The Puma, Reborn!

[DocsMachine]

Almost done!



She's only short a functional CO2 plug, but that's the most complete that gun's been in an easy 25 years.

Hopefully I can make the popper for the plug in the next day or so, and finally gas it up and maybe throw some paint through it for the first time since the friggin' Clinton Administration!

Doc

[DocsMachine]

What magazines were out in '86? APG didn't hit the stands 'til "Fall 1987", the first issue of Paintcheck was May of '89, and the first Paintball Sports International was the following August.

I have all three, but I don't think I have much of anything earlier. (And if I do, they're in deep storage where I haven't seen them in a good number of years.)

Anybody with a collection of PB mags from '86 and '87 want to give 'em a quick scan to see if you can spot anything about the Pumas? An ad with a price would be cool, an actual review would be better.

-Quoting myself to bring this back up.

These things have to have been advertised somewhere, and in the mid-80s, in a niche market, that meant the magazines. He wasn't gonna put an ad in the newspaper or try and get a TV spot, there was no internet, and word-of-mouth only went so far.

Again, anybody with a pre-'87 PB magazine collection that wants to thumb through looking for a Puma ad? Or is there anybody out there with scanned pre-APG-era magazines posted? (That's not buried on Facebook.)

Doc.

[DocsMachine]

-It lives! It liiiiivvvveees!

Finally had a chance to sit back down and finish up the last piece of this particular puzzle- the CO2 plug. The original piece had a long 1/4-20 screw in the center, as the "popper". Mine was missing, removed at some unknowable time in history when somebody tried to convert it to take constant air.

I managed to plug the mangled hole in the original plug, and redrill it to more or less original spec.

The trick, though, was that the head of the screw has to seal on an O-ring, which is the whole trick to this setup. The original plug used a domed, slotted screw, but looking through my stashes and through the wares at the local hardware stores, nothing had a head diameter large enough to safely seal on the 'ring.

So, I took a long stainless 5/16" bolt, with roughly a 3" unthreaded shank, and turned that down into a proper popper.



Using a bolt simply kept me from having to turn down an entire bar of 1/2" or so stainless. But, that gave me a head wide enough to safely seal against the O-ring:



I then turned a "button", based loosely on what's shown in the old photos, and screwed that on. I then dropped in a 12-gram, almost certainly the first one this gun's seen in over 25 years, replaced the plug, and gave the button a rap. And it worked perfectly.



On the left is "at rest", unpressurized, with the unpierced cartridge just resting on the pin, and the popper resting on the cartridge.

The right shows it pressurized. Just like the old APG pics, just thump it lightly with your palm, and it pops back out like it was lightly spring loaded. You hear very little rushing air when it happens, and as luck- or perhaps care and skill- would have it, the gun showed not the slightest leak.

I grabbed some of the nearest paint, loaded up fifteen rounds (a tube and a half, it's standard load-out) and went out to see how it shot. Unfortunately I didn't get any pics- it was late enough in the day, and on a dark, overcast day, that I wouldn't have been able to get any decent pics or video, and I didn't want to wait 'til tomorrow.

It loads and fires well, pretty much as you'd expect from an early-generation gun. I can't say much about the accuracy, but the paint I used was old, definitely a little lumpy, and way undersized. (Again, it's a .691" bore.) Even still, it was certainly good enough for a decent game against anyone with a Splatmaster, PGP or 007.



But, I think I've hit on one more reason this gun may have failed in the marketplace: It's a massive gas hog. First few shots were good- I didn't chrony, but easily in the 260 FPS range. Things were noticeably dropping off by number ten, and the fifteenth probably didn't even break 180.

Before passing too much judgement, it's worth noting I have a basket of random cartridges I've been using for testing, and there's been more than a few in there underfilled- to the point where even a Phantom, which should easily knock on the door of 30 shots per, might only get 18. I will definitely be trying this again with a known-good cartridge, and some fresher paint. (Which is also a little bigger bore.)

All that said, it actually feels kind of awesome to have finally shot this thing, for the first time in some twenty-five years.

Doc.

[DocsMachine]

For those curious, I finally found a couple of ads for the Puma. Both in the October '87 APG, which I think was the second issue.

The only one with a price was Adventure Game Supplies:



And, I believe at one point I said I thought the name "Wildcat" for the long-barrel version, was the owner's name for the customized longbarrel shown in VintageRex. Seems I was once again wrong.

I also had no idea any accessories were ever made, but either the manufacturer, or more likely AGS themselves, made at least those basics- which are probably considerably more rare than even the guns themselves.

