BARREL LENGTH!
Printed From: Tippmann Paintball
Category: Paintball Equipment
Forum Name: Which Gun is Best
Forum Description: Need Advice? Ask the pros.
URL: http://www.tippmannsports.com/forum/wwf77a/forum_posts.asp?TID=162731
Printed Date: 17 July 2025 at 3:07pm
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.04 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: BARREL LENGTH!
Posted By: Squishey
Subject: BARREL LENGTH!
Date Posted: 18 December 2006 at 11:11pm
Everyone is always posting "what barrel length should i get?" and this is to answer all the questions.
Out of the Question
First lets eliminate the barrels that are obviously the wrong thing. 20'' and over barrels do absolutley nothing for accuracy or distance, they are pointless in just about every aspect.
anything below 8" decreases preformance of you marker, your paint will not fly as far or as straight because 8" is not long enough for the paintball to reach maximum velocity, before leaving the barrel.
acceptable lengths.
the shortest i would ever go is 8" and that would just be to effect the look of the paintball marker. 8" is pretty much on the line of loosing preformance and acheiving a decent preformance.
personally i would never go longer then 18" because that is the point at which the paintballs are slowing down and reducing distance and accuracy.
Proper Lengths
The best length of barrel is anywhere between 10 and 16" i think 14 is the best but that is from my personal experience. i find that 14" offers the best preformance with it being just long enough to allow the paintball to reach maximum velocity before it leaves the barrel.
Porting, fluted, rifled, smoothbore.
Ok so now you know what length of barrel to get which one type to get.
fluted, and rifled barrel for paintball are pointless, rifleing was started on firearms to put a spin on the bullet, rifling a barrel just means putting gouges on the inside of the barrel in a spiral motion to provide little pasageways for the gas to escape ahead of the ball putting a spin on it. i find rifled barrels do not shoot low quality paint very well, fluting is the same as rifling only it is straight line's going down the barrel.
Porting are hole's in the barrel to allow gas to escape before the ball leaves the barrel. it helps maintain a constant pressure behind the projectile which prooves for a straighter shot.
smoothbore barrels are just any barrel that is not fluted or rifled. these are the best for paintball.
what about flatlines you might ask?
flatlines will increase you distance and reduce your accuracy. thats about the only thing to them, and they tend to hurt a little bit more when you get shot by someone using one.
in the end a barrel is more of a personal choice. my opinion for the best barrel is 12 or 14" smoothbore with porting, is the way to go.
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Canadians do it on top.
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Replies:
Posted By: dontrummer
Date Posted: 19 December 2006 at 6:25am
Posted By: sinisterNorth
Date Posted: 19 December 2006 at 9:28am
Too bad this is the wrong forum...
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Pumpker'd; (V.) When a pump player runs up and shoots you at point blank range because you thought 20bps made you good.
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Posted By: dontrummer
Date Posted: 19 December 2006 at 12:05pm
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hey can some mod move this (it is in the wrong section)
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Posted By: Simma Down!!
Date Posted: 19 December 2006 at 3:15pm
 Squishey wrote:
Everyone is always posting "what barrel length should i get?" and this is to answer all the questions.Out of the Question.First lets eliminate the barrels that are obviously the wrong thing. 20'' and over barrels do absolutley nothing for accuracy or distance, they are pointless in just about every aspect. |
You obviously havent shot the super chromium....
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Posted By: Squishey
Date Posted: 19 December 2006 at 3:40pm
i've used a wide variaty of common and a few un common barrels. obviously there are exceptions to every rule, like hammerhead barrels are amazing barrels even though they are rifled.
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Canadians do it on top.
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Posted By: Mack
Date Posted: 19 December 2006 at 5:21pm
Squishey wrote:
Everyone is always posting "what barrel length should i get?" and this is to answer all the questions.
Out of the Question
First lets eliminate the barrels that are obviously the wrong thing. 20'' and over barrels do absolutley nothing for accuracy or distance, they are pointless in just about every aspect.
Longer barrels tend to be quieter than shorter barrels by the same manufacturer. They are also handy for sticking through thick brush so the user can make shots while being safe from return fire. Other than that, you nailed it. (I would have said anything over 16" is useless, but that is personal preference.)
anything below 8" decreases preformance of you marker, your paint will not fly as far or as straight because 8" is not long enough for the paintball to reach maximum velocity, before leaving the barrel.
The velocity issue for barrels under 8" can be compensated for by cranking the velocity back up to the field limit; there is no compensation for the accuracy issue. (Ultra-short barrels, like ultra-long barrels tend to be gas hogs if you want to shoot the same velocity as everyone else.)
acceptable lengths.
the shortest i would ever go is 8" and that would just be to effect the look of the paintball marker. 8" is pretty much on the line of loosing preformance and acheiving a decent preformance.
personally i would never go longer then 18" because that is the point at which the paintballs are slowing down and reducing distance and accuracy.
