History of Carter Machine - fill in the blanks…

[Drcemento]

Hoping some of the MCB’ers here can help put together a little timeline/ story of Carter Machine. I’ve admired his work Since the mid nineties when I first saw one in APG. I’m finally taking the plunge with one recently posted here and it got me wondering more about the history of them. There is painfully little online - I don’t think he ever had a website, Bacci has a couple interviews but they are very narrow in scope.

How did he start? Where was his shop? What was the Hawaiian connection? What was the story behind the “dye era” did he make more markers after that? What’s he doing now? What’s your carter story? How did you even go about getting a gun from him?


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[Agglet]

I bought one new years ago and I'm positive I ordered it off their website with a marker builder tool but it was so long ago though that there might be some kind of Mandela effect thing going on. Either way I definitely did own a brand new Carter Machine Buzzard that part I know is true.

[Bow]

Hoping some of the MCB’ers here can help put together a little timeline/ story of Carter Machine. I’ve admired his work Since the mid nineties when I first saw one in APG. I’m finally taking the plunge with one recently posted here and it got me wondering more about the history of them. There is painfully little online - I don’t think he ever had a website, Bacci has a couple interviews but they are very narrow in scope.

How did he start? Where was his shop? What was the Hawaiian connection? What was the story behind the “dye era” did he make more markers after that? What’s he doing now? What’s your carter story? How did you even go about getting a gun from him?


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He lives not to far from me. I can ask him directly when I have some time if it's all mething the community is hazy on.

[Lt. head-shot]

The website has been down for several years, but he did have one. Sadly Mr.Carter has been retired for quite a while, so the used market is the only place to get a Carter. I am not an expert by any means, but I believe there was a shop down in Rosecrans, CA back in the 80's or 90's. Then he moved to Hawaii? Pk5 (a member here) used to be one of the best ways to contact him as he was local when the shop was still up and running.

Might get some good individual info from here - https://www.vintagerex.com/cgi-bin/i...rter%20Machine

[Bow]

Not 100% true. He's retired on the large scale, so he's not pumping out hundreds of markers but he still has a small shop and he does custom orders.

Last time I was over there he was making a brand new duck for someone, and he'll take custom orders.

[Señor Leo]

I've never met him personally, but from the research I've done I believe he was located in Chula Vista Ca(a city in San Diego county) during the early 2000's. My home field during the time was located in Chula Vista and I saw a handful of cool Carter markers while playing there

[Drcemento]

Had some time to go back and watch Bacci’s videos and piece together a little of the story


as far back as 86 -87 ish he and Stan Russel shared/owned? A shop in SoCal making parts like pump handles for Sheridan and the termite gun
he and Stan parted ways and Carter created what became the buzzard about that time

his shop and reputation grew into the nineties - he sponsored some teams

when did the “dye era” start and why? I know he made many guns over the years for Youngblood. was it an attempt to grow the business?
when did that end? Why

Went back to his own shop?

Did he make an ok living at it?

How did he get into paintball in the first place?

was he a machinist by trade?

[coyote]

The "Dye era" was really more of a distribution deal.

Dye had commercial accounts adding Carter to the catalog gave Earon the ability to get his product in Dye supported shops.

Started 2003 ish? Lasted @ 5 years.

[coyote]

And yes, he made more markers "post Dye".

Pre Dye markers have a different trigger frame . Dye era markers have a frame that looks more like a single trigger Dye hinge Autococker frame.

[Señor Leo]

Does anyone have the scan of the DYE catalog with Carter and his markers in it?

[Axel]

What's the purpose of the front block design on some of his guns, older Buzzards iirc?

And as others have said, he definitely had a website. He mostly retired and shut down the site around 2013/2014

And while he was always based in California, I had it in my head that the Hawaiian connection is because he's of native Hawaiian descent--is that accurate?

[pearcem]

The front block, or collar, held it all together. The feed tube bolted to the collar, not the body, and it slipped over the trigger frame, sandwiching all of it together. It was almost like the firewall on older cars - where everything attached to.

One of the most common mods for older guns with collars is a set screw to keep the snub, or body, in place. Without it, the collar design can let everything shift around a tiny bit, and with the tight tolerances on Carter guns, that little bit of movement is often enough to cause the guns to autotrigger when they aren't supposed to.

[Hp_lovecraft]

I have a vague memory of carter guns in the late 80s. occationally you would see a carter comp, or similar at large games. I remember them as lightweight and overpriced.
Also around this time, he got divorced? i think? his wife took half the company and formed NW (Nicky Wilson?). She released her own versions, and eventually the Spitfire 1/2. We had those as rentals around 1990 and i thought they were pretty good. They tilted, so it was easy to clean.

I remember in the early 90s, 1990-1993, it was very trendy to send your guns to carter, to get "carterized". Basically, he would add his unique style of holes and slots into the body, and add grips and rails also with the same mods. Plus those very carter-ish barrels, with the built-in muzze break, ribbing, etc. I had my PMI3 done, lots of friends sent in guns. Even a Minimag

Once the autococker came out, everyone had problems with them, so i remember Carter (and palmer, bbt, skip swift, etc) offering autococker servicing, Big business in the early 90s.

Thats my entire memory of Carter Machine, I know later on he got involved with Dave Youngblood. The story I've always heard was that dave, as a kid, would always hang around the shop.... wanting to "touch everything", and it totally annoyed everyone. the only solution they could come up with was to give him a job