My .02 on some common barrel questions/myths What is the most important factor in accuracy?

YOU. I can not stress this enough. Being confident and comfortable with your marker setup will provide the most drastic increase of eliminations you are able to make. I believe that paintball is 60% mental. When a player is confident other players pick up on it, and end up downplaying themselves. When a player is comfortable with his or her marker they usually know where they are shooting without really aiming.



Note: Please do not confuse being confident with being cocky. These are two completely different attributes.



Does a longer/shorter barrel increase accuracy?



No. We used a stainless steel Freak kit to compare the differences in the length of fronts. We shot six types of paintballs and reballs through each bore with a ten inch front. We then choose the top and bottom 2-3 ball/bore combinations, and shot each of those with ten, twelve, fourteen, and sixteen inch fronts. We did not see any increase or decrease in accuracy. The length difference is only personal prefrence. I prefer a 12 or 14 inch barrel.



Does a longer/shorter barrel increase the distance you can shoot?



Yes and No. A paintballs speed is measured at the tip of the barrel. If a 16 inch and a 10 inch barrel both are chronoed at 280 fps then the 16 inch barrel would allow the ball to travel 6 inches longer than the 10 inch barrel with respect to the markers breech.



What length barrel should I get?

It does not matter. Most players use 14". I usually use somewhere between 12-16 inches. Let me explain how I choose. I use a TI Longbow(ti version), and usually only use three of the backs. I own 3 fronts, and have randomly placed them on the bores. I usually just keep the front on the bore as I am too lazy to change them. That should tell you how much of a difference the length of the front actually makes.



Does an apex or flatline barrel increase the distance you can shoot?



Yes, well sorta. The theory/principal on the flatline/apex barrel is to put backspin/an angle on the ball when it is fired. This will cause the paintball to arc. This will allow you to shoot farther, but the velocity at the longer distances are usually not high enough to break a paintball. We did not test a flatline barrel, but did test an apex barrel.



Can rifling/spinning a paintball increase the distance you can shoot?



While performing the paintball barrel test we used a rifled Hammerhead barrel. The height of the placement of the paintballs at 70 feet were similar to those of non rifled barrels. This would lead me to believe that their velocity at 70 feet would be similar to non rifled barrels, which would mean that they do not increase the distance.



Can rifling/spinning a paintball increase accuracy?



No. While performing the paintball barrel test we wear able to compare rifled and non rifeled barrels with the same bore and the same paint, and saw no increase in accuracy. In many cases the non rifled barrels were able to out preform the rifled barrels.



This has been a long debated topic in paintball, and has been reasearched by many of the leaders in the industry. You can find more info on their oppinions on the "usefull links post".



Is a one piece barrel more accurate than a multiple piece barrel?

No. Many 2 piece barrels use a front that has a larger diameter than the back or insert. This means that when the ball transfers from the back/insert to the front there is no external forces that are being placed on the ball, and the front will not cause the ball to change from its original flight path.



Does a one piece barrel "self clean" better than a multiple piece barrel?

No. We tested many one and two piece barrels with a break test. During this test the one piece barrels did not preform as well as some of the two piece barrels. We believe that there are many other factors that are more important in "self cleaning barrels" than how many pieces they have.



What allows a barrel to self clean?

We believe that the attribute that contributes most to a barrel being able to “self clean” is the smoothness of the bore. This along with matching paintballs to the correct size bore will allow paintballs after a break to basicly squegee out the broken paint, and return the barrel back to somewhat of a clean state. I will go into more detail in a later post where we post data from the break test.



Is a longer barrel quieter than a shorter barrel

Yes. A longer version of the same barrel will slightly reduce the sound of the marker being fired. The change is usually not enough to tell a difference. On my marker it is only ~ 1dB per 2 inches



What barrel is the best for my marker?

As far as accuracy is concerned the marker does not affect accuracy. All the marker is in the equation is basically an on/off valve that provides energy to allow the paintball to move. I know that everyone says that HP or LP markers are more accurate than each other, but this is not true. We did not test this theory with this test, but it has been a heavily debated topic in the past, and many highly respected people in the industry have proven that the marker has nothing to do with accuracy.



What paint is best for my barrel?

Unfortunately this is a very hard question to answer. The size of paint will usually vary depending on the atmospheric conditions, and will also change over time. Because of all of these variables Marballizer paint for a person in Florida using a .692 Dye UL will not have the same accuracy/performance as someone in Washington using Marballizer paint and a .692 Dye UL. I know it would be nice to determine the “best” paint for each barrel, but this would be near impossible as it would constantly be changing. The best way for a person to determine this is to buy the same paint from the same supplier, and use trial and error with their barrels/ barrel kits.



Will overboring hurt or help accuracy?

Let me first define what I consider overboring. My definition is using a bore that is more than .006 of an inch that is larger than the paint. As many paintballers know paint can usually vary in a bag or box +-.002 inches so using a barrel where the balls all just roll through the barrel is usually overboring.



This is a very hard question to answer, because even in our "perfect" environment we saw instances where overboring accuracy was equal to using the "correct” size bore. The majority of the results showed that overboring did reduce the accuracy of the barrel, and therefore I am going to say that it does hurt a barrel’s accuracy.

One advantage that we did notice with overboring is that the amount of barrel breaks were reduced drastically.

A huge disadvantage to overboring is that if there is a break in the breech or barrel the accuracy afterward is ruined. A barrel will not “self clean” if it is overbored.



Will underboring hurt or help accuracy?



How I choose what bore to use

THE ULTIMATE BARREL TEST.

Over 250 reasons that I dont ship first

My pm box is full again ?!? THEN EMAIL ME. __________________ Last edited by Mann : 06-13-2007 at 07:00 PM . Reason: u