Paintball x3

The ETek2

Manufactured by Planet Eclipse

As if creating the Ego, which rapidly grew to become one of the most popular tournament paintball guns in the history of the game, wasn’t enough, Planet then brought Ego performance and reliability to the masses with the ETek. That was enough to agonize most competing paintball gun manufacturers, but Eclipse didn’t even stop there. Once the run of the ETek was complete they went back to the drawing board, improved upon the original ETek design and brought the ETek 2 to market.

An updated, slightly upgraded ETek, the ETek2 boasts all the same features that made the original ETek a great success with a few updates and modifications. Standard on every ETek2 is an offset, clamping vertical feed neck that holds onto any hopper and doesn’t let it go, while helping prevent paintballs from bouncing back up the feed neck to be chopped. A high pressure, inline vertical regulator and low pressure regulator help ensure consistency and, due to low pressure operation, help reduce chops and ball breaks and improve air efficiency. A two-piece, ported and well-honed stock barrel with Autococker threads delivers solid accuracy over all ranges and the ETek2’s Delrin bolt can be removed instantaneously for cleaning. Break beam anti-chop eyes limit chopped paint to an absolutely minimum and the blade, double trigger in a .45 grip frame pulls smoothly and allows for a high rate of semiautomatic fire. All electronic firing modes necessary for competition in practically any league are standard on the ETek2’s stock board, and a nice on/off purging bottle adapter mounts directly to the bottom of the grip frame. While basis, the ETek2’s milling flows smoothly and is attractive. The ETek2 is not equipped, nor does it look like, a bargain paintball gun.

Improvements over the original ETek are subtle but effective in the ETek2. Both the high and low pressure regulators were upgraded for the new model and share internals with the high-end Ego8 for improved pneumatic performance. The new on/off bottle adapter mates to the bottom of the gun’s grip frame with a t-mount, rather than a dovetail that can be easily broken during a rough landing and the circuit board has been reoriented within the grip frame. Like most other electronic paintball guns, the ETek2 operates via a single nine-volt battery installed in its grip frame.

The ETek2 carries on in the tradition of its forerunner once on the field and slinging paint. While not as light as its higher-cost Ego brethren, the ETek2 is still not exactly a brick and handles easily, even with a 68/4500psi bottle and full hopper game after game. Even scenario players who drag themselves and their gear up and down hilly fields for hours on-end in hot weather find the ETek2 lightweight and easy to handle. Durable and reliable thanks to its simple poppet valve operating system, the ETek2 shrugs off rain, mud and even cold weather and continues to pound paintballs downrange in even the nastiest conditions. Air efficiency is excellent, with 1,500 shots the norm from a 68 cubic inch bottle, while breaking or chopping paint is almost unheard of with good paint and a fast loader. No paintballs were chopped or broken during testing at any time. So solid and advanced a paintball gun is the ETek2 that even teams facing opponents with guns costing nearly double their amount are never outgunned or outmatched, a testament to the high quality and feature-to-dollar ratio of the ETek2.

Reliable, accurate, fast and simple, the ETek2 offers a top-notch mix of quality, features and price that any player would be remiss for not checking out at the local paintball store. Yet another success for Planet Eclipse, the ETek2 is an ideal gun for serious tournament players on a budget, hard core scenario players looking for a high-end paintgun that does not sacrifice reliability for speed, or any player looking for a high-end gun that will go bang every time the trigger is pulled.