[bonds2034]

i see alot of confusion over the internet about what barrel to choose. im here to provide some tips. dont get fustrated over all the barrels on the marker. most of them are just marketing ploys to get you to buy, lableing old tecnology as new and changing names of old equipment. there are only 3 things you need to consider when buying a new barrel

1. the bore size. i always recomend a barrel that has changable inserts or backs with differnt bore sizes. this will let you adjust for the size of the ball. this alone is the biggest factor when it comes to accuracy and effiency. most companies now are srinking the size of the balls to save on money, so where it might say its a 689 cal it might actually be a 679 cal and this small size differnce will acually make a big differnce in the ball flight path. remember the longer the control bore the better and more accurate your shot will be.

2. lenth. the length of the barrel makes no differnce when it comes to accuracy. well up to a point. i recomend a barrel between 12-14 in, anything longer accually puts more friction aginst the ball. this means you haft to use more air to put your ball at the 300fps mark. you paintball accelerates to its top speed between 10-12 inches. so by running a 12-14in barrel your ball has accelerated and is now in a control at the last couple of inches letting it reshape from an oval back into a ball so as it leaves the barrel there is even pressure around the ball.

3. smoothness of the bore. this has nothing to do with accuracy but its more about the efficency of the barrel. the slicker the barrel the less friction there is on the ball meaning you can use less air to push the ball at the set speed of 300fps. this will also provide you in a more consisten shot. the best materials are teflon, cermic brass is really good, and aluminum is good just not as good. alot of companies are now impregnating teflon in their barrels and i have tested a few of these and they are really good.

now lets clear up this whole carbon fiber misconception thats been going on. dont get me wrong carbon fiber is not bad. however i see people just going off and buying the bc they thing its better than their barrel. carbon fiber dose nothing when it comes to accuracy. it is no more accurate than say the j&j edge kit, or the powerlyte sceptor kit. i see so many people switching to them just because they are light. i watch their show and i see how unballenced their gun is. you want to keep your gun as balenced as you can. this will give you the best run and gun shot, the best snap shot and will be more comfortable when holding if your gun is balenced. one down side of the cf barrels are if you ever get a scratch in the barrel it CAN NOT BE REPAIRED.

one last thing that i see in arguments is rifleing of the barrel. rifling makes no differnce when it comes to paintball. you haft to remember that a paintball gun is not a real gun. bullets are hard and the sizes are the same from bullet to bullet. paintballs are soft and the size changes from alot of differnt factors. we did a test at my local feild in orlando florida and it proved this. we used a slow motion camra to study the rotation of the ball and noticed that it didnt rotate any differnt than a standard barrel. the barrel we used was the hammerhead mofo 14in with a .685 control shooting marbilizer. then we used a powerlyte sceptor kit with the same .685 control. rotation was the same between both shooting the same paint and using the same gun. a planet eclipse ego 10.


here is my list of some of the best barrels you can buy
1. powerlyte sceptor
2. ti longbow
3. j&j edge elite
4. ss freak barrel kit
5. deadly winds fibur with freak inserts

these are some of the best barrels on the market and i listed them as i would recomend them. the powerlyte if you can still find them are one of the best barrels when it comes to accuracy and and best bang for your buck. i hardly recomend the freak kit due to the fact that the inserts are held in with orings and i feel this is a bad design. the best way to go is to have one that the inserts either screw in like a choke. i hope this helps everyone. and if you will please lock this thread so it can be easily seen by the newer members. thanks for reading

[Latsabb]

A major point that you missed is the porting, which affects the sound level of the gun. Not everyone cares, sure, but I would bet that more people care about the sound than the efficiency loss of a large overbore. A couple things, though: The length of your control barrel (to a point, obviously, I am looking away from the extremes like .5inch and 50inch barrels) isnt going to make your shot more accurate. 4 inch or 8 inch, the difference in spread will be statistically insignificant. Also, the ball accelerates to 300 FPS in less than 10-inches. If I remember correctly, it was somewhere around 8-9 inches in most markers. (flow can affect this) As for the smoothness of the barrel... I dont think that is quite correct. If anything, I think that a rough barrel would simply cause more disturbance in the airflow, and should play a very minimal roll from friction on the ball. Either way, unless your barrel is REALLY bad, to a quality that no modern barrel has sunk so low to, this should not mean anything.

