I made it to suit the body, its a 1 off
I do have a similar rail if your after oneThe Automag picture thread
- Thread starter Gadget
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I do have a similar rail if your after one
Sorry I misread your post renie, will the rail fit a powerfeed body or do I need to get a ule body?
I can imagine the earliest (Level 5) mags could have been a bit of a nightmare to use when they first arrived in the UK - I can't think of many guns from that pre-HPA era that were so intolerant of liquid CO2. It would have taken people some time to establish the best setups with anti-siphons and expansion tanks. I think the Level 7 version of the valve had been released by the time their popularity exploded and when HPA systems arrived in the early 90s they were a match made in heaven.
The Automag was hugely popular back then because it was beautifully built - mainly stainless steel and was precision engineered, especially in comparison to some of the old ****e that was knocking around like the Golden Eagle. It was also tiny and a really elegant design that allowed you to remove the entire valve system with a single thumbscrew - there aren't many markers, even today, that are as simple to strip and clean.
When running with a decent CO2 setup or HPA they were also fantasically reliable and very easy to tech - in the event of a leak you could just pull and hold the trigger and instantly establish which side of the valve was causing the problem. Aftermarket support was also brilliant in the UK thanks to John & Jackie Sosta.
Most importantly they performed well - having an inbuilt regulator made them very consistent and the short, relatively light trigger pull gave them a wicked ROF. Compare that to something like a SAM Patriot from the same era where the gas supply was unregulated, velocity was adjusted by a restrictor screw into the valve and the trigger pull was easily 3 times longer than a mag.
They started falling out of favour around 96-97. The RT valve was released and was ridiculously fast for the time - outstripping agitating loaders and giving the gun a reputation as a blender. Customised cockers had become massively popular and people were doing crazy things with body milling and anodising, which you just couldn't do with the stainless bodied Automag. Then came the Angel and Shocker and we were into the electro era which made the mag a bit passe.
By the time AGD released the E-Mag, WDP and Smart Parts already had a massive market share and although it performed well, the E-Mag design (as an electronic sear-tripper) wasn't all that elegant and it was a weighty beast so it didn't take off hugely. People were still buying Automags but more importantly the existing ones just continued to work thanks to their bulletproof construction. With older guns you usually get stripped threads but it's hard to wear out stainless steel, so they all just kept going.
AGD could have faded away completely, but they had something of a resurgence in the early 2000s, finally releasing a range of lightweight parts (aluminium ULE body, double trigger intelliframe) and best of all, their entirely mechanical anti-chop system, the Level 10, which could be retro-fitted to any existing automag valve. That kickstarted a massive amount of custom work which continues today. AGD themselves are just a shell now - Tom Kaye is no longer involved in running the company and they basically just supply parts and spares, however there are still people releasing new custom parts today and the componentised nature of the Automag makes building one from parts very easy
There ya go, my potted history - might be shady on some of the facts, but I'm sure others will correct them if necessary
^ really appreciate you taking the time to write that up. Had a look at the forum but the threads I looked at didn't really give the timeline information that your post did. I you were quite correct regarding CO2 as air wasn't an option at the point I quit playing so the whole air thing was a bit of a surprise when I started again. Cheers
Just a little teaser ...Everything that I have not put in bags or boxes...
Bloody hell swe! No wonder I cant find a rail I wanted you are squirrelling them away!
Would love to see the rest of you collection bud!
Would love to see the rest of you collection bud!