Stingray Mods...

[DavidBoren]

I'm just going to write down what I can remember from my mad scientist days back in high school. If anyone has anything I missed, or corrections to my quite possibly incorrect memory, feel free to add them.

Barrels:
First, the LAPCO Remora adapter... this genius device pins into your Stingray and allows you to use Spyder threaded barrels. However, they are a relic from days gone by, and they have a ~0.690+" internal bore.

The J&J Ceramic was the barrel of choice, and it was available for the Stingray pins (no adapter needed). This is still a wicked barrel, even with today's paint.

The EagleWorks barrel is another decent option that was available specifically for the Stingray pins. Not nearly as good as the J&J, but still a good barrel if you happen to come across it.

The CMI Tru-Flight "ThunderPig" straight rifled barrel is probably not nearly as good as I remember it being. But back in 1999-2001-ish, the particular one I had was dead nuts accurate. I had a 16" version, designed for the Stingray pins. I had to wrap it at the base with electrical tape to eliminate the wiggle. The barrel is thinner than most others at the base where it meets the body. I later had mine spiral ported by a member on the old Brass Eagle Owner's Group, which significantly reduced its sound signature.

Pretty sure there were some BOA barrels made specifically for the Stingray pins, and they are absolutely wonderful barrels if you can find one. I am not 100% confident that they were made for the Stingray, though. I am sure someone will chime in to solve this riddle one way or another.

Pins:
Brass Eagle made quick pull metal pins with keyrings to facilitate, well, quicker pulling.

Detent:
Replace that stupid metal ball with a 8mm acrylic bead from your local craft store. The metal ball dents the bolt, which can cut paint.

Bolt:
At the very least, you can remove the dent from the metal detent ball, and add more of a concave/cone to the front opening.

There were a few delrin bolts and venturi bolts made for the Stingray, but they are probably impossible to find these days. Might be cheaper and easier to have one 3D printed now, and just reuse the stock arm.

Valve:
Not a whole lot needs done with the valve, honestly. Even running HPA can be done without modifying the valve. Highly recommend replacing the springs with HPA, though.

You can file down the brass retaining nut a bit. There's a lip that holds/centers the cup seal on the inside of the retaining nut. This lip can actually sometimes be taller than the cup seal, especially with the aftermarket cup seals that were available for a while. Filing this lip down to about half its original height allows the valve stem to rest closer to the striker... so it technically opens a little bit further with the normal hit from the striker. Squeezing out a little extra velocity. Usually not necessary, but it is an option.

The three holes in the valve stem can be enlarged. Be careful not to mar or knick the sealing surface, though. This is also completely not necessary.

You can cut the choke screw velocity adjuster down, or file it into a pointed tip so it is less restrictive... I know that it being restrictive is its entire purpose, but we can control the velocity with air pressure and springs. I like to let the valve breath.

Transfer Tube:
What a freaking pain. You are absolutely advised to get your valve and ASA tapped for 1/8npt, and replace the d@mned thing with macroline.

If you don't replace it entirely, soak the O-rings overnight in automatic transmission fluid, then wrap both ends, over the O-rings, with Teflon tape. Lots of it. So you have to cram that $#!+ in there upon reassembly. Hopefully it will hold a seal.

Trigger:
Oh man does the trigger need some work!

For a REAR TRAVEL LIMITER, drill a 1/4" hole through the back layer of the pistol grip. It's hollow, only drill through one side. Now drill a 1/8" hole through the front layer, directly behind the trigger. Insert a screw through the 1/4" hole and force thread it into the 1/8" hole until it sticks forward enough to stop the trigger after the sear drops. I secured mine with a stop nut after I had it adjusted. Wrap the grip with tape so you don't have that 1/4" hole in the web of your hand.

To eliminate TAKE UP, I drilled a 1/8" hole through the lower receiver from side to side, above the safety. I then slid a machine screw through the hole, above the tang of the trigger. I had to notch the bottom of the body and the top of the trigger to make room for the bolt. However, you can position it to stop the trigger from returning all the way forward, by quite a bit. There's at least 1/4" of pre travel, even with the safety on! We don't want that.

Side to side play/slop can be mitigated with washers/shims.

You can preload the sear, as well. Drill a 1/4" hole through the bottom of the trigger guard, behind the trigger. Drill a 1/8" hole behind the trigger slot. Insert a machine screw through the 1/4" and force thread it up into the 1/8" hole. The screw will hit the bottom of the sear and push it up, away from the trigger. This makes the overall travel of the sear less, and therefore you experience less CREEP.

