Hey all,
<< Cliffs below if you don't want to read the whole thing>>
I recently purchased a used classic automag RT and played for the first time with it on Saturday. Right off the bat it had a major leak at the asa adaptor.. completely my fault, forgot to tighten one of the bolts. After that was all fixed up I dropped some oil in the asa and put about 40 shots through with the barrel off. There was some RT effect going but it wasn't consistant. I attribute this mostly to the dumpy steel rental tank I was running. A good high output tank should correct this. With the barrel back on I put a few shots over the chrono, not super consistant to be honest. I was 250, 269, 275, 255, etc. The field I was at tries to get everyone around 250 (don't ask me why, it's outdoor) so I just left it. Obviously I was shooting compressed air but perhaps the temperature still had something to do with it. It was in the low 30s with wind.
The first few games went well. I wouldn't say the thing was shooting darts with the aftermarket Smart Parts AA barrel but it was good enough to get quite a few kills. Somewhere in the fourth game I chopped one right before the match started. I was shooting cork screws after that, no amount of dry firing or trying to shoot through it would get the accuracy back. I had to pull the barrel off after the game, run some water through it, and hit it with a squeegee to get the accuracy back.
After I chopped that first one I seemed to chop more often. It was partially my own fault for short stroking the trigger and partially the ridiculous blowback the RT seems to have. I have a Halo B on the thing and it can't keep the balls flowing well enough. The ball stack is there but they don't drop into the chamber. I'm actually afraid to try and RT the thing with paint in there because I'm sure it would be an instant blender.
As the day went on the gun developed a small leak which I'm fairly certain was coming from the banjo bolt. I took out a wrench while the thing was under pressure and tried to tighten AND loosen the banjo bolt.. the leak seemed to get better and worse in response but ultimately did not go away. If I took a few shots it would die back down but would reappear after 30 seconds or so. I just kept refilling the air tank, I didn't seem to have any drop off issues so it was more of an annoyance than anything else.
On the second to last game of the day I was getting ready to go again. After every game I have a habit of putting the safety on and turning the powerfeed plug. Well, I don't know what the hell happened at the start of this match but I flipped the power feed plug back and instantly chopped a ball. There seems to be some sort of issue with the power feed plug and a force feed hopper. The balls seems to be under an abnormal amount of stress... I'm not sure if it's because I have the "standard" power feed plug and not the parabolic or if it's just because the whole concept was designed before force feed loaders. At any rate, the bolt jammed up pretty bad when I chopped. The trigger was completely loose which I'd attribute to the bolt being stuck in the "forward" position. I wasn't real clear on how to unjam the thing so I just played the last two games with a rental Pirhana.
Flash forward to today. I tried to disassemble the thing to get everything cleaned up. I thought you just had to pull out the field strip screw and out pops the valve/regulator/bolt assembly. Well I had to fight that damn banjo bolt for the better part of an hour. I unscrewed the thing like a normal person would but the thing would just NOT come out. I could rock the valve side to side as well as back and forth but I could feel the banjo bolt "slipping" when I tried to unscrew it. Well as it turns out the bolt is only threaded on the valve portion and not the rail or the trigger frame. I finally decided to take a vice grips and attempt to just pull the thing out. I'm not the strongest guy in the gym but holy smokes that took all the force I could muster to rip out of there. Do any of the rest of you have a hard time getting the banjo bolt out? I think it's really hard to take out because of the o-rings.
On the topic of the banjo bolt... I went to school for mechanical engineering and I really respect the design Tom Kaye came up with for the initial automag but WHAT IN THE HELL is up with the banjo bolt? Why was the air not directly fed into the regulator like the rest of the automag lineup? It seems like the banjo bolt, while it looks clean is a complex solution to a simple problem. I was pondering how I could re-design the thing all day. I've been told that they can mill the rail and altar the banjo bolt in some way at the factory. Does anyone know what that entails? Also... during the disassembly process I noticed some sort of sticky grease (probably because it was old) between the rail and the body. Is this normal? I don't see any reason for this area to be greased because nothing on it moves.
Wow this post got really long! I'm really happy with the RT though all in all. I shot quite a few people out with it and the ref actually asked me what I was shooting. When I told him it was an automag RT he said "damn that thing is fast for a mechanical." He asked me if it was a converted pump. I think he was a little bit confused between automags and autocockers. When I told him NO and that it was made by AGD he didn't even recognize the company. Oh well. The gun is actually quite quiet too... not sure if it's because of the 14" AA barrel or just automags are more quiet then I remember. They sure do have a unique sound.
For those of you that read the whole thing, thanks.
