Box Fresh
The Tippmann M4 feels amazing straight out of the box & lives up to the hype it’s getting. In the box you get:
- 1x Tippmann M4
- 1x CO2 Mag
- Some basic parts
- A HPA conversation kit
- The owners handbook
- Packet of lubricating oil
The construction is mainly CNC metal with the front hand guard, pistol grip & stock being made out of a black hard wearing plastic. It’s a good weight and it feels robust. The Tippmann comes set up for CO2 but it’s so easy to work with & along with the instructions it’s easily converted to HPA. With that it doesn’t come with an HPA tank and line but you can pick these up fairly cheap.
Mine came from BZ Paintball but there are other places in the UK. BZ offer a fair price, good customer service, gives the Tippmann one year guarantee & can even offer finance on the product.
HPA or CO2?
There are pros & cons to both but I have to be honest I am a convert for HPA. The main con of HPA is the tank & line, but there are ways of hiding the line & the bottle. There are guys who run three small bottles hidden in a plate in the rig & then hiding the line in the side of the plate carrier. Some shooters paracord braid the line or like me, I’ve gone for a high thickness line and weaved it into the molle of the rig which helps get rid of the excess line. I run a big tank and have it on the back of my rig. A dive shop will typically charge you £3 quid ish for a fill up which is cheaper than a box of CO2 & all you need is to take along a bottle adapter which again are picked up for around £10.
CO2
In my eyes though HPA outweighs the CO2 route as the cons for CO2 are annoying. The one major pro to CO2 is no line & the weapon system looks & sounds the business, though this is short lived. A CO2 bulb is good for 120 shots. The Tippmann CO2 mag has an 80 round capacity so you can see the problem. After you have shot your bbs, you go to change mag & you get a dump of excess gas escaping. Not very tactical but as a lover of this gun I really suggest that you try both to see what works for you.
Modding the beast
We can start with the bodywork & outside of the M4 & work in. The Tippmann is a great weapon system & is able to take most aftermarket parts for an M4 including real steel. Magpul, key mod rails, stocks and even M203 grenade launchers are all fixable to this robust frame. I, like a few owners run multiple uppers. Having one for close quarters battle & one as a DMR for sniping missions or field ops where I’m needed in a recce role.
So scopes, tac lights, peqs, grips & bi-pods are all things that can be placed on the two different uppers and housed in a decent gun box. It takes about a minute to swap over the uppers so this gives you so much more flexibility & essentially you’ve got two guns in one.
The internal mods are easy to do & can improve on the system. TDC Mods, hop mods, buffer tube mods, o ring mods, spacer mods & even an internal tracer mod can be done to the system. There are gun techs out there that can do all these mods & are fairly priced. With how easy the system is to work with though many mods can be done yourself like the o-ring and buffer tube but the tracer mod can be tricky so if teching isn’t your thing I really recommend sending the body to a proper gun tech. There is also a fantastic Facebook Group with a wealth of knowledge & resources from across the Globe that can also help.
The Geeky bit
- Multiple Gas Input – CO2 Cartridges or Remote Line Adapter
- Gas Blow Back – Realistic Recoil/Kick
- Full Metal (Aluminum) Receiver, Barrel Assembly and Stock Tube – Breaks Down Like Real M4
- Adjustable rate of fire – 8-15- RPS
- Adjustable velocity – 300-400 fps (0.20 g BB)
- Adjustable Hop-up Bucking
- Firing Modes: Safe/Semi/Full-Auto
- Adjustable Front and Rear Flip Up Sights
- Front and Rear Sling Mounts
- Anti-Jam Technology
- Low Maintenance – No Gear Box
- Easy Disassembly
- Tool-Less Mag Disassembly
- Full-Length Top Pic Rail
- Modular Foregrip – 8 sided Picatinny capable With Additional Rails included
- Glass Filled Nylon Grip
- Optics Ready with Flip Up Sights
- Adjustable 5 Position Stock
- Accepts many real AR stocks and handguards
- Works with many AEG mags when remote line system is used
- Remote line adapter included
- Accepts industry standard AEG inner barrel
Tanks
For the guys & girls of HPA land we have two options. One is to get a small bottle & pay for every refill or alternatively get a dive tank & fill regulator & pay £3 to £5 to have the large tank filled so you can then fill your bottle yourself. This way works great though the start-up cost for a dive tank & pressure test is a little pricey but once you have done it the fill up costs reduce significantly. Usually to fill a small bottle it can cost £3 & that’s just one fill. However a large tank can be filled for £3 to £5 & you can then fill your small bottle 4 to 5 times from that which is much better. Easy to get most dive shops will sell second-hand tanks if not eBay is an option.
Gun boxes
As gun boxes go it can be difficult to get the right one. The one that stands out from the crowd for me is the Nuprol Hard Cases. They come in different sizes but the large is enough for the M4, second upper, sights & a sidearm. They come with either Wave or Pick n Pluck Foam so it’s simple to customise & make it so the M4 sits snug. There are others out there but the thing we Tippmann owners have to remember is that under new firearm regs we have to abide by certain rules. One being that the weapon must be kept in a locked hard-case when at home in storage or when being transported to a site.
The Tippmann Extras
Tippmann have a range that is ever growing with extras for your M4. From low profile vertical grips to longer or shorter outer barrels. One bit of kit that is a must-have is a Velocity lock. Some sites have it as a requirement that you have one to be allowed to use a HPA weapon. Not just that but in this day and age there are a lot of people quick to call hot gun just cause they see a bottle and line.
These locks are great as it shows that the FPS has been checked & that it hasn’t been tampered with during the day. This £9 to £10 bit of kit just helps put you above suspicion when the HPA police point fingers.