Avenger AK-1 Brochure From 1994

[mikew]

This is a scan of the Avenger AK-1 brochure I picked up in 1994.

The one I saw was beautifully made. I don't know how many were made but I never saw another one.

[Ecapnation]

I bought one new back in the day! Recently bought another to fill a nostalgia hole

[DocsMachine]

Maybe we should have an "old ads" sticky?

Doc.

[Hp_lovecraft]

I bought one new back in the day! Recently bought another to fill a nostalgia hole

I have one, and I love it. Extremely well designed and made. Superior to the Z1, it fixed many of the flaws in that design.

Its the typical paintball story. They (Aktraturn) started out as the original machine shop contracted to make the Icon-Z. They shipped the machined parts to "Wolfs Lair", where Montneel did some finishing work, and assembled the guns. Montneel did not pay its bills, and went out of business.

Aktraturn was stuck with a pile of worthless parts, and decided to upgrade the design, and launch there own paintball company "Avenger Paintball" to sell the gun, "AK-1", which stood for "Aktraturn Model 1"

They ran into distribution isues- By this time, 93 or so, every distributor was either selling Montneel clones, or actual Montneel guns (now back in business). Montneel was already fifgting with distributors over the clones, and thus nobody was interested in a higher-price clone.

So they went the "viral" route, and decided to give away hundreds at every tournament, or big game that would take them to use a prizes. Hoping for the free advertising, and then put tons of ads in the magazines.

In the end, did not really work out. Aktraturn stopped making them, and stacked all the stock in a warehouse, servicing the occasional AK1 that came in. Unfortunetly, a few years ago, the owner passed away, and they liquidated the machine shop Akraturn- The entire stock of old AK1 parts was scrapped. No even Bacci could have saved it.

Love the old ads though

[DocsMachine]

I have one, and I love it. Extremely well designed and made. Superior to the Z1, it fixed many of the flaws in that design.

-Could you elaborate on that?

One idea I've had for years has been to make an "updated" Mega-Z. Still front/vertical ASA, liquid valve, blowback, etc. but with more modern features- 'Cocker threads, vertical feed, native 45 grip, 2-finger trigger with integrated guard, lose the backbottle ASA entirely, etc.

No real reason to do so, other than just that I can. kind of like making a "modernized" Equalizer.

But I'd be curious to know which design flaws they changed, and how.

Doc.

[Ecapnation]

Silly simple things.

Better fit and finish for one. The components didn't feel sloppy and loose.

All of the hardware was captured so harder to lose.

Plus the integrated adjustable fore grip

[Hp_lovecraft]

The captured thumbscrews are such a nice feature. Plus, they screw into steel inserts, instead of the aluminium. That was always an issue with my various montneels. At some point, you will strip the receiver screws, and have to install steel inserts, helicoils, or similar. Other clones used larger screws to lessen the issue, but the AK1 was the best method.

Plus odd features- Adjustable iron sites. Pointless. but cool. Steel receiver pins, so no "montneelwobble". Dual barrel screws, wider trigger, better finish, foregrip, etc.

That said, the MegaZ is a better gun- Vert ASA, quick release receiver, quick release barrel, plus the better valve and trigger. But it still has the flaws where the whole gun gets wobbly after a while, and the SINGLE 10/24 screw holding the whole gun together WILL strip at some point.

The fps adjustment bolt, which sorta holds the valve in will eventually start to bend, and the valve will slide out enough to dump the tank. No fun.

The sear, designed to be super crisp, and short, eventually wears out. It was such an issue that Montneel made the sears easy to swap. Takes only seconds... but a better sear would have been a better solution.


The Checkmate and Patriot were also clones that were superior in many ways. The patriot did away with the delayed blowback system, and used a twistlock barrel, and huige screws. The checkmate had large screws, and receiver set pins. It also was very tiny, with no back ASA. I think its attractive looking gun. Very compact