Vertical ASA:
The big block of plastic in front of the trigger with the Stingray on it is hollow. Cut out the bottom. Slide a duckbill ASA up in there. Use machine screws to attach the duckbill to the "front" of the trigger guard. This portion is actually two layers thick, and you can countersink the heads of the screws so they aren't taking up real estate inside the trigger guard where your finger is.

The 2-penny Mod:
Put two pennies behind the guide for the mainspring. That's it.

[MrKittyCatMeowFace]

Dye made stingray barrels too. Smart parts also made the progressive barrel for stingrays.

[dartamon]

Yeah, a bunch of companies made barrels for Stingrays, but for a limited time while their price was still high. Once they were $60 at Walmart, it made no sense.

[MrKittyCatMeowFace]

Yeah, a bunch of companies made barrels for Stingrays, but for a limited time while their price was still high. Once they were $60 at Walmart, it made no sense.

Makes sense since they sold stingrays at walmart. When your new, you just have to personalize your marker. You tell yourself they make the marker better.

[dartamon]

Well, you also just wouldn't invest $100 into a $60 marker, you'd trade up. But the Stingrays started at $200 and were still like $80 in 1998. At that time people would still sink in a little money to make it better. I think a good barrel would make a difference - the Thunderpig in particular was small bore, so if you were using something like Diablo Hellbore, you got a good paint match and it shot more accurately. BE barrels were all really large bore and became less accurate as time went on and paint got smaller.

[DavidBoren]

The ThunderPig barrel I had was quite noticeably smaller bore than pretty much anything else being made at the time. And yes, it shot Diablo paint like lasers.

A few more mods I forgot to mention in the original post...

Elbow:
The Stingray takes a special elbow, so don't lose the one it has. In fact, take a hacksaw and cut an "X" in each end of the elbow... about as deep as the hacksaw blade (~1/2"). Then put hose clamps on each end. Yay, clamping feedneck!

Drill some holes in the elbow to vent blowby gas. The gas can push balls back up into the hopper and cause jams/breaks.

Air agitated hopper:
Remove the velocity adjustment screw and replace it with the screw from a bicycle that the shifter cable/brake cable runs through. It's a machine screw that has a bore through it. It will thread into where the velocity adjustment screw goes.

Anyways, take a piece of aquarium tubing and slide it over the head of the bicycle screw. Run the other end of the tube up to the hopper. Drill a hole in the bottom of the hopper, directly behind the spout/neck. Put the aquarium tube in the hole. I made a little duct tape flap that the air blasted and moved up and down.

Like the PALS hopper, but ghetto, and from 1999.

[dartamon]

I got a VLBow specifically because it's 1 inch to 1 inch with an insert for 7/8. It's the best elbow for BE guns.

Heh, yeah I remember the air agitation for hoppers.

I gassed up my marker collection today, only the Stingray 1 worked. The cocker, mag, 2 raptors, M98 all had some kind of a problem. The Rainmaker I'm not touching for now. When everything is said and done, the Stingray just fucking works.

[Fubarius]

Ok, here's my most modded Stingray II and a quick and dirty how-to it's mods.





I seem to remember back in the day the ID on the Remora adapter was different depending on which color it was. First series, second series, etc. So something like black was large bore, green was tiny, gold was something in the middle. Or I have that order completely wrong. It's been a few decades. Anywho, on many stingrays certain aftermarket barrels and adapters tended to wiggle when pinned in place. A wrap or two of electrical tape usually stiffened that right up.

For a vertical adapter I took an Automag vertical ASA and mounted it to the flat area by the front grip pin. You have to trim off some plastic, and I like to take a hole saw to cut a rounded notch out of the part with the logo so the vertical adapter fits just right. The vertical ASA mounts by a screw that's threaded in from the top, make sure to trim down a washer or drill a hole in a small strip of metal so that the screw isn't tightening directly into the plastic.

Double trigger guard is a simple strip of aluminum. Dremel a slot in front of the trigger (plenty of room in that triangle'ish area), dremel a shallow notch in the grip, bend and pop in the metal strip. No screws needed.

Double trigger is actually a trigger shoe made for an early model Tippmann Model98. It's got a wide slot in the back to clamp on to the stock trigger, just happens to work on both the Stingray and the old Model98. Very had to find these days. Most trigger shoes have a very narrow notch in the back.