I would have said 16" is the longest I would recommend and I wouldn't use anything personally over 14", but again, this is a highly personalized issue. Also, the extra drag from a longer barrel can be compensated for by turning up the velocity to get back up to what ever the desired/legal fps is. (This can, however, be very hard on paint.)
Proper Lengths
The best length of barrel is anywhere between 10 and 16" i think 14 is the best but that is from my personal experience. i find that 14" offers the best preformance with it being just long enough to allow the paintball to reach maximum velocity before it leaves the barrel.
I'd of said 8-12" but I'd bet a poll of forumers would show preferred lengths range all over the place.
Porting, fluted, rifled, smoothbore.
Ok so now you know what length of barrel to get which one type to get.
fluted, and rifled barrel for paintball are pointless, rifleing was started on firearms to put a spin on the bullet, rifling a barrel just means putting gouges on the inside of the barrel in a spiral motion to provide little pasageways for the gas to escape ahead of the ball putting a spin on it. i find rifled barrels do not shoot low quality paint very well, fluting is the same as rifling only it is straight line's going down the barrel.
Actually, rifling in a paintball gun is supposed to work on the same theory as rifling in real guns; spinning the projectile through contact between the projectile and the lands on the inside of the barrel, not by letting gas get past the projectile. The only rifled paintball barrels that have ever been tested to determine if they increase accuracy were the early Armson series barrels. The testers determined there was a slight increase in accuracy, not from inducing spin on the paintball, but due to the nature of the Armson rifling creating a better ball to barrel fit. The downside as pointed out above is that the rifling/fluting can be very hard on paintballs. So overall, I also believe that rifling on a paintball barrel is pointless. (But, proving how individual opinions vary, one of the best players I know only uses rifled Armson barrels.)
Porting are hole's in the barrel to allow gas to escape before the ball leaves the barrel. it helps maintain a constant pressure behind the projectile which prooves for a straighter shot.
Porting also quiets the sound of the shot by dispersing the release of the gas behind the projectile over a longer time period. Some experts also believe that porting helps with consistent shot-to-shot velocity, but others dispute this. Porting can decrease per shot gas efficiency though. As a general rule, porting can be divided into two types:
- A tight series of small holes near the end of the barrel is more effective for improving accuracy by decreasing turbulance as the ball exits the muzzle.
- A series of small holes spread out along the barrel is more effective for quieting the report from firing.
smoothbore barrels are just any barrel that is not fluted or rifled. these are the best for paintball.
what about flatlines you might ask?
flatlines will increase you distance and reduce your accuracy. thats about the only thing to them, and they tend to hurt a little bit more when you get shot by someone using one.
in the end a barrel is more of a personal choice. my opinion for the best barrel is 12 or 14" smoothbore with porting, is the way to go.
^^^ Overall, a darn good recomendation. I have a Flatline, and like it a lot, but I consider it a "special purpose" barrel rather than a daily use barrel.
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Edited Note: As soon as I finished this, I remembered where to find an article that applies to this topic. R. Maynard did an article titled "High-Tech Barrel Theory" which was originally printed in APG. The article was reprinted in the book Ultimate Guide to Paintball. It covers a lot of what was mentioned above, with just a few important additions that I will add below:
Proper barrel length to a certain extent is dependent upon the type of marker.- Different valve types produce different spike pressures for propelling the paintball
- Some markers produce a lower range spike pressure (50-75 psi) in the barrel but for a longer duration
- He calls these "pushers"
- Sheridan style pumps fall into this category
- Others produce a higher range spike pressure (75 to 100 psi) for a shorter duration
- Nelspot style pumps and most blowback semi-autos (including Tippmanns) fall into this category
- An appropriate barrel length can be determined by valve type
- Shorter barrels (6 to 10 inches) work best on "poppers and longer barrels (9 to 13 inches) work best on "pushers"
- The reason for this has to do with whether the ball is accelerating or decelerating as it leaves the barrel
- A ball that is still accelerating will travel slightly farther than one that is decelerating even if both exit the barrel at the exact same velocity*
- He indicates this can be verified by two chronographs spaced approximately 10 feet apart
* Not a point I'm sure I agree with. I'm going to have to test this.
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Posted By: hybrid-sniper
Date Posted: 19 December 2006 at 6:55pm
Posted By: Squishey
Date Posted: 19 December 2006 at 11:31pm
Mack i agree with you on most of what you said you went to more detail then i did on a few of the subjects but i just wanted an easy guide for newer players to understand. Rifled barrels tend to be very ruff with the projectile, thats why i did not recomned them for paintball use, you can as ruff with a bullet as you want, but paintballs tend to be a little more fragile.
