AtChipmunk's 2000+ Center Feed Sniper Build Thread - Long

[AtChipmunk]

The story of this Stock Class Sniper build has to first start with my somewhat recent return to paintball after a long hiatus. Prior to May of 2024, I had been out of paintball for over 20 years. I started playing in the late 80's at Tommy Maliszewski's (Baltimore Rats, All Americans, Team Image, etc) field here in MD and played heavily through the early 90's and eventually played with Team Image's second string in the mid 90's. Was a hardcore Autococker guy then, playing primarily with a custom Carterized Autococker (that I still have, that will be undergoing a restoration in the coming months). Around the mid-90's, I started getting more interested in Stock Class play after visiting my brother in Hawaii and seeing the level of stock class play both there and in SoCal. So much so, that in '96 while I was taking summer classes at UCLA, I asked Earon Carter (may he rest in peace) to build me a Carter Comp for the upcoming Canadian Stock Gun Championships of that year. He didn't finish it in time, but ended up loaning me a bright blue anodized Buzzard for the tournament. About a month or so later I picked up my finished Carter Comp from his shop in Fullerton and then enjoyed a night out with the Carter Machine boys (I think we went to see the movie Solo with Mario Van Peebles...terrible movie). The following morning we all met up at SC Village to play and I had an amazing first day with that marker. Here's a pic of that marker after a recent polishing job I did on it:



By the late 90's I had gotten more and more involved in the Filipino Martial Arts and competitive full-contact stick fighting, that I started playing paintball less and less. Hard to play paintball on the weekends when you're training for world championships in other sports. Heh. By the early 2000's, I had pretty much stopped playing paintball completely, and maybe got out for 1 private game that we put together with friends sometime around 2001 or so. That was officially the last time I played, up until May of this year (2024). In May, my brother and I flew out from MD to SoCal for the Earon Carter Tribute Game at SC Village. So sad from his passing, but was truly great to get out and see and play with a lot of old industry friends that I hadn't seen or talked to in ages. Was definitely a reunion of sorts, and was truly a great time...just unfortunately that it took Earon's passing to make it happen. Some pics from that event:

The Event Poster signed by those at the event, that was given to his daughters


Me, Wes Wong, Ted Kunewa, and my brother Jay Caragay, in between games...


Group pic from just our non-armband side before the start of one of the earlier games. So, this is only part of the attendees. There was quite a good turnout for the day. I think I heard that the total for the day was around 130-140 players.


Needless to say, I had an absolute blast playing with old friends and making new ones as well. Which resulted in me being bitten by the paintball bug again...HARD. After returning to MD, I started plotting and planning markers....wanting to restore my old Autococker, and also build a more "modern" mech cocker with modern pneumatics, etc. Before I knew it, I had picked this up:



A center feed 2000+ WGP Autococker, and originally the plan was to use that as the start of the modern Cocker build. But then I scored another body on eBay:



Won an auction for a RaceGun Halfblock body with full internals. The RaceGun Halfblock body will now be the starting point for the modern mech Cocker build...which left me with what to do with the 2000+ CF Cocker. Best answer...build a Stock Class Sniper!

[$L!mBo]

subscribed!
awesome backround story
stoked for the build!

[AtChipmunk]

Thanks Jim! Will be posting whenever I have time, and it will definitely be an ongoing build thread as things evolve...

[AtChipmunk]

A Stock Class Sniper conversion just made a lot of sense. Of course, my Carter Comp is one of the most bad-ass stock class markers out there, but the problem with it is the fact that the barrel was originally bored and polished to perfection by Earon for Nelson paintballs. Nelson paint was huge compared to the teeny tiny modern paintballs, so of course roll-out is a problem. Have some ideas for addressing this (hoping to find someone brave enough and skilled enough to make me a barrel for it that matches the original look and feel of the original...but machined for some sort of inserts to adapt to different sized paint), but in the meantime...a stock class sniper will fill the void. Plus, being an OG cocker guy means that i'm already in familiar territory with turning a cocker body into a pump, and still have lots of spares and parts from back in the day.

