Recently, with all of these electros running around, companies have been finding ways to bring the electro trigger to people who couldn’t normally afford them.  Normally, these markers appear in the forms of normal blow back markers with an electro trigger frame.  Instead of a mechanical sear to drop the hammer, there is a solenoid in the frame.  This makes the pull much lighter (because you don’t have to overcome the force of the springs), and the pull is also much shorter.  This all generally leads to a faster ROF, which everyone wants these days.  WGP found that most of these markers were of a lower grade, and they wanted to remedy that problem.  WGP decided to resurrect the old Ranger name that they used before the Autococker was their main marker.  Don’t be confused though, the E Ranger only shares the name with the classic pump marker.  The E Ranger comes with a nickel WGP regulator standard (where as most other markers in its class rarely come with any regulator at all, let alone a decent one).  It also comes with its electronic trigger frame with its own grips.  On top of that it comes with a wonderful drop forward with on/off.

     The first thing I noticed about the E ranger was how long it was.  While most blow back markers have the ASA right after the grip frame, the E Ranger extends the lower tube by about two inches with the ASA below the body, instead of inline with the lower tube like on most others. This makes the valve chamber much bigger, and all but eliminates shoot down.  It also eliminates the need for an LPC in front of the body.  But, you nothing comes with a cost.  To me, who is used to playing with an Autococker, the E Ranger felt long.  In fact, it felt longer than anything I have ever played with, and just led to some discomfort.

      When I first opened up the box to the E-Ranger and screwed in air, it seemed that the sear wouldn’t catch the hammer.  After one shot it made the sound that everyone is familiar with.  The sound that all blow back markers make as they run out of air.  A quick email to WGP rectified the problem.  All I had to do was adjust the solenoid travel (which is much easier than it sounds).  You undo a setscrew, and then just adjust a screw that controls the solenoid travel until it shoots like normal.  Once that was done, the E Ranger shot like a champ.  Cycle after cycle, it was just ripping.

      The E Ranger comes with the same barrel as the Outkast, and I’ll say the same things about it.  The barrel is a 10inch, two-piece barrel.  The tip is anodized to match the marker.  WGP has other sizes available for the barrel to fit your needs.  The barrel itself doesn’t have the best internal finish   while the barrel shot decently well, a better barrel would be a nice improvement.  Personally, I was a bit uncomfortable with the short barrel, which is a personal preference that differs among people.  The E Ranger features Autococker barrel threads so that makes it extremely easy to find a new barrel to better suit your needs.

      Over the chronograph, the E Ranger is delightfully consistent.  I have never known a blow back marker to be as consistent as the E Ranger was.  I was more than happy to get the reading at the chronograph that I did.  With decent paint I was getting +/-5 fps.  While I generally like to see the consistency a bit tighter, for the market that this marker is in, that is near the top of the list.  One has to remember that blow back electronic markers are cheap alternatives to truly electronic markers, and so they cannot be expected to perform at the same level.

      While the E Ranger has more kick that true electro markers, when compared to blow backs and electronic blow backs, the E Ranger is much more stable.  A more stable marker leads to more shot to shot accuracy.  This is not saying that the marker is more accurate itself, but it doesn’t bounce around as much between shots, which makes each shot more accurate in relation to the one prior.  So, for those of you who don’t have a boatload to spend, and still want a quality fast marker, this is worth a look.

      The key benefit of an electronic blowback compared to a normal blowback is the electronic trigger.  Its light, its fast, and very easy to use.  The E Ranger’s trigger pull is roughly 4mm long, and painfully light.  Don’t let that fool you though; all you needed to pull the trigger is less than an mm.  The micro switch on the E Ranger is very easy to pull fast.  I would have liked if there were some trigger stops built into the frame to limit the travel of the trigger, as I felt that 4mm was too long for an electronic trigger, but again, that is my personal preference.  After some practice, I didn’t find it difficult at all to rip on the trigger.  One thing that upset me on the trigger frame was the grips.  They felt hard and uncomfortable in my hands.  The trigger feels very nice, and is quite comfortable for your standard two-finger trigger.

      One of the nicest things that comes with the E Ranger is WGP’s new Torpedo drop forward.  The drop drops the tank about an inch and a half down, and three inches forward.  It also has an on/off dial to make it that much easier to air up and degas when you want.  I have never felt a drop forward that tucked pre-set tanks so perfectly.  I had never thought of using a tank other than a max flow because it was all I am used to, and its comfortable.  But this drop forward opened my eyes to pre sets, and ran one without problems at my last tournament.  This is definitely the best drop forward to come out of WGP, and it comes with the E Ranger (or can be purchased separately for $50).

      One of the most irritating things was that the screws on the E Ranger were a mix of metric screws and standard screws.  It made it frustrating as I tried to take the frame off, and work through the marker, as I continually needed to switch between allen sets.  However, for the main stuff (bolt, hammer, velocity adjuster, etc, it is quite easy to strip the marker.  You undo a cotter pin, slide out another, and you can strip down virtually everything of interest.  This makes cleaning the marker quite easy.  The velocity adjuster and the bolt make a very clean package on the back.  You pull the pin back, after the hammer cocks, you release the pin, and it snaps back, eliminating the need for a beaver tail.

      With choices of a beautiful steel blue, or classic black for colors, it’s hard to go overboard with style, but you can still express yourself.  If you are in the market for an electro, but don’t have the money, look into a blow back electro.  And if you are in the market for a blow back electro, the E Ranger is the way to go.  With the backing of WGP, it’s going to be hard to go wrong.  The marker is capped at 11bps, which is plenty in my eyes.  And it conveniently uses 9volt batteries, which are very common, and always around.  The E Ranger, with an MSRP of $225.00, is quite the contender, and should rise to the top of its class shortly.