The Autococker is a closed-bolt semiautomatic paintball marker manufactured by Worr Game Products (WGP). It was one of the first paintball markers to be designed specifically for the sport, and has long been known throughout the paintball community for its popularity and customizability as well as its complexity. It is commonly believed that the closed-bolt design of the marker makes it inherently more accurate than its open-bolt counterparts, though this is disputed (see Accuracy, below).
Once a common sight at professional paintball tournaments (especially in the early- to mid-1990s),Withstanding the Test of Time , Mohammed Alo, June 2002, The Paintball Times its popularity has since waned with the rise in popularity of electropneumatic markers.
History
In late 1986, Bud Orr created the original Sniper pump marker by carving the works of a standard Sheridan PGP into an aluminum block that would accept a longer barrel. The Sniper was operated in a manner similar to pump-action shotguns in that it had to be manually recocked after each shot to load the next round. In 1987, Orr founded Worr Game Products to sell the products he was developing, and by 1988 he was running the business full-time. In order to stay competitive with the rising popularity of semiautomatic markers in the late 1980s, Orr added a pneumatic system onto the Sniper. The pneumatics automatically re-cocked the marker after each shot, and in 1989 the Autococker was born.Autococker Tech Page - Cocker History at Ultra Twisted Paintball There is a lot of controversy as to whether the design was stolen from Glenn Palmer (who has repeatedly and publicly made and defended this claim and has given a detailed accounting of the circumstances) or was actually Bud's innovation.
In the early 1990s the Autococker quickly rose to become one of the most popular markers used by top professional teams, used by such teams as Bob Long's original Ironmen. Although heavily criticized for reliability and a number of design defects,An In Depth Review of the Worr Games Products Autococker it proved to be an easy platform to work off and aftermarket parts soon appeared shortly after its inception. One of the most fundamental and important upgrades was the adjustable Palmer "Rock" low pressure regulator (LPR) to replace the troublesome "Sledge Hammer" stock LPR. With a variety of options appearing for parts, Belsales in the UK became the first company to build WGP-certified aftermarket cockers, called "Evolution" in 1993. Throughout the remainder of the 1990s, dozens of shops ranging from large notables such as Dave Youngblood Enterprises (Dye), Shocktech, Planet Eclipse, Belsales and FreeFlow down to small one man pro-shop operations made a business of servicing and customizing Autocockers with price tags of nearly $2000 for high-end models. A combination of performance, upgradeability and cosmetic options made it one of the top tournament markers of the 90's. Only the Automag rivaled it in popularity until electronic markers appeared. Indeed, the autococker was so ubiquitous that its barrel threading became one of the most commonly used standards on high-end markers (akin to how firearm cartridge sizes are often named for the first popular gun model or manufacturer to use them). To this day, most high-end markers, and many entry-level as well, accept barrels with "autococker threads".
By the turn of the century, with the advent and increased popularity of electropneumatics, it no longer became profitable for specialized shops to produce custom autocockers, and they slowly began to disappear. Though the introduction of partial-electropneumatic conversion kits in the early 2000s by companies like Planet Eclipse extended the autocockers' popularity by a few more years, the availability of fully electropneumatic markers that required less work to maintain caused the autococker to lose favor with tournament teams, and eventually, casual players as well.Has Paintball Technology Reached a Plateau? , Mohammed S. Alo, April 2004, The Paintball Times Newer Autocockers with integrated, solenoid-controlled pneumatics remain available, boasting lesser maintenance and tuning. "Classic" Autococker models retain some popularity with recreational players, some of whom "revert" the design back to the pump-action "Sniper" concept for use in pump play.
Operation The Autococker is essentially a pump marker with an automated pumping mechanism. It is a closed-bolt design, like all pump markers, and its operation can be broken down into two discrete phases, or cycles:
1) The firing cycle – The process that releases the gas that fires a paintball out of the marker is fairly simple compared to the re-cocking cycle. At rest, the bolt sits forward, closing the chamber (hence, closed-bolt). This prevents more paintballs from entering. A pull of the trigger drops the sear, which in turn releases the hammer. A spring propels the hammer forward into the valve, which causes the valve to release a burst of gas upward into the bolt. The bolt redirects the gas behind the paintball, propelling it out the barrel.
2) The re-cocking cycle – Once the paintball is fired, three things must happen in order to return the marker to a "ready" state: 1) the hammer must be pulled back so that it re-engages the sear and re-compresses the spring, 2) the bolt must be pulled back so that another paintball can fall from the feed tube into the breech, and 3) the bolt must be pushed forward after the paintball is loaded to close the breech.
On both the Sniper and the Autococker, a back block performs all three of these functions. The bolt is attached to the block, while a cocking rod (which is attached to the hammer and designed to catch on the block) passes through it. When the block moves backward, it pulls the bolt back, allowing a paintball to drop into the breech. The backward movement simultaneously pulls the cocking rod back, causing the hammer to also be pulled back until it re-engages the sear. When the block moves forward, it pushes the bolt (and the paintball) forward, closing the breech. The cocking rod stays pulled back, with the hammer ready to fire.
