Special Ops A-5A2

[Junkie]

Tacoma, WA.
Gun review by Daniel Tyler

Special Ops Paintball www.specialopspaintball.com has taken the term “Woodsball” to the next level. I was fortunate enough to sweet talk one of their incredible Special Ops A-5A2 Digi-camo marker. The chassis is the popular Tippmann A-5, but Special Ops converts the common Tippmann A-5 to a Woods Baller wet dream. We all know that the Tippmann A-5 is one of the ruggest paintball guns ever made and the feed rate of the built in Cyclone feeder performs as good as any high end loader out on the market. It would seem to be the most logical choice of marker for Special Ops to convert into their flagship. Special Ops is all about woods ball.

The digital camouflage paint job is the most obvious thing that you notice about the Special Ops A-5A2 Digi-camo marker. The finish is rock solid and scratching it with my finger nail never lifted any of the paint pigment. At first I thought that the paint job was just some cheap spray job that would wear off after a while. But after discovering how solid the finish was I decided to call Special Ops to find out what the gun was coated with. I was surprised to learn that the A-5A2 was coated and sprayed with a Duracoat finish. After looking into Duracoat, I found out that Duracoat is to actual firearms as anodizing is to markers. Duracoat will not chip nor flake off, it is almost permanent, once it’s on it’s on. In short the digital camo job is just incredible.

The Special Ops A-5A2 Digi-camo marker has a new fore grip that replaces the standard front grip on the Tippmann A-5 and a special stock designed by Special Ops. The fore grip has the tombstone enclosed and a macro line runs to the stock. Through the stock the macro line is connected to a male fitting for remote hose play. The stock has another simple feature, the stock has a grooved out concave cut-out so that you can sight down the marker with your mask on. The stock is only cut-out on one side and is tailored to right handed players only. I would assume that a left handed model will become available. The butt of the stock is rubberized to ensure good friction grip to your shoulder.

The profile of the Special Ops A-5A2 is very sleek aides in playing in the thickest of bushes and to help you do the crawl stalk on your opponents. With the aide of the shoulder stock, the marker immediately comes to eye level for that quick triple tap.

The barrel is a 10 inch straight rifled Thunder Pig. The length of the barrel is perfect for the marker’s intended purpose to be as sleek and low profiled as possible.

For testing, I went to a local field that caters more to the woods ball style of play. Upon unveiling the A-5A2, everyone came over and admired the marker. People were asking all sorts of questions and I do have to admit, the attention and being the guy with the newest toy felt really good.

I went and loaded the Special Ops A-5A2 with some XO Velocity paint and headed off to the target range. The sound signature is a loud pop, but the accuracy has a decent 12 inch grouping at 120 ft. I plinked off target after target. The shots were going pretty much exactly where I wanted them to and with the cut-out in the stock, sighting down came very naturally.

After many numerous games, the Special Ops A-5A2 worked out very well and I was truly pleased with it. It has got to be one of the coolest markers that have come across my desk in a long while. With my playing preference being on the tournament airball fields, I found it refreshing to play some paintball in the woods with a bunch of cool people that play just for the fun of it.

The MSRP of the Special Ops A-5A2 Digi Camo is $644.95. The expensive paint job is what hiked up the price. A non-camo A-5A2 is only $399.95. Though the price of the A-5A2 Digi Camo may be steep, I would much prefer that effective camo over a black one. Check out Special Ops website www.specialopspaintball.com for all of their other stuff.

Source: paintball.com

[ProjectPat2280]

Damn, thats tight

[GreatZen]

Super hot gun but after thoroughly reading their forums people have experienced problems performing the A5-A2 UPGRADE themselves when they get the gasthrough stock. It also appears that some older version of the stock had many problems with low muzzle velocity, so don't buy a used version you may find somewhere. The guys at specops will do the upgrade for you if you already have an A5 for 30 bucks. Their customer service seems to be excellent from reading the forums but since don't know if they delete complaint threads I can't say for sure. All in all it looks like an excellent product but beware! If you buy the Duracoated version also buy the barrel you want to use and they will *probably* DuraCoat your barrel choice instead of the standard barrel (be sure to specify when ordering).

[scpaintballer01]

looks preety cool.