Adapting a BT SA-17 for Constant Air WITHOUT a Dummy 12g?

[procarbie]

Do you think there’s any *relatively* easy way to do this? I’ve got a SA-17 that I love, the xbox-hueg size and absurd (for paintball) recoil makes it just delightful to shoot. But I gotta find a way to bypass that 12 gram changer—besides feeling like I’m gonna break my fingers trying to get the damn things out, I’d rather not rely on some old discontinued face seals to keep the thing from inevitably leaking like a sieve at some point. And I’ve heard that people ran into lots of leaking issues with that dummy 12 gram kit they had for it anyway.

So I’d really like to just bypass the 12 gram changer altogether, and run a steel braided hose from a bottomline right into the guts of the marker. I just don’t know how.

Is that possible? I’m not afraid to drill into the side of it if need be. I know the internals borrowed a lot of old PMI parts, so maybe there’s something I could replace the piercing assembly with?

[XEMON]

I love my SA-17s too, really underated gun 👍

I've looked at it for one of mine, and the easiest would be to turn an adapter that replaced the pierce pin assembly and has a standard 1/8npt port on the front. I looked at drilling the pierce pin assembly but there are too many parts and not enough meat.
If you drill the side of the valve body, you will still have to make a plug for the front ... At a minimum.

PS: I put a rope handle on the lever and removed the extra retainer clip so the 12g just falls out ...
PS2: keep the big retainer and remove the 2 skinny ones.

[procarbie]

I love my SA-17s too, really underated gun 👍

I've looked at it for one of mine, and the easiest would be to turn an adapter that replaced the pierce pin assembly and has a standard 1/8npt port on the front. I looked at drilling the pierce pin assembly but there are too many parts and not enough meat.
If you drill the side of the valve body, you will still have to make a plug for the front ... At a minimum.

PS: I put a rope handle on the lever and removed the extra retainer clip so the 12g just falls out ...
PS2: keep the big retainer and remove the 2 skinny ones.

See this is why I love MCB, because no matter what random project pops into my head, there’s someone more knowledgeable who’s tried it before!

Ok, so best bet would probably be to just pay a talented airsmith to craft a custom part? Not the end of the world, I imagine it would prob be a fairly simple job. Heck, if I do go that route I’ll let you know, if you wanna get one made for yourself.

And hell yeah for a fellow SA-17 enthusiast! I feel like these things so often get left out of the conversation when it comes to pistols, but they did some things really well (while doing other things...not so well).

I find that for me they’re a little too chunky and heavy of a marker to feel really good as a “pistol” strictly speaking (my USP fits better into that role), but with a foregrip and a micro hopper they feel juuust right as a little SMG/machine pistol type deal. When I get the bottomline situation figured out I’m going to run mine with a forward facing ASA to a 13/3000 (or a dual 12 gram changer for outlaw play), to keep the compact profile. And the foregrip does wonders for getting that 12g changer latch open, like your rope handle.

I recently picked up an angled rail for the back riser and some neat 3d printed iron sights (made for nerf guns lol). Now it sights like a SMG and is actually pretty damn accurate to boot! And I don’t have to look at that ugly (but useful) little aiming knub thingy haha

[XEMON]

Here is the handle.
also freaked the tip so I use freak insert instead of the "barrel insert"

[procarbie]

Slick! How’d you mount the rail to the underside of the 12g latch? Bolt/washer combo on the cutout in the center?

[XEMON]

Drill and tap mounting screws. There is no room for washer.