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Canadians do it on top.
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Posted By: Mack
Date Posted: 20 December 2006 at 1:38pm
Squishey wrote:
Rifled barrels tend to be very ruff with the projectile, thats why i did not recomned them for paintball use, you can as ruff with a bullet as you want, but paintballs tend to be a little more fragile.
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QFT
Edited Note: Other barrels that can be very hard on paint (dependent upon weather conditions) include the Flatline and the End Game "silenced" barrels. I would assume that an Apex would have the same propensities as well, but have no personal experience with them.
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Posted By: SSOK
Date Posted: 22 December 2006 at 5:50pm
hybrid-sniper wrote:
Mack = Jesus |
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Posted By: RavenGuard
Date Posted: 25 December 2006 at 1:33pm
Squishey wrote:
Everyone is always posting "what barrel length should i get?" and this is to answer all the questions.
Out of the Question
First lets eliminate the barrels that are obviously the wrong thing. 20'' and over barrels do absolutley nothing for accuracy or distance, they are pointless in just about every aspect.
anything below 8" decreases preformance of you marker, your paint will not fly as far or as straight because 8" is not long enough for the paintball to reach maximum velocity, before leaving the barrel.
This is incorrect. I use a 4" barrel and can fire at full velocity. As mack said, it simply is not gas efficient. 8" is the complete and full balance of gas efficiency and performance, therefor anything over 8" or under 8" uses more gas to perform the same This is ofcourse assuming the barrel has no dispersed porting and is either not ported or only ported on the end. This argument also applies to your next statement.
acceptable lengths.
the shortest i would ever go is 8" and that would just be to effect the look of the paintball marker. 8" is pretty much on the line of loosing preformance and acheiving a decent preformance.
personally i would never go longer then 18" because that is the point at which the paintballs are slowing down and reducing distance and accuracy.
Proper Lengths
The best length of barrel is anywhere between 10 and 16" i think 14 is the best but that is from my personal experience. i find that 14" offers the best preformance with it being just long enough to allow the paintball to reach maximum velocity before it leaves the barrel.
Technically, the ONLY reason to have a barrel other than 8" is personal preferance, play style, etc. etc. As previously discussed, a barrels length has absolutely nothing to do with it's accuracy, only it's sound and efficiency.
Porting, fluted, rifled, smoothbore.
Ok so now you know what length of barrel to get which one type to get.
fluted, and rifled barrel for paintball are pointless, rifleing was started on firearms to put a spin on the bullet, rifling a barrel just means putting gouges on the inside of the barrel in a spiral motion to provide little pasageways for the gas to escape ahead of the ball putting a spin on it. i find rifled barrels do not shoot low quality paint very well, fluting is the same as rifling only it is straight line's going down the barrel.
Porting are hole's in the barrel to allow gas to escape before the ball leaves the barrel. it helps maintain a constant pressure behind the projectile which prooves for a straighter shot.
smoothbore barrels are just any barrel that is not fluted or rifled. these are the best for paintball.
what about flatlines you might ask?
flatlines will increase you distance and reduce your accuracy. thats about the only thing to them, and they tend to hurt a little bit more when you get shot by someone using one.
Getting hit by a flatline ball at 280fps won't feel any different from getting hit by any paint from any other barrel at 280fps, maybe there would be a difference from 10 feet away, but it's likely so little it's unnoticable at anything further.
in the end a barrel is more of a personal choice. my opinion for the best barrel is 12 or 14" smoothbore with porting, is the way to go.
Again, anything other than 8" is a small loss of effeciency to keep the performance, but this is likely almost unnoticeable unless you are under 8", or above something like 16". Porting will make your gun less efficient, though likely also unnoticably unless it's a longer barrel. LENGTH DOES NOT MEAN ACCURACY IN ANY RESPECT. a 3" barrel of the same quality of a 14" will be just as accurate, the cost is purely efficiency.
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And i'd like to also note that because this is a Tippmann forum, unless you have a second stage or adjustable regulated air system, it doesn't matter which barrel you use due to the way Tippmanns adjust velocity. Every time you fire you use the same amount of gas, it does not matter what your velocity is.
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Tippmann A-5
Polished Internals
E-Grip
Ape Board
JCS Blade Trigger
QEV
8" Bigshot + Apex
Ricochet R-5 / Tac Cap
Palmers Stabilizer
68/4500 Crossfire
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Posted By: Squishey
Date Posted: 27 December 2006 at 10:58pm
could a mod please sticky this, lots of good info for new players in here.
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Canadians do it on top.
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