2K2 AC (Polished Internals)
Palmer Stabilizer
Stock Bolt & Valving (Ported Valve & Bolt)
Cammed Hinge Frame
Bomb 3 Way
Stock Ram (Internally Polished)
Lightened Cocking Arm
Evolution II Loader
Anti- Siphon CO2
Recommended Paintballs:
PMI Premium or
Any good .689 paint
Strengths:
Lightweight, Mirror Finish Bore, Extremely Quiet, Highly Accurate with good paint
Weaknesses:
Its three figure price
Review:
Well I have not been a big barrel collecting proponent but when the Stiffis came out awhile back I started checking out various reviews and talking to folks. I called Site and spoke with their GM for Paintball Operations and liked what I heard. I just wasn't prepared to spend 103 bux for one which is the minimum price Site has set on a full length barrel.
I scoured ebay and finally scored the .689 caliber i wanted for 60 bux. Unfortunately it was a 14" inch unit and i wasn't thrilled about that. 12 inches is about as long as what makes sense to me in general paintball.
The barrel is extremely light; like an oz and a half or so. After slogging a 2 lb stainless LAPCO Big Shot around for a year I was already impressed. The thread milling on the thread adaptor is a bit skimpy I'd like to see a few more threads but actually it is plenty strong enough.
In the first generation of Stiffi's the porting cuts weakened the muzzle area and a few barrels started coming back to the factory with cracks and broken tips. Site rapidly replaced the barrels with redesigned units that corrected this flaw. Its the kind of response you expect from a good manufacturer and i was glad to see that Site behaved in a fast proactive manner.
My barrel happens to be of the first generation and SIte assures me if anything goes wrong they'll replace it with a 2nd generation unit. I have a feeling from talking with them that if I pressed the issue they'd replace it now but I'm cool with the situation.
The barrel is vented on three sides beginning at about the same area as where the shroud hump is on a standard cocker barrel. I was a bit worried I'd be bleeding off CO2 unecessarily with such a long venting train. I neednt have. I'd chrono'd my marker at 290 with the LAPCO the same day and realized about a 10 fps increase by simply switching the barrel to the Stiffi. I suspect its simply the smoother finish on the barrel as opposed to design configuration.
The barrel is INCREDIBLY quiet. I was amazed to be listening primarily to cocking noises as opposed to the typical "crack crack crack" of the LAPCO.
The balls i used initially were just some old rec paint and the dimpled ones were pretty obvious; they spun out of pattern pretty fast. I switched to my usual PMI Premiums and I was absolutely slack jawed...it was throwing absolute darts at 30 yards and I could reliably adjust to hit a tight group at 40 yards.
I'm pleased to say the least. Site has definitely improved on the ceramic barrel concept with composite materials.
A maintenance item: Site requires the use of a rubber squeegee so that the hairs from a cloth or fleece battle brush don't get caught in the front porting which is very sharp. (The porting exposes cut ends of the composite fiber material at the inner edge of the barrel which could potentially catch on cloth or fleece. If the fibers were pulled free of the bonding matrix and protrude into the bore they would be sharp enough to break paint.) If one is stupid enough to ignore this warning and ends up with this problem call Site as they do have a remedy for the handy pballer that may correct this.
In my initial test I deliberately broke a few balls in the barrel and it readily cleaned itself . Since then I've run about 8 cases of paint through it. Were it not for short stroking a ball now and then, the rubber squeegee is almost unneeded even when one does break. The use of a rubber gasket squeegee is a small concession for a great tube IMO
Conclusion:
This is a great barrel. I dont count the mandatory use of a rubber squeegee against it. If you can score one at a good price you wont be disappointed. A better price would have it earning a 10. This barrel readilly deserves a 9.9 rating, I'd discount any of the earlier reviews that rated it less than 8.
Rating:
9 out of 10
Last edited on Friday, January 23rd, 2004 at 10:18 am PST
i think you should listen to this guy. anyone who uses c02 on an autococker knows what hes doing. hes got the palmers so hes totally set. but anyways ; how well does this self clean?
quote:Originally posted by aloooooex i think you should listen to this guy. anyone who uses c02 on an autococker knows what hes doing. hes got the palmers so hes totally set. but anyways ; how well does this self clean?
co2 on a autococker??? what ever
any who guy you need a life a simple yes its good no its not would surfice
yes you are crazy, as is snowman.
mech cockers run reliably on co2 as well as hpa, especially with the stabilizer.
electro cockers can also run on co2, but you should use an anti-siphon tank as well as a remote line and keep your bps low.
also, does site make any smaller bores than 689? i use wgp domination and perfection and they are very small bore (under 685 last i saw)
good review, btw.
Is the stiffi like the driver(base version of pipe) in the sense that only the last 8 inchs(say) is actually the width of the barrel, and the rest of it is the porting, or is the entire 14 inchs(12 or 16) 0.687(say)?
14 imo. Although the accuracy will not in theaory increase, you may notice better accuracy. this is so because it helps being able to aim and calculate for depth anf distance. Also, 14 inchers make it easier to maneuver around bunkers and push them out of you way...
quote:Originally posted by SoulJahofPress yes you are crazy, as is snowman.
mech cockers run reliably on co2 as well as hpa, especially with the stabilizer.
electro cockers can also run on co2, but you should use an anti-siphon tank as well as a remote line and keep your bps low.
hahahahahahahahhahaaaaaaa...
oh you were bieng serious?
no they dont. the 3way tubing will freez over and break and thats using an a/s tank. bolts also tend to freeze.... unless of course by a low bps you meen somewhere in the region of 1 ball a minuit...
Hey, um, let's think this one through, shall we?
'Cockers were made in the late eighties. HPA didn't become popular until the late *nineties*. Even then, it was AGD that made it popular, along with the then-new Angel and Shocker.
So, tell us if you will, if tubing will break if you use Co2, what were 'cockers using for near a decade?
I've seen plenty of 'cockers run on Co2 shoot just as fast as most people can with HPA. They shoot down, but they run. Even my pneumatic assist, working the pump almost as fast as people can fan a trigger, it just gets *really* cold and dews up. And that's with a horizontal, un-AS'd tank, simply run through a WGP Ergo. You just have to know what you're doing.
Oh, plus, if you don't have an anti-siphon tank oriented right--say, vertically--it turns into a pure siphon. Again, know what you're doing.
Yeah, just fair warning, its a great barrel, but I stuck it in my pocket for a second to show my friend at his house, and pocket lint got in the tip and pulled a little carbon fiber off of the tip.
It doesn't effect the inside, but it chipped a little, and it imbedded some fiber into my skin.
Be careful, I havent shot it since this has happened, and I don't know how it will effect performance.
