Florida Gulf Coast native Paul Richards is one of the more underrated people in the sport.  This is mainly due to his modest nature, but make no mistake, Richards is an accomplished man.  He's one of the most respected writers in the game, he's the coach for the Miami Raiders, and his son Matt is considered to be one of the best players in the sport.

His latest invention, the Speed Feed likely had people slapping themselves in the forehead.  The Speed Feed is an upgrade to HALO and Reloader B loaders that does away with the lid and replaces it with an open part that allows players to dump paint in but paint is not able to get out of the loader.

The Speed Feed accomplishes this by replacing the stock lid with a one-piece part that presses on to the loader's mouth, replacing the stock lid altogether.  Inside the Speed Feed's mouth are four fingers that bend inwards to allow incoming paint to enter the loader, but if a paintball tries to bounce out of the loader, the fingers stop the paint.  Very simple theory of operation, eh?

Installing the Speed Feed is simple as well.  To install it, you unfasten all of the screws holding the body together on your HALO/Reloader B and pull the two halves apart enough to remove the lid, the pin that it rides on, and the spring.  You then put the loader back together and install the Speed Feed by pressing it onto the loader, making sure to align the pin with the area that previously held the lid, pin and spring.  That's all there is to it.

The Speed Feed was tested on a lightly modified Reloader B.  The review loader features a Critical Paintball delrin drive cone and SPO Gear Realtree Camo shells. Installing the Speed Feed took under 10 minutes. Several members of the test crew voiced concerns about the open nature of the Speed Feed allowing excessive dirt into the loader.  During testing we noted that a little more than usual dirt was getting into the loader, but we noted no ill effects from it.  With a HALO loader, it may be more of an issue, since the loader's eyes are particularly susceptible to being blocked by foreign material.  Conversations with Miami Raiders player LP Everett, who uses HALO loaders while competing, said he hadn't noted any trouble with the loader's eyes.

The loader was used during the course of the review on a heavily modified 2001 GZ Intimidator at several team practices as well as at the Tampa NPPL.  Antonio “Hitman” Braccili used the marker extensively during this review, and even though he's normally folded up into a little ball playing the snake, he didn't note any issues with dirt, and not having to open a lid while wadded up into a tight space helped his loading times dramatically. 

For a back/mid player, the Speed Feed is a boon.  Not having to fiddle with the lid on your loader while laying suppressive fire kept the coverage I was able to extend to my teammates going, and reloading became less of an issue as far as keeping the opposition down while my teammates made their moves up the field.

At an MRSP of $17.95, the Speed Feed is a simple, reversible mod that works as advertised and can give a genuine advantage to players using this product.  For more information, or to order your Speed Feed, check out www.upfrontpaintballsports.com

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