Since one of the hallmarks of a stock class marker is the horizontal feed tube, I first set out to look for options on doing a stock class feed on a center feed cocker body. Didn't really like the look of the 90 degree adapters with a straight feed tube, and didn't really come across many options out there so I decided to build my own. One of the other hobbies i've gotten into in the last few years is 3D printing so this seemed like a perfect opportunity to blend the 2 and decided I was gonna design and print a stock class feed for it. Something similar to the CCI Phantom's stock class feed, but designed to slide onto the Autococker body's 3/8" dovetail sight rail. I happened to have a CCI Phantom Stock Class Feed and tube that I had picked up for the RF Early 90's Autococker body I was building into my son's stock class marker (that will be covered in it's own build thread), so I initially modeled the feed after the Phantom feed, but with a flat front end instead of it being round, to make it a bit easier to print. Decided to use black PETG for the filament. Should be more than strong enough for this application and is still relatively easy to print. This is what I ended up with:



The underside next to the Phantom feed...


Test fit on the dovetail rail of my son's RF body (because I hadn't yet extracted the feed tube from the CF body):


Fits the dovetail rail perfectly, but wasn't really a fan of the width of the feed in comparison to the Cocker body, so made some modifications to make it slimmer and to match the Cocker body better. Ended up with this:






The squared sides definitely fit the shape of the Cocker body better. You can also see that I kept the mounting screw hole from the Phantom feed. Designed for an 8-32 socket head cap screw to secure the feed to the body. However, i've found that it isn't 100% necessary. The feed fits pretty tightly onto the rail that it doesn't move. Is unlikely to move during a game, but w'll see how it goes. Next step...to pull the center feed from the 2000+ body....

[$L!mBo]

awesome design

[AtChipmunk]

Have some more tweaks to make to the design, but once I finalize it, may make them available for purchase as well. Thinking about trying to design something for the right feed bodies as well, that slides onto the dovetail...

[AtChipmunk]

In order to pull the feed, I first had to disassemble the marker completely. Didn't take any pics of this, but i'm sure you've all seen Autocockers fully disassembled, so i'll leave it at that. On to pulling the feed..
I'm a BMW Master Technician by profession, so naturally I have a lot of tools and it seemed that a bearing puller would work to pull the feed tube from the body. Set the puller under the lip of the feed tube, placed an old aluminum bolt inside of the bore of the body for the center post of the tool to push on, and proceeded to pull the feed from the body:






With the feed neck removed, I could finally test fit the stock class feed on the actual body...




It fits well, however....I didn't quite like the large gaping hole with sharp edges left behind by the missing feed tube. So, I decided to cut down the feed tube and press it back into the body to fill that opening. Took some careful measurements, made some careful cuts with a Dremel with a cutoff wheel, filed and sanded it smooth and flush and ended up with this:



Then used an appropriately sized impact socket and a soft blow hammer to seat the shortened feed tube back into the body. I cut it so that it would sit JUST below the dovetail rail so it would cover as much of the hole as possible while still allowing the feed to slide onto the dovetail rail easily:






And here's how the 3D printed feed fits with the cut down feed tube:


Next up...reassembling it into a stock class marker...

[AtChipmunk]

At this point in the build I was under a bit of a time crunch because I was gonna take my son to play paintball for his first time at the Strockstravaganza event put on by The Timber Ghosts at NR Adventure Park in Taneytown, MD, and the event was coming up quickly. Because of the time crunch, I unfortunately assembled the marker without taking any pics, but the nitty gritty of the build are as follows:

Stock 2000+ lower tube internals (for now)
Stock 2000+ bolt
Inception Designs Genesis Pump kit
CCI 12 Round Feed tube
My 3D printed Stock Class Feed (black PETG)
3D Printed checkered grips (white PETG)
Carter Machine Stainless Steel Barrel (borrowed from my Carterized Autococker and only temporary until I pick-up a Freak XL Barrel set)
Carter Machine L-Stock (also borrowed from my Autococker)
CCI Bucket Changer (mounted on the drop forward I used to run on my Autococker - a temporary setup until I can pick up a lever changer to replace it)

