The following page contains information and tips about paintball, inparticular Tippmann A5 owners, I haven't covered every aspect of paintball but I've written some basics. 

•   When you keep your marker at home, keep it unloaded and with the air bottle disconnected.
• Never oil the reg or fill nipple on your HPA bottle and do not put oil in your ASA and attach the bottle.
• Keep your fill nipple on your HPA bottle clean by using a nipple cover.
• Make sure your HPA bottle is in date, if not get it tested and certified.
• Never have your Air bottle connected when you strip the marker down, even if it's connected via a remote line. Disconnect your air supply and make sure the marker is unloaded before you do any work.
• Use a barrel cover, I find they are safer than a barrel plug. Get use to fitting them between games and at home.
• Do not leave your A5 cocked, even if it's not gassed up, the bolt can still eject a paintball also the constant pressure on the rear spring will reduce performance.
• Wear goggles or some form of eye protection when stripping your marker down.
• When travelling to and from games make sure your Marker is secure and out of sight in a gunbag or carry case.
• Play safely, abide by the rules of site and what the marshals say, goes. Any grievance you can take up in the safe zone.
• Do not point your marker at anyone in jest! Act responsibly.

Upgrading your Tippmann A5

There are many upgrades available, a lot of them won't make any difference to how your A5 performs. Basically there are two groups of upgrades, external and internal.

Accuracy depends on your paint, barrel and airflow. You do need good paint; do not waste your time with the cheap stuff. It's worth investing in a decent barrel. My favourites are the LAPCO Big Shot for its versatility and Freak Junior because of the inserts. A lot of players buy longer barrels thinking it will make them shoot further but 300fps is 300fps, all a longer barrel will do is make you use more gas. The optimal length of a barrel is 8 to12 inches.

Airflow has to be constant, if air pressure fluctuates on each shot so will the FPS. The aim is to get FPS as level as possible so your paintballs will follow accurately. A good regulator is needed to control the airflow.

External:

• Stock, help you to aim, even though recoil is negligible you will still need to hold and support your A5 securely to aim and direct your fire accurately. You can also do this without a stock and connecting an airbottle straight to your bottomline to act as a stock.
• Handguard, allows you to attach tac-light, vertical grip and laser. My advice is go for a free floating handguard with picatinny rails fitted. This will allow you remove the barrel without removing your handguard or remove the handguard for a lighter load out.
• Magazine, I'm not a fan of mags, they do look good but also add weight.
• Scope Rail, will allow you to attach a red dot scope. My advice is practice shooting without the red dot first.

Internal: Some internal parts are actualy on the outside but they are to do with the mechanics of the A5.

  E-grip, I would suggest you take your mechanical grip as back up. E-grips do break down and a quick change over to your mechanical grip will keep you in the game.
Low Pressure Kit, not necessary, not a great difference in performance but I've found that I can run my air bottle with a low pressure regulator set at around 400psi and still shoot around 290fps. This gives more shots per fill. In theory this set up shouldn't work but I found it does, it might be down to the Gold tube, I also run a TechT Vortex kit so the cyclone can run at a much lower pressure.
TechT Vortex kit. The ratchet is probably the weakest part of the marker and if you have an e-grip, you'll break quite a few ratchets. The Vortex solves that problem with an alloy ratchet.

More to come, in the meantime p lease visit our Paintball Products section. 

  written by missamile Alan from On Patrol