Kila Products

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Kila Products' V2
By Bill Mills - April 2005

Ball detents are usually overlooked, as players eyes turn to the flashier components and accessories on a paintgun.  Perhaps they should not be so downplayed, as these little widgets are usually all that stands between the shooter and a double feed that shoots at low velocity, or worse, a barrel full of gooey paint mess.

Ball detents prevent double feeding by providing resistance to keep a paintball from rolling forward into the barrel while the breech is open.  Detents usually fall into one of three categories: flexible wire, rubber nubbin, and ball bearing.  If they provide too little resistance, they don’t do their job, but if they provide too much resistance they can cause bolt stick or other problems.

While ball bearing detents had a start on the lowly NSG Splatmaster all plastic pistol they are now found on many modern high end paintguns for a couple of reasons.  First and foremost is because they work.  Second is because they are often housed in a removable screw threaded housing.  This makes them accessible for cleaning while also allowing for aftermarket decorative milled or anodized detent assemblies to add a bit of splash to a customized paintgun.

The most common form for the ball bearing style detent today places the bearing – usually made of a tough, non-marring plastic, inside of a hollow mushroom shaped screw.  An internal spring presses the ball bearing outward.  When the whole assembly is installed in the body of a paintball gun, the bearing protrudes into the front of the breech.  When a paintball is pushed past it, the bearing is pushed back into the detent body, compressing its spring.

Kila Products has put a new spin on this old idea with the Kila V2 Ball Detent.  Starting with AirGun Design’s E-Mag, small and powerful magnets have rapidly been replacing springs in many paintgun applications, especially triggers.  In addition to not fouling or rusting, rare earth magnetic return systems won’t bind like springs can.  Kila applied that same technology to ball detents.

From the outside, the V2 looks like most other ball bearing style detents, but on the inside one sees the differences.  First, it does not actually have a ball bearing.  Instead, a piston with a rounded end does the actual work of holding back the paint.  Like many of the better quality bearing detents the body of the V2 has a screw in its top that allows the whole thing to be disassembled.  

The top contains a small magnet, while the piston itself also has a magnet.  The like magnetic poles of these two magnets repel each other, in a spring-like manner.

The V2 reviewed was tested in an AirGun Design’s ULE, and was designed for use with an Automag or Angel, as both use the same style of ball detent.  Similar models are available for Autococker, DM4 and Alias Intimidator.  Included with the V2 were three o-rings of varying thickness.  These serve two functions.  They act as a friction lock to keep the detent from backing out of the receiver under the vibration of firing, and by selecting the proper thickness the depth of how far the detent reaches into the breech can be adjusted.

In place, the V2 worked without problem.  Double feeds with it were no problem, and it showed little signs of wear.
 

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