[Midknight999]

So I've recently had my interests perked on the Illusions. What I've noticed are there are a couple variations on them that I haven't found an explanation for yet and some help would be appreciated.

1) I've noticed that there are two different kinds of pumps, one is angle forward and the other is more of a flat face on it. Examples below, ripped from picture gallery hope owners don't mind.






2) The other is there seems to be a "rivet" where the cocking rod goes into the body. You can see them on the two pics above. I've seen some w/ and some w/o this.

Thanks in advance for any info and help.

[boomslang]

The newer Illusions have rounded pump handles and no rivet on the body.

[Midknight999]

Ah, so it's just a question of age of marker. Cool, thanks. Anything I should know about earlier models compared to later models? Problems and such?
Is the rivet removable? IE if I want to have one re anno'ed would that be a problem?
Thanks much for the help.

[Castro #66]

It doesn't appear to be a rivet to me, instead a screw to hold the hammer stop in place.

[boomslang]

Originally Posted by Castro #66

It doesn't appear to be a rivet to me, instead a screw to hold the hammer stop in place.

Correct. On the newer Illusions, the hammer stop itself threads into the body.

I don't know if there are any "problems" with early Illusions, but they definitely tuned the pump stroke and ironed out any issues by the later revisions.

[Fryloc]

Eh, I would look for an earlier one. The later ones, after Bob Lanstrom left AM, weren't tuned quite as nice, and the ones that have come out on ebay recently are a real gamble.


AFAIK, the only differences are the pump handle, square, round, and clear. the round ones are more comfortable, and the clear ones are hard to find. If you find one with the stock class feed, buy it, they are hard to find as well.

[amhildreth]

Originally Posted by Fryloc

Eh, I would look for an earlier one. The later ones, after Bob Lanstrom left AM, weren't tuned quite as nice, and the ones that have come out on ebay recently are a real gamble.

I agree. Go with the earlier Illusions if you can find them. The tolerances and fit were better. I have Illusion Pro #2, and it has never given me a problem....well..except for the ones that I caused

[boomslang]

Originally Posted by Fryloc

Eh, I would look for an earlier one. The later ones, after Bob Lanstrom left AM, weren't tuned quite as nice, and the ones that have come out on ebay recently are a real gamble.

Aside from the lower-quality eBay Illusions, I didn't know this tidbit about Lanstrom. That's interesting.

[Fryloc]

Yep, Bob used to post here too. Every now and then he shows up still.