So I’m running some errands this morning, had to return something at Home Depot, figure I would get an oil change, and as I’m driving down White Bear Ave I see that Dave is working at CC Military Surplus. Figure I’d stop in and chat a few minutes about our upcoming paintball team boot camp weekend.
I shoulda known better. I walked out the proud owner of the new Tippmann TPX paintball pistol serial number 225. They had the holster as well, but no extra clips yet. I just bought the marker for now…. but I’m sure I’ll be getting the holster before long.
In the box is the maker with the stock 6.25″ barrel, barrel plug, squeegee, two clips, some allen wrenches, o-rings and instructions. It all comes in a nicely padded, hard plastic carrying case.
There’s a lanyard clip at the bottom of the grip, I may look for some sort of strap for that. Not sure yet. It’s well balanced, and fits my hand well. I had looked at the Tag-8 when it came out, but shooting as a lefty, the clip release sticks out too far and once in awhile I would bump it and drop the clip out unintentionally. I didn’t want to risk that happening on the field. The release on the TPX is lower profile, and at the bottom of the trigger guard, so it hits just under my trigger finger. I bump the safety more than I think I ever would the release. Fortunately it’s fairly stiff (so far), cause on my old 98 I used to have a tendancy to put the safety on once in awhile when shooting lefty.
This is a very new product… I snapped up serial number 225. And of course as soon as I got it home, I had to pop come rounds through it.
Each clip holds eight paintballs. They feed pretty easy, I could see being able to refill this on the field as needed. It’s not super speedy… but in a pinch, it’s doable. Course, clips will cost bout $30 for a 2-pack, so I’m sure I’ll get at least a couple extras.
Located under the barrel, the 12-gram CO2s change so friggen easy… the plug is sort of double threaded for safety. Two, 1/8 turns disengages the plug. I haven’t tried it in gloves yet, but I don’t think there will be a problem there. One 12-gram got me through 3 clips worth of balls with a few shots to spare, thanks to the built in regulator at the back end.
The regulator is also set to release air should your pressure get to high, say from a bad 12-gram or leaving it out in the sun with an open 12-gram in it. Back here is also the velocity set screw, through which you can also adjust the regulator. To the left of that is the connection point for the optional remote line.
I have not found much more than mentions of it online, there’s some instructions about it in the manual. I could see rigging up a short remote line to my 3.5oz tank and have it strapped to my forearm or something. Would be able to go through a few clips with that set up.
I shot about a number of clips through this today… one nice thing, when you swap CO2, it isn’t pierced until you pull the trigger. It’s not a full trigger click, but you’ll feel it… then the next shot you can fire away, and it was firing those re-balls I loaded as fast I could pull the trigger. I had a bit of a jamming problem later on, but I think it was the re-balls getting dirty or sticky or something.
I did shoot a few paintballs through it, and the first ones just shredded. I don’t have a chrono here at home and I think it was just set too high. Once I dialed down the velocity it was shooting fine. The barrel uses the A5/X7 threads, so it was a simple matter of unscrewing the barrel to squeegee it. Now it comes with a standard rubber pull-thru squeege, and I did try feeding it up through the clip and out the barrel, which would have worked but the hard knob on the end of the squeegee got caught up. I’m going to take one of my spares and cut that piece off and I bet I’ll be able to clean the barrel without taking it off.
Speaking of barrels…
The bottom is the stock TPX barrel. It’s 6.25″ long. Above that is the 8.5″ stock A5 brrel, and above that is my 5.5″ JCS stubby barrel that I use on my A5 quite a bit. (it’s got a heck of a bark to it) The JCS is too short, and the milling on the exteriour wouldn’t fit the shroud on the TPX, but the A5 barrel fits nicely, and looks kinda slick…
I could see playing with this barrel on it just to get that little bit of extra oomph out of it.
I really like the look and feel of this marker… with the exception of the bright silver trigger. Now I understand it needs a metal trigger and all, but silver? I dunno. Maybe it will grow on me.
A few other slick features, those three dots on the upper grip (on both sides) let you see if you have paintballs in the current clip, there’s also one on the top. There’s a a standard Tippman ball detent on the left side so you don’t have to worry about balls rolling out your barrel. And while it’s mostly plastic, (the shroud and a few other parts are metal) it feels heafty, not cheap or fragile in your hand.
There’s an accessory rail under the barrel, I may get a tac-light or laser, but probably not. Maybe I’ll find a way to mount my new bullet-cam there? Overall, I can’t wait to get out and play with this thing… is Splat-Tag open tomorrow? hmmm…
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