HomePaintgunsMechanicalTosh's Palmerized Stroker Stan-nihilator

Tosh’s Palmerized Stroker Stan-nihilator

Over the last few days I’ve posted two videos with Tosh Tanaka.  This is the third and final video where Tosh discusses his Palmerized Stroker built off a 1st generation Stan Russell Annihilator.

Tosh says he thought he’d “convert this [Annihilator] because it arrived so pristinely from the fellow [he] bought it from on ebay,” in the mid 90s (ebay was founded in 1995 so likely 1996?).

Tosh's 1st gen annihilator converted to semi by Palmers
Tosh’s 1st Generation Annihilator Converted to a Stroker Semi Automatic from Palmers.

Sort of the opposite logic I would have used when making the decision whether to permanently convert a desirable classic into a playable treasure, but you have to appreciate Tosh’s bravery and the actual Palmerized “Stroked Stan-nihilator,” as Tosh has dubbed it, is one of the nicest Palmer’s Strokers I’ve come across!

Tosh's Annihilator with custom tank cover.
Tosh fabricated a custom tank cover for this stock out of old BDUs.

As I mentioned, this is a 1st generation Annihilator / Marauder so it uses the long bolt, which is not compatible with P-series or K series Sheridan pump paintgun. Find a comparisons to other Sheridan bolts here:
https://paintballhistory.com/sheridan-pump-paintgun-bolt-comparison
And another 1st gen Annihilator side by side to a PG/PGP bolt here:
https://paintballhistory.com/classic-mac-1-converted

1st Generation Annihilator bolt removed from Stroker.
1st Generation Annihilator Long Bolt removed to show length. Not P or K series compatible.

Subtle differences separate Stan Russell’s Marauders from the Annihilators that Stan Russell and Earon Carter sold to Mac 1. More information on that topic can be found in this article on Jay “the Buzzard” Jackson.
https://paintballhistory.com/remembering-jay-the-old-buzzard-jackson

Tosh's Stan-nihilator left side
Tosh’s Palmerized 1st Generation Annihilator. These Annihilator’s used a longer bolt and were made from 1986 until about 1988 by Stan Russell and Earon Carter. Most were made for Mac 1. This was converted to a Stroker by Palmer’s in about 1997.

But aside from the typical features found on Stan Russell’s 1st generation Annihilators, Tosh’s Annihilator also featured unique brass front sights, knurling on the bolt, a tall back sight rail, and possibly a longer than normal barrel? I had thought maybe Tosh had this paintgun rebarreled at Palmer’s but if that were the case then Palmer’s would have shortened the bolt to standard P series.

Annihilator Stoker with the stock mounted tank and stabilizer.
Left side profile of Tosh’s 1st gen Annihilator. Showing the 10oz tank screwed into the Palmer’s female stabilizer.

The lower tube is based off a pellet pistol as many of the early Annihilators and Marauders were and the stock is setup very similar to Tosh’s other MK1 Mac 1 Annihilator. It uses a classic 1.25 inch spacing Universal Mounting Bracket (UMB) bottomline attached to the Sheridan frame and a Lapco or as Tosh says, “Stan Stock” mounted on the that UMB.

Uncovered 10oz tank on the 1st generation Annihilator
Without the BDU tank cover you can see the form the stock and 10oz take on.

Tosh decided to have this Stan Russell Annihilator converted to a Stroker around the time the Blazer was available for purchase. So that dates this conversion to around or after 1997, Tosh believes it was done in 1997-98.

Closer shot of the "Stroked Stan-nihilator"
Closer Shot of Tosh’s Stan-nihilator.

Tosh also mentions the bore size of his ‘Stroked Stan-nihilator” as pretty large, but mentions in the video that he “doesn’t mind the size since he could do some spray and pray” with it and not have to make every shot count as he would have had to with his MK1 Annihilator.

back shot of 1st gen Annihilator Stroker
Back shot of the RVA, sight ring and side mounted Ram.

When Tosh had this Annihilator / Marauder converted to a Stroker he was living in Turlock, in California’s Central Valley and playing at a field “out near Ceres,” which is I believe between Turlock and Modesto. Anyone remember the name of a field there in the mid 90s?

Tosh goes on to list additional features added with the semi conversion from Palmers:

right side of stan-nihilator-stroker
Right side of Stan-nihilator Stroker close up.

•The Palmer’s double feed detent ball has been added (pictured above).

Right side profile of the Annihilator cropped.
Right profile cropped of the 1st gen annihilator.

•The air input through a quick disconnect nipple, which as Tosh points out, wasn’t a typical mid 90s set up. Around this time, most strokers would of had a vert asa or side out to a bottomline or back bottle and very few users would have run an underslung tank in a stock at that time. But because of the way it’s set up you could essentially ad a vertical asa easily.

Left side close up of ram trigger and qd.
Left side close shot of the ram, trigger and qd.

•Tosh also added mufflers to his qevs and calls them silencers. I hadn’t seen mufflers on qevs before but they do have a neat effect, although they might cancel out some of the quickness of the qevs by obstructing the air vent passage, but that would be a question for paintballtek.com

close up right side of Palmer's Stroker Annihilator.
Left side close up of Tosh’s Stan-nihilator Stroker with Palmer’s Pneumatics and P serial number.

Palmer’s serial number is P1861, the lower tube is visible as saying for “Pellets Only” and overall this is a radical Stroker and although I probably won’t be playing with it anytime soon I will be recording a shooting video with it eventually (eventually means a year a two).

Thanks again to Tosh for recording the videos with me and the paintguns!

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