Disclaimers and Warranties:

Warning: The Shocker Sport paintball marker is not a toy. Misuse or careless use may cause serious injury or death. The user and any person within range must wear eye protection designed for paintball use. Recommended at least 18 years old to purchase, 14 years old to use with adult supervision, or 10 years old to use on paintball fields meeting ASTM standard F1777-97. Read operation manual before proceeding (or read the contents of this website). Always use barrel plugs when not involved in actual play. When gassing and degassing the marker's system, never aim the gun at another person. Always point the barrel towards the ground. Never use over-filled CO2 bottles as this will "spike" the system, causing the hoses to burst.

Attention Shocker Sport S/F owners: the Shocker Sport S/F is a select-fire marker capable of firing fully-auto. This may not be legal in some countries, such as the United Kingdom. It is the responsibility of the marker's owner to check these laws before attempting to transport the marker into that country. Failure to do so may result in heavy fines and/or imprisonment and/or confiscation of said marker, which is not covered under your warranty.

Smart Parts warrants for one year to initial retail purchaser that the Shocker Sport paintball marker and regulator be free from defects in materials and workmanship. Disposable parts, including batteries, o-rings, seals, etc. are not warranted. The fill poppet and firing piston are warranted for six months. The solenoids and electronics on your Shocker Sport are unconditionally warranted for six months, plus an additional warranty of six months for electronic parts only (installation and labor are not included). This warranty does not cover surface damages (scratches and nicks), misuse, improper disassembly and/or reassembly, or attempts made to drill holes or remove metal from the external surfaces, which could result in degrading the performance and reducing safety factors. Do not use teflon tape on any part of this marker; the tape can break off and plug the solenoids (actually, if your Shocker's manifold has a filter in it, this won't happen). Instead, use Loctite 271. Do not make changes to the basic marker parts without written approval. The only authorized lubricant for the gun is DOW 33 lubricant. use of any other lubricant could result in voiding your warranty. Use only those on/off valves purchased from Smart Parts. Unauthorized on/off valves will void this warranty. This warranty is limited to repair or replacement of defective parts with the customer to pay shipping costs. This warranty is effective only if the customer returns the warranty registration card enclosed with the marker.

Introduction:

The Shocker Sport, although no longer in production now, is a seasoned and proved design which was ahead of its time when it was invented and has since never been duplicated (due to patent restrictions). It is a fully-electropneumatic paintball marker, meaning there is no sear to trip a bolt to slam into a pin on a valve. Because there is no hammer, firing a Shocker produces extraordinarily quiet sounds. It is also closed bolt like an Autococker, which means that when you fire the bolt is already closed and the ball is already seated in the barrel. When you pull the trigger, the ball is fired, the bolt slides back to reload another round, then it closes again automatically. However unlike an Autococker, you cannot control how long the bolt remains open while playing. That is why Autocockers chop paintballs; because the operators don't leave the bolt open long enough for a ball to load unless they have a lot of practice. Because of this, the Shocker rarely chops paint. In fact, it is generally accepted that if it chops, it is defective or the bolt timing is off.

The Shocker Sport has since been discontinued as mentioned earlier, however there are still a few around for purchase today. In December of 2002 Smart Parts dropped the price for a new-in-box Shocker 4x4 from $700 to $450 (and dropped the $100 for vertical or powerfeed to $50). This sale lasted until December 31, when sales of the Shocker Sport were officially discontinued, and the webpage changed to an ad for the 2003 model. Smart Parts then clearanced all their remaining Sports to Actionvillage.com, and they sold them for $450 for a brief period of time, until the price was dropped to $425, then $400, then $375, and then one final drop to $350. At the time of this writing Actionvillage has since run completely dry on 2002 models, after several major advertising faults which allowed them to include items such as vertical feeds or Turbo boards without even knowing it. Other retailers still have some 2002 models or older, however they have not yet (haha) caught onto the fact that competing sites (mainly AV) sold them for $350 instead of $700. Bottomline, just about the easiest way of getting a 1998-2002 Shocker at this time is to head over to eBay and find one there. You don’t have many assurances as to the gun’s reliability, however most problems can be fixed by a qualified Smart Parts technician. You might also with to check the buy/sell/trade listings on shockerowners.com.

