12" Or 14" Barrel

A "woodsball" barrel?

I prefer 12 inchers because they offer very similar performance to the 14 inch bretheren but are more manueverable.

get a lapco bigshot or if u have more money to spend get a freak kit

Barrel length means NOTHING.

Get a quality barrel like the Lapco Bigshot in whatever length you think will get in the way the least.

Silent Slayer wrote: get a lapco bigshot or if u have more money to spend get a freak kit

n e barrel between like 12inch and 16 inch is what you would want. there won't be a big difference between all of these except that the 16 will use a lil more air than a 12 do to it has to push the ball a lil long when its in the barrel. but not even enough to make a difference. some people really like 12's but my fav is the 14, it is prefect ot my type of play. its not to long where you can't move around, *cough 21in cough*. but a 16 is good to some people but i wouldn't go anything over that. but n e of those sizes will work very well and it is more your choice on what you want. i use a 14" teardrop on my 98 and i don't think there is anything better for a 98 imo.

Anything between 10 and 16in will perform practically the same. An 8in barrel will even perform similarly. What kind of player are you though? Here are the kinds of players who would use different lengths:

10-12" - Compact; Good for moving around quickly; Good for the player who is always moving and getting into tight spaces.

14-16" - Long; Good for resting against bunkers and poking through brush; Good for the player who moves a little slower and stays in one place longer; Good for defending.

Which position do you play? If you're a quick and speedy frontman, get the 12". If you're a backplayer who moces a little slower and likes to take aimed shots instead of snapshooting, get the 14".

Here are some barrels you may want to look at:

Lapco Bigshot/Microshot/Autospirit = $40-60
A little loud but very accurate. Bigshot is Large-Medium bore, Autospirit is Small-Medium bore, Microshot is Small bore.
J&J Ceramic = $35-45
Quiet and cleans itself after a ball break. Good accuracy. Medium bore.
Custom Products 1-Peice/Classic = $30-50
Accurate and solid. Medium bore.

get a J&J 14 inch barrel

[QUOTE=1IVIPU153]get a 14 inch --14 to 18 =good... 6-10 =bad, a 12 will be kinda same as 14, just dont go below 12--then ull have accuracey problems-and the gun will differ on sound--shorter=louder-longer=quieter---but 21 inch is useless-just like having a bat for a barrel...go to pb review, chek out there ratings on what they got for 12 and 14 inch--i personal would go for a 14.  check out the JNJ CERAMIC 12 or 14 this barrel rocks. www.pbreview.com[/QUOTE]

hey i have an a5 and im doing just fine with the stock barral its great but for a m98 i'd get a big shot because they are good but i havent ever had a barral as acurate as the stock on the a5 so the longer it is doesnt mean its more acurate all the time

get a 14 inch...

ZoSo_45 wrote: Dude, seriously who believes all that bull about the gun wasting more air depending on barrel length?? Don't listen to em. Your gun would have to have like some eye atatched to where u screw ur barrel in and that would tell them how long the barrel is.... does it sound like tippman guns do that (or any gun)...so don't listen...but 12-14 is good for what u wanna do. Its really a personal preference. The only reason the others don't like the longer barrel is cuz its cumbersome, it sticks out like no other, and there's just extra room to have a ball break. Any way go with what u want. All i can do is offer the fax.

Well the above is more a fax (ie fascimilie of the truth) than the actual facts, though he is a little right the valve doesn't mystically change how much air it releases because of the length of the barrel. Instead it has trained its owner to do it for it. As mentioned, there is no magical gizmo that makes it waste gas because the barrel is (just for exagerated example) 21" long. What happens is that you put the new barrel on and notice that while it does shoot straighter, it isn't going as far and is chronoing lower so you open up the VAS a little to let more air in and increase the velocity.

However, on most Tippmanns, the valve releases the same volume of air with every shot. If you are running any system with a regulator you are controlling the volume of air and release just enough to get the desired velocity and reset the rear bolt (and activate the cyclone in an A-5). A larger barrel WILL waste air in a system with a regulator because there will be more friction and you will have to increase the output pressure of the regulator (in that case the VAS should already be in the wide open position).

But that said, Warbeak is right, more of it depends on your style of play. I use both 14" and 12" barrels on my markers. I prefer the 12" in most cases because I do a mix of close movement and long ball. On my "loaner" markers I keep 14" barrels on them since newbie friends I let use them don't normally move that aggressively. I even own a 5" barrel for when I know its a tight field, though I very rarely play with it due to my choice of fields. And yes, with that on my A-5 its like the Ingram M-11 of paintball markers (spray and pray), but if I had access to a 2" barrel I would use it just because (I'm already in spray & pray mode, what's a little less accuracy then )

Edited by Arbites