Automag Style Level 10 for Modern Mag Fed Pistols - TiPX, TPX, FSC, T8

[nak81783]

I like the idea of playing with a pistol as a way of mixing up play style. However, my TiPX had to use tougher paint (had to survive at least one bounce from shoulder height on concrete), and even with such paint it was best to keep it 270fps or less. Without doing so, it would frequently break paint. It seems this is quite common on these blow forward style pistols. In the less-lethal market, it mostly doesn't matter if you're shooting plastic, steel, or rubber balls, although I have heard the pepper balls can break in the "launcher", but not as easily as paintballs.

Has anyone tried creating something similar to an Automag Level 10 in a blow forward paintball pistol? I understand there's probably not much of a market, but pistols being hard on paint is one of the top complaints I hear over and over about them.

If I ever get to finish my Gamma Core pump, this may be next on the list, but I wanted to check if anyone has done it already.

Thanks.

[Jonnydread]

Anecdotally I feel like the issues is the magazine feed rather than the bolt system. From my understanding the TipX is a compact version of the TCR, and when I had a TCR and shot it with the hopper attachment it seemed to be very gentle on paint. Somewhere between the spring feeding and the squishing of internals into a compact frame it really ups the chance for paint breakage. Any time I've shot a magfed pistols with roundball it's been a sticky situation.

I wonder thought if modding the loading ramping to make it so that the bolt doesn't move forward until the ball has fully and gently entered the receiver could help to reduce the chance of the feeding mechanism pre-breaking the ball so that it bursts in the barrel.

[nak81783]

It’s a fair point that mag fed can be harder on paint due to the way it loads, but I’ve single loaded balls and FSRs into the TiPX I had (shooting it upside down), and the drop test and velocity criteria previously mentioned holds true.

As further anecdotal evidence that it’s the blow forward bolt being hard on paint, my EMF100 rarely breaks paint, and that’s feeding with a CF20 - more balls in the stack under stronger compression. The Gamma Core’s multi-stage bolt acceleration is just easier on paint. That’s what I want to achieve with the modern mag fed pistols. The TiPX looks like it will be easier, at least at first glance, since the bolt doesn’t do any sealing.

[uv_halo]

I never did magfed with roundball, but I did run a Qloader for some time, so take this with a grain of salt. If the first shot fires fine, and the 2nd or later shots have a problem, it could be a matter of more than 1 full round making making it in front of the bolt. This fraction of a round gets clipped by the bolt which at best pushes it downward against the ball/follower stack. This problem will get worse with more time under compression, i.e. magazines that don't disengage spring tension when not in the mag well (i.e. Tiberius 8/9x magazines). This gets further compounded under warmer/humid weather which softens gelatin. This problem is reduced with thicker paint, and magazines that don't store their paint under compression. Something else that contributes to this is smaller diameter paint, or lopsided balls,, even at the same compression level, (i.e. .670 vs .685) causes a similar problem.

[CustomPaintballMarkers]

As for your TiPX, if you’re running it at 275 FPS, it’s best to use 3-Star in warm or hot weather and 2-Star in cool or cold weather. I’ve found that my FSC is extremely hard on paint, but when it works, it really is top tier as a sidearm or secondary. Sometimes I’ll run six mags with my main and eight mags with it as my secondary.
Look for magfed paint if possible, but stay away from premium paint if you’re using Tippmanns or magfed gear. If you’re looking for a good pistol, I’d personally suggest the .43 caliber ones. I own an M&P9, Glock, PPQ, TPM1, P226, Deagle, and a RAM Combat. The newer Umarex ones are top tier compared to the older RAP4 models.

[nak81783]

As for your TiPX, if you’re running it at 275 FPS, it’s best to use 3-Star in warm or hot weather and 2-Star in cool or cold weather. I’ve found that my FSC is extremely hard on paint, but when it works, it really is top tier as a sidearm or secondary. Sometimes I’ll run six mags with my main and eight mags with it as my secondary.
Look for magfed paint if possible, but stay away from premium paint if you’re using Tippmanns or magfed gear. If you’re looking for a good pistol, I’d personally suggest the .43 caliber ones. I own an M&P9, Glock, PPQ, TPM1, P226, Deagle, and a RAM Combat. The newer Umarex ones are top tier compared to the older RAP4 models.

Thank you for the comments and suggestions.

Since paint can vary so much from batch to batch, I use a shoulder height drop test to quantify it. If it breaks on the first bounce, it isn't a good paint for the TiPX. Anything more than 3 bounces will have lots of bounces off opponents.

As you pointed out, in colder weather (50F is about the crossover point that I've found), to stay in that 1-3 bounce zone, I typically have to switch to a field grade or winter paint.

I shot tournament paint from NXL Cincinnati out of my EMF100 yesterday just fine. I didn't go to the tournament; the local field bought some of the leftover paint. So mag fed can be relatively gentle on paint, but pistols and lower end mag fed stuff are notoriously hard on paint.

I had an Umarex Walther PPQ in .43 cal. I couldn't get through a full mag without breaking paint. They are not easy to clean. But yes, those would be ideal for their smaller size.

I'm hoping my custom TiPX mods will make it close to the EMF100 in terms of paint handling. We'll see...

[CustomPaintballMarkers]

Which paint are you using for your PPQ? There are soft tip bolts for the TipX

[nak81783]

Umarex T4E .43 cal paint.

Soft tip bolts usually either 1) reduce velocity, so you just have to increase the pressure and hit the ball with a higher pressure blast to get the same velocity or 2) do nothing to help with breaking paint, sometimes both.