Barrel Myths

Source: http://members.tripod.com/~MichiganPaintball/barrelstuff/barrelmyth.html

If you are reading this section to get the barrel that will shoot the farthest, have the flattest trajectory, insure breaks on every hit, give you a 10 yd advantage on your opponent, hit a hopper at 150 yd., or shoot clean in 2 shots after a ball break-your in the wrong place. The barrel is the single biggest improvement you can make to most markers, but a barrel can only do so much. First some common myths:

"The so-n-so barrel will shoot farther then yours-by 20 yd. at least..." Wrong dragon breath! There are 2 factors that effect range - the BC of the projectile and the speed it is shot at. If we assume we are using the same paint in two different barrels, then the only variable is the speed. If we assume that both guns are set to the field max speed, the balls for both barrels will fly the same distance.

" I got a custom made barrel that's 25" long, so I have more range then you..." Nope! Same as above-no matter what the barrel length, if the ball is going 300 fps when it exits the barrel-it goes the same distance as the same paint from any other length barrel going 300 fps. This myth comes from a misunderstanding of barrel length on firearms. On a firearm, with the same hi power ammo, a 16" barrel will give more velocity then a 6" barrel-so the bullet from the 16" barrel will have more range. But this is a factor of the velocity, not the barrel length. If I made two different loads for that firearm and the "low power" load in the long barrel gave less velocity then the "high power" load in the short barrel, the short barrel would shoot farther. In paint ball, we adjust the velocity-regardless of barrel length. End result is, when adjusted to shoot at the same velocity, short or long has no effect on range.

"If you get a longer barrel, you will get more accuracy..." Sorry, not that simple. Shot from a solid rest, with sights, there is no direct relationship between length and accuracy. There is another factor here, however. Most people find it easier to shoot a long barrel gun then a short barreled one. This may be because a lot of people sight down along the side of the barrel. So you may be able to shoot a longer barrel better-and therefore hit things better-but it is not the result of the longer barrel being "more accurate."

"So-n-so sets up the gun/barrel combination so I get back spin-and that give me more range..." There has been a LOT of experiments with spin on the ball. "back spin" is a very popular subject of this work. Unfortunately, none of the "spin" experiments has yielded any clear advantages over "non spin" . Here is a couple of things to think about. First, take a glass with water and ice in it. Wet the counter a little so the glass can be "spun". Now spin the glass. What happens to the ice in the glass?-stand still (or nearly so), right? Much of the spin theory uses solids as there model-like a bullet from a gun. We are not dealing with solids-I have seen many highspeed photos of balls down range from the barrel-and I have seen nothing that proves that the ball will have any sort of constant spin more then about 10 yd. down range. From what I have seen, what I have taken with my equipment, and what others that have really studied this have told me, I feel I can say that there is no way to use spin to consistently help you out. Now spin can have some effect on the EARLY stages of the flight of the ball. Back spin as shown this. Back spin can make a paint ball "float" in the early stages of flight. This in turn, makes the ball hit higher for the same point of aim. But it also slows the ball down faster. The end result is the ball actually having a bigger arch-rather than flatter trajectory. In every experiment I have seen, the "back spin" ball has been much less accurate then a "normal" ball.

"long barrels use less air..." Maybe not. A paintball does most of its accelerating in the first 6 to 8 inches of barrel. After that, it stays the same for a while-then starts to slow. In fact, it takes more gas to push a ball 300 fps from a 16" barrel then from a 8" barrel.

"I have an OHMYGOD barrel and it shoots great-you should get one-its the best barrel made!" Well maybe... A barrel should be matched to the paint. A snug fit that you can still blow the ball out of the barrel (like a blow gun) is best. This means that you will most likely want more them one barrel (different bore sizes). For years the Autococker has enjoyed a repartition for being one of the most accurate paintball guns out. I personally think this has at least something to do with the fact that tourney players using cockers have been matching the barrel to the paint for years, while other guns that have some sort of "anti double feed" have not cared about how the paint matches.

