Empire sniper or Autococker pump?

[Starlord117]

Looking for an empire sniper to buy / or an autococker pump setup , which one is better to buy?

[Meleager7]

way more body options with the wgp sniper II platform!

[iamthelazerviking]

Empire Snipers just feel so cheap and need a bunch of upgrades to work better. Even then, I really hated mine. Had every upgrade possible. I am a huge fan of snipers ("cocker pumps") and building your own is much more gratifying and end result feels way better

[Starlord117]

gotcha yea I'm leaning towards building my own now. probably a wpg

[Jonnydread]

Agree with this. I think the Empire looks better on paper than it does in person. They're fine, but can have weird little QAQC issues and just don't feel as solid as WGP based Snipers.

[The Inflicted]

If you're starting fresh, and can find an Empire Sniper with the full barrel kit, it's a pretty great package and improves and optimizes on the older 'cocker based platform in many ways.

The biggest problem these have is that the stock pump handle can swell over time and start to bind with the guide rod. You can fix this in a number of ways but my favorite is by replacing the pump handle with a larger 3D-Printed one.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:810673

[Reformed Boiler]

I went down the same path being new to the pump scene. A sniper refers to a pump autococker. The empire sniper is a good option. I don’t like the way they look, and I didn’t want to do all of those needed fixes. If you need an auto trigger on your first gun, it’s the easiest option. Autotrigger kits for slide frames can be dubious. If you don’t want one of the new meteor or nova snipers. An easy way to get into the sniper platform is the trilogy autococker. I’ve enjoyed mine. The hinge 1.5 trigger frame is weird but better than a double trigger. If you want a more long term solution. Find a nice 2k cocker in decent condition, and install the pump kit of your choice. The inception genesis kit is great. Finding snipers and cockers on eBay can be difficult and expensive. If you see a gun you think is a good option ask about the price on here. Don’t be like me and pay $400 for a pump trilogy.

[Starlord117]

dually noted thanks! yea I'm lookin for a 2k-4k wpg

[Cdn_Cuda]

Build a pump is the best route. Start off with a body you like and go from there. But be aware if you don’t have a budget it can get expensive quickly. You don’t need to upgrade everything all at once though. Stock valves are great, don’t need fancy HPR etc and upgrade parts as wanted later.

An Empire Sniper can be a much cheaper option, used to find ones for 200-250 CAD but prices have gone up. But finding a nice used version with upgrades it usually cheaper than building a pump from scratch.

[SignOfZeta]

I’m going to be the odd man out and say Empire Sniper, even though I hate the company and they are ugly as hell. (Olive matte half blocks? WTF?)

I say this because you can buy a totally stock one complete and you don’t have to f with it in the garage for a year first like you will building one. They came stock with a quality auto trigger which is nearly impossible to add as a DIYer. If you think you can just slap an $300 Inception AT frame on a RF cocker body and start crankin away…that all you have to do is buy the right parts for whatever they cost and assemble them…hahaha…think again. It’s not that easy. I *rarely* see non-factory AT on any of the hundreds of Snipers people post pictures of here 24/7. Instead they give up and say they prefer no AT, which is a stance I believe they actually have about half the time and the other half of the time I assume they are like me and simply went half crazy trying to get it working.

I guess what I’m saying is I have a nice entry level Sniper I built and I DARE YOU to buy it. It ruined my friggn life. Let it ruin yours. PM me.

In all seriousness…Nelsons and Sterlings always have AT and don’t need regulators so that’s what always use in actual games. I’m always the only pumped out there. I need the AT.

[FastGas]

Sniper is a great off the shelf option. For what the whole thing usually costs used ($250-$350), you can barely purchase a modern trigger frame.

[SR_matt]

I am going to have to disagree with the comment about screwing around with a build for a while to get it to work. If I could slap a sniper together as a 15 year old and take it out and run it the first day without issue I don’t see how an adult is going to have much of an issue… granted maybe I was a rather mechanically advanced 15 year old and was mentored by a guy who was the local autococker god but even then it’s not complex.

what I will say though is that you shouldn’t really get cute with your first build and mix and match a bunch of parts… granted even with all the options out there you have tried and true combos so at least stick to those if not just buy and entire internals kit from one place and use them as they come.

my sniper uses all ST internals (I did get a little cute with the springing I think, but it has been 20 years and I ended up very close to the stock pressure range so it probably was for naught). Just slap a rat valve and post hammer in with the stock springs and you should be good. Get a solid regulator like a sidewinder, stab, or CP (I think their are some other decent ones now too but I like the old school regs and it’s hard to beat any of those). Assuming you’re using the ST internals set the reg to 200 with the IVG 2 turns in and start shooting bringing the reg up u til your velocity drops and then back it down. Should end up close to 230 psi, if you make major changes to the IVG you may want to recheck the sweet spot. But really assuming you don’t leave anything lose or do something weird it should take you 15-30 mins tops to get it tuned in and be ready to roll.