Tippmann XVR Crossover Marker Review and comparison
So when two packages dispatched from P8ntballer.com HQ landed on my doorstep, I knew roughly what they were at least. Tippmann markers, which ones specifically however was a mystery to me. I had images in my head.
[URL='http://smg.photobucket.com/user/dustynutz/media/clip_image002_zps2a46b64b.jpg.html']
One of the biggest companies in paintball, they’ve been supplying markers to sites around the world for decades and their markers are hugely popular on the scenario scene too with some very military looking hardware being wielded on a weekly basis by thousands of recreational players worldwide.
Unfortunately the boxes which arrived seemed far too small to be actual markers, so I was confused until I opened them and discovered two sleek looking items in all black and black and olive colour ways.[/URL]
[URL='http://smg.photobucket.com/user/dustynutz/media/clip_image003_zps797ebcbf.jpg.html']
The first one I opened by coincidence was an all-black Tippmann Crossover marker, released a couple of years back to cater to people who played both woodsball and tournament paintball. A spool valve operation with a slight twist in that it could be operated as an electronic marker with all the standard firing modes or at the flick of a mode selector switch a completely mechanically operated item with not a single coloured light to be seen. I thought about this while I was waiting for the weekend to arrive and I could get them out to the site for a quick and cheeky shoot and while at first it seemed strange, it became more of an appealing idea the more I thought about it. I’ve been that guy on the field when the battery died in my marker, all of a sudden it became an expensive paperweight accompanied by that sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.
If only I could have shot on in mechanical mode, I would still be outgunned but at least in with a slim chance.
Or perhaps you’re going out for a long big game, you’re going to be a long walk from paint supplies and you don’t want to run out too quickly, switch to manual mode for a reduced rate of fire, conserving paint supplies while still being reasonably effective.
Good idea if you ask me.
The second package was the NEW Crossover XVR marker, the evolution of the previous marker in a fetching black and olive finish. It was accompanied by a receipt stating that this marker was a demonstrator so did not come in the retail packaging yet there were some immediately noticeable differences. Tool less bolt out back design for one, purging proprietary on/off ASA for another, tool less battery access, longer 2 piece barrel and a cocker thread adaptor pretty much rounded off the external improvements. While the olive is nice, I have a thing for black and silver, mercifully it’s also available in this and a fetching solid red and black finish too. Both markers came with the requisite hex keys and a few spare o-rings and screws.
Both markers are macro less offerings with a smattering of composite parts on the feedneck and front grip.
While this offers more grip, it doesn’t feel like a cheap plastic, it’s a well finished marker all over. Lever locking feednecks which have now thankfully become the standard on most new markers have plenty of adjustment and held a solid grip on my Dye Rotor for the time I was using the markers, no sign of slipping or rotating on either marker and yes, I made a point of trying! Practicing a tournament breakout and whipping the marker around from a makeshift start point did nothing to dislodge the position of the loader neither did normal play on site when I took the opportunity to do a little light hearted punter hunting.
Chrono and Shooting
Fitting the battery showed another clever little touch, tool less access to the battery compartment which will actually only allow a battery to be fitted correctly, you can’t physically fit it the wrong way round without taking a hammer and battering it in. Simple touch, but welcome nonetheless. Obviously I’m a man, so I opted to ignore the instructions and go straight to flashy light mode by switching the lever all the way across to the many bullets picture on the selector switch. Break out the chrono, simple adjustment brought it from 240 to 285 +/- 5fps and off we go. What mode was I in? Who cares, it’s shooting and shooting lots. Turned out to be full auto, which we like more than a little bit.
“Feel”
So how does it shoot? Here’s a vid.
Just a few balls to get an idea, paint being the main determining factor in accuracy as we all know, I was using field grade stuff and it still shot fairly straight with only a few stray balls through the day. It was cool outside but not freezing, wind was at a minimum so none of those elements came into play really. Interesting to note, I shot around 1500 balls all day without a break in either mechanical or electro mode on the Crossover XVR however there was a slight issue with the original Crossover in that it blew off an eye cover early in the day which wasn’t noticed until after the game and so I played one more in mechanical mode with no issue or balls broken due to a lack of an eye sensor , proving the worth of its design.
After that I packed it away planning to phone Tippmann UK on Monday morning to get a replacement.
