barrel legnth???

[joseph12345]

what would be better for me to get, a 14 inch or 12 inch barrel? is there any difference in performance between the both? what are the advantages of a 12 inch besides it keeps the gun more compact?

[xavier678]

they will give you about the same performance. i like a 14" because i can get a better idea of where my paint will be going but if you play speedball i woudl get a 12. i would not recommend anything over 14".

[kungfuwannabe2]

I personally went with the 14 inch barrel i think it porvides about 1/5 more accuraccy but it does slow the ball down more

[xavier678]

a paintball leaving your barrel at 300fps will behave the same whether or not it came from a 10 or 25" barrel. it might be less efficent if thats what you mean.

the longer barrel wont be any more precise but yeah, i also get better accuracy with a 14"

[SnailPB]

I use 14 in speedball and woodsball its fine.
Some say with 14' you can 'push' the air bunkers and get better aim, I don't know. However, you can be more compact with 12', but really, how much will 2 inches affect you?

[joseph12345]

hey its possible to hit a 2 inch object.

[GranDream]

Originally posted by SnailPB
I use 14 in speedball and woodsball its fine.
Some say with 14' you can 'push' the air bunkers and get better aim, I don't know.


You push the barrel into the side of the bunker so your barrel sticks out of the other side. The longer your barrel is, the less of your body that has to hang out of the side of your bunker when you shoot. I hope I described that right... if this was in real life and I had a marker and an air bunker, it would be about 100 times easier:)
So yeah, thats about the only reason you'd really want to go over 14 inches. Although some like to joke that technically you get 2 inches greater range when you get 16 over 14. But I think the longer the ball has to travel to leave the barrel, the more time it has to gain friction.

[xavier678]

Originally posted by GranDream
Although some like to joke that technically you get 2 inches greater range when you get 16 over 14. But I think the longer the ball has to travel to leave the barrel, the more time it has to gain friction.

haha, that is pretty good actally.

your right about the ball gaining friction the longer it is in the barrel, however this will not affect the range. friction is not something that is accumulated and stays with an object. its a force and as soon as there is no contact between the barrel and the ball it will travel with only air resistance (well...friction but still) and gravity.

in other words:
a ball leaving the barrel of a 21" barrel traveling 300f/s will have the same distance ideally as one leaving an 8" barrel traveling 300f/s. assuming they both travel in the same direction and leave the barrel at the same angle

[reneirwolf878]

But a 21" barrel will require more air to exit the barrel at 300 fps. So while not only being an unwieldly length the barrel will be inefficient.

[ibanez168]

Originally posted by xavier678


haha, that is pretty good actally.

your right about the ball gaining friction the longer it is in the barrel, however this will not affect the range. friction is not something that is accumulated and stays with an object. its a force and as soon as there is no contact between the barrel and the ball it will travel with only air resistance (well...friction but still) and gravity.

in other words:
a ball leaving the barrel of a 21" barrel traveling 300f/s will have the same distance ideally as one leaving an 8" barrel traveling 300f/s. assuming they both travel in the same direction and leave the barrel at the same angle

Wow, that made no sense. A ball being shot out of a gun at 300 f/s and traveling down an 8 inch barrel will decrease in velocity in that time in the barrel, but not as much as it will in 21 inch barrel. The force isn't staying with the object. It's just affecting it for the time its in the barrel.

Your argument holds true, but I don't think its what you're trying to say.

You would get greater range with a shorter barrel because less friction slows the ball less allowing it to travel faster and fly farther.

[A-5best]

range will pretty much be the same but like said above with a longer barrel you can push in the bunker and show less of yourself. Another thing to consider is that since almost all people sight down the barrel a 14 inch will give you better accuracy, not because of anything aside from the fact that it allows you to see better where your paint is goin. Its kinda hard to explain but when its longer and you look down it the paint lands in more of an area of where the barrel tip is. I hope you got that. ALtho lets say you play snake like i do you may want something that you can wield pretty easily and move around a bunker without it getting caught or whatever. Just get a 2-piece barrel and then get a 14 and 12 tip if you want. The longer the barrel the easier it is to hide yourself and the shorter the barrel the easier it is to bring around objects etc. and also you can play tighter with a 12 because if you barrel is up behind the bunker as it sohuld be and you pop out and go back in you are farther in because there is 2 less inches of barrel to keep you farther back. Someone sohuld make a 13 inch barrel.

[reneirwolf878]

Originally posted by ibanez168
You would get greater range with a shorter barrel because less friction slows the ball less allowing it to travel faster and fly farther.

I don't think you get what he's saying.


If two guns are chrono'd in at 300 fps, one with a 12" and the other with a 21" barrel both guns will shoot the same distance.

However, if you chrono'd a gun with a 12" barrel at 300 fps and then swapped in a 21" barrel noticable loss in range would occur...sounds like I need to do an experiment when I get a chance to in teh spring.

[ibanez168]

Originally posted by reneirwolf878


I don't think you get what he's saying.


If two guns are chrono'd in at 300 fps, one with a 12" and the other with a 21" barrel both guns will shoot the same distance.

However, if you chrono'd a gun with a 12" barrel at 300 fps and then swapped in a 21" barrel noticable loss in range would occur...sounds like I need to do an experiment when I get a chance to in teh spring.

No. I understood what he was saying. I just thought it was completely illogical to think otherwise and didn't understand why he was correcting someone and making a point that had nothing to do with what the person was saying.

[xavier678]

Originally posted by ibanez168


Wow, that made no sense. A ball being shot out of a gun at 300 f/s and traveling down an 8 inch barrel will decrease in velocity in that time in the barrel, but not as much as it will in 21 inch barrel. The force isn't staying with the object. It's just affecting it for the time its in the barrel.

Your argument holds true, but I don't think its what you're trying to say.

You would get greater range with a shorter barrel because less friction slows the ball less allowing it to travel faster and fly farther.
check your physics.

the speed is measured after the ball has left the barrel, whatever happened inside the barrel (excluding flatline affects and such because in straight barrels it is negligable) is absolutely irelevant; the paintball is no longer experiencing the force of friction from the barrel. because there was a longer period of friction means it might be less efficent but the range will be the same.


lets get a more concrete example for you:
take two markers, one has an 8" barrel and one has a 20" barrel. the barrel tips are ligned up and both markers fire a ball at the same elevation and at 300fps. the ball fired from the 8" barrel will NOT SHOOT ANY FURTHER.

the 20" barrel is used only to illlustrate that barrel length has no affect on range. it could be 40". it just doesnt matter. as soon as the ball leaves the barrel it will travel independant of the friction experienced in the barrel.

renierwolf is exactly correct in what i am saying. think about it some. you say it had nothign to do with anyone? it started as clarification on the post saying "the 14" will slow the ball down more". perhaps he was refering to efficency, just making sure because this has come up before.

[joseph12345]

ok so what is it 12 or 14

[wordf0o]

You could get the 16...Its easier to push in on the bunkers. That is if you have Sup'air bunkers or something like that.

[Pantelones]

I'd go with 14

better for pushing airball bunkers

better for poking through brush in woodsball.

[sirsaechao]

There is a sticky if you still can't decide...always 14" for me...