Chris “Relief” Van Horn sent over the video above and photos below of a Palmer’s Stroker he recently purchased from Sacramento based player, Joe “Viper” O’Connor.
O’Connor played with the Dogs of War from 1989 until 1999 and participated in Lively Series events and Great Western Events with the Northern California based team.
O’Connor’s Stoker started life as a .22 caliber Sheridan pellet pistol and was first converted by Palmer’s to a .68 caliber pump and then to a Stroker. The pellet to .68 caliber conversion wasn’t uncommon during that time since sheridans were in high demand and many players had a spare pellet gun around to use instead.
Although Glenn’s personal semi automatic rifle, Camille, was created much earlier, the “tournament” debut of Palmer’s semi automatic production rifle, the Hurricane, was July 1990 at the Bay City Open by the Dogs of War. I believe the Dogs of War were competing in the ten man event at the Bay City Open but I’m not 100 percent sure of that.
Find more information on the Bay City Open and the Hurricane’s debut in this interview article with Glenn on Warpig: http://www.warpig.com/paintball/pictures/gear/camille.shtml
O’Connor’s Stroker has a couple neat features which aren’t super common, first the Pellet gun base which I mentioned above, and second, a soldered on extension piece attached to the lower tube.
Chris texted me, “The gun is interesting. [The serial is] P249 but it has a quick change side cut out. [O’Connor] said Glenn made them for [the Dogs of War] so it may have been [built] off an existing pump, [since there is] no need for a quick change on a typhoon.”
Palmer’s Pursuit Shop keeps probably the most accurate records in paintball and based off the serial number Lori, Glenn or Craig can typically identify when work was done to a paintgun. Once Chris purchased this Stroker from O’Connor he called to check on it’s build date.
Chris texted me, “Just spoke with Lori [Wilcox]. It was converted to semi in 1992, which is when the P249 was put on. But [this paintgun] was a tricked/tuned pump before that.”
Lori also told Chris, that “They would sometimes extend the lower tube to accommodate a different pump handle, quick change and later for better lpr fit.”
Lori went on to tell Chris that this Stroker has a “right hand field strip ’cause [Joe] was left handed.”
Along with the Stroker, Chris also received a custom harness that Lori Wilcox had sewn together early on. Chris writes, “[Joe said that] Lori made him this pack. [The material] looks like seatbelt fabric.”
Joe also had several Flag Pull / Sportsman patches from Carpet Bob’s or as it is now known, Paintball Jungle.
And one of my favorite items to see was this page of Dogs of War code words which was sandwiched in a package of old Great Western Series printouts.
And now for some stats on The Dogs of War courtesy Steve Davidson’s WPF stat book.
These Statistics have been scanned from the World Paintball Federation Quarterly Report, Second and Third Quarters, published 1991 by Steve Davidson / WPF Publications 1992. Find Davidson on 68Caliber.com.
Big thanks to Christian “Relief” Van Horn for taking all these photos and videos and spending the time to relay all the information to me. All photos are used with permission from Chris.