Guide to Hoppers
By Jerry "Kan Man" K.
Official Tech for No Show Paintball LTD

There are basically 4 types of hoppers. Gravity fed, Agitated and Force Fed, Sound Activated.

Gravity Feed Loaders - Rely on the force of gravity to load the paintballs through the 
feed neck, and into the marker's chamber.

Agitating Loaders - Have eye sensors at the top of the feed neck which sense the paintballs 
being loaded into the marker. If they sense a still paintball (when you are not shooting), the 
propeller remains still. If they don't sense a paintball, or the paintballs are not still in 
the vision of the sensor (when you are shooting), the propeller spins, and loads paintballs 
into the feed neck of the loader. Basically, agitating loaders feed paintballs until there is no 
space left in-between the marker's chamber, and the propeller. So, in other words, they feed 
paintballs into the loader's feed neck.

Sound Activated Loaders - Once the sound sensor in the loader hears the marker being fired, the 
propeller spins and feeds another paintball into the feed neck of the loader. If the sensor 
does not hear the marker being fired, the propeller remains still. These also merely feed 
paintballs into the loader's feed neck.

Force Feed Loaders - These loaders have all of the power they need. They actually "force" the 
paintballs directly into the marker's chamber to be fired, unlike agitating loaders while they 
feed into the loader's feed neck. There will never be any space left open in the feed neck of the 
loader, or the chamber.

When you first get a gun, IT will probably come w/ a Gravity Fed hopper. No batteries and you 
have to shake it all the time.

Once you start shooting faster, you will notice that you will break a lot of paint. this is 
because you are "out shooting" the hopper. Which means that you are shooting faster then the 
hopper Can feed. Most Gravity fed hoppers can only feed about 7-8 BPs or Balls Per second

Then you will probably Discover the 12vlt. Revolution hopper by View loader. this hopper Retail 
for around $50-$60. this is a Basic Agitated Hopper. Other hoppers in this Category are the 
Ricochet Series (around $60 or so), The new Halo TSA Front man and Back man (about $70 for LED 
and like $85 or so for LCD model) You also have the Empire Reloader which is a Sound Activated 
Hopper and cots around $50. You also have some of the more "crummy hoppers" like the Zap 
"vibrator" loader and Extreme Rage loader. All of these loaders feed about 13 BPS

The next Category you have is a Cross-breed Kind of hopper. It's called the Evolution II. Also 
known as the Egg or Egg2. This hopper Uses in a sense both Force feed and Agitation. IT retails 
for about $80, and you can also buy an Upgrade board for $25 which makes it feed around 16 BPS

The Final Type of Hopper is called the Force Feed. Only 1 hopper on the market uses Force Feed 
technology and that is the Halo B. IT utilizes a Spring driven "drive cone" to have constant 
tension on the Paintballs so immediately after 1 is shot, another is Driven right into it's place. 
Some guns have problems w/ these type's of hoppers b/c of the force they feed paintballs at. A 
second type of Force Feed hopper which is the Halo B but with a different board in it is called 
the Reloader B, made by Empire Paintball. This is the Same as a Halo B but instead of using 
Eyes to detent paint, it uses the Sound of the gun being fired.

Both hoppers feed about 22+ BPS.

I hope this helped with all those Questions.