It was one of the first paintball markers to be designed specifically for the sport, and has long been known throughout the paintball community for its popularity and customizability as well as its complexity.

It is commonly believed that the closed-bolt design of the marker makes it inherently more accurate than its open-bolt counterparts, though this is disputed (see Accuracy, below).

The Sniper was operated in a manner similar to pump-action shotguns in that it had to be manually recocked after each shot to load the next round.

In 1987, Orr founded Worr Game Products to sell the products he was developing, and by 1988 he was running the business full-time.

In order to stay competitive with the rising popularity of semiautomatic markers in the late 1980s, Orr added a pneumatic system onto the Sniper.

The pneumatics automatically re-cocked the marker after each shot, and in 1989 the Autococker was born.

There is a lot of controversy as to whether the design was stolen from Glenn Palmer (who has repeatedly and publicly made and defended this claim and has given a detailed accounting of the circumstances) or was actually Buds innovation.

One of the most fundamental and important upgrades was the Palmer Rock low pressure regulator (LPR) to replace the troublesome stock LPR.

With a variety of options appearing for parts, Belsales in the UK became the first company to build WGP-certified aftermarket cockers, called Evolution in 1993.

Throughout the remainder of the 1990s, dozens of shops ranging from large notables such as Dave Youngblood Enterprises (Dye), Shocktech, Planet Eclipse, Belsales and FreeFlow down to small one man pro-shop operations made a business of servicing and customizing Autocockers with price tags of nearly 2000 for high-end models.

Only the Automag rivaled it in popularity until electronic markers appeared.

Indeed, the autococker was so ubiquitous that its barrel threading became one of the most commonly used standards on high-end markers (akin to how firearm cartridge sizes are often named for the first popular gun model or manufacturer to use them).

To this day, most high-end markers, and many entry-level as well, accept barrels with autococker threads.

Though the introduction of partial-electropneumatic conversion kits in the early 2000s by companies like Planet Eclipse extended the autocockers popularity by a few more years, the availability of fully electropneumatic markers that required less work to maintain caused the autococker to lose favor with tournament teams, and eventually, casual players as well.

Newer Autocockers with integrated, solenoid-controlled pneumatics remain available, boasting lesser maintenance and tuning.

Classic Autococker models retain some popularity with recreational players, some of whom revert the design back to the pump-action Sniper concept for use in pump play.

At rest, the bolt sits forward, closing the chamber (hence, closed-bolt ).

A pull of the trigger drops the sear, which in turn releases the hammer.

A spring propels the hammer forward into the valve, which causes the valve to release a burst of gas upward into the bolt.

The bolt redirects the gas behind the paintball, propelling it out the barrel.

The bolt is attached to the block, while a cocking rod (which is attached to the hammer and designed to catch on the block) passes through it.

When the block moves backward, it pulls the bolt back, allowing a paintball to drop into the breech.

The backward movement simultaneously pulls the cocking rod back, causing the hammer to also be pulled back until it re-engages the sear.

When the block moves forward, it pushes the bolt (and the paintball) forward, closing the breech.

Autococker Trilogy Select Fire Manual