freak,

its a better all around barrel, but if you play woodsball all the time, like thats all you play then get that.

Freak's are way too much money , but of the two , I'd have to say , Freak .

Why ? If you can eliminate me with a flatline , I can eliminate you with my  "Regular" Barrel . It's all physic's man . think about it .

 Velocity , drag (AKA Ballistics) .

go with the freak

if you get a Flat line you would have to worry about paint size.

thx for the help

should i get the freak, all-american, or teardrop front? which one is quieter?

You wont see me ,

 How do you figure impact energy will be more with a Flatline barrel ?

Given the same initial velocity from both barrels , Either ball will decelerate at the same rate due to friction of the air as it travels (Drag).

 Thus the impact energy at any given distance will be exactly the same , no matter what the trajectory of the projectile is .

You cant dodge that as truth , and if you come after me with a flatline , and think your safe,, I want you to meet my little friend

The effects of the "Backspin" put on the ball , by a Flatline barrel just redistribute the effects that drag has on the paintball . As it spins the lower half of the paintball is going against the flow of air as it is passing thru it , causing a higher drag , or pressure . the top of the paintball is spinning the same direction , causing less drag , or a lower pressure . This is known as Aerodynamic lift and does NOT lessen the TOTAL amount of friction (drag) in any way ,it just redistributes it causing an amount of lift as explained above .

 If line of sight is your only prayer of making a shot , you need to rethink your skill level as a player ,if they were that Damned good , dont you think tourney players would be using them ?

Buy a Product , not the Hype it causes....

i didn't vote because as many other people said on their post the freak is to much money and if ya don't install the flatline right you get all kinds of problems and there hard to clean.my advice is to get a lapco bigshot.extremely cheap and accurate..but if someone had a gun to my head and told me to vote i would go with the freak just because i always hear bad things about flatlines.

Shadowminion wrote: The effects of the "Backspin" put on the ball , by a Flatline barrel just redistribute the effects that drag has on the paintball . As it spins the lower half of the paintball is going against the flow of air as it is passing thru it , causing a higher drag , or pressure . the top of the paintball is spinning the same direction , causing less drag , or a lower pressure . This is known as Aerodynamic lift and does NOT lessen the TOTAL amount of friction (drag) in any way ,it just redistributes it causing an amount of lift as explained above .  If line of sight is your only prayer of making a shot , you need to rethink your skill level as a player ,if they were that Damned good , dont you think tourney players would be using them ? Buy a Product , not the Hype it causes....

man ... what are u talking about .... no one even said anything about impact energy or even mentioned the physics of a flatline ....
second the back spin on the ball allows in to travel farther but gravity is going to pull a ball w/ out back spin to the ground alot faster then one with back spin ... therfore it really doesnt matter how much impact energy the ball with out back spin has if its broken on the ground.
third point, who cares about distance or impact speed.  point of the flatline is ... (drum roll) the FLATLINE ... making a paint ball travel a flat trajectory instead of lobbing. 
pro to this.... in the bush balls dont get broken on underbrush, u can shoot through it also u can aim at somthing and expect to hit in its general area even and great distance (lets not get to much into that though)

to sumarize: hype is bad .... people who just wana make bad hype are worse. just been like every other teen and dont have a strong oppinion about anything

hhmmmm.....thats a tuffy. i trust SP very much. i dont own a flatline but i trust em from wat i hear. well i hope u can decide

welcome to the forums

Shadowminion, in your position I would NOT be advising the lad as to matters of physics.

Any paintball will decellerate equally; that is a given. So, this can be extrapolated to say that any 2 similar paintballs, fired from any barrel, at the same velocity, will have practically the same velocity after the same amount of time in the air, having travelled the same DISTANCE.

Distance, however, is an absolute mearure of the total space that an object travels in ALL DIMENSIONS. Velocity, on the other hand, is a vector- it has a direction attached to the unit of measure. Velocity is NOT just a measure of speed, but of direction. Velocity is constantly altered in a paintball, as the forces of gravity, drag, and lift act on it. Lift only comes into play in a flatline, though.

Say you fire a shot from your freak barrel. To hit a target 100 feet away, you must arc it up. From a flatline barrel, you can fire it straight. Because the Freak shot is ARCING, rather than travelling in a straight line, it must travel a greater distance to reach the same spot - pic two points in any circle, and draw a line directly between them. The line between them and the line of the circumfrence which joins them both get to the same point, but one is clearly shorter. This is geometrically how one would compare the flatline and the freak. 

Because it travels a greater distance, it is in the air longer, which means that it arrives at a slower velocity than a shot froma  flatline, because the flatline - having taken a direct vector towards the target, instead of an arc - took less time to travel the distance, and thus has had less time to decellerate due to drag. Furthermore, becuase the lift counteracts gravity, it does not lose velocity climbing the arc; velocity that is not completely regained in falling towards the target.

Furthermore, because the flatline is able to travel more efficiently - requiring less arc to achieve a greater linear distance - its shots can travel farther (linerally) before losing too much velocity (and thus energy) to break on a target. Also, because the spin of the ball will continue throughout the flight, the lift effect will continue throughout, and simply make it possible to fire a shot farther than any other barrel will. Eventually, the ball will 'stall', in that the lift generated will no longer coutneract gravity, and it will drop off relatively suddenly comapred to the gentler arc of another barrel- however, that stall point will be greatly beyond what any other barrel could hope to reach.

The "Great Distance"  you are expounding is a mere few feet , and with that said , do a simple experiment to prove this to your self . you and a buddy pace off 100 feet and duel each other ,if the balls break go out another 20 feet and do it again , until the majority of hits bounce off of you , . You'll find the difference you so highly value is negligable .

Been there, Done that .

^ tru dat.

Really? So how come at the local paintball field when someone wants to compare my flatline to their aftermarket cocker barrel, they can arc it up 40 degrees, and mine fired at a 10 degree arc will go at least 50 feet farther, if not more?

The flatline works as advertised. More importantly, the flat trajectory lets you shoot under things such as tree branches, or other obstacles. It makes instinctive shooting a lot easier, since it's a direct trajectory to the target. You can effectively use some kind of sights if you wish, with the flatline installed. Once you've got it tuned so that it's in its sweet spot, you won't find another barrel that touches it.

If you do get a flatline, an upgrade worth looking at is a regulator of some kind. I'm going to be picking up a palmer's stabilizer, personally. the flatline has a definite sweet pressure at which the shots are damned near perfect, and a regulated air source helps you hit this better. It works fin without it, but o add just that much more consistency, a palmer's stabilizer is a good idea.