Now my blanket recommendations. First, only get a longer barrel (14'' or 16'') if you find it easier to shoot-many people sight down the side of the barrel, and a longer barrel gives them a longer sight plane and by extension, a more accurate sight picture. Weigh the minuses such as the ability to use it in tight quarters and the greater exposures you have with skimpy barricades (If you have never been hit in the gun barrel-you will be) The most efficient length will be in the 10-12" area. If noise is a issue, get a longer barrel with lots of porting down the barrel-but don't worry if it in any certain pattern. You have a number of choices as far as what it should be made from. I'll recommend Stainless Steel. Its the hardest and takes the best finish. The other you might want to consider is "Hard Chrome" these barrels normally are reasonably priced shoot very well. The Ceramic barrels have proved to be a disappointment in our tests. What should be their strengths-the ability to shoot through a break-has been their weakness. Quit frankly, unless they are clean, they don't shoot very good. Most importantly, get a barrel that is sized for the paint you are shooting. If you want the very best performance you can get-figure on getting 2 or 3 barrels of different bore sizes.

How we test barrels

I see a lot of testing procedures for barrels-and they don't all give the same result. First please understand this, there are 2 very big factors that effect how a ball flies. The first is the barrel, but the second is the ball its self. Paint balls don't make very good "bullets". They actually wander around. The further down range you get, the more the flight characteristics of the ball effect where they hit and the less effect the barrel has. For this reason, I don't test barrels by looking at performance 75 yd. away. Based solely on experience, we set our "test distance" at 25 yd.. Beyond that, the results start becoming far less useful-more dependent on the flight of the ball then on the barrel.

We also use measured groups. Basically, we shoot 5 balls at the same spot-then measure the spread of the group. We repeat this 10 times. This gives us the average group size for 50 shots. I feel this is the most accurate way to evaluate a barrel. I see a lot of tests run where a certain size "hole" is used and the percentage of balls that go through that hole is the relative quality of the barrel. The problem I have with this is the center point. If there was some way to always have the group center on the center of the opening, it would be a valid way of measuring. But think of this. If the group center is 4 inches to the right of the opening of the center, the barrel may shoot a 6" group-but only score 50% because half of the group was on the solid part of the target. If one wants to use this percentage way of testing barrels, it should be done like shotgun pattering. Shoot your 50 balls (or what ever number they use) at a solid target. Then after the shooting put you opening over the most dense part of the group and do you counting.

We did all our tests using Marbelizer paint. With our tests, we are always measuring the "group center", so I feel the results are more meaningful. We also always use a scope on the test gun, or clamp the gun in a return to battery rest if it is not practical to use a scope. While it is doubtful that you are going to use a 4X scope while playing paintball, we are testing the barrel here -not your playing ability. Anything that helps us get the barrel pointed at the same spot each time is improving the quality of the test. All tests are done from a solid bench with the gun supported on sand bags-but not touching the barrel. We have used this "standard" set up of the last 2 years. This gives us a huge dataset to base recommendations on.

We "re-test" barrels often. Frankly this is not to verify results, it is more of a selection process. Most of the guys that are on Walt's team also work part time for the field/store. These guys want the best barrels they can get. So when a new Lapco shipment comes in (or what ever barrel) Your almost sure to see one of the team guys out on the target range testing a new barrel to see it its any better then the one he currently has.

One of the most popular items we sell is "the barrel off Walt's gun". The reason is that that barrel represents the best barrel in that bore size we have tested...until this new one came in. I have people offering above new retail price for the used Bob Long .691 barrel he uses. Why? Because there a lot of people that know that's the best .691 bore barrel we have ever tested-and it been the best for over a year. That means Walt has tested maybe 100 other barrels in this bore size-and never found one better. And when he does find one better, this one will be the second best .691 barrel we have ever had.