It was also right around this time that I came across a post from Forrest from Armson/Pro Team Products and realized that Armson sights were still available (I thought they were discontinued). I always loved Armson sights and have run them on both my Autococker and my Carter Comp for a long time. Traded some emails with Forrest and soon had a box at the door with a new sight in it. Mounted it on the newly assembled marker and here's what we ended up with:





My only gripe with the new Armson sight is that they changed the mounting design from the one I have on my Carter Comp. The mounting block is kinda tall, so when mounted onto the rail on top of the 3D Printed stock class feed, it sits really high. Looks a bit awkward to me:


According to Forrest, this taller mount works perfectly on most markers with a sight rail and gives good clearance for the facemask, etc. Makes sense. He agreed though that, stacked on top of a 3rd tube like the stock class feed...it does look a bit tall. So, I decided to redesign the stock class feed to incorporate the Armson sight mounting block. For this first version, I just bored the screw holes slighter smaller than the M4 screws that hold the sight to it's mounting base and threaded them right into the plastic. More of a proof-of-concept...with future iterations being designed for M4 heat set inserts. Ended up with this:




Much better and more streamlined and lower profile. Also, since the Carter Machine barrel is of course a larger bore, I picked up a Warrior Paintball insert set to add to it to prevent rollouts. That will tie me over until I can pick up a Freak XL barrel kit. And here she is ready for her maiden voyage at Stockstravaganza!

[AtChipmunk]

First outing for the marker was in July at Stockstravaganza at NR Adventure Park in Taneytown, MD, hosted by The Timber Ghosts. About 45minutes from us. Was also my 12YO son's first time playing paintball. Great event with great hosts. Was awesome to finally see stock class events locally.
I started off the morning playing with my Carter Comp and then switched to the Sniper a little before lunch. Some pics from the day:


Me talking tactics and strategy with my son en route to the field...



Our group photo from the day. We only played on Sunday, but it was a 2-day event that started on Saturday. Similar turnouts for both days. Definitely a successful event.



The marker in action...


My son trying to hold it down. Heh







Overall, was a great day of paintball. My son loved it and is definitely hooked. Can't wait for the next one. As for the marker...Shot great, and the bucket changer wasn't as hard to change out 12ies as I thought it would be since it sits so close to the L stock. Regardless, a lever changer in it's place will be perfect. The placement of the Armson sight is damn near perfect...very quick and natural to sight with. Overall, the ergonomics of the gun fit me pretty perfectly with the stock at just the right angle for the height of the Armson sight. The Carter barrel with the Warrior Paintball insert set shot really well as well, but was a little lacking in range. That was the only complaint I had during the day of play. Definitely need to pick up a Freak XL barrel kit for it. Maybe a Carbon Fiber one.

The stock class feed worked perfectly as well. Very pleased with how that worked out, and as I suspected it never moved at all through the day of play so the 8-32 set screw is probably not necessary. I may still drill and tap the hole for it though, but overall i'm happy with it. Gonna do some revisions and refinements to the shape just to make it cleaner looking, and to make it easier to print. May work on some other variants of it as well...shorter, more compact. We'll see how it looks. Also working on an open class feed for it too that will use something like the Inception FLE feedneck. Just got a feedneck from Inception so gonna work on that soon, but the idea is that i'll be able to easily convert it to an open class pump by sliding the stock class feed off the dovetail rail and sliding on the open class feed.
Need to also do more finetuning of the marker as a whole. May switch to the ACP Gold kit for the lower tube internals. I have those in my son's stock class marker and they seem to work pretty well so I need to buy another set for this marker. Then do some sweet spotting of the reg for those internals. Hopefully I can get that done before the next event in October...