NOTE - I no longer have any SMG-60's or accessories/parts for them. Sorry, I sold them all off . . . I can't have wallhangers or trailerqueens. I am keeping this section of my site up out of nostalgia. The SMG-60's were still very fun to have 'back in the day' and are one of the most unique paintguns ever created. Please, enjoy!

The first ad for Tippmann Pneumatics . . . and the start of the first big shift in paintball technology

The Tippmann SMG-60 was a truly remarkable paintgun when it was introduced. Many were still playing the really old school 'rock and cock' style of CO2 caplet, stock pistol play then. And here comes Dennis Tippmann with this select fire paintgun complete with factory back bottle constant air. It was a real departure from the norm. Tippmann has since gone on to create a whole line of very good paintguns and is a premiere name in the sport. This was the start for him.

The side magazine is spring loaded and the paint is held in 5rnd stripper clips. Here you can see a stack of the preloaded stripper clips by the gun. One of the neat features of the SMG-60 was that no bolt ever touched the paintball. Each paintball was essentially held in its own chamber in the stripper clip and only ever hit with the burst of CO2 from the valve. The backpressure from the shot would depress a detent and allow the magazine to cycle the clips out.

The SMG-60's only had a few weak points. First and foremost was the limited magazine capacity. 15 or 20rnds . . . and with a firm pull of the trigger being able to empty the gun in about a sec one had to be careful not to get caught empty. The 2nd drawback was the old 'GET THAT GUY!' response you would run into. Those players who didn't scatter at the rattle of a full auto SMiG usually put up a heck of a fight. Here in this shot we see the one weak link in the paintgun . . . the magazine spring. They had a tendency to break right at their attachment point. This rendered the SMG-60 useless when this happened.

One of the other points to consider with the SMG-60 is the paint it fired. .60cal, sometimes referred to as .62cal, the smaller paintball had a mix of advantages and disadvantages. Here we see a comparison of the .60cal paint with .68cal paint. Also note the really rare .60cal paint tube. The .60cal paint could be safely fired at higher velocities because of its lighter weight. It was in general pretty accurate and seemed to get through brush better. But . . . it had less effective range. At longer ranges it would just bounce off. Today the drawback is finding quality paint. I found some blowgun paint online that is the right size, but getting it to leave the barrel intact is next to impossible.

Playing with an SMG-60 was fun . . . playing with a pair was a blast! At their height of popularity I remember seeing about half the players at walk on games carrying SMG-60's.
don_howard at msn dot com

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