On the subject of actually shooting and how the marker “feels” I was expecting it to be fairly crude, I don’t know why however I’m pleased to report it wasn’t. It was smooth, very smooth with little to no kick even at high rates of full auto fire, no drop off in shots either and ridiculously quiet compared to the markers firing around me. “Butter” as the cool kids say and that sums it up nicely as much as I hate to admit it.
Comparable feel to a Proto or early Geo (because I haven’t shot the latest Geo models I can’t say), overall I have to say I was very impressed with the XVR and to be clear, I’m not a fan of spoolies. Weight wise, though I didn’t use scales it feels no heavier in the hand than any other tournament marker, nicely balanced too. I didn’t experience any kind of fatigue through the day from carrying it around fitted with a Rotor and a 68/45 Evil Fibre wrap bottle.
Switching from electro to mechanical mode the only difference I could feel in the marker operation was the length of the trigger pull, honestly the trigger is THAT light in mechanical mode. I didn’t adjust the trigger at all, even for mechanical mode as it was simple to reach and maintain a reasonable rate of fire.
For the tinkerers amongst you there are plenty of adjustment points. After a game or two and the inevitable hits I took, wiping down the clean lines was a simple matter, no nasty nooks or crannies for paint to get properly stuck into and at the end of the day whipping out the bolt for a quick lube before storage took all of 60 seconds to remove and replace. It seems an easy marker to live with, I had no leaks but after seeing the bolt replacing o-rings looks a simple enough job.In either mode the marker simply felt like the bolt was kissing the ball and it was leaving the barrel at pace.
In the hand and taking aim the XVR was fairly easy to get on target with the first ball, where I looked and pointed the barrel instinctively the ball tended go rarely requiring me to make adjustments which often happens with unfamiliar kit. Switching hands was a simple and comfortable manoeuvre even though the marker was longer than I am used to the extra length did provide a wide grip and in turn a stable platform for running and shooting.
After firing the two markers back to back the XVR is a definite progression from the original Crossover, better in almost every way with little to fault it. Not that there was anything glaringly wrong with the Crossover, the XVR simply feels more refined and given the RRP of £365 you could do an awful lot worse for the money.
Plus you’ve got Tippmann backup, a 2 year warranty and a world of experts on this very forum who will be willing to help at all hours of the day or night J
Niggles
Before I set out to make any criticisms I want it to be perfectly clear they’re all completely personal things. First thing would be the new On/Off ASA
It’s a proprietary item and I’d say it wouldn’t be the easiest thing in the world to replace with a more conventional one, it also adds a little length to the marker which already feels fairly long. I’m not a short guy, five feet eleven and a very important half inches high, and with a 68/45 fibre bottle on there I was at my comfort limit. Any longer and I would have had to switch to a smaller bottle which I don’t like to do where possible but I do like a reasonably short setup, your opinion may vary depending on your own personal preferences.
The barrel included I have to say was excellent, I felt no need whatsoever to replace it for the sake of accuracy but it was 15” long, I’m used to a 14 incher (oo –er Ma’am!!) and this added to the overall length of the marker. It’s only an inch extra but when you add the extra inch provided courtesy of the ASA it’s more noticeable though to be fair that’s from a predominantly tournament playing point of view, I’m sure for the scenario guys the extra length in the barrel would be welcomed for poking out of bushes and stuff while they’re all wearing their ghillie suits pretending to be trees or shrubs or whatever it is they do. It’s a fairly moot point, there’s a cocker threaded adaptor included in the box so all those shiny barrels you have accumulated at home in all bore sizes will most certainly not go to waste.
Did I mention the price? Yes I did, and it’s worth mentioning again. £365 for the XVR. £3-6-5, for the price of any high end tourney marker you could have one of these markers and a year’s supply of paintballs. It comes with a soft case too! Its predecessor, the original Crossover is selling for £299.95 but to be honest for the sake of an extra £65 you’d be mad not to buy the XVR.
Aesthetically I quite like its design, it’s not necessarily as pretty as some of the offerings from other companies but it’s certainly not offensive to the eye. Again, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, your mileage may vary, IMHO and all those other forum phrases.
In Conclusion.
I was pleasantly surprised mainly by how the marker fired and felt, Tippmann make good quality stuff, there was never any doubt of how the build quality would be no matter what marker it was. For a marker built simply to perform it does its job and does it well. Would I recommend it? Absolutely. It will never convert the diehard fans of the high end markers like DM13/14 and Ego/Geo, but as an alternative to the mid-range markers like the Axe, Etek, Etha and suchlike there’s not a shred of doubt that this thing will more than happily compete and in a more than a few cases beat off the competition especially at that price.
