Psycho Ballistics SuperBolt Review

By Andrew C. Syren

As most of my readers know, I am personally partial to the Autococker and what it has become over the years. Recently, several companies have jumped on the bandwagon of the auto-cocking marker. As most of you know, Bud Orr owns the right to the name ‘Autococker’ but that has not stopped companies from creating and in some ways bettering the auto cocking style of marker. This is not to say that all renditions of Bud Orr’s pride and joy are better, but in many ways different, and each rendition may fit a particular playing style better than another. In any case, I have the pleasure of reviewing one of the newest additions to the auto-cocking markers, known as the SuperBolt by Psycho Ballistics.

In this review, we will discuss several aspects of this marker including; packaging condition, appearance, functionality/operation, and the ease of maintaining the marker. It is my hope that reviewing this marker with these aspects in mind, will allow you, the reader, to gain a better understanding of this inexpensive rendition of the Autococker and whether it is the marker for you or not.

When I received the marker, I was immediately impressed by the firm structure of the case that comes standard with the marker. It was a solid case with the Psycho Ballistic logo embroidered on the cover and had a good feel to it, telling me that this case would indeed keep the marker from any damage. I eagerly opened the case but found myself rather disappointed in the way that the marker fits into the foam padding.

The foam padding was heavy, and would seem to stand the test of time, but was completely glued down. Why would this be a problem? Well for starters, the marker as you can see from the pictures comes unequipped with an in-line regulator and no drop forward or ASA for your tank to insert to. With the padding as such, you would be hard pressed to get your marker into the case after adding such well needed upgrades. In most cases, players have marker bags and other forms of transporting their markers, but it would have been nice to have the ability to remove the hard foam and cut it to fit any add-ons. As I stated, the marker case is a nice touch, just poorly executed for further use once the marker is outfitted for play.

Having removed the marker from the case provided I was extremely impressed by the weight factor of this marker. It was very light and had a decent feel to it, considering how small it was. The marker comes in four pieces; the feed port, barrel back and barrel tip are all in their separate cutouts within the case and were easy to attach to the marker. The barrel, which represented the same feel and construction as the Empire two piece barrel from their 4, 7 or 10 piece kits was rather light and once screwed into the marker presented a nice look.

With the marker completely assembled it still was extremely lightweight. Looking at the SuperBolt you would instantly recognize the marker to be an almost identical marker to the Dye Ultralight. And as far as this marker goes, it is ultra light. As I mentioned, the marker does not come with an in-line regulator and is without an ASA to attach your tank.

For the review, I originally selected the Air America Black Ice regulator and a standard ASA from Smart Parts, but due to regulator complications I switched to a Custom Products regulator and matched it up with the Custom Products on/off ASA. Once the parts were fitted to the marker, I felt that the selected parts kept the weight of the marker down and made for a complete look to the appearance of the marker.

The functionality of the Super Bolt was the same as it would be with any other higher end Cocker. With the Super Bolt I had no problem with the marker when properly set up for play. When I initially had the marker set up, I ran it with a Black Ice Regulator that was not working properly and unfortunately during test Kevin Cappon, my assistant, blew out two of the three 3-way o-rings while rapid firing. The regulator would not settle below 700 psi, and for a cocker of any kind, this is not good.

Turning a bad incident into a good one, the replacement of the two o-rings was done within 15 minutes and was easy to do. Having only to remove the trigger frame from the marker, I removed the 3-way actuating rod and 3-way internals all at once. After reassembling the marker, she was back to ripping through paint.

With the Custom Products regulator set and the marker aired up, the SuperBolt fired great. The SuperBolt, having a fully adjustable set of front pneumatics, made firing this marker just as good as any of the higher priced markers you see today. Setting the low-pressure regulator of the marker was done by twisting the front knob of the LPR and firing the marker while doing so and made it easy to find out just how much pressure was needed to cock the marker.

After the correct pressure was determined, the marker was easy to cycle and the bolt could be held while fired to keep from completing a cycle with ease. This would allow the marker to pinch paint rather than chop during the event of a possible misfeed or short stroke.

The SuperBolt was as accurate as any other cocker clone as well as the Autococker itself and was very comfortable to use. Not having the chance to field test the marker due to the small technical problems with the in-line regulator, I had to run some small drills outside of the hyperball field. Diving was easy, considering that the marker was light and easy to maneuver with. Snap shooting was done with the greatest of ease as well.

This marker, equipped with an electro trigger frame, would wreak havoc upon any opposition. Even with the mechanical trigger frame this marker was as fast as you could pull the trigger and with the short pull of the 3-way there was little chance of short stroking. Using a hand held chronograph I was able to hit a plus/minus 6 feet per second. Not too bad, considering the barrel was stock and the marker had barely been fired enough times to be broken in.

To get the over-the-chronograph readings I used TC Venom paint from TC Paintball as they have supplied me with both paint and air to perform the testing on the SuperBolt. The performance of this marker was excellent. It was a solid marker to play with and had a good feel to it, as it tossed its fair share of paint the day of test.
&