There was also this ad for Skirmish, The Store:



Also showing both barrel lengths, but no prices.

I think the first and second issues of APG are the only two I have for '87, and my '88s are still buried in storage somewhere. I went through the first year ('89) of Paint Check Magazine and no ad, article or on-field photo mentions or shows a Puma.

Still lookin'.

Doc.

[Ecapnation]

I totally forgot that there was a long barrel version

[DocsMachine]

Found the rest of my magazines, and as far as APG is concerned, February of '88 is the last time a Puma is seen listed in an an ad. Save for a nice photo of one used in one of the magazine articles (just as a prop) the only mentions for the last couple '87s and the first few '88s, were in small Paintball Mania ads. The last of which was Feb of '88- the ad was gone in March and thereafter. The last AGS ad for them was November of '87. AGS was a regular advertiser, usually with a full-page ad or more, so I suspect that if they took them out of the ads by that point, they were probably no longer available.

Wouldn't surprise me if the last few Paintball Mania ads that showed it were simply leftovers- PM paid for the ads and just ran them as-is.

So barring additional information, we can probably state with confidence that Pumas were probably no longer being produced by the end of 1987.

Still looking for the one article- I think one of the tech columns- that referred to the "Space Shuttle seals", and I'll get a good scan of the photo in the article that shows a Puma.

Doc.

[DocsMachine]

And done! My biggest and best video yet!

The complete restoration of a Puma, from a box of junk to shooting paint! In addition to the two I had, I was lucky enough to find a third on eBay that had the all-important CO2 plug.

Had to make some parts and a couple tools, and I'll still need to make a second CO2 plug to get 'em both fully running, but they're done! I'd love to take one of these out in a pump game, if I could find enough people to put a pump game together.

Give it a watch, pass it around if you can, and let me know what you think!

Doc.

[lhamilton1807]

Loved watching this!

[Drunkscriblerian]

That was awesome! I love how you took the time to show us the *whole* process, which very much communicates just how much work went into the restoration. Also gotta say; that "push to charge" feature on the C02 system was pretty innovative. Its a pity the rest of the system was so wasteful.

I wonder if there's a way to hybridize that feature with a Sheridan or Nelson-style valve...

[Bow]

Wish I would've known you were needing the CO2 plug. My puma is all complete but the rear cupseal/flat washer seal is toast so It doesn't hold air. Otherwise I went through and rebuilt mine.

I had KIT on here make me a tool about 3 years ago. He pretty much nailed it with a description but I'd totally take one of the ones your making. Once I got it apart I realized I couldn't do much since I don't have any sheet urethane.

Mines in pretty much NOS shape.

If you happen to make another one of those washer seals I'll swoop one up to. I've been wanting to use mine since I got it.

[DocsMachine]

Toss me a mailing address, and I'll be happy to send you one, Bow. I made a couple extra while I was doing the video, and I still have the punch so I can make more.

I was actually thinking of ordering up a few extra O-rings and making a full "rebuild kit", in the hopes there's actually a few more of these out there.

In other news, Fubarius over on the Tinker's Guild found a Puma in the movie All's Fair- a Wildcat longbarrel with a custom stock and thermo-valve tank.



I need to put together an information page on these...

Doc.

[Pyrate Jim]

Geeze ~ now I want to dig mine out.

[capitalpaintball]

[DocsMachine]

Yep. posted a crop of the same pic, above, just mine was taken under an incandescent bulb with a mis-set camera.

When I put together an info page for these things, I'll get a proper color-corrected scan of the page.

It's interesting to note that the tank and stock mount are the same ones shown for the PGP. And that the Crosman stock shown as fitting the PGP, doesn't, at least not without a lot of modifications. The Puma adapter hose looks correct (the plug end, anyway) but I suspect the stock was a generic Sheridan one, that if anyone ordered one, AGS probably would have modified to fit.

Doc.

[Brokeass_baller]

All I get is the vBulletin logo.

[lhamilton1807]

Ditto - what were you going to post?

[capitalpaintball]

Sry just had trouble getting the pic to load. I had nothing to say.

weird. i could see the pic from my phone but not on my pc.
Fixed I think

[Jonnydread]

Text me your pictures and I'll upload them for you PeePaw

[Drunkscriblerian]

Dang, just found this thread..I have seen a Puma out in the wild, but its been years. It was a CA-converted Puma with some kind of funky stock on it. That was on a field in Bremerton, WA in like 1996-97. Interesting design, and IMO if it had come out a year or two before it did it might have gained traction. There was just so much innovation in the mid to late 80s that the design was all but obsolete before it even hit the shelves. A pity.