They're absolutely still around, albeit in a limited capacity. I reckon it's mostly old stock that they have available. I think the SP shenanigans of '03-04 put a bitter taste in Tom Kaye's mouth; he retired not long after. I miss the mustachioed monster. One of the great minds of paintball.
Oh yes, the automag is very much alive - players will never let that marker die. It's awesome how much aftermarket support the marker has, but it's really a shame that there won't be any more Tom Kaye innovations for the foreseeable future.
If I won the lottery, I'd buy AGD and bring the man out of retirement.
Well didn't Tom Kaye retire on his own will. He still owns AGD just dosn't do anything with it. Idk if you could get him to come back Riddler... but gl man.
I'm seriously considering buying the ULE RT mag they have on the website. Was going to buy used for like $450 but new it is only $519 for everything i want so it makes more sense to buy new.
My only consern is that I plan on using it in a few speedball tournys along with senerios. Will the mech trigger allow me to shoot 12 bps or so.
Yeah, i think he just fell out of love with the sport when the family mentality was crushed under the heel of the corporate machine.
There seems to be a trend - which I hope is not just in my circles - towards getting back to our roots and the golden days of paintball. Fun, laid-back woodsball and scenario play is on the rise, along with pump and mech markers. I don't know how much of it is just follow the leader, but the optimist in me likes to believe that players these days are tired of the hype ("Buy our '10 marker - now 9% lighter!"), the lawsuits, and the corporate politics; and are thinking with their own brains and making decisions on their own instead of emulating the pros.
I'd like to see TK make a return. If my observations above are accurate, I believe he'd do well in today's environment.
You shouldn't have any problems using an Automag in speedball remember 'mags dominated the speedball scene (with 'cockers too I guess ) in the early days before the rate of fire got ridiculous. Now with a new and saner rof cap I actually expect to see a lot more mechs back on the speedball field.
It isn't just in your circles Riddler I've always kept the faith that recball and fun would win the day and the recball fields in my area are thriving we've had six new ones open up in the last two years and two speedball fields close down. I've even nurtured a small Automag group first by loaning mine out and then fixing up the old ones the other guys bought although the "fixing" was mostly dumping a bunch of oil into the valve. Tippmann has nothing on the reliability of Automags.
Paintball right now is the perfect time for TK to come back Youtube made Mike from TechPB a virtual paintball rockstar just imagine what it could do for a guy that used actual smarts and science to explain how things work!
As a matter of fact Riddler, it is happening here as well. The feild that I go to/work at has closed down its speedball part and only does rec ball groups becuase thats where the money is at.
Also, I got into pumps 2 years ago and I was the only pump on the feild. Now there are several pumps and most of my close friends have them now.
The reason I'm looking at a mag is the ROF cap and the fact that I'm sick of electros breaking on me. If i can walk a mech trigger at 12 bps, then thats all i'll need for my speedball stuff.... Now to get the $500 dollors....
If you watch Ebay for a while you can get a heck of a deal on a complete RT Pro with Xvalve.
I always preferred the ULT trigger kit over the standard RT on/off in the Xvalve. If you have the patience to tune the ULT and the level 10 you can get it to two finger walk. Need a fast recharging reg on your tank though.
Some do prefer the RT bounce that the standard RT on/off that comes in the Xvalve has.
I put my digi camo mag on Ebay, dont know what your budget is though.
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Say what you mean, mean what you say.
I'm with you in that I prefer true semi-auto over setting a mag up to go reactive. I'll even swap out on/off pins if I have to - I don't want any question of marker legality to come up.
And I'll do you one better - ULT plus stealth pneus. I'm in line for one of ZapTheMad's Cheater boxes, and am really eager to get a mag up and running with it.
My reference to the on/off was only that it's one component you can adjust to change the trigger bounciness.
And honestly, you don't have anything to worry about. All RT/ReTro/X-valved automags will have some amount of trigger reactivity, but they won't go into runaway fullauto unless you shave the on/off pin or really crank up the input pressure. I had a PMI PE bottle that put out 1050, so I had to get creative to turn DOWN the bounciness. many other players would have loved it.
The old-school classic RT's were the most likely to be a little bouncy, simply due to flow characteristics.
ULT is a personal preference thing. Some prefer a bit more snappiness to the trigger.
AGD still in production?
) in the early days before the rate of fire got ridiculous. Now with a new and saner rof cap I actually expect to see a lot more mechs back on the speedball field. 
Ebay 3:16
