DECISIONS, DECISIONS: Tippmann TPX or Tiberius 8?

Tiberius T8.1

       At some point in the last couple of weeks I had a nearly complete post regarding which pistol I recommend to people when they're hunting around for one, but I also somehow managed to lose it between then and now. I wanted to get something up in time for the holiday season regarding pistol purchases so you could take advantage of all the sales that appear around this time, so hopefully putting in double the effort to deliver this post to you will pay off for all of us in the end.

      Alright guys, so most of you know I'm Canadian, and as such, I tend to purchase a lot of stuff from paintballgear.ca. With that being the case, I'm going to use their website for all of the price comparisons herein. So let's examine the price tag of the pistols on their magazines first. The price of a Tiberius 8.1 here in Canada is $199.95 which is down from $227 the last time I checked the price. The price of the Tippmann TPX is $278.95, nothing much had changed there since the pistol's release a couple years back. I give the win in this department to Tiberius, but Tippy's pistol can still shine through, lets take a look at the price of the magazines.

Tippmann TPX

       Tiberius 8.1 magazines cost.... Oops, apparently paintballgear.ca doesn't have T8.1 magazines, however the prices listed on some other sites tell me that T8.1 mags are currently sitting at 45-50$ a pop. That's a bit steep. Tippmann TPX magazines are going for the same price, but you get 2 for the price of 1, so that's 22-25$ per magazine for a TPX. Ok, Tippmann, you win that round.

       How about the construction of the two marker's themselves. The grip and trigger of the T8.1 is plastic, but the rest is all metal, even the magazines. Tippmann's pistol has a lot more plastic on it, the magazines are all plastic, and metal parts are for the most part limited to the trigger, barrel, and internals. To some, this isn't a problem due to the next point, but I give the win in construction to Tiberius.

       How are the ergonomics of both pistols? How do they feel in the user's hands? The TPX being mostly plastic is a lot lighter than the Tiberius 8.1, the grip is smaller, the receiver is narrower but a little "taller" in the user's hands due to where the 12gram powerlet is installed in the pistol. The metal that goes into the T8.1's receiver and it's mags makes it a lot heavier, and I personally like this. I don't like a heavy paintball assault rifle, but I do like a heavy pistol; I enjoy the heft in my hand, it feels reassuring. The T8.1's 12gram CO2 goes in the grip with the magazine which makes the pistol's grip beefier than that on the TPX and a lot of people aren't fans of this, they say it feels too bulky and alien. I can't complain about this myself and I have smaller hands than most gentleman and grip feels quite natural for me. But I'm in that generous Christmas spirit right now, so I'll go with what the majority has to say about the TPX's grip and give them the comfort point there, even though I feel it's a draw.

       Accuracy: Depending on the forums you spend your time on, you'll see different reports of what kind of accuracy people have had with the different pistols. Some swear by the TPX, some by the T8.1. I think a lot of this comes down to avoiding buyer's remorse. When someone shells out a bunch of money on a marker, they will defend that purchase, sometimes to the point of making themselves look like a complete ass to avoid acknowledging contradictory evidence suggesting they picked up a sub par marker. Accuracy wise, I have not been able to do a controlled side by side experiment with these two pistols, but I'd imagine most accuracy will come down to the user's skill and paint in the magazine. You will find your accuracy increases out of necessity when you play with limited ammo in any case. It's a good way to train! I call accuracy a draw for both pistols in this case.

       So we're all tied up, even though I'm personally still kind of leaning in the T8.1's favor, and it sort of looks like we've covered all the bases. What's going to be the tipping point? Air delivery. Imagine you're on the field with a TPX, you place the CO2 powerlet in the marker, shoot about 3 mags (24 rounds), and you're out of gas, you have to change the CO2 cartridge out of the marker. Now let's try the same exercise with the T8.1, take those same 3 mags, put a CO2 cartridge in each since they go into the mag in the T8.1 and not the pistol itself, and start blowing away the opfor. But! Every time you slap in a new magazine, you're also slapping in a new CO2 cartridge which seals when you eject it so it's not wasted. As long as you have a mag with CO2 in it, you can keep shooting, you don't need to change the CO2 out of the pistol itself. You can put more paint in those 3 mags, and shoot each one 2 more times before having to swap out the 12gram giving you a grand total of 72 shots. What I'm saying here is with the T8.1, you could hypothetically shoot through an infinite number of magazines 3 times over before having to swap out a single CO2 powerlet, but with the TPX, you have to make the swap every 24 shots no matter what (unless you use a remote coil). To me, that's an important selling feature the T8.1 has over the TPX. 

       Both companies have a great reputation, stand by their products, and have customer service second to none though. Regardless of what you buy this holiday season, you likely won't be sitting on the sidelines teching a temperamental marker, I just find there are certain things that tip the scales in the T8.1's favor and felt I'd share these observations to help you make an informed decision.