Modifying the Sportshot:After modifying almost thirty of these hoppers I have decided to do another how-to post on what I have learned. This one should be more complete with better pictures. I hope you learn something.

Tools Needed:

1) Safety Glasses

2) Phillips Screwdriver.

3) Sharp Knife.

4) 100 Grit Sandpaper

5) 300 Grit Sandpaper.

6) Dremel Tool (a remote attachment is very handy for this).

7) Sanding and Shaping Dremel attachments (seen below).

The Problem:

Because this hopper was created to feed both .55 and .68 cal rounds it has a sleeve that fits inside the hopper (seen below). This sleeve is a reducer to allow the .55 cal rounds to feed properly. The problem is that when you take this sleeve out it feeds .68 rounds like doo doo. The goal of this tutorial is to remove the ridge that allows the sleeve to snap into place and allow the .68 cal rounds all of us use to feed properly.

Steps to Modifying the Sportshot:

1) Take out the insert inside the hopper. This little trumpet looking piece is inserted in the hopper for it to feed .55 cal rounds. Throw this piece away:

2) Take the Sportshot apart being careful not to loose the screws and lid spring.

3) Use the drum sander attachment (shown above next to the sport shot) and sand away the ridge shown in the picture above. Do not fear being aggressive - I remove quite a bit of material on the first few passes. Be careful not to ruin the seams where the two halves of the hopper fit together. You may have to use your sharp knife to cut off the splays that are created by the melting material being removed.

4) As you can see the ridge that was seen in the unmodified picture is completely removed. Step three however leaves a very rough surface that may hinder the proper feeding of paint into the marker. So, change your dremel attachment to the salmon colored sanding piece and do your best to smooth out these rough spots. When you are done with this step the hopper should look something like this:

5) This is fairly smooth, and if you are careful you should need to do very little hand sanding. When hand sanding use 100 grit sandpaper and simply try to remove the small ridges created by the dremel. Then switch to 300 grit and finish it off. I have found that 300 grit is all the finer one needs to go to make for a smooth feeding hopper. The result looks something like this:

6) Clean the hopper up completely as to not feed any plastic shavings into the marker. The result of a bit more polishing and cleaning is this:

7) Reassemble the Sportshot being sure to correctly install the lid spring. This is not difficult, but be careful. This is a picture of inside of the hopper from the top when finished and reassembled:

This should allow for a very quick and smooth feeding hopper. I find that I can feed, off the gun, about 90 rounds with three small shakes. On the gun I never have to shake my hopper. The rocking motion of the pump is enough for me to keep feeding without a skipped shot all day.

Cutting it Down to Size:

In response to people thinking that the Sportshot sat too high on the marker I had thought long and hard about how to cut it down and save strength of the feedneck. I took to my Dremel to the feedneck in the attempt to retain strength and take off as much height as I could. This is what I have come up with.

As you can see it sits very low on the marker and seems to blend in with the feedneck on the Series 6. How did I do this. I took my time with a grinding wheel of my dremel and took off the outer circumference of the hopper (while retaining an inner diameter needed for the feedneck to grasp without wobble) and went slowly.

You can see a little more clearly from these pictures what words don’t convey.

If you look at the left hand side of this photo you can see that you do not want to go any further than I did. If you go any further you will cut into the channel that allows the hopper halves to clamshell together.

This took over 1/2 inch off the total height and I find that the Sportshot now sits just as high as the Winchester mini hopper. Both measure 4 3/4 inches off the marker (when the Winchester has a snap lid - a common modification) and the Sportshot is only 1 1/2 inches longer (from front to back). I now think the criticism that the Sportshot is too tall is a thing of the past.

Cleaning It Up:

As you can see from the picture above the logo has been taken off the Sportshot to give it a very clean look. This one is by far the simplest mod of this page. You simply use Alcohol (over 50%) and some elbow grease and the Sportshot logo comes right off without leaving any marring of dulling of the hopper surface.

Finally - here is a picture of it on my S6:

Good luck,

TF