I've seen a lot of new Automag owners here lately, and thought it would a great to have a thread dedicated to general information, maintenance, and repair of Automags. Sure, there are other forums out there that are AGD specific, but c'mon.....they're just not the A5OG

First, let me say that I am by no means an “expert” when it comes to Automags. But I have gathered information from various sources and added my own knowledge to the mix to try to help answer most common questions and problems associated with this brand of marker.
*** Note - The information in this thread will be constantly updated to fix any errors and critical omissions. If you see anything that needs changed or updated, please let me know. Thanks***


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I. Valves, bolts, related parts
II. Bodies
III. Rails
IV. Frames
V. Valve operation basics
VI. Basic troubleshooting & tuning
VII. ETC
VIII. Parts sources


I. Valves, bolts, related parts
Many different Automag valves are out there, with many different names etched onto them. Same goes for bolts, but to a lesser degree. I’ll try to help eliminate some of the confusion.

A. Valves:

> “Classic” valve (or “AIR” valve): Regulator body and valve are made from stainless steel. Can handle either HPA or CO2, but must use some means (ie stabilizer, anti-siphon tank, expansion chamber, etc) to keep liquid CO2 out of the valve, as it causes internal o-rings to freeze and leak.

Variants: “68 Classic”, “Minimag”

> "Rental" valve: Pretty much same as the Classic valve except that the powertube has not been drilled out fully, therefore restricting airflow. This restriction keeps velocity below 300 fps. It also makes it impossible to install the level 10 bolt on a Rental valve without drilling out the powertube.

> “RT” valve: Regulator body is made from aluminum; valve body is made from stainless steel. Is the only valve that uses a gas-thru rail and a special banjo bolt for air input into the valve. Due to the high rate of recharge, is for HPA use only. First valve to use AGD’s “reactive trigger” technology. (Think Tippmann’s response trigger: using gas to reset the trigger.) Normal operating psi is 800-850psi. Higher input pressure = more reactive trigger.

Variants: None

> “Retro” valve: Regulator body is made from aluminum; valve body is made from stainless steel. Gas-thru rail design discontinued (uses inlet thru the regulator body just as the Classic valve uses). Also has the “reactive trigger”.

Variants: “RT Pro”, “E Mag”, “Micromag”,
“Micro E Mag”

> “X” valve: Both the regulator and valve bodies are made from high-strength aluminum, therefore reducing overall weight. Keeps the same “reactive trigger”.

Variants: “X valve”, “E Max”, “X Mag”

> Aftermarket valves: Many companies made regulators or “upgraded” valves. Most common modification was the “8 hole mod”, where the regulator half was drilled to allow better airflow to the valve. This helped on the pre-level 7 valves, as the air passages did not always line up together, but this design problem was fixed on later valves, therefore eliminating the need to drill for more airflow.

B. Bolts:

> Level 5 bolt: Came installed on very early Automags, and not widely used today.

> Level 7 bolt: Most common bolt that came installed on Automags.
This bolt can be installed on every valve.

> Level 10 bolt (or level X bolt): AGD’s anti-chop bolt, which reroutes the air exiting the powertube so that it does not apply full forward force onto the bolt until it gets past the point where a paintball could not be wedged in the chamber. A combination of a carrier and shims are used to adjust these actions. If a ball is caught, the bolt “chuffs” (i.e. vents) the air blast, and resets. The ball then falls in the correct position, and the bolt fires normally upon the next trigger pull. Such little force is applied to the ball, one could stick their tongue in front of the bolt and it would not even leave a mark after making contact and resetting. The face of this bolt also contains a “foamie” (a soft, rubbery insert) that lessens the impact force of the bolt directly onto the surface of the paintball. This bolt can be installed on every valve except the Rental valve.

This animation helps show how the Level 10 bolt works:

> Aftermarket bolts: A few aftermarket bolts have been made. Most common is the ANS Venturi bolt. It used a small foamie on the tip to reduce the impact force from the bolt onto the paintball. Using many smaller holes evenly spaced around the tip of the bolt, ANS also claimed it created the Venturi effect, and gave more precise charge of air onto the ball. However, little or no improvement on accuracy was noticed when using this bolt. Also, this bolt is made from much softer metal, and tends to wear more quickly than the bolts made by AGD.

C. Related parts:

> ULE Trigger Pull Kit (or Ultra Light Trigger, ULT): This redesigned on/off drops the force needed to trip the sear from around 2 lbs. down to 15 oz. It is a drop-in replacement for most valves, and uses shims to either increase (adding shims) or decrease (removing shims) the length of the assembly. Thereby “lengthening” or “shortening” the on/off pin.

ULT Applications:

> It will fit and is recommended for the following:
“X” valves and variants
All aluminum “RT Pro” Valves

> It can fit but is NOT recommended for the following:
“E-Mag” valve w/ double o-ring top “Micro E-Mag”
“MiniMag” valves
"68Automag" Valves
"Classic" Valves

> This on/off assembly will NOT fit the following:
Stainless Steel “RT Pro” valves
“Retro” valves
“E-Mag” valves w/ single o-ring top
“RT” valves (w/ banjo bolt)

> Bolt Springs: The bolt spring slides down around the bolt body and returns it back to the sear after each firing cycle. There are several springs available, each of varying lengths, and they are color-coded to allow for easy identification. (Gold being the shortest, Red being the middle, and grey being the longest.) The shorter the spring, the less force is needed to compress it. Therefore, a shorter spring will cause the bolt to impact the ball with more force than a longer one. (Shorter springs are generally used with less fragile paint, longer springs are used with more fragile paint.) Earlier springs used round wire for the coils, and tended to bunch up and overlap when compressed. All newer springs are made from square wire, which will stack on top of itself and prevent overlapping.