The Naughty Dog Shocker
Text and Photography by Joshua D. Silverman
Printed Paintball Games International Magazine Issue 210

The Naughty Dogs have been a force on the national tournament scene since the days of ten-man in the woods. From their home in the Pacific Northwest, the Dogs have come to events from Gettysburg to Los Angeles, from Chicago to Orlando, moving up the ranks from amateur to professional, evolving from format to format to become a team against whom no opponent could ever guarantee a win. As they have moved through the top levels of competitive paintball, the team's sponsorships, and with them the paintball guns they've shot, have changed several times. What started with Angels and Orracle Autocockers has since developed through custom team Intimidators to various team Freestyle platforms through 2004 and 2005. As the 2006 season approached, team captain Rocky Knuth announced that his team would make yet another switch, this time to legendary long-time manufacturer Smart Parts and would shoot their own custom version of the Shocker that has powered many teams to victory. Like so many other teams in professional paintball, the Naughty Dogs are enjoying their relationship with Smart Parts and their input has resulted in a namesake paintball gun, the Naughty Dog Shocker.

The Smart Parts Shocker SFT was the evolution of what began as the “Shoebox” in the late nineteen-nineties. Renowned for its accuracy, which was advertised as the only feature retained by designers when the SFT version was released in 2003, the new model was smaller, lighter, faster and simpler than anything previously imagined. The company's factory team, the All Americans, switched to Shockers and immediately experienced success they hadn't enjoyed in years, as they became the Philadelphia Americans National XBall League and won the President's Cup title in both 2003 and 2004. Other teams took notice of this success and made similar switches, including another of the great teams of all time, Strange, who became the NXL's Detroit Strange and introduced the Strange Shocker a short time thereafter. Even the team lauded as one of the greatest, if not the greatest teams of all time, Dynasty, put down their Angels and created their own custom Shocker, which they used to win both NPPL seven-man and PSP X-Ball tournaments on an unprecedented scale.

More recent acquisitions to the Smart Parts family include one of the most imposing and mysterious teams of all times, the mighty Russian Legion, who made the switch to Shockers in 2006 after becoming the Boston Red Legion in the NXL. Their custom Shocker model is due soon, with sneak previews looking wild. As if this wasn't enough, the announcement was made that the Naughty Dogs would join the fold just before the start of the season, after over a year of working with a mixture of custom Freestyles and Intimidators. While the start of the 2006 season wasn't great for Rocky, Raymond and company, the Naughty Dogs began to surge as the season wore on, making cuts, then winning the Mohegan Sun X-Ball event promoted by Smart Parts. The team proceeded to use that momentum to make the cut at the Chicago NXL event, then make the finals and take second overall at the Boston NPPL event as more team Shockers made their way onto the field. Adding team aesthetics and a hefty stack of upgraded features to an already proven and time-tested platform has created a highly competitive and already-successful custom paintball gun capable of handling any level of play, the Naughty Dog Shocker.

While the Shocker is already a feature-rich paintgun for its price, the Naughty Dog version adds a plethora of upgrades to the window sticker that improve both appearance and performance. The vertical feed neck has been replaced with a matching anodized Smart Parts Q-Lock clamping model that is internally knurled to hang onto a hopper to the death, but release it with the simple flip of a switch. Just below, the break-beam anti-chop eye covers, which also house the dual, spring-loaded ball detents, are machined to fit snugly against each side of the receiver for a cleaner, more flowing appearance. The Naughty Dog trade mark, a paw print, is machined smoothly into both sides of the receiver and the back plate, and also into cover of the Ion-style in-line regulator, which I'm told possesses a better flow rate than previous models. Velocity adjustment is accomplished, Ion-style, via an adjusting nut at the bottom of the regulator into which the macro-line fitting is threaded. The vertical air adapter is also a custom model, milled to a luscious curve and equipped with a low pressure gauge.

