My dad and I are finally upgrading our tippmann 98s and my dad was planning on getting a a flatline barrel, but neither of us know much about them. He wants more range as long as the ball breaks. Also we both have heard they take smaller balls, if so is this much of a problem?  

Yes, they do prefer smaller balls, like Marbalizers and certain Zap products. Contrary to popular belief, the Flatline is not as picky as most people think. As long as the ball will fit the barrel's bore, they will be fine. I suggest you buy several bags of paint, starting with Marbs. Try out a bunch of different ones, and choose which one you like best and has a good cost/effectiveness ratio.

That is all I can say given that I have never used a Flatline.

EDIT- Also, you could take the barrel to your local store, and test the fit of certain balls without you having to buy any. Just open a bag and see if they fit. If they don't, move on. If they do, consider buying a bag to try them out.

If you are getting discouraged from the above posts, I can see why. They make it seem hard to keep the flatline working properly. Yes they did have key points about the flatline but they made it sound harder than it is. Taking care of your flatline is just the same as a regular barrel. Just like a regular barrel, clean out the paint if you had any breaks or whatever might have gotten into the barrel. Most paint works in the flatline. I use really cheap paint in mine. If it has a good hard shell and not a squishi shell, it should work if the ball bore is medium to small(.68) I love my flatline and it is not a hassle to own.

I was playing with a flatline useing CO2 and it wasn't that good. Than I put on a air tank and omg it so much brtter and iI got  the other poeple in like 1/2 the time!!!!!!!!!!!!

But do the balls break less often?

ok that was what my dad's biggest question was

      thanks everyone

Wow. I can't believe you didn'tsay anything YWSM. Millslane said that paint for the Flatline shouldn't be able to roll through. That is correct for almost any other barrel, but not the Flatline. Paint for the Flatline should be able to roll right through it. Balls from the Flatline do not go any slower than any other paintball. It is a illusion, the ball is going almost perfectly flat and appears to be going slower. Keyword "appears".  If you want all the information known to man about the Flatline, check out http://www.specialopspaintball.com/articles/tippmann_flatline_barrel.asp - http://www.specialopspaintball.com/articles/tippmann_flatlin e_barrel.asp

The balls will break at the same range, barrels do not affect this.
If you can get small paintballs then it is not a problem.

I'm sorry Millsane, but Heckler is right................. everyone knows that the flatline needs a smaller ball, do you have a flatline? maybe if you used a smaller ball it will work better for you.

Millslane wrote: mr. heckler you do not want any the painball to be loose in the barrel of the flatline. it its loose and has any room for play, even the tinniest amount, the ball will "roll and bounce" back and fourth, side to side, top to bottm, and not achieve the backspin it needs to work properly. you need the ball to rub against the bottom of the barrel so that when it leave the barrel, its spinning backwards. if the paintball was too small and rolls right through, the can leave the barrel and any random place on the tip of the barrel, while not having gathered as much backspin spin as possible. does this make sence to you? the same thing applies to any barrel, if the ball is allowed to leave the barrel at a different position in the barrel than the last, it will have different accects on where its going to fly. its doesn't take much to make a difference. where did you get your info about the paint to barrel match for the flatline?

Think about what you said. For the ball to achieve BACKSPIN it must roll along THE TOP of the barrel, not the bottom.

if the balls to smeall you will get a minimal amount of spin where a small ball gets alot more

thanx

There are better barrels out for the 98C than the flatline. Yes it shoots farther but on a long ball shot ya better hit something hard. Also after so many balls the barrel has to be polished at tippmann. I never had to do this with mine but they do need refurbishing after a certain amount of paint has been shot through it.

May I suggest other barrels that are cheaper and guieter. J-J Ceramic, All American or Stiffi dont go over 14" in length.

alot of guys have told us to go with the j&j cause they r pretty good and cheap

o ya my dad decided to go with an a5 mp5

but we r gonna make his 98c a machine gun with a tri pod

lol i forgot what gun we were gonna model it ofter but its gonna be cool we r gonna make our own hopper out of a milk jug so it can have alot of ammo lol i hope it works maybe ill make a new topic about it in the future if it works out

the paintball group we play with made a tank out of a 4 wheeler and we played with that at the weekend camp we go to if anyone is near mitchel nebraska pm me and ill tell u when the next camp is cause we need more people.................right now we only have 16 or so but anyway ill maybe post a few pics of the tank next time i see it maybe at the end of the month