Back to Markers Page

Mag - Cocker        Cocker - Mag
Which is the best and why?

Through the mists of time the battle of the biggest two guns in Paintball has gone on - both fighting for the title of best marker ever produced.
Neither will yield an inch to the other and in the annals of history, both will be held as two of the greats, taking their place alongside other exceptional pieces of equipment such as the VL2OOO and the 2Ooz bottle What the Automag and Autococker have brought to this sport is the ability to fire paint accurately, consistently and quickly, even at great distances. And they can do it seven or eight times a second. Now these are not the only guns capable of doing this, but as of yet none have done it so successfully for so long. A year is a very long time in Paintball, and it feels like these two guns have been around forever. What I intend to do in this piece is look at the history, development and relative merits of the Mag and the Cocker: the debates and wrangles of the fanatics are not going to be quelled by what I write over the next few pages, and nor should they be This is just a look at the men behind the guns, how the markers themselves originated and progressed and the nature of the high-tech, high-spec custom models used by the top teams and players in the world. After that, I'm afraid it's up to you to decide which is the best, if, indeed, one is better than the other. OK, let's get started.
 


The AutoCocker from Worrgame Products
(Belsales Custom Evolution)
IN the beginning...One day there was a man called Bud. Bud Orr, to his enemies. He made Paintball guns. His first production models were the Sniper and the Ranger, then one day he made the Sniper II. Now the Sniper II's a legendary pump marker; supremely accurate and consistent, it was, and still is, used to devastating effect by many great players. As the arms race escalated, Bud saw that he had to produce a semi-automatic Paintball gun. At around the same time, in another building somewhere else in America, a man called Tom, Tom Kaye, also began work on a semi-auto marker. Now Bud and Tom had very different ideas about how a semi should work. Bud utilised all the best features of the megasuccessful Sniper II and incorporated them into his prototype. The basic principle was to make an auto-cocking unit to replace the pump. All the parts of the pump marker were retained, except the actual pump. This was replaced by a ram which operated the pump arm to cock the gun. The ram, to make the gun semi-auto, had to be controlled by the trigger. So not only did the trigger have to fire the gun, as in the pump version, but it also had to re-cock it. No problem. The Autococker was born. Round at Tom's pad, things were going in an altogether new direction. Rather than using the pretty standard hammer and spring striking valve type scenario, what Tom went for was a chamber of gas of fixed volume and a regulator to control the pressure of the gas in the chamber to adjust velocity. What you had was a gun that was a dedicated semi-auto, rather than from a pump background. Now neither WorrGame Products (that's Bud's company), or Airgun Designs (you guessed it -Tom's) were ready to rest on their (by now) more than ample laurels. Both companies sought to constantly upgrade their products. Some changes were larger than others, but all were for the better. The Autococker has seen upgrades to almost every component, and the new models now available carry a whole host of features which were previously optional extras. These changes have come in fits and starts but, no matter what the gun has come with, its popularity as a standard gun hasn't wavered.
 

The Mini-Mag from Airgun Designs
TOM Kaye's approach has been altogether different. The Automag has, from conception, undergone several major changes. These have always been very publicly announced and come in the form of level upgrades. At present, the Mag is at Level Seven (although there have been more than seven levels). One thing that Airgun has offered which WorrGame has not is free (or very cheap) upgrades from one level to another. Very commendable, I hear you say. Well, yes: but it has to be said that the Autococker is so upgradeable that, in most custom models, which are probably more common than stock models, almost every part of the gun is modified in some way, shape or form. Trigger, valve, hammer, spring, bolt, ram, 3-way - you name it and it can be changed or modified. Now there's nothing wrong with the base gun. It works perfectly well, it's just that you can make it work better. Valve work lowers operating pressure, trigger mods increase fire rate, body work reduces weight and improves looks, and so on. The list is endless. With the Automag, you've got quite the reverse. The system is so simple that vast improvements in performance just aren't possible.

The Automag is incredibly easy to maintain-one fieldstrippable screw holds the whole gun together. Basically, the Mag is a high performance paintgun straight out of the box that even a one-eyed horse could keep up and running. As performance upgrades are simply not necessary, a good level of performance is available at a very reasonable price. In fact, the two guns could . not be further apart in almost every department. The only thing they really have in common is that they both run on vapour C02 or Air/nitrogen Both are susceptible to seal damage with liquid C02, which causes the seals to freeze and leaks to occur In both guns, however, removal of liquid and regassing can often cure leaky seals.

On the subject of maintenance, both guns come with full warranty back-up from the manufacturer. WorrGame and Airgun have established distributors in almost every corner of the world, so problems are easily solved no matter where you are. Neither gun's warranty covers seals, but just about everything else is included. Also, as companies dedicated to customer support, it's very common to see both at larger tournaments providing technical support to players. For customer service and back-up, they are second to none.


ONTO the peaks and troughs. No matter what people say, Mags and Cockers have their own strengths and weaknesses. One thing I'd like to say, before we go any further, is that I think Cockers can shoot faster than Mags. Ooh, now there's a spanner in the works. Originally the Cocker was seen as the good old long range accurate marker, whilst the Mag was the little filly up front, throwing paint like it was going out of fashion. However, I believe that the new breed of Cockers are as quick if not quicker than Mags. Personally, I feel that when you're looking to buy one of these markers, the choice is largely down to maintenance. A Mag is simplicity itself to look after, and if it breaks it's easy to repair. The Cocker, however, is not quite so simple. In fact it's quite a daunting piece of machinery to work on, as it's heavily mechanised. Now on this evidence, it's simple to make a decision. But as they say, there's no such thing as a free lunch...you don't ever get something for nothing. For all its simplicity, the Mag has some fundamental flaws.

For example, during rapid fire it's possible to lose velocity as the regulator cannot keep up. Also, due to its bayonet-fit barrel it's not quite as accurate, and the blow forward design means the range is not quite as good. Now don't get me wrong, these are fractional differences -but ones you have to weigh up. The Cocker does not drop off during rapid fire (although neither does the new RT Automag...but that's another story), is more accurate and has better range, but if you don't learn how to maintain it you can forget fixing it at a tourney.

Another misconception is that Cockers love to chop balls but Mags are like saints to each and every paintball. Now as a player, spectator and airsmith, I can tell you this is rubbish. Mags will chop paint. If you shoot too fast you'll chop a ball, simple as that. Just because it's got a powerfeed doesn't mean it won't chop balls. It's important that your hopper has good batteries; if your loader is feeding well then you're much less likely to break balls. I also think that if you shoot your Cocker quickly it's worth getting some form of feed extender. Overall, both guns are good with paint.

Similarly, both markers are gas efficient and run well on C02 and air. Cockers can be set up to run low pressure C02 and work quite well, while the Mag really shines on air/nitro, with an improvement in consistency and rate of fire. The Cocker is less consistent over the chrono than the Mag, but this is counterbalanced by the lack of chill-down in cold weather. For versatility, these two markers cannot be beaten. There are literally hundreds of different set-ups, modifications and add-ons available.

So which is best? Sounds like a cop out, but it's all down to personal choice. One man's meat and all that...