By JOracle
March 29, 2005
www.specialopspaintball.com

About forty years ago, the Russians designed the AK-47. It’s still a state-of-the-art assault rifle today – even after all that time. And, that’s how I feel about the Tippmann A-5. Its popularity will last forever because it is such a well-designed paintball powerhouse.

The A-5 looks and feels like one of the more recognized sub-machineguns used by military and law enforcement – the Heckler and Koch MP5K. But, you’ll soon learn that the A-5 can be modified to look like many of the most popular true firearms too.

I’ve played hundreds of hours of paintball with my Tippmann A-5A2 and I love it more than guns four times its price.

Yes, the Tippmann A-5 is a blow-back powered paintball gun and blow-back is not new technology. Tippmann has been making blow-back guns since the late 90s. But, there’s nothing wrong with blow-back systems. Real firearms have been using blow-back systems for over a hundred years and they’ll be using them for the next thousand.

“Blow-back operated” just means that a little of the gas that pushes the paintball out the barrel is used to re-cock the paintball gun. The advantages of blow-back are that it’s very reliable and simple to maintain. The only disadvantages are that blow-back is slower to re-cock than electronic systems and that blow-back eats a little more air.

Which brings us back to the point:  the Tippmann A-5 is one of the most reliable paintball guns on the market. You can buy a paintball gun that will allow you to pull the trigger faster, but those electros and tourney guns will leave you crying when they break down on the field (as they very often do.)

The Tippmann A-5 is made mostly from molded and machined aluminum. It’s a mid-weight paintball gun, coming in at four and a quarter pounds. The workmanship is excellent (as with all Tippys) and the company’s customer care is second to none.

There aren’t a ton of downsides to the A-5. It shoots very reliably, can be customized in a million ways and it will rarely let you down. Many tourney guns will out-perform the A-5 in trigger speed, weight and bling-bling but none are remotely as reliable.

Cyclone Feed
You can’t review the A-5 without raving about the Cyclone Feed. This brilliant invention is the coolest thing in paintball feed devices EVER (IMHO.) All the tourney gun designers must have been kicking themselves because they didn’t think of it first. Basically, the Cyclone has a five-slot star at the bottom of the hopper that lines up the paintballs and positively feeds them into the breach one-at-a-time every time the trigger’s pulled. This prevents the bolt from closing on a ball that’s half-way into the breach – which is a common problem with paintball guns. Also, the Cyclone allows you to shoot much faster without fear of chopping.

While the Cyclone is one of the greatest features of the A-5, it’s also its Achilles Heel. Since it’s the most sophisticated system on the A-5, it’s most likely to fail. Sometimes, you need to fudge with your Cyclone a little to get it feeding right. Also, if you break a ball in your hopper, the mess gets up under the feed star and you’ll have a tough time cleaning it out.

Flatline
It’s a big deal when someone invents a paintball barrel that ACTUALLY performs noticeably different than any other barrel. Tippmann pulled it off with the Flatline. It obviously shoots further than any other barrel on the market. Check out our Flatline article to learn more.

E-Grip
Out of the box, the E-Grip still won’t shoot as fast as a DM5. However, with a JCS Duel Trigger, it comes damned close. That makes it about the fastest blow-back paintgun made today. Check out our blurb about the E-Grip.

A Million Custom Options
There’s not a paintball gun out there that has as many options as the A-5. Check out our gallery of modified A-5s and Custom 98s.

To summarize, the Tippmann A-5 is a woodsball_™ great. Unless you’re thinking about joining the Ironmen next season, you can’t go wrong with the Tippmann A-5. It’s a little more money than the Custom 98 (which is a very strong paintball gun too) but it’s worth it if you’re ready to upgrade
your play.