Cliffs
1. Automag RT shot well for a few games
2. Developed slow leak from banjo bolt, is there a modification they do at the factory?
3. Bolt jammed, how do you fix without disassembly?
4. Anyone else have major feed issues even with force feed loaders
5. I'm not a fan of the banjo design
<< Cliffs below if you don't want to read the whole thing>>
I recently purchased a used classic automag RT and played for the first time with it on Saturday. Right off the bat it had a major leak at the asa adaptor.. completely my fault, forgot to tighten one of the bolts. After that was all fixed up I dropped some oil in the asa and put about 40 shots through with the barrel off. There was some RT effect going but it wasn't consistant. I attribute this mostly to the dumpy steel rental tank I was running. A good high output tank should correct this. With the barrel back on I put a few shots over the chrono, not super consistant to be honest. I was 250, 269, 275, 255, etc. The field I was at tries to get everyone around 250 (don't ask me why, it's outdoor) so I just left it. Obviously I was shooting compressed air but perhaps the temperature still had something to do with it. It was in the low 30s with wind.
The first few games went well. I wouldn't say the thing was shooting darts with the aftermarket Smart Parts AA barrel but it was good enough to get quite a few kills. Somewhere in the fourth game I chopped one right before the match started. I was shooting cork screws after that, no amount of dry firing or trying to shoot through it would get the accuracy back. I had to pull the barrel off after the game, run some water through it, and hit it with a squeegee to get the accuracy back.
After I chopped that first one I seemed to chop more often. It was partially my own fault for short stroking the trigger and partially the ridiculous blowback the RT seems to have. I have a Halo B on the thing and it can't keep the balls flowing well enough. The ball stack is there but they don't drop into the chamber. I'm actually afraid to try and RT the thing with paint in there because I'm sure it would be an instant blender.
As the day went on the gun developed a small leak which I'm fairly certain was coming from the banjo bolt. I took out a wrench while the thing was under pressure and tried to tighten AND loosen the banjo bolt.. the leak seemed to get better and worse in response but ultimately did not go away. If I took a few shots it would die back down but would reappear after 30 seconds or so. I just kept refilling the air tank, I didn't seem to have any drop off issues so it was more of an annoyance than anything else.
On the second to last game of the day I was getting ready to go again. After every game I have a habit of putting the safety on and turning the powerfeed plug. Well, I don't know what the hell happened at the start of this match but I flipped the power feed plug back and instantly chopped a ball. There seems to be some sort of issue with the power feed plug and a force feed hopper. The balls seems to be under an abnormal amount of stress... I'm not sure if it's because I have the "standard" power feed plug and not the parabolic or if it's just because the whole concept was designed before force feed loaders. At any rate, the bolt jammed up pretty bad when I chopped. The trigger was completely loose which I'd attribute to the bolt being stuck in the "forward" position. I wasn't real clear on how to unjam the thing so I just played the last two games with a rental Pirhana.
Flash forward to today. I tried to disassemble the thing to get everything cleaned up. I thought you just had to pull out the field strip screw and out pops the valve/regulator/bolt assembly. Well I had to fight that damn banjo bolt for the better part of an hour. I unscrewed the thing like a normal person would but the thing would just NOT come out. I could rock the valve side to side as well as back and forth but I could feel the banjo bolt "slipping" when I tried to unscrew it. Well as it turns out the bolt is only threaded on the valve portion and not the rail or the trigger frame. I finally decided to take a vice grips and attempt to just pull the thing out. I'm not the strongest guy in the gym but holy smokes that took all the force I could muster to rip out of there. Do any of the rest of you have a hard time getting the banjo bolt out? I think it's really hard to take out because of the o-rings.
On the topic of the banjo bolt... I went to school for mechanical engineering and I really respect the design Tom Kaye came up with for the initial automag but WHAT IN THE HELL is up with the banjo bolt? Why was the air not directly fed into the regulator like the rest of the automag lineup? It seems like the banjo bolt, while it looks clean is a complex solution to a simple problem. I was pondering how I could re-design the thing all day. I've been told that they can mill the rail and altar the banjo bolt in some way at the factory. Does anyone know what that entails? Also... during the disassembly process I noticed some sort of sticky grease (probably because it was old) between the rail and the body. Is this normal? I don't see any reason for this area to be greased because nothing on it moves.
Wow this post got really long! I'm really happy with the RT though all in all. I shot quite a few people out with it and the ref actually asked me what I was shooting. When I told him it was an automag RT he said "damn that thing is fast for a mechanical." He asked me if it was a converted pump. I think he was a little bit confused between automags and autocockers. When I told him NO and that it was made by AGD he didn't even recognize the company. Oh well. The gun is actually quite quiet too... not sure if it's because of the 14" AA barrel or just automags are more quiet then I remember. They sure do have a unique sound.
For those of you that read the whole thing, thanks.
Cliffs
1. Automag RT shot well for a few games
2. Developed slow leak from banjo bolt, is there a modification they do at the factory?
3. Bolt jammed, how do you fix without disassembly?
4. Anyone else have major feed issues even with force feed loaders
5. I'm not a fan of the banjo design
Now I can mess around all I want.
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