I was priveleged to be given the chance to run with the new TM-7 at D Day.

The TM-7 is styled after the H&K MP7A1

The first time you lay your eyes on the new TM-7 from BT Paintball you will notice how compact this marker is. The second thing you will see is that it is a departure from the current BT-4 at the core design.

It could not have been unexpected though, seeing as the TM-7 is based on the Mini platform. The lack of an external air line is one of the most dramatic features. But the streamlined body molded in polymer, the color of the material (a lighter grey) and the overall presentation of this marker sets it in a class of its own.

Features of the TM-7

Select fire - Safe - Semi - Burst -Full Auto

Single trigger (there will be an option to have a double trigger)

Integrated Stock - It slides INTO the body, not like on the Delta or Elite.

Picatinny Rail along the top - Has a new indented rail section just forward of the feedneck area. Allows you to put on and take off the feeneck with out having to slide it all the way on from the front!

Picatinny Rails on either side at the front, for Laser sights, Flashlights etc.

Front Grip - Just like the real 'poly' MP7 has.

 Light weight - Roughly 2.5 lbs - 1.1 kg, without loader.

Ripclip compatible - once the coming adapter for the ripclip is released. The TM needs this adapter as the profile of the body is different that the BT-4's.

How does it shoot?

The TM-7's that the guys from KAS/BT and myself used were all R&D Models. This basically means that they are handbuilt! YOu would imagine that consistency for them would be a problem right? Well I am happy to announce that we had NO problems with any of them. Of course there were a few small issues. But in general it was just like using a production marker.

The TM-7, being such a light platform, is easily the most manouverable 'milsim' style marker on the market. It was so light that Ryan Sexton from Kee Action Sports and the man behind the BT Battalion, dual wielded TM's in the field. Trust me I was in the trenches next to him as he did it! At full auto that is some useful cover fire I can tell you.

  I found myself changing from semi to full auto fluidly. It is really 'easy' to get used to let me tell you. Once you have the ability to change fire modes this easily it willbe hard to go back to anything else.

I have heard that the modes available might be programmable or at least customizable, but nothing defenite at this time. Please bear in mind that the small detail that need to ironed out take precedence over this feature. We all know it will be addressed so its not worth worrying about at this stage

It is hard to determine how effeciently it uses air though. D Day is not the kind of place where you carefully and delbirately monitor your paintballs shot-to-air-used ratios .  I think that a more controlled environment would better suit an attempt to work out these figures.

Having said that it is my opinion that air usage was pretty consistent with any Mini.

The TM-7 is really accurate, I remember trying to point to where some OpFor was during the first wave of attacks at D Day, but I ended up shooting into the area I was indicating as the balls were falling so consistently it made a better visual 'pointer'.

 Not all of the TM's were shooting full auto at the same rates, I think the reason was that some were set to higher rates for testing purposes. Mine was shooting about 15bps. I had NO CHOPS or double feeds. We did break some paint though. It was more the fault of the paint than the TM-7, we had performed drop tests and it was breaking very easily prior to going out into the field. It was isolated to few boxes so nothing to worry about here. I am sure we would have broken that same paint in BT-4's as well.  You can see one or 2 of the barrels showing pink paint in this photo.

Small Things

It would not be fair to just tell you all about the good things. I would normally balance this with the bad.

The thing is though, there is very little BAD about the TM-7 in all honesty.

So I am going to really get picky.

Firstly, the rear sling points are going to see some revision. Namely that ALL our TM's showed signs of wear at this point from the metal on the sling.

The front grip is very solid and has a positive feel when clicking it into place or stowing it. But, in the open position there is a small amount of play in it. This is going to addressed as well. I was told that by the head tech.

The next thing is the select fire graphics on the TM's body. It is screened on at the moment. Nearly all of the display guns in the Kee Action Sports tent showed advanced signs of wear on the graphics. I suggested that they engrave the symbols onto the body and then wipe the color into it. This would be a better soluttion for us and even though wear will occur as it does on the real thing, at least we will be able to do the same fix down the track. Oh yes, one cool thing is that the graphics are not the same as the real thing, in the way that the real MP7 has bullet symbols, the TM-7 has paintball symbols instead. I though that was pretty cool. You don't notice it at first but its there.

I was also told that battery use was a small issue. Although we did not experience any problems with battery usage in the field. Mark, the man in charge of the R&D of the TM-7 had mentioned it thats all. I think they have seen this in development only as I can tell you it was not visible in ANY of the guns we used.

Conclusion 

 The TM-7's that we all used could have been a recipe for disaster, but it turned out that they worked really well for development models. The guys were all amazed as was I. If nothing else this looks really promising for the future. The TM-7 will be all that we want it to be and more if D Day was anything to go on.

Look if they would have let me I would be taking one back home with me AND it would be my new primary! But in truth its going to be worth the wait to get the small things fixed and the production models should rock!

I cannot wait! 

 TekHousE