Smaller bore barrel SL-68 II pump

BVB wrote: DeTrevni wrote: ... Palmer's is definitely an option... Smallest bore they make is .685   All hopes resting on TIPPMANN here !  They are the only company that can really profit from this AND with that barrel they will have an Up for their SL too ;-)

Thats where I applied it to?

BVB, I'd like to apologize on behalf of the forum (so why are we razzing him again, guys?). I have to say, you've been taking it like a champ. A lot of people will simply throw a fit and bail.

But back to the SL topic at hand. Right now, while I think there may be future room for aftermarket, I don't think it's a viable business market. Pump play is few and far between. Sure, it may be on the rise, but it's still very niche. Frankly, I was shocked Tippmann even brought back the SL. I was on the pre-order list before they were even out. :) However, I don't think they've sold enough to even consider designing and retooling for a run of aftermarket barrels. I think this leaves us SL owners on our own, using tricks like the nail polish and tape mods.

But as has been stated, there are old aftermarket barrels available for the SL. The problem is they are relatively large bore compared to today's paints. I still think your best professional bet would be sending a barrel off to PPS to have them punch in some Wedgits.

Well, I'll take that as an answer.

Edited by BVB - 09 February 2010 at 2:37pm

Well now that sucks doesnt it?

and rifled barrels are never a good idea.
[/QUOTE] Correction

Rifled barrels do not add range.  A paintball going 300 fps from a regular barrel and a paintball leaving a rifled barrel at 300 fps will travel approximately the same distance from the end of the barrel.  The only independent rifled barrel test I have ever seen was done on Armson's quite a few years ago and the final decision was that it was more accurate not because of imparted spin but because the "rifling" made for a better fit between barrel and ball.  (Stop-motion photography showed no spin.)

So, you drew this conclusion based on an approximate 3% variance in range (at 300 fps).  There were no other factors such as wind, barrel length, barrel materials, bore, propellant variances, firing angle etc. that could have possibly accounted for this occurrence?  

^^^ BVB, that last bit about the rifled barrels is right on. They really have no benefit for paintball. A lot of people I hear praising them stepped up from stock barrels straight to the Hammerhead kit, so of course they are going to notice a performance increase. But I bet if you compare them to a smooth-bore kit, they won't be any better. That said, Hammerheads are nice, just gimmicky. As for why they market them, that's just it right there. They're gimmicky, so they sell.

I just bought an SL-68 II barrel from APP. Ironically, it's straight-rifled. I just wanted a different barrel, and it was cheap at $20.