Spyder Shutter Question

[BlindFaith429]

Going back to my youth, my first gun I ever shot was a blue Spyder Shutter that my cousin had. Was running it on CO2 at the time with a gravity hopper lol.

Was thinking about picking one up, for nostalgic reasons.

Were these any good? Or were they more of an entry level "disposable" marker?

[Jonnydread]

At the risk of over-generalizing a Spyder is a Spyder is a Spyder.

That said, the Shutter was the top of its class back in the day - metal trigger frame, powerfeed (cause force hoppers weren't a thing yet and vertical feed Spyders chopped paint like crazy without one), regulator, etc. The Shutter is going to have the characteristics of any other STBB, but should shoot just fine. It's as good as a Spyder can really be without getting into the VS-series balanced valve shenanigans.

I say go for it, nostalgia is fun. I love using my Tiger shark for the same reason.

[Hobbes]

Well said Jonathan.

[glaman5266]

They are serviceable. Nothing special in terms of raw performance IMO, but they work well enough and make for solid backups & loaners. I think where non-balanced Spyders really shine is in the mods you can do to them. Trigger jobs, hammer polishing, adjusting volume & springing, etc.. At their current prices they make for excellent modding fodder.

[BlindFaith429]

Well, I just checked prices on the-bay. Pretty inexpensive for some nice condition ones.

Are they okay on compressed air? Or not so much? Or just fine as long as the reg is set around 850 psi?

[JeeperCreeper]

It should work just fine. Most paintball tanks will output 850 psi which is the same as co2

[William the Third]

A Shutter was my second marker back in 2000. I ended up removing the original bottomline ASA/reg, installing a drop-forward, and running it straight off of a 96ci/3000psi hpa tank with 800~850psi output. Never had any velocity problems.

[Tarsun2]

paint was bigger back then. if you run a force feed hopper, youll have to prevent rollback. easy fix. glue an o-ring onto the face of the bolt. (make sure it dosent hit the detent).
its actually not a bad mod for any older spyder no matter what hopper youre using.
make sure you have some spare stryker o-rings and probably an o-ring kit for the rest of the marker.
The mini-regs are a PITA imo and would probably need a good rebuild as well.

[BlindFaith429]

Well, just bought one off the-bay. Seller claimed it was new, in the box, but he listed it as used as it has been sitting / kicking around all these years.

Anything I should know when rebuilding this?

[Tarsun2]

go through all the o-rings in the marker and reg. they turn to mush after a few years.

[BlindFaith429]

Well, got her in. At first I thought it was new, but found traces of old paint in the crevices, and found bolt wear (can see the anno scratched off the bolt where it passes by the feed neck). Either way, I'm happy for the $60 I spent.

Where is the regulator on these? Is it in the chrome section of the fore-grip? Or in the ASA bolted to the drop forward?

Considering one of the dirrect bolt CP on/offs for the ASA, and unsure of what i want for the grip regulator. And yes, I'm aware of the funky spyder bolt pattern.

[BlindFaith429]

Also need to know where to get a rebuild kit. Are the ones on ebay good-to-go?

[Hobbes]

The regulator is the part with the gauge.

[BlindFaith429]

Hobbes , so if I get an HPA tank with a built in regulator, and set the output to 700-800ish PSI, i can in theory eliminate that regulator and use a standard ASA? Then use the adjustable bottom tube cap to set my velocity?

Or should I run a standard ASA with a regulator front-grip, like an Autococker would?

[JeeperCreeper]

You shouldn't need a regulator. And most tanks are going to be preset around 850psi unless you spend more on an adjustable, but you really shouldn't need that. Yes you use the adjustment on the back to set velocity, if you can't get it in the proper range, then you can pick up a spring kit for cheap to get you dialed in. Of course if it's shooting to high you could always cut the spring down a little at a time with the adjuster all the way loose, until you're shooting just a hair low, then use the adjuster to bring you back up where you need to be.

[scottieb]

I personally would remove the stock ASA reg and use a reg in the vert ASA. The stock regs aren't great and are no fun to work on.

[JeeperCreeper]

Get some new orings for sure.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Spyder-Shutter-Paintball-Marker-O-ring-Oring-Kit-x-4-rebuilds-kits-/264700094362?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49286&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0

[VonBraun63]

Throw a tank on it. Delete the regulator with a Spyder asa. Go play. My son uses my Spyder extra that I bought back in 2001 still to this day with a 68/4500. No issues. That reg is more of an issue than it’s worth.

[JeeperCreeper]

Here is a treasure trove of info about Spyders. Anything and everything you could need.

http://web.archive.org/web/20080203094158/http://www.ottersccustoms.com/spyder.html#homemod

[Tarsun2]

yeah, dont need the reg unless you want to try and "tune it" for efficiency. Have you ever run out of air during a match?

its nice going almost a whole day without having to fill up but air is included with the field play pass, so why not use it.

[BlindFaith429]

Thanks for all the help guys. I think I'm gonna have CP throw up on this gun lol. Planning on a gas-thru grip, drop, on/off ASA, and a 10" barrel.

[JeeperCreeper]

Nice and simple. She won't let you down