Paintball: Does the Smart Parts Ion fire from an open or closed bolt system?

Answer 1

The Ion, as well as any other marker out there, shoots from the closed bolt position. The bolt must be fully forward and sealing the breech for the paintball to be propelled down the barrel.

What you should be asking is if it is a closed bolt or open bolt system. This means is the bolt in the rearward or forward most position when the marker is at rest (between trigger pulls). In this case the Ion is an open bolt marker.

The position of the bolt at rest makes absolutely NO impact on the performance of the marker. Since either an open or closed bolt system releases gas behind the ball only when the bolt is completely forward to seal the breech. Many myths surround this and started back when paintball was moving from pump to semi. Many people believed the pump was more accurate due to the closed bolt design. In fact it was more accurate because nothing was moving when the gas was released and this means that target acquisition was maintained. With a semi-auto marker there is movement no matter which system (open or closed) with the only exception being the very first shot.