smart parts 20" tactical barrel

so, is it good or not.  does it actually improve the acuracy?  no one can give me a straight answer, has anyone actually used it?  i ordered it last night when i got my tippan a-5, did i make a mistake?

:(

people say anything above 14 is pointless.

its better than a stock barrel.

Edited by NJnets5 - 22 July 2006 at 12:02am

ApC23 wrote: well then, is it better than the stock barrel that came with the a-5? or will it decrease its range and acuracy

o its prob better then the stock barrel.

NJnets5 wrote: http://www.pbreview.com/products/reviews/4366/ read this

yeah i read that before i bought...thats why brought me to my decision, all the review there are good.  but reading through the forums, most people are saying its useless

OK, here's the deal...  from what I've been told, anything above 14" doesn't improve your gas efficiency.  This is because unlike a real gun, the velocity is constant.  So anything above 14" will require more gas to launch the paintball at around 290 fps, due to the effects of DRAG.  This is not saying that a longer barrel will not produce a more accurate shot (logically the longer the barrel, the longer the shot remains on target with at steady aim before exiting the barrel), but it will use more air and thus be less efficient, and that extra amount of air and friction can cause more busted balls.  It's all in the physics. 

Edited by deadeyevt - 22 July 2006 at 2:44pm

Ah, here is what I posted on another thread...  It was 12" not 14" like is said, but depending on porting i've also heard that the difference between 12" and 14" isn't too bad, but once you go about 14" it becomes noticable

Length is a common missconception. Longer barrels help on firearms because the longer the barrel the higher the velocity (FPS) the bullet travels. In painbtall no matter what the barrel length we adjust the velocity to 300 FPS (feet per second). For a good paintball barrel length you just need enough lenth for the gas to expand and get the ball going 300 fps. Ideal length is 8-12 inches. Anything over around 12 inches will make a drop in your FPS (compared to a 8-12 inch barrel) and require you to turn your velocity up (requiring more air). A longer barrel also increases the chances of a ball breaking in the barrel. A barrel shorter than around 8 inches will require more gas also because by the time the ball leaves the barrel the gas wont have had enough time to expand behind it, this requires you to turn up your velocity (using more air). It also increases the chances of breaking a ball because you have to have more air hitting the ball at once to make up for the lack of time for the gas to expand in the barrel so the intial harder "smack" could break balls.

Edited by deadeyevt - 22 July 2006 at 2:08pm