(Crappy pictures are at the bottom)

 

 

 

 

 

lol...   Not my home, but not a bad idea.  Keep the kids from suing.

 

:)

 

 

I also discovered that I was getting three clips per CO2 rather than two.  The last couple of shots were a bit weak, but worth the effort.  I am still unable to get the CO2 out unless it is fully shot down, so I might as well be shooting at somebody while shooting down.

 

One potential technical concern.  On a few occasions the guns refused to properly pierce the CO2.  Don't know if it was user error, a problem with the 12g, or a problem with the gun.  Will collect more data and report back.

 

Shot the TPX in one hand and a Tiberius in the other for comparison.  This was very interesting.  The Tiberius is a nice gun, and I must admit that it shot better than the TPX.  I think the reason was that the Tiberius is grip-heavy, where the TPX is front-heavy.  As a result, it is easier to hold the Tiberius steady, and there is less "recoil" when shooting.  But other than that one advantage, I think I prefer the TPX overall.

 

But so far I only have lab tests.  The real test will be this weekend.  Outdoor, woodsball, in the heat.  I plan on just playing with the two TPXs, and then we will see how they really stack up.

 

 

I guess I didn't realize there was this much variation in 12g size.  It may be that the TPX could use a slightly longer piercing action to account for this variation.

 

So I got a chance to do the full field-test yesterday.  I have been shooting the guns at the range for a while, and performance has generally been excellent.

 

The game:  Firm outing.  14 players.  Woods.  Smallish fields, some with a little speedball flavor, others complete wilderness.

 

My gear:  Two Tippmann TPXs, two holsters, 8 mags, a bucket of 12g CO2 canisters.  I used some old podholders to carry the extra mags.  Brought an A-5 RT along as my backup gun, but didn't bring it into the games (except as noted below).

 

First note:  Playing with a pistol is pretty cool.  Playing with TWO pistols is just awesome.  Nothing beats pulling out the double fi**edited**l and clicking off the safeties.  For that reason alone I would never play with just one.

 

Technical issues: 

 

1.  The CO2 thing continued to manifest.  About every fifth canister wouldn't pierce properly, and I had to swap out.  This is annoying, and something that needs to be fixed.  For me it wasn't a huge deal since I always pierced the CO2 right away, but if you were carrying it around unpierced for backup purposes, this issue introduces an unacceptable level of unreliability. 

 

2.  As others have noted, it is basically impossible to get the CO2 change cap off unless the CO2 is fully depleted.  This further interferes with ease and quickness.  A dump valve or similar would be a huge improvement, or maybe just a lever or something to give you a better grip on the tiny little knob (since the 2-turn knob really is its own dump valve).

 

3.  A nice feature would be a gas-cap string on the CO2 change cap.  It is small, it is black, and I don't know where I put it while I was digging for another CO2.  Attaching it to the gun would be an improvement.

 

In general, the CO2 cap is the main technical issue.

 

4.  I broke paint - a lot of paint.  Broke like a bastard.  I was breaking, the X-7 was breaking, the A-5 was breaking, but the rental 98s were not breaking.  Very frustrating - especially after my awesome charge-the-bunker-guns-ablazing move, where I emptied both clips at this girl before she got around to shooting back.  All I did was spray her.  The goodish news is that the breaks were all barrel breaks, and the field owner gave me a bag of different (fresher) paint to play with, and after that there were no breaks.  The rest of the day, there was not a single break.  Basically, I figure the TPX is as tough on paint as an X-7/A-5, and so you have to watch out for old/brittle/bloated paint.  More data is needed on this point, though.

 

5.  Which leads to the next technical issue:  unlocking the magazines.  I had a couple of mags with the tab pulled down for loading, and then I decided not to load them while figuring out what to do with the pistols.  So now the tab is locked down and there is steady pressure on the spring.  I didn't want to leave the springs under pressure, so I tried to unlock the mag, but couldn't figure out how.  Pushing the release thingy on the top is hard without small tools, and you certainly can't do it with your hands.  Not a big deal, but an annoyance that might be easily fixable - maybe the lanyard attachment is narrowed enough to where it can be used?  Many solutions, I am sure.

 

6.  And the related issue:  unloading the magazines.   Once I determined that the fresh paint was working, I needed to unload several magazine to switch paint.  Not easy.  With some practice, I was able to hold the top latch open, but it quite tricky.  Again, not a big problem, and I suspect somebody will come up with an easy way to unload soon enough.

 

Anyway - on to the game:

 

In a word:  AWESOME!

 

More detail:  I concur with Reb that carrying the TPX around in the official holster would get very old very fast.  The guns do not sit tight to the leg, and flop around a bit when you walk.  If you are using the gun for backup only, then you should look for a different carrying device.  But for me, using the pistols only, the holsters were perfect.  Easy to drop one gun in when reloading the other, the pouches were right where they needed to be, and the not-tightness just makes for a cooler swagger.  The empty holsters occasionally snagged on stuff, but no more than a pod belt would, and in general I was a much lighter player with a smaller profile.

