I'm impressed with what I've seen and I'm still looking forward to carrying these. However, there are a few minor things that could be changed to improve the usefulness of this pistol in play.

The short version of my introduction is that I switched to playing pistol paintball when the Crosman 3357 revolver came out in 1987.  I've played around 6 or seven hours of paintball with 'regular markers'(including an hour attached to a ProCarbine) in the 21 years of averaging over 30 days a year, since.  I am not exaggerating when I say that I have played with every type of paintball pistol ever made.

  I've long been a fan of Tippmann the company, for their sponsorship and great relationship with my home field, Hell Survivors in Michigan, but have never had an opportunity to carry one of your guns.  I've played 9 of the 11 Tippmann Vs World challenges and it'll be nice to finally be on the right team next year!  So hurry up and get Dave Massey and Ed Stapleton a pair of these, so I can start shooting folks!

First things first.  The location of the rail under the barrel is going to cause problems when holstering and unholstering.

  However, there are times when a rail is nice to have there.

  Perhaps instead of those two screws coming from the sides in the front co2 compartment, a 4 screw plate on the bottom joining the two sides, with two screws going up into each half of the clamshell would be more sturdy.

  Having this reinforcing plate, with a tac rail plate as a 'replacement of the regular flat plate' option would make the co2 compartment strong enough for a side dropout.  It's been my long experience that side dropouts are by far superior to end loaded tubes or bottom dropouts.  As you can see from this short video of my modified Miltec G2 the cylinder can simply be placed in the gun, whereas with a bottom dropout, the cylinder must be held up into the gun with the off hand or the gun must be turned over to tighten.  Both of these options get you shot.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgWcaQZV0Gw - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgWcaQZV0Gw

With an endloaded co2 tube not only must the gun be pointed up to open, down to dump and up AGAIN to load, the big killer is something any pistol player would know.  When you change a co2 while you're running, IT'S IMPOSSIBLE TO START THE THREADS ON A PLUG WITHOUT STRIPPING OUT THE PLUG OR THE GUN IN SHORT ORDER.

Going with a side dropout means that the feed plug NEVER gets screwed all the way out of the gun, even if there were no speed difference this will make your pistols more combatworthy and dependable.

Please don't put fingergrooves on it.  Fingergrooves are to give you stability so that recoil doesn't move your hand on the grip.  Paintball guns HAVE NO RECOIL.

  In addition a person with a firearm takes a static grip on the pistol and never moves the gun hand during reloading, with a paintball pistol it is necessary to slide your hands all over the gun as you change co2, fingergrooves in the wrong spot for your individual hands will make your instinctive shooting terrible and keep it from ever getting better.  Really fingergrooves are just pseudo-custom bling that get in the way of good shooting form.  If they're not custom sized to your hand, they do more harm than good.

I would round off the triggerguard, too.  In paintball, unlike policework, it's often just as important being able to PUT AWAY your gun fast, as it is to be able to draw it fast. If a pistol player gets used to a good holster rig he can be the only person on the field besides the refs with both hands free, but that's hard when the pistol can double as a grappling hook.  Once again, the things like this triggerguard are being copied from real guns, where they are used for RECOIL and PBpistols don't have that!

One thing's the same in PBpistols as firearms, the more it looks like a plain 1911 colt, the better it will work.

  I love that the barrel is shrouded, it looks like this pistol will do well against the TAG8's natural enemy, RAIN.  I would think twice before drilling those holes in the sides of the grip for that reason though.  Holsters get wet and hands get wetter, drilling an OPEN hole right to where the paintballs are is a recipe for barrel breaks.  I can fix this like I did the hole in the top of the TAG, by filling the hole with a small dab of clear epoxy, but anyone with a cordless screwdriver can make those holes, so I wouldn't put them there in the factory.  Contrary to paintball belief, most pistol players are smart enough to COUNT.

I look forward to trying these out. 

Is it true that these guns pierce the co2 on the first shot and are not 'Insta-pierce'? 

Rob

Well, if worse comes to total worst I'll make my own clamshell to stick their guts in.  If they don't want to know, then noone can help them.

