Reviews
Critical Paintball's Super Ego 7/8 Trigger
By Dale Ford
May 1, 2008, 21:51

Stock trigger (left) and Super Ego (installed)

Critical Paintball's Jon-Paul Fortunati is never in trouble, because he's constantly busy designing and making triggers for the paintball industry.  Every year new models come out, and poor Jon-Paul is forced back to the the drawing board to keep up.

One of his priorities this year was to update the now-famous Critical Trigger for the Planet Eclipse Ego 8.  The Ego 8 is based heavily on the '07 SL-74 Ego, with some enhancements.  One thing that got changed was the trigger, so it was necessary to modify the current Super Ego 07 trigger so it'd work on the new marker.

One of the biggest changes was to the design of the return magnet.  On last year's version, a small bracket holds the reverse magnet that screwed directly to the Ego's solenoid.  When we installed this trigger on a Redz Ego last year, we noted that some filing was necessary to make the bracket work properly.  Critical revised this year's trigger to use a small aluminum block to hold the reverse magnet.  It attaches to the solenoid via 3M double-sided tape.  Fortunati stresses the importance of using alcohol to clean any oil or solvents off of the solenoid body so the adhesive on the magnet block can stick properly.  Another change to this year's trigger is to change the trigger's activation point to give more adjustability and make the already smooth triggering system even smoother.

For the average player or airsmith, this installation should take 30 minutes or so. During our attempt to install the trigger, we didn't heed Jon-Paul's advice and the block wouldn't stay on the solenoid.  Critical Paintball suggested using a tiny amount of super glue to hold the block on, but we didn't feel comfortable doing this, so we sent the review Ego 8 on a vacation to Critical Paintball's facility in Northridge, CA.  When it returned, the trigger was installed but not adjusted to our tastes.   There are a multitude of adjustments available on the Critical Paintball Super Ego trigger, including magnet tension, rear travel stop, trigger activation, and trigger angle. 

The Super Ego 7/8 trigger

We took a few minutes to adjust the trigger to our tastes, then used permatex medium strength blue threadlocker to keep the adjustment set screws in place.  The original trigger setup on the Ego as it came from the factory was very nice, and to be honest we were quite happy with it.  Installing the Critical Super Ego trigger gave us some added flexibility on adjusting it for maximum performance, and the reverse polarity magnetic return design that Critical uses gave the trigger a much crisper, more solid feel to it.  There's plenty of adjustabilty available, so you can have a trigger pull as mushy or as reactive as you like. 

This adjustability is mainly important if you're playing in the NPPL, where semi-automatic is the only allowed fire mode.  With the stock trigger I could get roughly 9-10 bps under stress in playing conditions.  The addition of the Critical Trigger, properly adjusted to my tastes, an easy 1- 2 balls per second were noticed in semi mode.  I normally play using 15.4 bps PSP mode, and I noticed that it was easier and faster to get the initial 3 shots off to get the marker started ramping.   The trigger's shape and the fact that it's fully radiused were major contributions to this increase in speed and comfort on field.

The Critical Super Ego 7/8 trigger is fully endorsed by Planet Eclipse, so installing this trigger on your marker won't void the warranty.  For the fashion conscious, the trigger is available in black dust, red dust, blue dust, and silver dust finishes.  The MSRP is $55, which makes it a bit more expensive than other aftermarket triggers, but for those who want and demand maximum performance and adjustability for their Ego, the Critical Paintball Super Ego trigger is the way to go.  For more information, check out www.criticalpaintball.com