Automag .50 Cal Conversion?

[Me�iCX]

Lets face the facts, .50 cal is here. Planet Eclipse, SP (GI MilSim), Spyder and I'm sure others will soon follow.

How hard would it be to re-engineer a ULE body and X-Valve bolt for .50 cal??

Greater pod capacity? Smaller hoppers? Huge efficiency increase?? Better marking paint?? Straighter shooting paint?? Who wouldn't be for that??

I'm for it but I'm not going to drop the cash for a new marker, hopper, and barrel kit.

[Lohman446]

This point was made by Carter on MCB at one point, and I only reiterate it.

The concern is not so much efficiency (how many people really shoot through an entire tank in a game). Smaller paint = more paint on field per tube / per hopper. Less dwell time is a possibility, allowing even faster shooting. What are they doing to our game?

None of the claims have been proven either. Better marking paint? I highly doubt it - less paint = better marking? Maybe I'm an idiot but I doubt it. Better range? MAYBE - though it has not been historically accurate. Efficency? Who cares...

Screw this, if I have to I'll order a new Phantom for .50, but I doubt they actually manage to totally get rid of .68.

[Me�iCX]

I'm viewing this more from a scenario than tourny stand point in regards to efficiency and capacity. I say better marking because the .50 cal paintballs will have a thinner shell. Thinner shell = less bounces

I'm sitting right on the middle but lets not make this into a for/against .50 cal thread.

Can an Automag body and valve bolt be re-engineered for .50 cal?

[Flatliner333]

Dont do it.......Veve la .68.....but to answer the question what about a .50 cal sleeve insert for the breech, smaller feedneck, smaller barrel and turn the bolt down on a lathe ?

[Lohman446]

The valve would be the hard part. Can it be done? Sure.

You need:

An intricate knowledge of the Automag valve
A working knowledge of design and manufacturing
A working relationship manufacturers or the ability to manufacture yourself
The financial ability to put money up front to get it done and then sell
The desire to do it.

The killer is finding someone (or a group) with the above together.
Personally, my opinion is this. Let's see where .50 is in two years.

[rawbutter]

Will an Automag body and valve bolt be re-engineered for .50 cal?

Fixed.

I'm sure the Automag could be re-engineered. You would really only need modified valves and bodies. The rail/frame could stay the same.

The real question is "Will it actually happen?" AGD hasn't released anything new since... when? 2004? Tom has been retired for years. I'm not saying he can't release anything new, but I just don't think it's going to happen.

[Konigballer]

I dont know why people are scared of this. Even if .50 call paint works, there are MILIONS of .68 paintball guns out there already. It would be in the paint manufacturer's best interest to allow the owners of these markers to still use them for years to come. At worst case, I bet they keep producing .68 paint as part of some kind of 'legacy' line and up the price.

[kylejc9]

I Wouldn't worry about until

A) all your local Fields use only .50 and no BYOP
B) .68 paint production is stopped

Either one of these could Take YEARS and by then most of us wont be playing paintball nearly enough for our opinion to matter to the manufacturers, its all about what the new crowed wants, if SP can get a new following large enough to spend money on new guns and such they made more money off them then they ever will with most paintball followers

My local field has a following that probably is the only thing keeping them up and running and we are only talking 20-30 people each sat-sun if they go full .50 cal only. over half of that following cant afford to get new equip(myself included).

[XM15]

I think the easy part would be the body of a mag for conversion to 50 cal. The bolt would be easy too if its just a matter of turning it down. The hard part would be if you need a new bolt and power tube. Then the level 10 would need all new parts made. You might be looking at the conversion costing more than simply buying a new gun at that point.
Everyone has been discussing how 50. cal will increase ball capacity. The other way of looking at it is you could scale down all your equipment by 25%. A 200 round hoper can be scaled down , a 140 rd pod could be scaled down, and more than likely the gun too. You have all the same capacities in 25% smaller and lighter equipment.

[wetwrks]

Sure it can be done. Will it...I doubt it.

[Ando]

We can always have Tom build us a shrink ray.

[wetwrks]

The reason I doubt it will happen is that most players won't want to completely switch over and thus tooling up for it would be too costly and the profit too small. The only thing that would change this is if for some reason 68 were no longer available...boom, gone. Like if it were outlawed.

[Gadget]

Conversion for any spool valve is going to be expensive - poppits are easy enough with different bolts and spacers to fill the voids.

For a spool and mag you'll need a thinner powertube and bolt plus spacers. I can see performance suffering if you try to shrink the PT down.....however thinking about it, if you could do it, you'd drastically reduce the size and weight of the bolt - reducing the kick and strength of return spring required.

As mentioned it would be a nightmare requiring all new lvl 10 carriers, shims, o-rings, springs. Basically a complete new valve minus the hp reg.

[Watcher]

Why would the PT need to be thinner? I don't see why the bolt OD can't just be thinned down and a new spring made.

For the old TL bodies, I think a new .50 barrel and a thinner bolt would be all you needed.
Or, think Doc's Mag to cocker adapter but for .50

The ULE body is the one that is iffy. You'd need inserts of some kind or a whole new body.



I really don't think .50 cal is going to take off either. The only thing it benefits really would be the milsim crowd because it facilitates better/easier use of magazines.

The magazine in grip pistol market consists of the Tac-8/9 and TPX and either only holds 8 rounds. .50 could expand it to 10+.

But beyond that I don't think people will care too much, and I don't even care about gaining 2 shots for a pistol. Coming from a stock-class player, less is more...



And if .50 was so great why wasn't it expanded upon in the past? There are plenty of .50cal paintball guns now, but they are all plastic and junky. Why?

From the get-go, paint could have been made .50. Don't tell me .68 was easier to make, machines can make 6mm paintballs for airsoft... .68 cal is 17.3mm or so, and .50 cal is about 12.7mm.


I think the reason .68cal was made in the first place was to somehow differentiate paintball markers from firearms. No rifle I know of shoots a .68 caliber round, and it makes paintball markers unconvertable to firearms.


.50 cal... Will it happen? Probably. Will it make a difference? Probably not. Will it last? I doubt it. I think it will be a specialty round just like the Tib First Strikes...

Why do I think this? Look at RAP4. They have .43 caliber paintball in all of their guns, and some guns even use brass shells to be as realistic as possible. On their site they have claims to better accuracy and range.
but has .43cal taken off?

[Ando]

Why would the PT need to be thinner? I don't see why the bolt OD can't just be thinned down and a new spring made.

If you mic out the PT it's .005 away from .50 so it would have to totally be redone. There's not enough space to thin out the bolt.

I really don't think .50 cal is going to take off either.

100% agree. It's going to go out just as fast as it came in.