On both the Sniper and Autococker, a pump rod runs from the front of the marker to the back block and serves as the means by which the back block moves forward and back. On the Sniper (and converted Autocockers), a pump handle is located on the front of the marker and attaches to the pump rod. After the player has pulled the trigger to fire a paintball, he/she then pulls back on the pump arm, pushing the back block rearward. This opens the bolt, allowing the next ball to be fed into the breech, and simultaneously pulls the hammer back until it is caught by the sear.
The front block In the Autococker, a pneumatic system replaces the pump handle to automatically re-cock the marker (hence the name, "auto cocker"). The pneumatics are composed of three components: the low pressure regulator (LPR), the 3-way valve, and the ram. All three are grouped together at the front of the marker on what is known as the front block. The LPR is tapped into a channel inside the marker body through which air is routed to the bolt. Some of the gas used to fire the paintball is thus re-routed to the LPR. The LPR lowers the pressure to level appropriate for the pneumatic system (the pneumatics typically operate at < 100 PSI, versus a typical operating pressure of 400 PSI for the rest of the marker), before passing it on to the 4-way. The second component is the 4-way valve, known simply as a 4-way. The valve is commonly known as a 3-way valve because it has 3 visible ports, but this is technically incorrect. It is linked to the trigger via a short timing rod and activated when the trigger is pulled. The 4-way features three barbs on top, two of which are connected via small hoses to either end of the ram, and one of which is connected to the LPR. Gas from the LPR enters the 4-way through the center barb. Inside the 4-way is a small sliding rod (or "spool") with 2 or 3 o-rings forming flow chambers that link the center barb to one or the other of the outer barbs depending on its position. No more than two barbs are linked at any given time. The third component is the ram. The ram is connected to the pump rod and serves as the active pumping mechanism. It features two barbs, one near the front and one at the back, through which gas enters from the 4-way. O-rings inside the ram create compartments inside so that depending on whether gas enters the front or the back, the ram will either extend or retract. The end through which gas enters the ram depends on which barb in the 4-way is linked with the center barb.
Timing The re-cocking cycle as described above is understandably complex, involving many independent components that must be synchronized in order for the marker to function properly. The process of synchronizing these components is known as timing.OtterSC's Custom Cockers, AutoCocker Timing and Troubleshooting, 2004 Timing is a process unique to Autocockers, and viewed by non-owners as particularly onerous. Experienced Autococker owners claim however that with enough practice, timing becomes as simple and routine as the upkeep required of any other paintball marker.Endless Paintball - Timing Tutorial, 2005
Most Autocockers are timed at the factory, and only need to be retimed if some of the timing components (such as the hammer, 3-way, timing rod, etc.) are replaced.
Players experienced in both working on and operating Autocockers prefer a more careful timing process called suction, or vacuum timing. The recocking cycle is carefully moved closer towards the firing point, until the interaction between the ball exiting the barrel and the bolt recocking creates a vacuum in the breech. This causes the marker to effectively "suck" a paintball into the chamber.
Accuracy A common belief is that the closed-bolt design of Autocockers makes them inherently more accurate than open-bolt markers.Sniper II - AutoCocker, Martin Heffron, WARPIG This argument is premised on the fact that the bolt's mass does not move forward when the trigger is pulled, (as it does in open-bolt designs) since the ball is already "chambered" in the breech when the firing cycle is initiated. Proponents suggest that the absence of an oscillating mass during the firing cycle makes the autococker a more stable firing platform, which increases accuracy.
Tests have indicated however, that where there is a good paint-to-barrel match, the design of the marker is irrelevant.Where's the Bolt? at WARPIG Open-bolt markers with a good paint-to-barrel match have proven to be just as accurate as the Autococker. These tests, however, did not measure the stability of the shooting platform, which is the main reason many believe Autocockers to be accurate. They instead used a fixed mounting point which artificially equalizes the stability of both marker tested. Additionally, these test were performed with a single marker modified to act like both and open or closed bolt paintball marker. This modification along with the poor quality of the modified marker leads to inherently inaccurate shots for both versions.
The belief that Autocockers are more accurate due to their design is partially due to the confounding fact that the Autococker requires a good paint-to-barrel match. In open-bolt markers, the breech is open during the firing phase, since the bolt is in a "back" position. Thus, a rubber detent keeps the "chambered" ball from rolling out of the barrel before the marker is fired. The closed-bolt design of the marker means that paintballs are held in the chamber, beyond the breech where the detent is located. The only thing keeping the paintball from rolling out the barrel is a good paint-to-barrel match. Autococker owners unaware of this fact tend to notice that paintballs roll out of the barrel when the end is pointed downward.
Criticisms