A double trigger is impossible with out a good trigger job (it would swing too both directions). Headless set screw threaded in from the rear for the rear limiter. Another stainless one for the sear pre-load. Front limiter is kind of fancy. A small brass strip with two 8-32 holes drilled and tapped into it goes across the top of the trigger arm. Two small screw go up from the bottom into the strip. As you tighten the screws it lowers the strip, limiting the front travel. There are springs over the two screws keeping everything pushed up nice and tight.

On this one I do seem to remember polishing the hammer and grinding a little off the sear catch, just to flatten it out a bit. Less sear wear if it's catching on a flat area the same width as the sear, as opposed to the bottom of a circle that may be narrower than the sear. Also moves the trip point forward a bit.

Lapco aftermarket cocking rod, since the stock one is just way to flat.

Since I never planned on using back bottle on this puppy ever again the rear ASA threads were hacksawed off. Air passage hole was drilled and tapped for 1/8 NPT. And while I was doing that I drilled and tapped a hole in the bottom of the rear bottom of the ASA block for a short length of 1/8 NPT brass male to male extension pipe. Ground off the back threads since I didn't need them, and ran a tap down the middle for an appropriately sized set screw, which needed a little automotive RTV gasket maker to keep it from vibrating loose. That's now my rear velocity adjuster. I had to add another third of a main spring, rig up a new spring guide from some random rod of metal, and stack a bunch of rubber washers behind the hammer to keep the cocking rod from smacking the back of the cocking slot, but now I can set the main spring tension from way softer than stock, to stiffer than stock.

On the valve, which can't be seen sadly, I did a lot to increase flow. Increased the number of ports in the valve stem from 3 to 6. Shortened the front of the valve stem a little so it can open more (no idea if this actually does anything). If you remove velocity adjuster screw, and all the valve internals, a few whacks on the power tube (metal tube on the valve that goes through the bolt) will drive it out the back of the valve. The power tube is smaller than the valve pin, so a flow restriction. I replaced it with a brass tube that's the same size as the valve pin. The velocity adjuster screw threads into a hole in the back of the brass tube a little to hold it in place. This increased flow through the valve IMMENSELY. Ever seen a Stingray chrono at 475 fps? I have, it's scary. So of course I add the regulator and rear velocity adjuster to get the velocity back to safe levels.

The drop forward is on a plastic bottom line adapter block. Found some thick solid plastic, PVC in this case I think. Carve it to fit in the grip, jam it in, I think I manage to hide some setscrews to lock it in place. Or did I glue this one? Can't remember. I did add some threaded metal inserts for the bottom line screws.

[DavidBoren]

Thanks for your additional information, and the pictures of that awesome Stingray.

Was it you or Brewmaster that spiral ported my ThunderPig barrel back in the day (circa 2000, BEOG days)?

[Ironnerd]

My old Stingay was modded as follows:
I started by applying shims to the trigger made from pieces of polycarbonate plastic (from discarded airplane windows). I put one where the trigger contacted the sear, and the other on the back of the trigger to limit aft travel. Both were attached with 5 minute epoxy. To get rid of some of the side-to-side trigger play, I used some very thin washers.

I then filed the back of the striker to make the sear shorter, then polished the sear and the contact surface on the striker. For a barrel I grabbed an All American. I also added a "star" bolt, added the quick-strip pins, and I replaced the ball detent with a plastic bead so it would not bugger up the bolt. I used Starrett Tool Oil to lube it, and never had an issue with corrosion, sticking, etc...

The result was an accurate, quick-shooting, and really reliable gun, that ended up being the reason I bought a revo loader. Without a powerfeed, though, it was still limited to 4- or 5-ball bursts.

I had a LOT of fun with that gun.

What it REALLY needed (other than a power feed) was an expansion chamber. All you had to do was tip the barrel down to fill the valve with liquid CO2 and send the next ball out at mach1. I guess a remote set up would have worked as well...

[infamoussmiley]

Here's the Bible for Stingray mods - http://www.warpig.com/paintball/tech...gray.faq.shtml

Still accessible after 26 years...

Best,

Smiley

[infamoussmiley]

Here's the Bible for Stingray mods - http://www.warpig.com/paintball/tech...gray.faq.shtml

Still accessible after 26 years...

Best,

Smiley

Regarding those modifications, they work! We used to play at a field that used Stingray rentals. The club at the time used those Stingrays and we had them ear marked for just our use. We modded them according to the Ravi Stingray mods. We would take on military folk and tourney folk with these markers and we held our own. I kind of miss those days...

Best,

Smiley