[junits15]

I use a spyder freak and I have a freak bored evil pipe I assure you those inserts don't move at all. They get sandwiched between the breech of your gun and a grove in the barrel tip the orings just prevent it from falling out when you take the barrel off. My evil pipe kit was not machined for orings and it holds the inserts fine. I would absolutely recommend a freak.

Also you left out looks, if it doesn't look good there's no reason to buy it

Also you forgot to mention is the concept of under and over boring and the benefit of stainless steel.
Basically the stock barrel should be fine there's this misconception that you HAVE to upgrade your barrel, as long as its not an insane overbore it will work.

This post has been edited by junits15: 12 February 2013 - 06:28 PM

[ThePBLady]

I love my freak kit. However, I do use a 16 inch barrel and I would recommend a 14 inch barrel for playing. I did a blog not to long ago about different barrel lengths if you head over to my YouTube page and check it out. You should also head over to Tri-City Extreme if you are looking to buy anything.

[bonds2034]

ok. THIS GUIDE WAS MAINLY FOR THE BEGINNER PLAYERS
i just wanted to keep the confusion out of choosing a barrel. most of the people that have problems in choosing barrels are the newer players and i just wanted to help by showing the main things that should be considerd when choosing a good barrel.
as for the freak kit. it is not a bad barrel. that is why i had it in my line up. i was just stating in my personal opinion that i dont like the design. i have used them befor and it is a decent barrel however i personaly believe that having a screw type is better. it gives me more security in my shot. i dont worry that the bore is going to move or bounce. ive had an instance where my freak kit bore misaligned by a fraction of an inch and it shaved a ball. i personally think it was bc of a manufacture flaw in that select bore bc it didnt do it with any other ones. now when it comes to over/underboring, this is more of experienced concept and should be in an experinecd thread. like i said this is for people that are new to the sport. i wanted to make this simple and not over complicated. most new players will shoot carpy paint bc they are not wanting to pay the premium for good paint. lets face it. paint is expensive and were all guilty of using cheaper paint. also not everyone is wanting to buy 4 and 5 barrels to have the best size through the day. its cheaper and better to use one barrel and have bore inserts
as for what i said about the acceleration of the ball. yes the ball accelerates in 8-9 inches in most markers but i wanted to keep one number and say by saying it was 10 inches it will account for almost all the varibles it is safe to say its at full speed at 10 inches.
now as for the control bore length. have you ever played with the techt ifit kit. the controls are only what 2 inches. i have a better shot with the 6in controls out of my powerlyte than anyother barrel on the market. i have ran tests on this and you get a tighter spread the longer your controls are. i personaly would never buy any techt parts as they do not add to performance and sometimes make it worse. lets take their hush bolt for egos for examply. their garbage. they are brittle and break easy where as the cure bolts and the dart bolts.

as for what you are saying junits15. you are correct. alot of times the stock barrel is great. and is not always needed to change the barrel to improve your gun. now when it comes to smoothness it dose play a big part in your accuracy. this is why alot of companies micro hone their bores. if say you have a rough edge on one side it will cause your ball to spin. this is the same concept that the flatline barrel uses. they rough up certin spots to put backspin on the ball. (yes i know the barrel is curved. this helps with the backspin) but smoothness mainly affect your efficency. the less air you haft to use to get the ball to speed the more consistent your shot will be and the less deveations of your shot.

now the biggest thing that affects your accuracy is your confidence in your play style and the overall set up you have with your gun. you haft to be cofident and able to adjust to what pressure your being put under

[Latsabb]

I used to use an iFit in conjunction with my Deadlywind, and it made no difference other than netting me about a 5-10 FPS increase. More control bore (to a point) adds to efficiency, but not to accuracy. Not anything statistically significant, at least. My first barrel kit was the Redz Peppersticks, and they have an 8 inch back. Other than a difference in sound, there was no difference between it and my second barrel kit, which was the Deadlywind, having 4 inch (ish) inserts. Punkworks did data collection on exactly this, and had pretty much the same findings. All the data is out there somewhere, likely on their website.