If you’re at a big game and you see the Tippmann guys, go say hello and ask questions but make sure you’ve got your wallet handy…………..
Available from all good retailers, look across the top of this page to see the best ones.
www.p8ntballer.com
www.tippmann.com[/URL]
So when two packages dispatched from P8ntballer.com HQ landed on my doorstep, I knew roughly what they were at least. Tippmann markers, which ones specifically however was a mystery to me. I had images in my head.
[URL='http://smg.photobucket.com/user/dustynutz/media/clip_image002_zps2a46b64b.jpg.html']
One of the biggest companies in paintball, they’ve been supplying markers to sites around the world for decades and their markers are hugely popular on the scenario scene too with some very military looking hardware being wielded on a weekly basis by thousands of recreational players worldwide.
Unfortunately the boxes which arrived seemed far too small to be actual markers, so I was confused until I opened them and discovered two sleek looking items in all black and black and olive colour ways.[/URL]
[URL='http://smg.photobucket.com/user/dustynutz/media/clip_image003_zps797ebcbf.jpg.html']
The first one I opened by coincidence was an all-black Tippmann Crossover marker, released a couple of years back to cater to people who played both woodsball and tournament paintball. A spool valve operation with a slight twist in that it could be operated as an electronic marker with all the standard firing modes or at the flick of a mode selector switch a completely mechanically operated item with not a single coloured light to be seen. I thought about this while I was waiting for the weekend to arrive and I could get them out to the site for a quick and cheeky shoot and while at first it seemed strange, it became more of an appealing idea the more I thought about it. I’ve been that guy on the field when the battery died in my marker, all of a sudden it became an expensive paperweight accompanied by that sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.
If only I could have shot on in mechanical mode, I would still be outgunned but at least in with a slim chance.
Or perhaps you’re going out for a long big game, you’re going to be a long walk from paint supplies and you don’t want to run out too quickly, switch to manual mode for a reduced rate of fire, conserving paint supplies while still being reasonably effective.
Good idea if you ask me.
The second package was the NEW Crossover XVR marker, the evolution of the previous marker in a fetching black and olive finish. It was accompanied by a receipt stating that this marker was a demonstrator so did not come in the retail packaging yet there were some immediately noticeable differences. Tool less bolt out back design for one, purging proprietary on/off ASA for another, tool less battery access, longer 2 piece barrel and a cocker thread adaptor pretty much rounded off the external improvements. While the olive is nice, I have a thing for black and silver, mercifully it’s also available in this and a fetching solid red and black finish too. Both markers came with the requisite hex keys and a few spare o-rings and screws.
Both markers are macro less offerings with a smattering of composite parts on the feedneck and front grip.
While this offers more grip, it doesn’t feel like a cheap plastic, it’s a well finished marker all over. Lever locking feednecks which have now thankfully become the standard on most new markers have plenty of adjustment and held a solid grip on my Dye Rotor for the time I was using the markers, no sign of slipping or rotating on either marker and yes, I made a point of trying! Practicing a tournament breakout and whipping the marker around from a makeshift start point did nothing to dislodge the position of the loader neither did normal play on site when I took the opportunity to do a little light hearted punter hunting.
Chrono and Shooting
Fitting the battery showed another clever little touch, tool less access to the battery compartment which will actually only allow a battery to be fitted correctly, you can’t physically fit it the wrong way round without taking a hammer and battering it in. Simple touch, but welcome nonetheless. Obviously I’m a man, so I opted to ignore the instructions and go straight to flashy light mode by switching the lever all the way across to the many bullets picture on the selector switch. Break out the chrono, simple adjustment brought it from 240 to 285 +/- 5fps and off we go. What mode was I in? Who cares, it’s shooting and shooting lots. Turned out to be full auto, which we like more than a little bit.
“Feel”
So how does it shoot? Here’s a vid.
After that I packed it away planning to phone Tippmann UK on Monday morning to get a replacement.
On the subject of actually shooting and how the marker “feels” I was expecting it to be fairly crude, I don’t know why however I’m pleased to report it wasn’t. It was smooth, very smooth with little to no kick even at high rates of full auto fire, no drop off in shots either and ridiculously quiet compared to the markers firing around me. “Butter” as the cool kids say and that sums it up nicely as much as I hate to admit it.
