Great points all but I would have to agree that most of the posts on this thread have been all about personal preffernces.
I think "paintthecatBLUE" said it best BTW.
Electro's might not like to get rained on or dropped in the mud. I herd a rumor that electric things tend not to like water or moisture. With that in mind you can see why most folks would advise you to get a non-electro marker for woodsball.
At your price point you have a few options depending on what you "might" do with paintball in the future:
Get a Tippy Custom 98 and you will have PLENTY of money left over for a good barrel (best thing to upgrade first), hopper and maybe a trigger upgrade or somthing else you might like. Plus enough cash to buy good paintballs and air (HPA or Co2).
*some say the cyclone feed on the A-5 can malfunction, not sure personally, just herd that...I would go for the simpler design of the 98 anyway*
Get a ADG Automag RT-ULE and you will have a marker that will perform a bit better out of the box and if you ever concidered playing speedball RT's are better suited for that style of play. However, from what I have been learning from ADG, Tippy and Autocockers owners is the RT's (called AGD Automags in the old days) are one of the easyest to maintain markers for a new player. I little oil in the ASA and they are pretty much gas and go. Also even though you will pay more for the AGD they pretty much never chop paint with the new level-10 bolts they have now installed.
To sum up: Both companies have been in this biz about as long as any marker maker could be. Both have a history of good customer service (AGD has freakn' crazy good customer service though and the best warrintee in the biz, but Tippmann is no slouch either).
Both will work for woods just fine it's more of a matter of which one appeals to you better personally. You might have less maintaince with a ADG RT but the Tippy's have more upgrade paths available. This is partly because the ADG's perform at their max potential out of the box already with no upgrades needed. All of the upgrading to a RT are just for looks or comfort.
With a 98 you can make the thing look like M4 Assult Rifle! You can't quite get that look out of a RT but the AGD Tac-One comes closer to looking like somehing a army would use. Mean looking with mounting rails, etc.
Good luck and have fun playing woodsball with us. I play mostly rec-style myself and it looks like if I can find one I am getting a AGD Tac-One for my personal marker.
You will be very happy with which one you end up choosing I am sure. Take care.
-Pezzer
