Ultimate Brass eagle raptor thread.

[MrKittyCatMeowFace]

I had Made a big intro on my post on the old site, but I don't want to type that out again. lol

So simply put, I want to pimp out a raptor with a bunch of period "upgrades" and diy mods. Eventually have the body custom milled and anodized aswell. Take yourself back to a time of paintball shops and magazine's and help me empty my pockets like so many others did in their early days of paintball on their own personal markers

[dartamon]

I can make a long-ass post.

The late-90s/early 2000s hold special memories for me, since it was a great time to be alive and be a teenager. The movies were great, music was great, there was mostly peace on earth. Paintball ended up being a fun action game for me to play, more fun conventional sports like basketball or baseball. Being a teenager in an area where most minimum-wage jobs were occupied by 21 year olds living in their parents basement, I couldn't really afford the most expensive gear. I actually originally found the STING, Stingray Toters Internet Group, on the internet before buying my own gear. There were a lot of people my age and they were not afraid to mod their gear themselves instead of paying an airsmith to do it. There weren't really any other active BE owner's groups at the time. The spirit of STING convinced me to invest in a Brass Eagle marker, the Silver Eagle had just recently came out and I spent 1998-2002 playing with it.

I eventually upgraded to a Rainmaker (but it was unusable, the seller ripped me off - beware in those early online days!) and then an Automag RT. The RT wasn't really as much fun - nothing to mod and it just chewed through the paint. By that time I had adopted what my brother called Soviet soldier tactics - running up the field screaming faster than the other players broke for their first bunker and got their bearings. This approach wasted very little paint - I'd win games with the Raptor using 5-10 paintballs, the Alpenflage suit with numerous pockets deflected balls at close range giving me some "armor" capabilities. The Automag RT by contrast ate paint by the bowlful.

In the end, the BE crowd had a lot of teenagers modding their own gear and I fit into that. I learned about pressures, forces, NPT threads, manufacturing techniques and made friends with airsmiths who schooled me further, like my friend ME262 whose name escapes me now. This gave me the confidence to walk into the student machine shop in my first semester in college and by the time I graduated I had more machine time under my belt than the entire mechanical engineering class combined. And I wasn't a mech eng major! I feel that a lot of kids got a boost into manufacturing technology by getting excited about the gear they were using.

I'm planning a series of 3 builds - 2 Silver Eagles, 1 Xtreme. And maybe a fourth one if we go fully crazy.

The first SE build will be a classic upgraded player's marker - bolt-ons that were available off the shelf circa 1998 for a first-generation Silver Eagle.

The second Silver Eagle will contain all of the crazy mods Raptor Owners Group's mods that I could possibly fit into it. And then some more. One of the things that I would like to do is to demonstrate ME262s full auto mod for blowbacks. Everyone knows that you can fix the sear in place ot make it go full auto, but how do you effectively slow down the cycling? This was figured out right around the time that cheaper electros like the Impulse became available along with the solenoid-sear blowback electro frames.

The third build will be a sleeper. An Xtreme that will be visually identical to a stock Xtreme but will contain a bundle of surprises. The only exception may be a visible regulator, depending on which direction the build goes.

The fourth build...well, let's be patient and get through the initial three first.

We're going to have a looooot of fun here.

[dartamon]

And the first one up is the first build!



True to the time period, this is a single trigger frame with a wire detent. It's almost exactly a copy of my Raptor when I first got it. Then I maxed out the bolt-ons - Eagleworks barrel, TASO sharkgill rail, thumb velocity adjuster, LAPCO cocking knob, the ASA is Viewloader because I couldn't find LAPCO but still aftermarket plus the stock WGP regulator that was very common to put onto blowbacks at the time as Cocker owners would upgrade them and sell the old ones for $20-$30. Not everyone could afford a Stabilizer, they were $75-$120 even back then.

With a setup like this, you could show up on a field, maintain consistent velocity, mount a red dot and generally look badass.

[dartamon]

By the way, I originally had a Big Daddy barrel on my Raptor 20 years ago. I don't think I've ever seen one again.

[Wanderingronin]

I kinda wanted to do the same thing, but to a lesser extent. I was looking to recreate my first non-plastic marker.

Took me a while to track down all the parts, but I basically got a clone of my first 'decent' marker that I had back when I was like 16 in 1996.

I found:
NiB Green Raptor
NiB BoB Long Cyclone Bolt (took me 2 years to find this bastard)
Taso expansion chamber
NiB 32* Nightstick (I think - this is a placeholder barrel)

I'm still looking for an old green All American and nice green smart parts wood grips. This thing actually shoots surprisingly well!

[MrKittyCatMeowFace]

I kinda wanted to do the same thing, but to a lesser extent. I was looking to recreate my first non-plastic marker.

Took me a while to track down all the parts, but I basically got a clone of my first 'decent' marker that I had back when I was like 16 in 1996.

I found:
NiB Green Raptor
NiB BoB Long Cyclone Bolt (took me 2 years to find this bastard)
Taso expansion chamber
NiB 32* Nightstick (I think - this is a placeholder barrel)

I'm still looking for an old green All American and nice green smart parts wood grips. This thing actually shoots surprisingly well!

I know one people that may have a the green all American barrel. I Sent a message to smiley burke to ask if the barrels from the dude with all the nib paintball stuff sold. And i think cave hero has the wood grips.

[dartamon]

Yeah, the green all american is rare! Same as the Bob Long Cyclone bolt - that's green raptor era.

[MrKittyCatMeowFace]

I want to see the bolt kinda.

[dartamon]

It's a venturi bolt with a central insert. Just restricts the flow, cone out the stock bolt or get a delrin one.

[MrKittyCatMeowFace]

It's a venturi bolt with a central insert. Just restricts the flow, cone out the stock bolt or get a delrin one.

I have a white delrin one in my silver eagle i got to go find.

[dartamon]

That's about as good as it gets. The Starfire and venturi bolts were more for looks/funsies than really useful in any big way.

[Wanderingronin]

I know one people that may have a the green all American barrel. I Sent a message to smiley burke to ask if the barrels from the dude with all the nib paintball stuff sold. And i think cave hero has the wood grips.

Man if you could put me in touch about that AA barrel I'd owe you big time!

[Wanderingronin]

I want to see the bolt kinda.

gotcha covered! Bob Long Cyclone bolt:

[dartamon]

Neat! Different than I remember.

[MrKittyCatMeowFace]

Man if you could put me in touch about that AA barrel I'd owe you big time!

Got in touch, its packaging was mislabeled. Was not raptor thread.