Rating: 10 out of 10
The thing about the Tippmann unlike the first marker I bought in the return to the game is that this one straight out of the box had a little more weight to it, the difference between steel and aluminum sure stood out. Even unloaded the marker screamed 'lets go kick some asses!" and the next day I got to test firing the thing.The next day my coworker William fired the Vexor and I fired the A5 side by side, and the very sound of the Tippmann was different, the entire feel accuracy and power of the marker put whatever great features the Vexor had to rest in a quiet funeral out on the swamps of jersey. Simply put the A5 is a marauder of a marker, not only is it impressively quiet, easily matching the phantom, but the very barrel design was entirely different. The A5 unlike other markers where the barrel porting is at the muzzle end had it's own mono-ring of porting mid way along the barrel, which in turn created some damn cool 'Co2 smoke' effects in the cold air. The A5 is more then it�s porting though as it's most noticeable feature is the right side hopper and pneumatic loader known as the Cyclone feed which in turn makes the Tippmann virtually slice-free. Did I mention the A5 uses it's own type of wide-mouth hopper which aside from looking like a bloated soup can fortunately reduces the frontal target area of the marker enough that you can use proper sighting techniques to get your shooting done more effectively. Ultimately the inclusion of a marker sight on the Marker's length and the obstruction less visibility allowed the test firings to prove the Tippmann is no pushover. Honestly for the $219.00 price tag (Tippmannpros.com) you had better believe this marker is a steal since you can easily get three times that performance and value out of it. Either way stay tuned, and watch at Castle Conquest XXI, I might be that psycho attacker weilding twin A5's.