phone tweaking the marker’s dwell, checking to be sure the bolt and drive-train were properly lubricated and making adjustments to the regulator soon had the prototype Demon shooting in the neighborhood of 290. Through multiple strings, the Demon proved extremely consistent and with the proper velocity and dwell settings, very quiet as well. Strings like 291, 291, 292, 293, 294 and at another point, 281, 281, 281, 284 and 283 were recorded. With the proper dwell and velocity settings, the Demon not only shoots quietly, but with very little recoil as well. Should these characteristics make their way, unchanged, into the production Demon, users will find it smooth and very quiet.

Accuracy with paint so perfectly matched to the barrel and velocity so consistent was, unsurprisingly, outstanding. Groups at ranges inside 50 feet were one large, runny splat and past that, streams landed predictably in tight groups as the marker delivered a long, flat trajectory with a gradual drop-off at the end of each shot. In semi-automatic mode with an uncapped rate of fire, a fifty shot string averaged 10.8 balls per second effortlessly, while peaking at 12.3 shoots per second. A second string achieved a peak of 13.5 shots per second. No chops or ball breaks were encountered during testing at any time. The prototype Demon tested by X3 was found to deliver somewhat disappointing air efficiency, at under 1000 shots per 4000psi fill. However, Eric at Vanguard US ensured us that this was due only to the prototype bolt, experimentation with o-rings and the fact that proper dwell and velocity settings weren’t yet dialed-in for production. He stated that production models were expected to deliver “eight or nine pods” on a solid fill.

Light at less than 2 pounds with its barrel, accurate and quiet, the pre-production Vanguard Demon is almost ready to hit the streets! Expect to see St. Louis Avalanche pick up the Demon once it’s ready, and compete with it in the NPPL professional division. Once Vanguard tweaks the settings, o-rings and other minor adjustments to perfect their design, the Demon will make a great addition to the world of spool valves should be more than capable of carrying Vanguard through the 2011 season and beyond. http://www.vanguardus.com.

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