Im gonna get a Tac-8. To be honest they're the only pistol thats worth buying. Im not gonna wait on Tippmann. Every other pistol on the market is a pain in the butt. Unless you get a PGP Pump pistol..I hear those are decent.
Tac-8 is very accurate for the size barrel it is. Check out the test video we did for the Tac8 Scott. It had insane performance even in the middle of winter.
That and you can get a Bigshot barrel for it now...and an Apex..
I agree. T8 is by far the best pistol I've used. I've used both a PT Extreme Jr and an Ariakon ACP, and I've held a PPS Squall and an Ariakon Overlord. T8 beats all of them in size/feel and definitely beat the PT and ACP in performance.
The stacked tube blow back pistols are the easiest to work on since they have the fewest and simplest parts. The Squall shouldn't need much maintenance besides oil and cleaning the outside and barrel. But if something goes wrong, it's back to PPS in California for repairs. The T8 is a bit more complex than the stacked tubes, but easy enough that you can do everything yourself.
Every other pistol runs unregulated 12 grams. The T8 has built in regulator and works nearly the same as a mag (besides an on/off, but it gets around this with a longer recharge rate on the reg, I'll touch this later). What the reg allows you to do is get more shots out of your 12 gram, and get greater consistency. As you shoot, the 12 gram cools down and the pressure drops as a result. So with every other pistol, you fire just a bit too fast, and your velocity starts dropping rapidly. Also, with the lower temperature, you increase the chances of liquid getting into your valve, which hurts efficiency a lot since liquid is much more dense than the gas. But on the T8, as long as the pressure in the 12 gram stays above the operating pressure of the reg (I'd guess it's around 300 psi, that's about where classic mags run, I think), your velocity stays about the same. Regs also help keep liquid out. It's all about improved efficiency and consistency.
Next, the 12 gram orientation is critical. In every other pistol, it mounts under the barrel horizontally. In the T8 it's vertical in the mag. When it's horizontal with the pierced end towards the valve, you tip your pistol up for more range and the liquid in the 12 gram follows gravity and you've just loaded your valve with liquid. There goes efficiency and you end up with a velocity spike. The vertical 12 gram is like running a vertical bottle or anti-siphon. It's very tough for liquid to get out and into your pistol.
And swapping mags is key to efficiency as well. With other pistols, you fire your 12 gram until it's dead, about 20 or so shots. That's 20 straight shots, and depending on how fast you fire, it's going to be cold. Like I said before, when 12 grams (or any CO2) get cold, your pressure drops and you increase the chances of liquid getting in. There goes your efficiency. On the T8, you swap out mags every 8 rounds. That gives the 12 gram time to warm back up before you use it again. Better efficiency.
And swapping mags make reloads so much quicker. I've gotten reloads down to about 3 or 4 seconds. With other pistols, assuming you get 20 shots per 12 gram, first reload is sort of fast, depends on the gun. If you have extra removable 10 round mags on top, your first reload is about as fast as the T8, mag off, in a pouch, new mag on. If you don't have extra mags, you usually relaod with 10 round tubes by removing the feed plug. Now you have to worry about dropping the plug and 10 round tube, but still not horribly slow with practice. But the second reload is the killer. Reload your paint, then swap the 12 gram. The original PT Extreme is the best 12 gram changing option along with the PPS Quik Silver and neither of these are available new anymore. If your pistol has a dropout changer (ex: Squall), your 12 gram change is like this: unscrew, unscrew, unscrew, pop out the spent 12 gram through the dropout slot, pop new 12 gram in, screw, screw, really SCREW to pierce. If you have a bucket changer like the ACP, PT Jr, Overlord, and most other pistols, add a few more unscrews and screws to the process along with possibly losing your plug. Neither way is as good as the T8 change. You just have to keep track of your reloads and switch out 12 grams when they are getting low if you don't have a lot of mags.
Pistol comparison: This past Saturday, Brad (Crimson) and I were at TRP setting up our T8's for Sunday's pump and pistol only event. He brought out his ACPs to test. After sitting for a few months, both were leaking right away. We broke both down and lubed them and replaced some damaged seals. Put them back together and one was still leaking. The other one, we took to the chrono range. Shooting at 240 (our T8's chronoed at 270), his ACP got 8 shots. Our T8s got 24 shots. It was in the mid to low 40's. Not terribly cold, but cold enough to make 12 gram use a little problematic. But we still got decent efficiency (I usually get close to 32 shots on a warmer day). The ACP just sucked. You can't play with a pistol that can't even shoot a whole mag.
The T8 is by far the best pistol available. If you are going to run a psitol as a primary, you'd be foolish to buy anything else. As a backup, it's a bit expensive, but still much better than the other pistols.
EDIT: Sorry for the long post. If you read it, hopefully it helps with your decision.
BTW, the Tippmann pistol is not going to have the 12 gram in the mag (that design is patented by Tiberius). So it basically has to be under the barrel like all other pistols. Right off the bat, it's failing to meet the standards of the T8. I'm predicting it will be slightly better than a stacked tube blow back pistol, but still not as good as the T8. And yet the Tippmann fanboys will rave about it.
