standout features. Still that is quite a list to excel at. So when
I got the gun I thought, OK let’s go with Alien’s list to see
if the Deception has a legitimate claim as “best overall”.
But first, the new valve; Alien calls it the Morph Valve. It’s a
small air balance spool held where the poppet is normally
located in a double-stacked configuration. You can tell the
Morph Valve takes less pressure to open by first turning the
LPR off and pushing the bolt forward until the valve opens.
Because it is a balance valve, the only opening pressure
you have to overcome is the spring. It opens easily, much
easier than a double-stacked poppet. It seals smoothly and
quickly. Alien explained that the sealing O-ring is held away
from the sealing surface by the firing air trying to escape.
Therefore O-ring wear is nominal and it doesn’t need
routine service. The improvement over a normal poppet is
that the Morph Valve avoids the “Shear Wall” effect, so it
doesn’t have the pop of air. Rather, it has a decidedly spool
sound, though a bit deeper. Because the valve
opens easily the Rammer weight, already low in
Alien guns, is a third or a quarter the weight of
what most Poppet guns need.
So back to the question of overall performance,
is it best overall?
CALM SHOT: Calmness is generally the
providence of the best Spool valve guns. Are
there Spools that are calmer? If so, how much
calmer than the Deception?
QUIET SHOT AND LOCATABLE SOUND:
Again this is the realm of spool guns, but the
Morph Valve is more Spool than Poppet. As
far as quietness, sound signature, and lack of
locatable sound, a deep low sound being better
than a higher sharper sound.
EFFICIENCY: Here the Poppet guns have held
the advantage. With the owners of Deception
guns reporting about 1,750 shots on a full
77/45, it seems that Deception has not dropped
in efficiency compared to its distinguished
predecessor, the Alien Independence. And
we gassed this thing up and found it got even
better efficiency than advertised—at 1811
good shots (275FPS or better) on a 77/45. Not
too s