Stanley Russell’s Master Blaster Elevator Gun c. 1985

On December 17th, 2015, I had the opportunity to talk to Stanley Russell and learn about his involvement in different paintball projects through the 1980s. The Sheridan Speed Loader, the Annihilator/Marauder, the RVA, the UMB Bracket, and Tim McMurray’s Delrin pump handles are just a few of the projects Stan played a part in from the early 1980s until the onset of semi automatics in 1990, when he stopped producing his Marauders.

I’ll look at every aspect of Stan’s paintball involvement in future articles but this short write up will concentrate on the Master Blaster pistol which I’ve been researching over the last three or so years. In the overview video above I look at Stan’s Master Blaster Elevator Gun, which was built in 1985, around the same time he and Earon Carter were developing and machining Delrin pump handles for Tim McMurray, of Mac 1. This project began, as many did, with a question of whether a suitable pistol could be built from the Crosman Mark 1, and although the eventual product was short lived, it was a significant paintball experiment since it was a step towards the creation of Stan, Earon and Tim’s Marauder / Annihilator Sheridan Long Barrel.

Stan Russell first visited McMurray and Son’s airguns when Tim McMurray’s grandfather ran the shop in the 1960 or 1970s and the Master Blaster project was not Stan’s earliest modification for paintball.  The Master Blaster projects and Delrin pump handles (which took place at the same time) were predated by Stan Russell and Tim McMurray’s collaboration on the Speed Loader in 1984 (for stock class Sheridan rock forward pistols to accept a 10 round tube directly) and Stan’s modifications of Crosman 357 revolvers to shoot 50 caliber paintballs (prior to the 3357 pistol).

But the creation of this stock class reverse action Master Blaster paintgun from a Crosman Mark 1 Pellet Pistol showed Tim at Mac 1 that Stan and Earon could repurpose, or rebarrel, an existing non paintball platform to pump and fire a 68 caliber paintball in a new way.

Sure, the idea of the elevator did already exist on the Adventure Games of America pistol and the National Survival Games Splatmaster is reverse cocking, but the idea of rebarreling a paintgun in 68 caliber might not have been done yet by Tim, Stan or Earon (Stan’s rebarreled Crosman 357 was 50 cal).
Although David Freeman’s initial conversation with Sheridan to build the PG pistol involved David’s direct request to rebarrel an EB Pistol into 68 caliber. And thinking back even further, the Nelspot 007 was a rebarreled Daisy pistol and the Nelson 707 was a rebarreled Crosman.

The Master Blaster paintgun idea ended up not taking off, and Stan, Earon Carter and Tim McMurray have all expressed that the reverse pump action was counter intuitive. This “Elevator Gun” went on to be a very short run of likely 4 to 6 units, and although Stan mentioned they might have put one for sale on the wall at Mac 1, the eventual owners were all individuals directly connected to South Bay Arms as longtime friends or repeat customers.

And here is Tim McMurray’s video explaining the Master Blaster (holding Earon Carter’s Master Blaster).

And Tim showing off this short barrel in the back of his shop (which I still need to add a Mark 1 assembly to).

And Earon talking about his Master Blaster.

But Stan’s pictured Master Blaster was the first that he and Earon produced. This reverse pump was made around the same time as Mac 1’s pump handles in 1985. At this time direct feeds had not really caught on, so while this Master Blaster is stock class and reverse pump action, it was still competitive with other paintball markers at the time.

This segment on Stan’s pistol is part 10 in the Master Blaster Elevator Guns series. Find the rest of the series at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJC7papTosfWmOfX2w79XnXDwuv8yf7P4

And more details on the Widowmakers patch in an upcoming article.

Find more articles on Stan Russell at:
https://paintballhistory.com/tag/stanley-russell

More articles on Earon Carter at:

And articles on Tim McMurray at:
https://paintballhistory.com/tag/tim-mcmurray

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