EPS Headhunter Bolt

[RogueFactor]

Back in the day when I used to buy and sell used gear, I came across this bolt. Being that is was unique and not something I had seen before I swapped it out and kept it.

The two brass pieces you see are interchangeable and thread into the head of the bolt, 1 convex and 1 concave. On the right is the tool to remove them from the bolt.

If I was to guess Id say its an ANS bolt, but not with any certainty. The bolt is spent, as you can see the lip that engages the sear is worn beyond the point of usability. I kept it anyway, and have never seen another like it.

Update: Ive been informed by peppermill that this is an EPS Headhunter Bolt. See pics of the Headhunter marker, an Automag knock-off, below.

[PLR]

I've never seen one of those, and I went through pretty much every aftermarket bolt available for the automag... even ones you haven't brought up yet.

Pretty cool anyways...

[Gee Tee]

Couldn't inside face of the sear lip be ground back to give a new corner?

Or would this muck up tolerances for bolt position?

I had a custom bolt similar to this in my old classic valve mag, but the pepper pot front was made in one piece with the bolt body. Gave up on it in the end as the foamless design & lvl7 valve kept smashing too much paint.

[RogueFactor]

Couldn't inside face of the sear lip be ground back to give a new corner?

Or would this muck up tolerances for bolt position?

I had a custom bolt similar to this in my old classic valve mag, but the pepper pot front was made in one piece with the bolt body. Gave up on it in the end as the foamless design & lvl7 valve kept smashing too much paint.

Dont know, never tried. The time it would take to do that would likely be more hassle than juts buying a new bolt.

I have an ANS bolt similar to this one, but it doesnt have a removable tip.

[peppermill]

This is the Headhunter Bolt made by EPS in 1997.:wthumpup:

[RogueFactor]

This is the Headhunter Bolt made by EPS in 1997.:wthumpup:

What does EPS stand for?

[peppermill]

EPS was a British producer of paintball guns and accessories. They had some issues with AGD, because they cloned the Automag and Minimag, renamed as the Colonial.

They also developed the mag-based Headhunter, a next generation Automag. This marker looked very stylish and was years ahead of its time. Unfortunately they never made it to the shops – I suppose AGD enforced their patent rights in Europe. Afaik EPS is out of business since then.

[peppermill]

What does EPS stand for?

European Paintball Supply

[RogueFactor]

Thanks for the info. I did some digging(google-fu), and found some info by....YOU!

Here are some pics you posted some many years ago on a european forum

[RogueFactor]

Another pic...

[Mann]

wow. that looks like ptp stuff. I wonder if thats where all the ptp knock off bodies came from

[p8ntball72]

What date did the PTP micro hit the market? It seems to me that the micro came out in 96-97, none of my APG's from 96 have any ad's for the micro..though the 97's do.

Very interesting find, and a bit of history I'm sure Tom would love to forget.
Wonder what AGD's status would be if only Tom would have "zigged" instead of "Zagged".

Thinking that "there is no improvement" or "my design is perfect" sure has bit AGD in the rear over time.

[RogueFactor]

What date did the PTP micro hit the market? It seems to me that the micro came out in 96-97, none of my APG's from 96 have any ad's for the micro..though the 97's do.

Funny you say that. Ive spent the last few hours looking for historical info on when the MicroMag came out. IMO the EPS body looks much better than the Micro.

[p8ntball72]

I don't think it would be too far fetched that PTP copied the EPS design with Toms blessing, or EPS could have copied PTP and got slapped with a "Stop'it" letter.. who knows?

Being that ESP was producing the valve also would lead me to believe they hit the market first.. they just didn't kiss the right keister to avoid litigation.

[longi]

This is the Headhunter Bolt made by EPS in 1997.:wthumpup:

EPS were based around 5 miles from my house near to a tiny village called Paley Street (Near to Reading of Reading Festival fame). I was got quite friendly with with Barry who used to work there. Here'a a loose product history of what they got up to. First of all, they were linked with Brass Eagle and distributed the Browning .50 cal of paintball guns the Golden Eagle. A Paintball gun with so much recoil it would put a shotgun to shame! A gun so heavy, even Arnie would struggle to lift it! They then manufactured them themselves a until the first batch of lightweight semi's like the Automag came out. You were also required to have Herculean finger strength to pull the trigger! BPS maxxed out at around 3-4 bps. They did infact move onto copying the Automag for themselves and called it the Colonial. Not a vey good copy either, Chinese build quality being the order of the day. They sucked the biggie! The parts were manufactured in different parts of Europe so they never actually fitted together properly hence they were never very good. They were half price of an Automag. Also to my knowledge, no C&D letters were ever issued probably because the quality of them was so bad. Infact i seem to remember them being advertised in PGI! How they were never sued is anyones guess. I remember the Head hunter bolt coming out, i think they sold it for a while but discontinued it soon after as i think there were more quality issues with it. It was designed to stop the paint being chopped. It didn't work work which was a real shame because they were so enthusiastic about it and it did show some promise. These guys really were designing stuff on the back of a cigarette packet types! Eventually they started to move away from paintball around 1996, and moved onto making erm...Single seater hovercrafts for very slightly unhinged people to play with! An eccentric bunch they were, and you never knew quite what they were thinking of doing next. I haven't been down there for years since they stopped selling paintball products, but i belive the paintball site still runs. I do still have the "Colonial" Mini Mag body. It's Chrome and the paint doesn't feed down the power tube properly, but i still love it!

[longi]

God it's been a long time since i've seen a Headhunter gun. A real blast from the past!

[Zondo]

Man I learn stuff all the time here...:wthumpup: