Brass Eagle's Stingray was the first Mass Market semi-auto.   It's a no frills marker that works but certainly isn't a high performance machine.   It's cheap and it's easily worked on though.   This has lead a lot of people to attempt some pretty extensive modifications.    I don't claim to be the father of any of the modifications I have made to my 'Ray.   Most of the ideas here came from the good folks at the Stingray Toters INternet Group.    You can find a link to their site in the Marker Specific Links section of my page.

One of the most dramatic improvements available to the 'Ray is making an adjustable trigger.   The stock Stingray trigger has a ton of slop as evidenced by these images.    The first pic above shows the stock trigger at rest, the second shows a stock trigger fully pulled.    The adjustable trigger eliminates this slop, shortening the overall pull and dramatically improving rate of fire.

The images above show the modified trigger.   The first image is the modified trigger at rest, the second, is the same trigger pulled to firing position.   A dramatic reduction in length of pull that greatly increases rate of fire.

The image above shows how it is done.   Two threaded brass plates seen in the grip frame in the upper part of the image restrict the travel of the trigger.   The foreward most plate pulls the trigger down, taking up the slack on the front end of the pull.    Called 'Take up' this slack is wasted motion.    The rear most plate prevents the trigger from moving any further after the marker fires.   Called 'Overtravel' this too is wasted motion.

The presence of the plates interferes with the body.   In order to provide clearance for the plates the body must be notched as shown in the image above.   This notch is not visible when the marker is assembled, it is covered by the sides of the grip frame.

Above is an image of the stock bolt after porting.   I forgot to take a pic before doing this operation.   The small hole visible deep inside the bolt is the original diameter.   This wider port reduces ball breakage and improves accuracy by reducing the amount of distortion the ball undergoes during firing.   A simple mod that really helps.    Do NOT drill all the way through the bolt.    Doing so will result in a huge loss of efficiency and probably a severe case of blowback.

A stock Stingray 2 barrel and the Ported Rainmaker barrel side by side for comparison.   The longer Rainmaker barrel gives a better site radius, is fairly quiet and improves accuracy.

The Rainmaker barrel after turning it down in the lathe.

Polishing the internals can greatly improve the gas efficiency and give more consistant velocities which will improve accuracy.   Polishing is probably the most tedious operation you can perform but the results are well worth it.   The image above is two sets of Stingray internals before polishing.

A stingray valve before polishing.

The valve after polishing.

Assembled internals after polishing.   This image doesn't really do the job justice.    The yellow coloration seen on the inlet port side of the valve is the reflection of my milling machine 12 feet away on the other side of the room!

One of the 'Ray's I'm reworking will retain it's stock barrel.   In order to enhance it's appearance and performance I polished the barrel internally and externally.   This image shows the results.

I decided to do some milling on the body to improve looks.   The results work good but the endmill left a lot of 'fluff' on the edges of the cuts.   This all had to be trimmed away with an x-acto knife.    Time consuming and not fun but I think the end result was worth it.   This image shows the body just after completion of the millwork and before I began trimming away the 'fluff'.

Milling Completed and reassembled.   A sharp looking, good shooting marker for a little cash and a dose of elbow grease.