Helix Mags, Hooligan's Take

The helix magazine from Rap4 was supposed to be the mag to end all mags. For ages they were borderline myth with only a few videos of prototypes being released and no real details given. Obviously, I was excited when the option to pre-order these things came around and I immediately ordered 10. Then came the hard part of waiting weeks and weeks, hearing that the mags were stuck at customs and having to wait even longer! Finally, they arrived and I raced to crack open the box and slam the last mag I would ever need into my newly acquired 468, only to immediately have my excitement stopped dead in its track by what I consider a huge flaw but we will get to that later.

First I want to talk look and feel of this magazine. When you handle a Dmag it feels hollow and cheap, almost as if it would break if you squeezed it to tightly. The Helix is the exact opposite. This mag feels solid all the way through and it has the perfect amount of weight to tell you its not poorly made.

The look of the Helix is just as good as its feel. While it does seem to stick out a little to far from the marker its a small price to pay for something this slick looking. With its two tone flat black and clear white it looks like something you want to use.

Maintaining and loading these mags is by far the easiest of any mag I have seen. The Helix is totally toolless and can be broken down and re built in a matter of minutes. The use of no winding mechanism makes it so you can just pull literally pull everything out of the mag, rinse it off with water and just slap it all back in after it dries. To load the magazine you simple insert the flexible loading rod into the mag and push the follower back until it locks, and then start dropping in paintballs. Loading shaped projectiles is as easy as just inserting the rounds one by one, no need for the loader.

Now before we talk using the Helix mag, I want to mention that before the Helix I had only used the Honorcore mag system, the T68 mag system and the Spyder mag system. When I grabbed my first Helix and went to put it into my marker it immediately fell out and onto the floor. The Helix mag, being built to work with the Dmag system on preexisting 468's does not simply slide smoothly into the magwell and latch. The Helix mag requires you to put the mag into your marker, holding your marker slightly to an angle while you slap the bottom to lock it into place. Myself coming from a background of mags that just slide in and latch, this is a huge downside to me. This load and slap means that I cannot effectively perform an executive reload or quickly load while on the move.

Some people have addressed this problem of almost having to punch your mag into the well by performing mods on several parts of the mag from sanding moving parts down to replacing springs to reduce resistance. Personally speaking when it comes to modding paintball gear I am 100% in favor of modding for the purpose of making a marker look a certain way, to use parts it was not original meant to use, or to just simply do something totally different from what it was originally designed to do. I the player should not have to permanently void a warranty or risk ruining my gear to make a piece of brand new gear to do what it was supposed to do out of the box.

My overall experience with the Helix mag has not be terrible. The mag is built strong, looks and feels amazing both in and out of the marker, and cleaning/loading the mag is the easiest I have ever experienced. All of this being said, the fact that I have to use a lot of force to load my mag or modify it to make it a little better is unacceptable. If you come from a background of using the Dmag you probably wont agree with why I am disappointed but, when the whole point of magfed paintball is using a magazine fed marker the magazine needs to be as well engineered as the marker it is being put into. With as many options on the market as there are now the smallest of issues can cause a player to jump to a new brand almost over night.

If you are interested in the Helix mag system I would strongly suggest you try it out from a friend first. When I say try it out I don't mean fire 10 rounds at the chrono station either, play a full game with this mag system and your compatible marker of choice. Think about every detail of the gear you are using and be sure that it is the right fit for you otherwise you will end up regretting it almost immediately.