20210429_165406 by Iron Nerd, on FlickrSo I have this Brass Eagle Tiger Shark (that I think I got for free) just kicking around. I could sell it, but who would buy such a thing, and what would I charge (+shipping). So… I’m thinking of doing some upgrades. Since the gun is worth just about nothing, these will have to be really cheap mods, perhaps even hacks.
I figure I’ll start by going over the parts of the gun and my thoughts on improvements.
WHAT I LIKE
The Tiger Shark is actually a comfortable, light weight paintball gun. The design is clearly a compromise designed to reduce manufacturing costs and still provide an acceptable gun. Everything is thick, and square, but where you put your hands (trigger, grip, and pump handle) are actually pretty comfortable. The internals are industrial strength and pretty basic Nelson fare. The entire gun can be rapidly disassemble by pulling four little plastic pins. It is a unique gun that is so ugly, it’s actually kind of cool looking. Even after 30ish years, the plastic on mine is still in excellent condition with no signs of embrittlement.
The big takeaway here is that the Sting Ray is SIMPLE and RUGGED.
TRIGGER and FRAME
Some previous owner drilled a hole in the trigger guard in order to install a screw to limit trigger forward travel. Since I want the gun to look as good as it can when I am done, I’ll have to fill those with epoxy and try to match the color and texture as much as possible I'll center the existing hole and insert an aluminum bushing in the trigger frame, and a threaded insert behind the trigger. That will allow me to add a shim behind the trigger so with one screw, I can adjust fore and aft trigger travel. They also sanded the trigger to make it more round. I may try to fab a new trigger, or see if I can get a trigger shoe to fit.
Once I have that done, I’ll shim the trigger on the sides and then add plastic shimming inside the trigger frame to limit fore and aft travel. I may add a thin metal strip at the sear contact point to prevent wear.
RECEIVER
Not much to change here. At some point, someone put an autococker ball detent in this thing, but it does not reach into the chamber because the skin on these guns is freakishly thick. So that will have to be removed, and the hole plugged. But it’s hidden, so I won’t have to get fancy with color and texture matching.
The pins that hold it all together are pretty loose at this point. I’ll replace them with metal ball-detent pins from the hardware store.
McMaster-Carr Number
1.000" long | 98320A010 | $1.88 x 002
1.237" long | 98320A013 | $1.66 x 001
BARREL
For the life of me, I cannot understand why B.E. did not use the Stingray barrel for the Tiger Shark. The Tiger Shark barrel cannot be bored for freak inserts, and I have never seen or hear of after market barrels for this gun (as they would probably cost more than the gun itself, and therefore make o sense at all). It may be possible to bore out the receiver and insert a metal unit with ‘Cocker or Spyder threads, but that seems extreme.
Purchased a new Raptor barrel.
$18 (incl shipping)
Trimmed and installed.
VALVE MECHANISM
Other than a bit of polishing, I'm not touching the valve assembly. If I hose it up, I might not be able to get the part to repair the gun.
I did add a 0.010" washer to the power tube in front of the flange to get the tube to open more as the hammer bottoms out before the power tube.
HAMMER
Just a bit of polish on the sear. Other than that, some corrosion removal on the hammer. I guess if I wanted to lighten the hammer, I could file flutes or drill some lightening holes...
BOLT
Nothing here either. There is not much that can be done with the bolt on this thing.
I do plan to add some washers at the back of the bolt to bring up the velocity a bit.
EFFICIENCY
I'm not really worried about efficiency at this point as I plan to run the gun from a 12- or 20 oz remote setup.
I'll try to post pictures as I go along. Let me know if you have any ideas or suggestions.
RUNNING TOTAL
Barrel $18
Bolt Shims $2
Total: $20
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