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View Full Version : My Shocker Impressions



Patron God of Pirates
06-13-2002, 01:12 PM
After playing my first few games with and against the guy on my team who just bought a Shocker 4x4, I'm neither Shocked, nor Impressed.

Before buying the Shocker he walked into the store and said "I'm looking to go high end, and I'm looking for range and accuracy". This in spite of me telling him repeatedly about bore sizing and other things I've learned here. He figured the guy at the store would know more about paintball than the 5000+ members of AO and Tom Kaye himself.

"Range and Accuracy?" he says "Then you gotta go with the Autococker or the Shocker" he says. I was in the back of the store predicting what the guy was going to say right before he said it. I had my other teammates in stitches.

"Well, I'm used to the Pro-Carbine so I'm also looking to stay low maintenance". At this the guy waves his hand at the Cocker rack and shakes his head no "Then the Shocker is the gun your looking for". I could have written this script.

The guy proceeds to sell the Shockers on its range, accuracy, and low maintenance level. My teammate gets it tricked out immediately; front mounted MAXFLO, Air assist, quicker trigger frame, etc.

After days of velocity problems, he buys the maintenance video and resolves whatever was wrong. So he's ready to rock. I missed out on the first game he played with it, but I understand he had more consistency problems. The second game was yesterday, and I played.

As I expected he was disenchanted with the mythical "range and accuracy". He quickly realized he could hit any target just as easily with an AA equipped Spyder Shutter. So much for the guy at the store knowing more than AO.

The gun has no ball detent. If you hold it down at an angle, the chambered ball just rolls out. Because you don't notice this happen while sneaking around the woods, his first shot was always a blank that simply revealed his location.

The ROF fire keeps up with the rest of the electro triggers, but does so with visible shoot down. I don't know if this is a function of low pressure recharge or not. At any rate, it does him very little good. He has neither a quick trigger finger, nor the inclination to fire fast. It's just not his style.

GAS HOG! People say this about the Shocker all the time. WARNING: they mean it. My teammate didn't heed the warnings and only bought a 68/3000 Nitro Duck. He wanted to keep it as light as possible. His tank was 1/2 empty after a hopper and a half (two games). After that he shot less. Now he's going to get a 90 or 114.

Don't get me wrong, the Shocker has allot of good qualities (ROF, non Chop, etc.). But people like my teammate buy the "Range an Accuracy" hype and buy them for all the wrong reasons. If you want to shoot soft paint quickly, get a Shocker. If you want range and accuracy, turn up your velocity and get a new barrel.

In the end, even though he hates to admit it, he likes the carbine better. Personally I think a Phantom would suite him best.

Ov3rmind
06-13-2002, 01:27 PM
The gun has no ball detent. If you hold it down at an angle, the chambered ball just rolls out. Because you don't notice this happen while sneaking around the woods, his first shot was always a blank that simply revealed his location.
Get a tighter bore barrel. The same problem happens with Cockers, and it's because of the closed bolt design. The bolt chambers the ball in the barrel while it's at rest, so you need to make sure the barrel/paint match is nice and snug. You might also get better efficiency with a tighter barrel fit.

The ROF fire keeps up with the rest of the electro triggers, but does so with visible shoot down. I don't know if this is a function of low pressure recharge or not. At any rate, it does him very little good. He has neither a quick trigger finger, nor the inclination to fire fast. It's just not his style.
You're joking, right? The Shocker is capped pretty low, and stock, the trigger feels sloppy and "gummy." Of course, you did say he got a new trigger frame, so that could have made it better (the Werm frames and HSW frames are great). The shoot down wasn't really apparent from my experience with them (about two games and some test firing over the chrono).

I have had a chance to shoot a Shocker before (vertical reg mount), and it was merely OK IMHO. What I really liked was the low kick and how solid it felt, but that was about it. They are supposed to balance out pretty well, but the one I tested had a bad drop forward setup, so it kind of ruined that aspect (not the guns fault of course). I would probably never buy one though. Even though you can get better trigger frames, the efficiency sucked, and that thing is really a beast! I've heard the newer ones are quite a bit lighter, and a little smaller due to milling though. I may try and test one out, if I can find someone with one of the new Shockers.

mykroft
06-13-2002, 05:05 PM
His shootdown problems were probably the Nitroduck. The Max-Flo/Shocker combination with a good tank doesn't see shootdown at 13bps steady firing rate. One of the guys I play with regularly has a Warp-fed shocker with a PMI 88/45 fatty tank, and he palys back, I've seen him dump half a hopper at 12-13bps without shootdown(He also play speed metal guitar, hence the very fast fingers). Simply put, the Nitroduck presets neither flow well enough, nor recharge fast enough for a gas pig like the shocker.

Out of the box the shocker is set to either 11.25 or 11.75bps (Can't recall which) it can be turned up to 13-14.
It's a pretty nice gun with the addition of a good trigger and a big tank.

Butterfingers
06-13-2002, 05:28 PM
are you sure. Im pretty sure the mechanical limit of a shocker is 11.25 bps. The solnoids wont handle more than that.

rx2
06-13-2002, 06:57 PM
I don't know that playing speed-metal is going to help one's trigger-finger, even if you do nothing but tap. The mechanics are different. It is probably just innate.

Nitroduck
06-13-2002, 08:59 PM
Thats why I ditched my Shocker ages ago.....

I got a Bushmaster. Half the weight, twice the speed, half the size, twice the efficency, twice the looks, and twice the customer service......All for less!

FYI, Shockers can only go 11.25bps, regardless if the gun is capped higher, it can't go any faster due to the solenoids and the poppet system......Excede 12bps the piston cracks in half, I've talked to people who've done it before.