WGP Early Autococker
Bud Orr built his first paintball marker the Sniper in 1986. This was created by machining a new aluminium body to take Sheridan PGP internals and featured a removable barrel. In 1987 Bud Orr founded Worr Game Products (WGP) and started selling his paintball markers full time. With the rise in popularity of semi auto paintball markers Bud looked to designing a semi auto version of the Sniper. This was achieved by adding a pneumatic auto-cocking mechanism to the marker in place of the pump. Thus the Autococker was born and subsequently released in 1989.
The cocking mechanism on the Autococker consists of a pneumatic ram that replaces the pump handle. A low pressure regulator that supplies the cocking system with air. And a 4-way control valve that switches air from one end of the ram to the other to open and close the bolt. To function, this 4 way valve is connected by a linkage to the trigger and is “timed” so that the marker fires just before the bolt is opened and then closed when the trigger is released.
The Autococker quickly became one of the most popular tournament markers for the next decade and a host of companies released upgrades, copies and custom parts for it. But with the rise of electro-pneumatics it gradually fell by the way side. However in spite of this there are many devoted fans building and customising Autocockers to this day.
The WGP Autococker pictured is from around 1995 and has a few period accessories fitted.
And here is the 1994 WGP Brochure