09 SFL Autococker by Shochtech

So I was a little stunned last night when I Received a email last night from Shockteck saying they were going to make their SFL Autococker again.  SFL stands for “Super Freaking Light”.  Keep in mind SLF was in relation to other cockers out on the market at the time (before the Worr Games Karnivior which was really the lightest).  But Anyway…

So I clicked threw the email and it brought me to a Shocktech page where it basically had all the same info as 5 or 6 years ago on their SLF Autococker.  The SFL is basically a fully loaded Autococker with all the bells and whisles (except for an Eframe which no one makes, and a Low Pressure Chamber which i thought was odd).  When I say full loaded I mean fully loaded back then, roller sear, LP front Block,  Rat Valve ect.  So if you bought a stock Cocker, you would add around another $350 or so for all the parts the SFL had and it still wouldn’t have the milled body.  the SFL cockers back in the day sold for around $800-900 with a lifetime warranty (no Eframe).

I was surprised there was no LP chamber on the front block.  Some people thought the front block itself acted like a LP chamber on full size cocker, I always liked the LP chamber on there though.  The LP chamber basically acts as a air capicitor. I also think they could have done a far cooler job on the Body milling.  I don’t know how much these guns are going for but I do know that I don’t want Shocktech on there.  Shocktech dosen’t need to advertise on it either like that, seeing how they are the only ones who have made a cocker in about 5 maybe 6 years.

So like i said, I don’t know the pricing on it yet, however here’s what I do know.  I’m sure the gun will be at least $500.  For $500 you get a gun that shoots about 11-13 bps and has no electronics like an anti-chop eye system.  Yes I know if you really get the operating pressure down on a (200psi) Cocker you can get the bolt to stop on a ball and not chop it.  However nothing is fool proof.   $200 can get you a electric gun with anti- eye system that shoots 15BPS easy.

I used to love cockers, I also used to custom built them, I have probably owned 10 or so (all major brands), however, the fact of the matter is its hard to compete just in fire power with newer cheaper paintball guns.  Technology killed the Autococker, its sad but its true.  If there was an available eframe and it was possible to get the gun with a decent eframe for under $500-$600 that’s one thing, other than that let’s let the cocker rest in peace.  It lived a good life.

Why is Shocktech trying to revamp this you might ask?  I think its becuase they have had dwindelling sales since Autocockers have died,  and are looking for anything to try to reinvent themselves again.

The first batch of 10 Prophecy hoppers that was release to sold in 1 weekend.  The second batch of 50 hoppers will be arriving the first week in January. We are not taking pre orders for this batch.

So Rock Star Energy Drink and Planet Eclipse have teamed up to do a “limited edition” EGO 09 and GEO with the Rock Star Logo on it.  Things like this make me scratch my head.  I have no idea why someone would want to pay $1450 to have an advertisement on on their gun.  Not to mention the graphics are lame.

The guns feature the phrase “Party like a Rock Star” on them.  Does this imply that the owner of one of these paintball guns “Parties Like a Rock Star”.  Rock Stars have been known to do heavy amounts of drugs, alcohol and take part in illicit behavior.  Are they saying you should “Party Like a Rock Star”?  If you drink their Energy Drink, it will give you the means to “Party Like a Rock Star”?  Is any of this good for paintball or even society as a whole?  Has paintball gotten so trashy, and so shallow, that some one would pay extra to have this shallow phase on their paintball marker because they think its cool?  Not to mention the phrase “Party Like a Rock Star” came out when i was in high school in the 90′s so i also consider the phrase pretty passe  (past one’s prime; old and warn out).

The paintball industry as a whole has become pretty hyped.  Its time to start looking past the smoke and mirrors and all the fancy catch phrases that are out there to try to get you to buy a product.  Start asking yourself “What does that mean?”

KEE Action Sports just sent out  a Letter to dealers saying effective 6/16/08 all of their paint prices are going up about another $5 a case.  This is totally unexpected becuase they just raised their paintball prices on Diablo, PMI, and RP paintballs about 2 months ago.  Johny P. from KEE sighted raising raw material and transportation costs.  Procaps also just raised their prices on their DRAXXUS paintballs.  If this keeps up paintball will be taking a step backwards.  Things will revert back to people paying $100 -$120 a case for paintballs at the field.  We will go back to talking about 5 or 10 cents a ball pricing.

Well the answer to that question is 100% personal preference.  The ION XE (released in 07/08) is an updated form of the ION Paintball gun.  The XE allows for “bolt out the back” maintenance.  Just as it sounds the XE body allows the bolt to exit the body out the rear of the gun.  This eases maintenance by saving the owner the trouble of basically taking about the entire gun to lube up or clean the bolt.  The XE body kit, is slightly different than the ION to accommodate the new rear cap the bolt slides out of.  Other than that, they have the same everything inside. So if you have the money to get the ION XE it will make your post paintball cleaning go a little quicker, if you don’t have the money they are thousands and thousands of ION paintball guns out there and their owners are used to maintaining their guns as is.

Planet Eclipse has always made quality, thought threw products.  They started out as a specialty firm making Autococker performance parts, which lead to making high end complete Cockers.  From there they saw a way to make a mechanical gun electro, so the most popular selling Autococker Eframe was born.  The Eblade, and the E2 (Eblade2).  In 2005, after applying their experience with Autococker parts, and Electronics they release a paintball gun, that was so simplified, and thought threw it dominated the market in less than 2 years.  This paintball gun is the EGO.

As the success grew, Planet Eclipse released the ETEK and the ETEK2 paintball guns.  These guns were designed to be a mid price marker based off the EGO design.  Since then, they have released a full clothing line, Distortion pants, Jerseys, gloves, ect.  They offer 2 gear bags, parts, Barrel kits, Chest Protectors, and everything else under the sun that has to do with paintball.  I have seen then grow from a UK based firm, then 2 guys here in the US, and now the US distribution has almost 10 employees.  My question is, at what point do they change over from being a specialized  “quality of parts come first” manufacturer, to a full blown in it to make money manufacture like DYE or Smart Parts?  Is Planet Eclipse loosing their touch?

I can’t imagine what the deal is with Angel Not supporting their past Paintball gun models.  People have been calling and emailing frantically trying to find the 4.8v Angel Charger.  The fact is, Angel Sports (who changed their name from WDP) hasn’t made the 4.8 charge in about 2 years.  So people who spend $1k+ on a Angel G7 a year ago, if that charger broke, they are basically out of luck.  Kind of silly huh?  I can imagine why they no longer have parts for Angel LCDs or IR3s.  Even Angel A4 models, however you can’t leave people out to dry that quickly.  People who usually buy Angels are usually already angel owners and fans.  However if they can’t get parts for recently purchased guns, i guarantee they will not be fans for much longer.

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