The Return of the TipX

My first paintball pistol was the Tippmann TipX. It was fun to use, reliable and I liked the fact that it was extremely light even with 8-10 magazines on me. Playing with limited paintballs was a great feeling and increased my awareness of the field. My head was always on a swivel. Always making sure my next move was practical and that I would not be an easy target.

It fit my style of play and I was able to utilize my parkour skills on the field. Rolls, diving rolls, speed vaults, dash vaults and mid air gun battling were possibly with this setup.

But as good as the TipX was, I wanted to try something else. What if there was a better pistol? What if another pistol suited my style more than the TipX? So I sold my TipX and bought a Tiberius 8.1.
I liked the concept of the T8.1. The barrel was easy to remove, the magazines were pushed out by air if you still had some left in the cartridge, it had 8 rounds per mag, and the design was pretty cool. I even ended up buying another one to dual wield.

But, after a couple weeks of using it, I began to notice everything wrong with the T8.1. The pistols were heavy. Even if I just went with just one pistol, the magazines were still heavy enough to bog my speed down. It was annoying. Eventually, it made me not like using them and I would resort to my Axe. So after a couple more weeks of giving more chances, I decided it was not the pistol for me. I went back to the Tippmann TipX and here’s why:

The TipX’s unique first-trigger-puncture was very air efficient. I did not have to twist anything to puncture air and waste time and air. In order for me to just drop a mag and load a new one and be able to fire with the T8.1, I would have to have the mags pre-punctured. Which means, I slowly lose air as it leaks out of the magazine while in my holster.

Going back to the TipX, I immediately felt the difference. The weight no longer bogged my speed down and it did not take away the fun of using a pistol. Since I’ve used it before, I was still familiar with the technique to draw and holster it in mid-battle. I was still as quick as I was before and I was able to move much easier with the setup I have for it.

A word of advice for those who want to use dual pistols: If you want to take things slow and you do not care about being a forward player or do not plan on doing too much running around, a T8.1 setup is for you. However, if you care about getting to a certain place before anyone else does and not have the weight bother you, TipX is your pistol. There are a lot more factors to consider when you are going to buy two pistols, but I think weight is the main one. Neither pistol fails on reliability and they both have their own ups and downs. It’s just a matter of how you are able to adapt to the shortcomings of both markers.

I’m done.

-X-