BlackBox?

[Hammbone]

Just broke out my old tourny Mag from the early '90's for some mid-life playing and have a question.Isn't the mod done on my valve called a "BlackBox".I'm thinkin' it had a black cover over it that I ditched long ago.....Man this old gun still shoots sweet with Nitro or C02.


thanks .....Piggy..(LA Outlaw old timer)

[Arson51]

sorry i cant tell you what a black box is butthats a beautiful old school set up! I have one that looks alot alike. TEAL grip power!

[Eric Cartman]

I seem to recall a Smart Parts "Magic Box", but that doesn't look like it to me.

[personman]

That's not a black box, but it does look like a similar mod.
The BLACK BOX was a BOX and it was BLACK :)

[Hammbone]

I know it was a box and was black..I think it combined with an ait inlet or sumpin.I stripped it down to this.......to many years ago

[my2crazyeyes]

re:

Did a quick google search for black box, here's what I found...

"In late '93 SmartParts came up with a modification to the Automag that they claimed increased range by up to 15 yards. The modification was immediately controversial, with various rumors regarding its function, its performance, its legality in tournament play, and its safety all being questioned.

An initial review on the modification by Paintball Consumer Reports International was not favorable. The jury is still out on the modification's actual level of performance, but most people agree that using a low pressure, high volume mod like this *does* increase the gun's effective range.

The Magic Box mod costs about $150 through SmartParts.

Below are some extensive net.opinions on this modification.
***** "The black box essentially expands the air chamber capacity in
***** front of the on/off valve by about 50%.* This allows the Mag to
***** use a greater volume of air at a lower pressure.* The result is
***** that the gun is quieter and shoots farther at lower FPS.* I shot
***** a lot of paint in rapid fire bursts the day I tried it out and
***** observed no spikes in velocity."
*********** --Bruce ([email protected])

***** "First, let me quell the rumors that it will increase the
***** velocity in rapid fire beyond what the gun was chrono'ed at in
***** "single shot" mode.* It don't see any way this mod could possibly
***** increase the velocity above the chrono'ed point unless the gun
***** sucked liquid.* This mod should reduce the chance of sucking
***** liquid over the stock gun, however.* It will reduce the
***** starvation (and thus velocity/range loss) that the automag
***** suffers from in rapid fire.* In addition, the lower pressure
***** should result in a "smoother" push, so the accuracy at the same
***** velocity should increase.
***** [...]
***** Now to the "Magic Box".* I would call it an expansion air
***** chamber, with a few unrelated mods thrown in for good measure.
***** It is a piece of aluminum, approximately 1.25*1.5*.5 inches.* It
***** is hollowed out into two separate sections that *do not*
***** connect.* Each of these sections attaches to the gun through a
***** standard 1/4" threaded fitting.* The expansion chamber section
***** connects through a newly machined hole into the air chamber, in
***** line with the existing CO2 fitting in the valve body, which is
***** the other attachment point.* The second section of the "magic
***** box" contains a replaceable CO2 filter element, held in place by
***** an O-ring.* The CO2 to the gun flows through this part of the
***** magic box.* Again, it does not connect to the expansion chamber.
***** The left side of the main body is machined to allow the expansion
***** air chamber to slide in."
*********** --Dave Rotheroe ([email protected])

***** "[PCRI did evaluate the Magic Box mod].* I've got it in my hot
***** little hands now.* Out of 4 stars, they gave it only 1 star.
***** They bench mounted the mag at 4 feet above the ground, and put a
***** piece of wood 20 feet away.* This piece of wood had a hole cut in
***** it that was about 8 inches in diameters.* When they shot the gun,
***** if the ball didn't go through the hole, then they didn't count
***** it.* With each shot, they got the chrono speed, and measured
***** distance.* Here is my "cheap chart":

******************* Black Box on Mag*********** Normal Mag
******* Speed***** |---------------------------------------
******* 275-279fps |** 130.5 feet**** |**** 125.5 feet
******* 280-284fps |** 132.2 feet**** |**** 130.8 feet
******* 285-289fps |** 133.0 feet**** |**** 129.0 feet
****************** |---------------------------------------

***** So overall it increased about 4 feet or so.* With the Magic Box
***** they ended up getting 161 shots out of 200 that fell between
***** 275fps and 288fps (not 289, ok my typing sucks...:)* And the
***** standard mag shot 175 out of 200 between 275fps and 288 fps.* And
***** I'll use this quote to sum up this section:* "The decrease in CO2
***** pressure hitting the paintball will definitely dimish ball
***** breakage in the gun, especially in temps below freezing when
***** paintballs are most fragile.* Also, another by-product of the
***** lower pressure system is a slightly [in italics] slower moving
***** bolt.* In a 10-second burst using the stock Automag we are able
***** to consistently fire 63 to 69 shots.* Using the modified Automag
***** that number was reduced to 52 to 55."* [Feb '94 PCRI page 21]
***** Conclusion of the Magic Box was that it didn't increase the
***** velocity, no safety problems were evident, "However, the Box does
***** not increase the range of the Automag by the advertised 15
***** yards."* And you guys can see that.* One Star for it."
******* --Rob Schneider ([email protected])"

Nice looking Old school mag, it was mags like that on here that got me hooked on agd


-Chris

[Hammbone]

GREAT JOB...that was it.A buddy on our team went to some schools at AGD and traveled around to games as a FIX-IT trailer.He was the one that put it on for me.Man ...those were the days....(Piggy sighs......)We were cutting edge..hahahahahah.Next thing I will be breaking out my Custom chromed and painted 68 Special that I STILL have.Didn't that gun feel good in your hands to shoot????New thought just crossed my mind...Remember the "Black Rain" conversions for the PMI???

[jewie27]

Cool 'Mag. So are you gonna upgrade that dinosaur? There are so many upgrades that came out since you stopped playing.