For added versatility and simplicity, the Naughty Dog Shocker accepts Autococker barrel threads. Ergonomics are improved thanks to an enlarged trigger guard containing a Naughty Dog custom trigger with four (count ‘em, four) adjustment points, and an integrated snatch grip for the long walk to the air station (or dead box depending on how good you might be). A nine-volt battery within the grip frame powers the electronic operation of the gun, which is switched on via a recessed push-button at the rear of the grip frame. Sticky Smart Parts wrap-around grips are delivered with every Naughty Dog, and NOX electronics are available to provide more modes and codes than any player might ever use. My test Dog was delivered in a super-hyper PSP ramp mode that made players behind the gun giggle and players on the receiving end the wrong color. Speaking of colors, as yet only a few different colors are available for purchase, including dust blue, dust black and dust red.

To lower the overall height of the Naughty Dog, the marker is standard with a dovetail rail cut directly into the bottom of the grip frame, making an aftermarket, bolt-on rail unnecessary. An on/off bottle adapter is delivered with every Dog, allowing a player to simply thread their favorite brand of preset compressed air bottle in, turn on, slap in a hopper and go play. The low-rise feed neck also helps lower the overall profile of the Dog, creating what is, all-in-all, a very tight vertical package thanks in no small part to the single-tube design. A fourteen-inch Freak barrel system threaded to the front and a 68 cubic inch, 4,500psi Max Flow Micro air system created a fairly long setup, but nothing longer than anything else already in-use on the tournament field.

In an age of thin aftermarket grips and narrow Ultralite grip frames, the combination of the .45 frame and large Pro-Touch Smart Parts grips on the Naughty Dog give it a decidedly larger feel in the hand but the smooth, soft yet responsive trigger pull make up for much of that. Even with full-fingered gloves, there's plenty of room in the trigger guard to walk the trigger, though this is a talent only necessary in semi-auto mode. Once in ramp mode, the Naughty Dog handles practically everything but moving itself from bunker to bunker shooting faces along the way. Fully equipped for battle, the Dog isn't the lightest gun package on the market but it is still competitive, and with a 45 tank even small, fast XBall or front players can handle it without complaint. The Naughty Dogs call their new namesake killing stick “muscular” and that's precisely how it feels as you take it onto the field; tough.

Once through the field entrance and betwixt the bunkers, the Naughty Dog showed me precisely why its namesake team has suddenly started putting impressive finishes together since they acquired these new killing sticks: this dog has teeth. On the walk between the air tent and the chronograph area, then to the field, the Naughty Dog caught literally dozens of envious stares as it is, after all, an attractive machine. However, once the ref shouted “go” the looks of amazement continued, as its ramp kicked in and the gun shot a laser-beam from the box down a lane and right through its intended target. Both velocity consistency and accuracy over all distances were greatly influenced by the size match of the paintballs to the Freak barrel insert. Daylight all around paintballs lead to velocity fluctuations of up to ten feet per second with a slightly larger shot group over all ranges, while a tighter paint match saw consistency cinch up a few notches, to a variance of scarcely five feet per second, while accuracy also improved noticeably.

The All-American Freak front, with its abundance of holes, kept the Dog's bark quiet enough to effectively shout over while shooting a lane. With the included Smart Parts Max-Flo Micro compressed air system and a 68 cubic inch, 4,500psi bottle and velocity set to approximately 290 feet per second (measured with a red radar) the Naughty Dog delivered extremely competitive shot counts per fill, easily capable of shooting nearly 1,200 shots per fill with a proper bore to ball match. These numbers are sure to rise and fall, though, depending on conditions, but as the Dogs are playing both XBall and seven-man and experiencing great success, carrying a big pile of pods and shooting them all shouldn't be a problem.

The Shocker is a proven platform that has already won a great number of professional tournaments in the hands of some of the best teams in the world. With more top teams signing on with Smart Parts all the time, this trend is certain to continue, as is the trend for the company's best teams to break out the custom models that improve both performance and looks for a reasonable price. The Naughty Dog Shocker is yet another impressive Shocker from the Smart Parts stable, with a great mix of looks and performance for a price competitive with anything at the top of the heap.