Many players enjoy using the original Shocker because of its high shot-to-shot accuracy and low recoil; personally I see these as the marker's greatest advantages. Other characteristics include...
· Max-Flo regulator.
· 14" or 16" All American barrel (depending on year).
· Hammer-less design; produces extremely quiet shots.
· Patented dump-chamber design; maximum ROF of 14-bps before velocity dropoff.
· Electronically-controled closed bolt action (dual solenoids), allows for no chopped paintballs.
· Design employs no external moving parts.
· Optional powerfeed attachment or vertical feed body with dual ball detents.
· Operates with any tank using an output above 400-psi.
· Stock efficiency in the range of 700-900 shots from a 68/4500 HPA tank.
· Simplistic design makes maintenance very easy to perform.
· Many upgrades available, including [but not limited to] frames, triggers, foregrips, feed ports, and others.
· Marker operates at 150-200 psi.
· The Shocker is capable of operating on CO2, compressed air, and Nitrogen. The marker will perform better than most others on the market while on CO2 (explained in the technical info page).

History:

The Shocker was possibly the first electropneumatic paintball marker ever manufactured. It was either that or the European WDP's Angel V6 marker. Both companies say theirs was first, but the bottom line is, Smart Parts has the patents on it (three of them). The Shocker that we all know and love today was originally invented by a company called pneuVentures, or PVI for short. The design of the marker was a joint venture between both SP and PVI, however the original low pressure Max-Flo regulator was invented solely by PVI. PVI is no longer around, however at the time they were heavily involved with devices that relied on air and air pressure, hence their name. They made pneumatic devices for NASA and various branches of the military, for instance. And their portfolio of inventions was very large; they knew what they were doing and were quite successful. It seems appropriate that a design such as is seen in the Shocker was invented by them. It uses nothing but air pressure to complete its operation, with the exception of one spring which closes the valve after firing (basically).

This was the situation back then: Smart Parts had exclusive rights to sell PVI's Shocker, so it was often assumed that SP made it. SP has similar contracts with Rase clothing (whom they own) and Besales Quality Autococker Parts and Evolution accessories. Anyways, the patent toward this marker claimed not only the specific dump-chamber design, but theoretically other dump-chamber designs as well, and also patented the use of dual solenoid control. One other dual soleniod marker has since been designed (AKALMP Excalibur), however it is no longer made as per the agreement between AKALMP and SP in 2004. In 1997, PVI and SP began to disagree on some things so SP threatened to discontinue their merchandising contract with them, on the grounds that PVI couldn't make it without them. So eventually, in August 1997, the merchandising contract between PVI and SP was dissolved, and PVI then went off and made their own Shocker clone, known as the Warrior then later changed to the Cyber9000, which never took off because the company soon after went under just as SP allegedly predicted. The marker's design was extremely innovative, but it wasn't enough to save them. Smart Parts then bought the rights to the Shocker and expanded the patent to include all markers with an electronic switch on the ground that they were the first to let this type of device to see the market (which they were). Smart Parts then continued the production of the line after making a few slight modifications, announcing the birth of their Shocker Sport model in 1998. It was later given some additional modifications in 2000.

Nowadays, the original Shocker has been completely discontinued and replaced by a completely new version, known as the Shocker 03, that doesn't even resemble the original in any way except that they share the same barrel threads. The 03 uses a single solenoid, oddly, because that was the basis for a lot of arguments in the past. The old versions are obviously still around, and even PVI Shockers can still be spotted in proshops and paintball museums (they are a lot bigger then the 2002 4X4's, and also weigh twice as much). Over 24 thousand Shocker Sports were made.

If you wish to learn more, move on to the technical information page.

All pictures courtesy Smart Parts (most are scans from the 2002 Smart Parts catalog, the blue 2002 is an ad for paintball magazines).