The Hammer Brothers Live! (And their little Bro too!)

Did I buy
a mummy?

In the long run of owning a Hammer since early 2000, I was able to bring it back around to something similar to what I shot when I got into Paintball in 92: A PMI Trracer. Nothing really amazing or upgraded. It was 100% stock. While it was my first marker, it wasn't heartbreaking when I sold it. I never called it my first marker so it didn't hold any deep seeded nostalgia, other than it being what got me into the sport. 

As many know, I am a self proclaimed Kingman Whore, and even display it as a badge of honor on MCB. With that, I consider my first real marker as my Spyder (Targa) Compact. It's been through piles of reconfigs and is easily my most expensive marker, even though it's "just a Spyder..." But that's a much different post.

Let's get back to the Hammer Brothers!

As I mentioned, my OG Hammer is a Silver Direct Feed hammer. Not long after that, I got a loose body in a batch of stuff from the old field in Michigan. I always held onto it, trying to figure out if I like the Direct Feed or Power Feed better. As the years went on, I kept it on the Direct Feed body and started the side quest of getting parts for the black Power Feed body. 

Haha, yeah right...

Exhumed for it's cocoon

For years, I was always looking for all the Nelson-y goodness that would complete my second Hammer. It never really happened. Up till last year, I was only able to get a New Hammer grip frame and an adjustable bolt, that was also missing the adjustable part. Still needed the ASA/valve, striker, spring (easy fix for that one...), and matching crown barrel. 

A couple of years ago, I ended up with the green brother: Complete! While this is great, I still have the second brother still in pieces.

Let's continue the quest!

I saw a listing on an auction site for another Hammer. I was also complete looked to be in pretty decent shape! I decided to go for it. Watched it go up from $8.95 to to my max of $80 (my max) over the course of 6 days. After shipping/handling and tax, I paid $98.34. A little high for my liking, but it was a good deal to get from 2.5 Hammers to a complete set of 3, that covers (mostly) their variants. (This also give Mkeeks the opportunity to save her cracked Powerfeed Hammer and swap to a Direct Feed. This also makes her have 1.5 Hammers to talk about! LOL!)

This gunk was
only the beginning

As I made my way through the cleaning process, I kept finding more wrong with it, but also finding happy surprises. The adjustable bolt was, well... still adjustable! In many cases, the insert will be broken off from over torquing or just missing from neglect and it just got shot out on some random day. 

It happens and it's freaking unfortunate. 

I keep on with the cleaning.

This thing was put
away HARD

The previous owner didn't know how to break this marker down and maintain it. I mean, it's pretty clear because I got it from an auction site that deals with donations. Paint hits were seeped and soaked into a lot of crevasses. Some of the paint was dried so bad, it was hard and more of an adhesive!

So much crusty paint!

Wait, something's
wrong here...

Let's keep on cleaning... I get to the barrel and am happy to see that it's the original barrel! Holy crap! I got a Hammer with the brass insert! More crust though. I bring the part to the sink and run warm water in hopes that it will rehydrate the paint. It does a little bit but not all. I grab my barrel swab that I keep at the kitchen sink and start swiping it hard to get more of it off. That got almost all of it!

With almost a fully cleared barrel, I get the leftovers by spraying some Goo Gone in there to loosen up the rest. That did the trick!

Then I noticed one of the worst crimes ever.

WHOEVER THE PREVIOUS OWNER WAS, CUT THE CROWNS OFF THE BARREL!??!?!? 😠

My heart sunk. Yeah, the listing was a complete Kingman Hammer, but one of the most coveted parts was destroyed. You can see into the barrel and see where there insert starts at the same point as the green Hammer barrel. 

I can keep being angry about it or I can keep on refurbing this pump.   

You don't see this too often

Home stretch with making this a a great Nelson pump again. I take a look at the grip and confirmed what I saw in the listing: The grip still had the storage door! (This is a smaller win, compared to the barrel, since it can easily replaced or replicated with some 3D printing.) I keep breaking down the pump and noticed that the safety was also crusted over. Taking the same steps, I start with warm water and work my way up to Goo Gone. I have to be careful with doing this, since it might take off the lettering on the lower. I definitely want to avoid this, to keep it as clean and authentic, as possible.

Cleaned, cycled and
joined the brothers

Once the safety was cleared and working, it was time for the valve.

I was happy to find that there was NOTHING wrong with it. Power Tube was showing signs of use, but nothing out of the ordinary. Cup seal and valve spring was fine and no signs of corrosion either. Whew! 

Reassembled the valve and started working backwards.

One of these things
is not like the other

• Bolt and mainspring onto the Power Tube and valve
• Slide all of it into the body
• Rear grip screw into the ASA
• Front grip screw into the body
• Align the bolt for the pump arms
• Slide the pump handle over the front of the body
• Screw the barrel into the body
• Screw the pump arms into the bolt
• .
• PROFIT!

Even with the devalued barrel, it's nice to say that I've finally got all 3 versions of the Kingman Hammer 1 series completed! Now I can update the Hammer Bros page with all of them immortalized for all to see!

You can hear this image