Comparable feel to a Proto or early Geo (because I haven’t shot the latest Geo models I can’t say), overall I have to say I was very impressed with the XVR and to be clear, I’m not a fan of spoolies. Weight wise, though I didn’t use scales it feels no heavier in the hand than any other tournament marker, nicely balanced too. I didn’t experience any kind of fatigue through the day from carrying it around fitted with a Rotor and a 68/45 Evil Fibre wrap bottle.
Switching from electro to mechanical mode the only difference I could feel in the marker operation was the length of the trigger pull, honestly the trigger is THAT light in mechanical mode. I didn’t adjust the trigger at all, even for mechanical mode as it was simple to reach and maintain a reasonable rate of fire.
For the tinkerers amongst you there are plenty of adjustment points. After a game or two and the inevitable hits I took, wiping down the clean lines was a simple matter, no nasty nooks or crannies for paint to get properly stuck into and at the end of the day whipping out the bolt for a quick lube before storage took all of 60 seconds to remove and replace. It seems an easy marker to live with, I had no leaks but after seeing the bolt replacing o-rings looks a simple enough job.In either mode the marker simply felt like the bolt was kissing the ball and it was leaving the barrel at pace.
In the hand and taking aim the XVR was fairly easy to get on target with the first ball, where I looked and pointed the barrel instinctively the ball tended go rarely requiring me to make adjustments which often happens with unfamiliar kit. Switching hands was a simple and comfortable manoeuvre even though the marker was longer than I am used to the extra length did provide a wide grip and in turn a stable platform for running and shooting.
After firing the two markers back to back the XVR is a definite progression from the original Crossover, better in almost every way with little to fault it. Not that there was anything glaringly wrong with the Crossover, the XVR simply feels more refined and given the RRP of £365 you could do an awful lot worse for the money.
Plus you’ve got Tippmann backup, a 2 year warranty and a world of experts on this very forum who will be willing to help at all hours of the day or night J
Niggles
Before I set out to make any criticisms I want it to be perfectly clear they’re all completely personal things. First thing would be the new On/Off ASA
It’s a proprietary item and I’d say it wouldn’t be the easiest thing in the world to replace with a more conventional one, it also adds a little length to the marker which already feels fairly long. I’m not a short guy, five feet eleven and a very important half inches high, and with a 68/45 fibre bottle on there I was at my comfort limit. Any longer and I would have had to switch to a smaller bottle which I don’t like to do where possible but I do like a reasonably short setup, your opinion may vary depending on your own personal preferences.
The barrel included I have to say was excellent, I felt no need whatsoever to replace it for the sake of accuracy but it was 15” long, I’m used to a 14 incher (oo –er Ma’am!!) and this added to the overall length of the marker. It’s only an inch extra but when you add the extra inch provided courtesy of the ASA it’s more noticeable though to be fair that’s from a predominantly tournament playing point of view, I’m sure for the scenario guys the extra length in the barrel would be welcomed for poking out of bushes and stuff while they’re all wearing their ghillie suits pretending to be trees or shrubs or whatever it is they do. It’s a fairly moot point, there’s a cocker threaded adaptor included in the box so all those shiny barrels you have accumulated at home in all bore sizes will most certainly not go to waste.
Did I mention the price? Yes I did, and it’s worth mentioning again. £365 for the XVR. £3-6-5, for the price of any high end tourney marker you could have one of these markers and a year’s supply of paintballs. It comes with a soft case too! Its predecessor, the original Crossover is selling for £299.95 but to be honest for the sake of an extra £65 you’d be mad not to buy the XVR.
Aesthetically I quite like its design, it’s not necessarily as pretty as some of the offerings from other companies but it’s certainly not offensive to the eye. Again, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, your mileage may vary, IMHO and all those other forum phrases.
In Conclusion.
I was pleasantly surprised mainly by how the marker fired and felt, Tippmann make good quality stuff, there was never any doubt of how the build quality would be no matter what marker it was. For a marker built simply to perform it does its job and does it well. Would I recommend it? Absolutely. It will never convert the diehard fans of the high end markers like DM13/14 and Ego/Geo, but as an alternative to the mid-range markers like the Axe, Etek, Etha and suchlike there’s not a shred of doubt that this thing will more than happily compete and in a more than a few cases beat off the competition especially at that price.
If you’re at a big game and you see the Tippmann guys, go say hello and ask questions but make sure you’ve got your wallet handy…………..
Available from all good retailers, look across the top of this page to see the best ones.
www.p8ntballer.com
www.tippmann.com[/URL]
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