  All of the things I suggest except the side dropout I could do to this pistol anyway, even the side dropout can be worked on this body with alot of work.  Though a nice aluminum milled body would be nice too, I know a place.

  It's sad that this might stop just inches away from greatness, especially when there's little or no expense in the changes that would make this TPX near perfect.  I'll talk to the few people I know that have business contact with Tippmann and see if they'll put a word in.

The only other change I can see that should be made is to extend the co2 plug until it's clear of the barrel.  If it's not clear it's almost impossible to turn loose while running.

This is the downfall of the G2 type pistols, unless you cut the barrel sort:

There, I can at least feel I tried.

By the way DeTrevni, I didn't forget you, I've had to make up a mag as I had already given away my extra, but it's done now, it should be in the mail this week!

Rob

Good thoughts, ASmith.  The Tippmann folks pay attention to what their fans like, so I am sure the suggestions will be given consideration.

Cool pistol.

Evil Elvis wrote: Agent there wont be an issue with Cross Threading on these Pistols. As already leaked in other Forums the Pistol is charged when you pull that first trigger pull after loading a 12 gram CO2 cartrige in it. the TPX has a inovative locking system for the CO2 chamber that makes cross threading imposible.

If I dump an almost spent one while running and try to put another in before I reach the next bunker, was the situation I was referring to Evil Elvis, but I can't wait to see what 'locking system' is.

 Thanks HUGE for the responses, if my past years are any guide, I'll put almost 1,000 co2s through these babies next year. every little bit helps! 

Just based on what I've seen so far, it's possible I may shoot Bill Gardner in the head with a pistol again NEXT YEAR too!   I got him at the SPPL in Mi, but smart Corps overran us in the end.  My miltec and my zeus both froze out with problems by the very end of the game.

As already leaked in other Forums the Pistol is charged when you pull that first trigger pull after loading a 12 gram CO2 cartrige in it.

This will be a really interesting part of the puzzle.  This is going to make dumping the carts and loading new ones a snap(since the force to pierce it is not required), especially since the plug isn't threaded, but has an 'innovative locking system'.  Weird.

My first thought after I read that, since I run two, is that I could use the type of holster I made for a friends AFT that I used while he went electro-crazy, it was a band type holster, where the barrel stuck out the bottom.  The AFT pistol had the 12ie in precisely the same spot and using this type, I was able to easily holster it and change 12ies one handed with my right hand as I covered with my trusty taped up 3357 in my left.  In that case I may NOT want the side dropout after all. Simply change the co2 of the holstered one, while I have my other out.

it will fit in large standard holsters and that the Magazines fit in standard 1911 magazine pouches

 That sure is gonna make getting a good rig together easy.

I will think more about this while I'm shooting folks with my old stuff this weekend!

Rob

This pistol speaks of a blow foward variant if you ask me.

Look at the leaked photo(not EE's) and you can see a mag resembilance in the valve.

Im new to this forum but I was talking with a buddy of mine about this pistol the other day.  What if we could eliminate the use of a CO2 cartrage all together?  Bear with me on this.  I like the exotics in paintball (tanks, mortars, grenade launchers, etc)  and in researching all of these Ive come across some interesting ideas/technology. 

Now there are some grenade launchers that take grenades that use green gass or HPA to propel the projectile.  Ive never personally used one but I think that some airsoft guns use the same principle. 

What if in each clip there is that hole where you use HPA to fill a resivour.  And each clip runs off of that amount of air.  As long as it stays air tight you will have a couple of benefits.  The use of HPA will increase the reliablilty of you shots in incliment weather and get rid of the need for buying CO2 cartrages.  You could get multiple fills of a 68ci HPA bottle.  This also might lighten up the weight of the pistol. 

Its something I just thought about and Im by no means an engineer or an inventor but I think that if more research and development went into this maybe it would be the dawn of a new age of paintball pistols.

Tippmann already went you one better, they have a patent for a tiny individually gassed shell that shoots a .50cal paintball.  You simply replace the barrel and cylinder on a REAL sixgun and goto town.  never made one for me of course, the devils

Rob