 

I was very impressed with the accuracy.  I wasn't exactly trying to pick people off at a distance, but even with the short stock barrel, the shots were very straight and true.  More importantly for a pistol, the gun is very intuitive to aim.  See a target, point and shoot, and the shot goes pretty much where you think it should.  Other paintball pistols I have tried, I basically had to teach myself where the shot was going - not with the TPX.

 

Reloading (changing mags) in the field was more cumbersome than I would have liked, but that had to do with my mag arrangement, not the guns.  I fumbled around for mags a lot.  Once I had the mag in hand, though, it was a quick out and in - followed by more fumbling to put the empty mag away.  Clearly more planning is needed, but the guns did their part well.

 

As noted above, changing CO2 was a bit more of a hassle, since I had to shoot out the 12g completely.  I didn't do a lot of changing in-field, but it would definitely be easier if the three issues with the cap (described above) were addressed. 

 

But boy - sneaking around with a pistol in each hand was tremendously fun.  I was low to the ground, didn't have to worry about raising the hopper in the air to shoot.  Awesome.

 

Of course, I desperately avoided all direct contact since I didn't want to be in a protracted firefight, but that just made me sneakier. 

 

And even when I did have some exchanges, I did all right - so long as I got it done in 16 shots.

 

Net result was that when I got killed I usually had fired no shots.  Whenever I fired the pistols, somebody got eliminated.

 

There were certainly times when I wished for more firepower, but most of the time the pistols were not a particular disadvantage, at least against this group.

 

Bottom line - once I got the paint figured out, I had no particular desire to bring a "real" gun into the field, and I had an awesome day playing paintball.

 

I can't speak for the sidearm crowd, but for me this is a very viable way to play, and the TPX worked very, very well for me.

 

What I've heard (from many people): Hit or miss 12g piercing, chopping, if it does chop, it's out of commission, mags are a beast to clean, realoding the mags is troublesome and the only available barrels are "meh" at best.

 

Can these issues be worked out? Sure. And I'll wait until then before I get one.

 

And totally worth it.    :D

 

 

 

And they are releasing a new CO2 pierce kit and a new front bolt sprin, the old front bolt spring has a sharp edge and it may cut your oring....

 

they are figuring out what works and what doesnt and addressing these issues fairly quickly, the TPX will be a solid marker for tippmann and us players in the very near future.

First of all let me make a couple statements prior to my posts:

- I'm new to this forum.

- I'm nothing even CLOSE to an engineer.

- I reside in Mexico, city of Guadalajara.

    Wheather is hot  year round and extremely humid jun/jul/aug/sep

 

With this in mind I'll tell you I just got my TPX 2 weeks ago, never had a problem with CO2 puncture, gun is extremely accurate and I've tried it with the original barrel, my X7 stock barrel, a CustomParts TM 16" barrel and a TRINITY TM rifled 14" barrel,   they all fit the TPX and they all shoot awesome, so I'll now go with the X7 stock barrel and the TPX barrel.

This gun CHRONED a range from as low as 182fps to as high as 346fps     if you try to increase velocity from that point on the release valve will start expelling your CO2 so I wouldn't recommend it...      but you can sure as hell try     and I  did it and got only one quick mag shot at aprox 360fps and then CO2 is out...    bummer...              LOL!!!

 

My biggest issue was paint breaks, every 3 to 5 shots one of them broke, I even tried shooting it without  the mag, just holding the gun upside down and feeding paintballs to the handle "hopper style"    AMAZINGLY ENOUGH      IT WORKS!!    but balls kept breaking....       DARRRRN!!!!

So I took it  all APART and performed an RCA    Root Cause Analizis ,     these are my findings:

 

there are 2 factors that contribute to BALL BREAKS on this gun,    ball detent's width      it pushes the ball against chamber increasing friction,   and the mechanical part that expells the ball,    sometimes it actually HITs the ball, and with soft paint that can cause a break.

I have solved  both problems and using always the same paint   DXS field

I now NEVER have had a SINGLE ball break shooting it everyday.

 

Feel free to contact me     

Saludos a todos!!

 

Humberto Landero

CPTN- Spyder Squad

 

 

   So lets recap the excesses I have been told

1- the paint is too soft.

2- you can't use it if its too humid.

3- the 12 grams are all different so they won't pierce right ( this is fixed by changing the cap to the new adjustable end cap).

4- you can't pre load your clips.

5- you need to use hard shell paint

  I'm sick of carrying a pistol that you can't depend on, its a $300 piece of crap.  

Yeah, I've been noticing that...

Tippmannparts, cut it out...

I mean, they ARE answering technical questions, and you DO have to get the parts somewhere, but at what point does it become spamming? It seems like not every post needs to have a link to Tippmannparts...