Internal weights....an old beaten dead horse debated to no end by Impulse enthusiasts for years now. Almost everyone seems to have a view on the effect that the combined internal component weights have on the performance of the Impulse. Well take it or leave it, I'm going to give you mine in this article. I'm also going to leave you with some lists of weights just in case you feel like tinkering with them to enhance the performance of your Impulse.

The Origin

The origin of this debate was initiated from the announcement of tests results performed by someone affiliated with a paintball outlet with the name of Michigan Paintball in Lapeer, Michigan. This outlet was later known as E-Paintball outlet and at this time known as Rat Paintball. Best-known  for their development, design and distribution of the Rat Impulse. The Rat Impulse was one of the first custom private label Impulses available in the day that Impulses ruled paintball fields around the globe.

To my knowledge these tests were initiated to find the mean total combined weight of internals which included the bolt, hammer, ram and bolt pin that would reflect the maximum performance peak of the Impulse. Once the magic number of 1200 grains was announced, it seems the greater majority of Imp enthusiasts grasped that magic number and ran with it. Of course there were the skeptics as well then all hell broke loose. The subject was tossed about in the Imp community as abortion, politics and religion are in the general public. It was stated by Craig aka FON that 1200 grains was the mean and as long as a combined weight of no lower than 1100 and no higher than 1300 was achieved, the performance peak would be optimized. These tests were performed with an Imp that had no LPR. That may have been part of the opposing rationale on the objective side of the long drawn out debate of this controversial subject.

Impulse Product Development

I'm thinking some of the products developed during that era may have been keyed towards that magic 1200 grain number. Seems that a great majority of Imp owners felt compelled by the lure of the possibility that getting the most performance achievable for their Imp was by closing in on that 1200 grain goal. I'm quite sure it had a key factor in the development of the Rat Hole hammers which by the way are New Designz hammers with holes drilled through them to lighten the total weight of the hammer. I chrono tested the 2 stainless versions and found that I got better results from the regular stainless over the Evil stainless version. The combination of available parts to closest reach this 1200 grain number was the Rat hole hammer, New Designz Slik-shot ram and Equalizer bolt and stock Smart Parts bolt pin which equaled a total weight of 1220 grains. For the perfectionist, you could even have gone as far as to drill 20 grains from the top of the stock bolt pin for a total weight of exactly,1200 grains.

The Weight Lists

Below are lists of the aftermarket parts that were available for the Impulse with coinciding weight numbers. Some are still readily available now and some are not. I've also supplied the weight equivalent in grams to the tenth place for those of you that are not equipped with a scale implementing grains which I'm confident most of you do not possess. Grains are more a measurement used for weighing gun powder for reloading purposes or similar instances where being a bit precise with weights are somewhat more detrimental.

My Personal Experience 

In my own quest to improve the performance of my personal Impulse, I added 1 part at a time and documented the velocities both before and after adding each component. I never used an LPR on my Imp nor felt it was necessary to install one for that matter. The components and order in which I installed them in are; New Designz Equalizer bolt, Rat Hole hammer, Slik-shot ram, stock bolt pin and New Designz RIP valve. Each time I added a component, my Imp experienced a velocity gain. To compensate for the higher velocities I had to lower either the dwell or pressure ratings. I chose dwell most of the time which gave my Imp better efficiency each time lowered. As I added each component(outside of the RIP valve) the internal weights of my Imp became closer to that 1200 grain weight. So essentially the gains accomplished were either due to the finely designed components released by New Designz, the fact that when the internal upgrading was done the total internal component weights added up to 1220 grains or both combined factors. This, more an unsolved mystery in my view but I could really care less to take sides in this long debated subject of internal weights.

I cannot say I am totally sold upon this 1200 grain concept but I can say I'm not any sort of total skeptic either. I believe that someone gathered all of the parts available at that time and tested different combinations which yielded different weights. It seems this person found a mean of performance and efficiency at a certain weight plateau and offered the information to the Impulse community. There was no apparent reason to lie about his findings so until one of the vicarious skeptics steps forward, performs the same tests in an unbiased manner and proves differently, all the skepticism in the world is nullified.

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