Tippmann has been designing and manufacturing high quality, affordable paintball markers / guns since 1986. Being an American company based out of Fort Wayne, Indiana with a lengthy history in manufacturing pneumatic paintball guns it was a natural (overdue) transition into Airsoft for their company.
The Tippmann M4 airsoft gun is a CO2 powered gas blow back rifle. Typical gas blow back M4 rifles are dominantly green gas powered and as of more recently compressed air. This gun uses common / typical 12 gram CO2 cartridges in the magazine and is capable of being operated without a hose or remote line dangling from the gun. However the gun is extremely versatile allowing the user to convert the gun to a high pressure air setup and run a hose or remote line off compressed air or CO2. Typical green gas blow back rifles struggle here in Colorado, especially when the temperatures start to fall below 30 degrees. Fortunately the gun uses CO2, and unlike paintball guns, for whatever reason, it seems to run better than green gas in the winters of Colorado.
The gun has a fair amount of recoil and adds a whole new level of realism to game play and definitely changes the entire experience. The gun is fully adjustable with in seconds with the included tools. The rate of fire and velocity are easily adjustable with an allen wrench. In our testing we have seen velocities a little above 580 FPS with a .20G BB using a Fox Custom 6.02mm Stainless Steel barrel. However don't be alarmed alarmed by the extremely high FPS we achieved, you can easily tune it back down to safe field levels and they also offer a Tournament / Velocity lock for the gun so you can play any national operation or game.
The biggest selling point to us is the fact the gun takes standard AEG inner barrels, unlike most gas guns there are so many variations of hop up cuts on barrels and it is extremely confusing trying to find or fit a tight bore barrel into you gas blow back rifle. This is not the case with the Tippmann M4, it is the exact opposite, and we love it!
Another problem with typical green gas blow back rifles is the use of a proprietary and not to mention expensive magazines. Tippmann thought ahead while designing this rifle and manufactured extremely affordably priced magazines for use with 12g CO2 cartridges. When operating the gun in a remote line setup you can use any standard AEG magazine! This is huge news for those that want to run this game in “mil-sim” games but still be competitive instead of being forced to use 30-40 round gas m4 magazines that are typical to the more well known offerings.
The rail system on the rifle is not a favorite of ours, fortunately, we are able to install standard airsoft rails on the gun and fully customize the barrel length with optional outer barrels in a variety of lengths. This is good news as you can truly build a custom, fully functional, year around gas rifle.
This is definitely on our list of favorites.