As far as TechT products not adding performance... I am curious to hear which ones you have used. The iFit, to a point, adds to efficiency. (although it is only a tiny bit) The bolts/bolt systems for the Axe, Mini, and all the DP spoolies make major changes in the shot feel, sound, and efficiency of the guns. I am not sure about their Tippmann products, or the ones for Dye/Proto, as I have no experience with them. I had a Hush bolt on my Etek 3, as well as my first Ego 8, and first Ego 11. All three of them had efficiency boosts. (although not alot, it was still easily measurable by chronoing the gun) Sound signature change is up for debate, but it did affect the sound of the guns. I later ended up using the Pooty Cure 3, and it was about the same. I never had a problem with my Hush cracking, or breaking at all, nor do I know of anyone that had such problems, including the 3-4 people here at a local field that used them in their markers.

Also, as mentioned, as long as the barrel is honed at all in the barrel, the accuracy isnt going to be affected. And every single modern barrel is honed, and even back 10 years ago, many were still honed. A smoother barrel DOES make it easier to clean or shoot clean, however, as the paint isnt having things to cohere to. As for roughing up the inside of a barrel to impart spin... I have never, ever, heard of that. Even in the flatline. It sounds completely counter intuitive. Lets assume that the ball doesnt just float down the middle of the barrel. Then the only way that it would actually impart any meaningful or controlled spin is if you were underboring slightly.

[510waffles]

having a CF barrel also depends on which gun and what kind of setup you have.Tank and loader choice affect whether or not the gun balances.

[Orange Chicken]

When will the guys who know whats up coming?
But here are barrels I recommend:
Disruptive one piece barrel
Disruptive two piece barrel
Disruptive deathtouch barrel
Disruptive carbon fiber barrel
Empire super freak
Freak barrel
Custom products one piece
Shadow barrels
Eigenbarrel

[bonds2034]

yes it is true the barrels have been honed from awhile back. it was more of a statment regarding to the comment someone made that smoothness makes no differnce. and as far as accuracy concerns, it mainly depends on how familure you are with your gun. as long as you have a decent barrel and are confident in your shot you will shoot 10 times better than you will with if you come on the field with a damn good barrel and no confidence at all. its not the tool but how you use it and you can not dissagree with that. now on to techt. they are great when it comes to spool type but when it comes to poppet type they suck. i hated their hush bolt, but then agian it all comes down to personal preferance. im not worried about my sound sig how ever i put a big deal aginst efficency. my pooty cure 4 was a bit more efficent and it worked well with my rotor. i never had a chop and i liked how the bolt cuped the ball befor it loaded it.
now as for the flat line barrel. they do put rough spots in select locations to impart backspin on the ball. read their website. by just using a curved barrel it would hardly spin the ball at all. by slightly roughing the front side of the barrel at the up turn it grabs the ball and the other side of the ball slips. then on the return stright it keeps the back spin as it leaves. that is the princial behind it.

now you can not say these three things are the major things you look for in a good barrel. minus the smoothness of the bore. alot of people never have thought about it but it is proven it dose affect your efficency and consistency. the best set up gives you consistent shot after shot in a thight group. none of the information i have given was bad and these are good point to make when it comes to barrels. you can never get 100% accuracy out of any barrel and it still comes down to how well you know your set up and can predict where your shots are going to land

[Orange Chicken]

Honing we consider, but it's also almost expected. The best ones are Disruptive, Custom Products, and Dye's.

[Old Dude PB]

To the OP: you're new here, and you're already trying to help people with information. That's great. I hope you'll keep it up. That said, you've kind of stepped in it with this post, just because barrels have been done to death here. Here's Bryce from PunkWorks, summing up the huge amount of testing they did.



Cookybiscuit's accuracy post is another good read to get up to speed with the TechPB barrels/accuracy discussion: http://www.techpb.co...howtopic=152223