Best barrel for my A5

[LILJOHNA5]

Need help deciding on a barrel for playing woodsball

[Orpackrat]

Barrel kit to best fit the paintball to barrel match.

If a barrel kit costs too much for you, a Palmers Brass Barrel is a great barrel.

[Corrupted355]

You only need to post a topic once. I promise we'll get to it eventually.

[MightyMace]

Its all personal preference

Whats your playing style?

[CockerKiller520]

he said woodsball is his style....but i agree, barrel kit is your best bet. gonna get the best accuracy out of it...i found mine cheap, got an empire barrel kit for 20 bucks

[ftsagm]

my a-5 is sporting a 14" stiffi! :laugh:

but really. it's a.691 size and it shoots all paint great. i have yet to run across paint that is too big for it.

that is my preference- get a barrel that is big enough to handle the inconsistency of paintballs and their different sizes betwen brands. just try having your perfect paint to bore match on a chilly 20-30 degree day or on a nice 95 degree day. you will see your gun turn into a spray paint can. that's my experience anyway.

get a barrel that is made by a company who takes the time to measure them accurately. you can then buy paint accordingly. i like to overbore.

with a size like .691 or higher you can stop worrying whether the paint you are going to buy is too big. the stiffi is accurate regardless. and i have not broke one ball in 6000 rounds since i bought it.

[Corrupted355]

... just try having your perfect paint to bore match... on a nice 95 degree day. you will see your gun turn into a spray paint can. that's my experience anyway...
I do this all the time. Down here, it's commonly 90+ degrees with 90+% humidity. I break an average of one ball per four or five cases, which I attribute to a bad paintball. Granted, this is not on a Tippmann, but the point remains.

[ftsagm]

I do this all the time. Down here, it's commonly 90+ degrees with 90+% humidity. I break an average of one ball per four or five cases, which I attribute to a bad paintball. Granted, this is not on a Tippmann, but the point remains.


i'm certain this is true. i am a beginner and don't have experience with lower pressure electropneumatic markers that are easier on paint. i mainly play in the cold and with an a-5.

i went through 3 barrels before i bought the stiffi. now i don't break in the barrel. just for kicks i put one of my others on last week and broke paint. after not having any fun i put the stiffi back on.

i'm just saying i bought a stiffi. and as long as i have that a-5 i won't be looking for another barrel for it. and i like the freedom of not wondering if the paint i bought online is bigger than the barrel.

[CockerKiller520]

a large bore barrel is great for that reason of never getting paint thats too large of a bore...but from what ive been told by many people who have done this (and its happened to me a few times) is that the ball may be less accurate just due to the inconsistencies of air around a larger portion of the ball than the other, causing it to kinda bounce around inside the barrel....the main reason why a barrel kit is usually offered is to have perfect paint to bore match...just to increase accuracy...but im not one to talk...the smallest bore in my barrel kit is .687, largest is .691, even at .687 its still too large, i dont know why, maybe just cuz its still cold here (about 25* avg.)

but if the stiffi is workin out for ya, then more power to ya! good luck with it bro...youre having better luck than i am lol

[Corrupted355]

The recent trend for barrel sizing has been overboring. This is evident in the fact that most high end markers are now coming with .689 and up barrels. For some reason, having a barrel that's slightly too big for the ball has been shown to have better accuracy than a perfectly fit bore, albiet at the cost of a tiny bit of efficiency loss.

A few years ago when Autocockers were at the top of the totem, WGP was still a common logo on the field, and AKA was still making jaws drop with the Excalibur, underboring was the thing to do. This was mainly because all the aforementioned markers are closed bolt, and without a snug bore to ball fit, you'd get paint rolling either partially or all the way out the barrel. And just like overboring, his situation also provides for an increase in accuracy over a perfectly matched bore. However, with underboring, you run the slight risk of going too small and getting barrel breaks.

The trend lately has been overboring because the only real downside is a minor loss in efficiency. These high ends are mostly marketed towards speedball players, and there's always air readily available after each match in a speedball tournament. So a minor loss in efficiency doesn't concern them when the benefits are better accuracy and the fact that is more difficult to get barrel breaks in an overbore.

[CockerKiller520]

i didnt know that was the new trend...i was just figuring that because my barrel kit was only .687 and up was the reason it was only 20 bucks lol...im not too sure how i like this new trend, i can understand why there is this trend though, but i do not like it mainly cuz of my cocker, i dont like precious paintballs to be rolling out of the barrel after i take a shot and lean the marker down lol

[Magmoormaster]

The CP one piece is the perfect affordable barrel. $30+the ability to choose the bore size.

[Klim0009]

The CP one piece is the perfect affordable barrel. $30+the ability to choose the bore size.

I have a CP on my 98C. Its a great barrel. I would suggest it to anyone.

[FlamingoChavez]

The recent trend for barrel sizing has been overboring. This is evident in the fact that most high end markers are now coming with .689 and up barrels. For some reason, having a barrel that's slightly too big for the ball has been shown to have better accuracy than a perfectly fit bore, albiet at the cost of a tiny bit of efficiency loss.

A few years ago when Autocockers were at the top of the totem, WGP was still a common logo on the field, and AKA was still making jaws drop with the Excalibur, underboring was the thing to do. This was mainly because all the aforementioned markers are closed bolt, and without a snug bore to ball fit, you'd get paint rolling either partially or all the way out the barrel. And just like overboring, his situation also provides for an increase in accuracy over a perfectly matched bore. However, with underboring, you run the slight risk of going too small and getting barrel breaks.

The trend lately has been overboring because the only real downside is a minor loss in efficiency. These high ends are mostly marketed towards speedball players, and there's always air readily available after each match in a speedball tournament. So a minor loss in efficiency doesn't concern them when the benefits are better accuracy and the fact that is more difficult to get barrel breaks in an overbore.

One thing that we are seeing with bigger bore barrels is that we get a more uniform amount of air delivered behind the paintball. However, underboring is starting to look better and better.

Punkworks did an interesting test (http://www.techpb.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=13341) showing the huge amount of deflection that paintballs can take. They showed that a .003 underbore was about 3% of the total deflection a paintball can take, which makes an awefully good case for underboring.

However, I'm not sure if the advantages are mitigated or not in really humid environments where you can get condensation in your barrel.

[Corrupted355]

i didnt know that was the new trend...i was just figuring that because my barrel kit was only .687 and up was the reason it was only 20 bucks lol...im not too sure how i like this new trend, i can understand why there is this trend though, but i do not like it mainly cuz of my cocker, i dont like precious paintballs to be rolling out of the barrel after i take a shot and lean the marker down lolOne thing that we are seeing with bigger bore barrels is that we get a more uniform amount of air delivered behind the paintball. However, underboring is starting to look better and better.

Punkworks did an interesting test (http://www.techpb.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=13341) showing the huge amount of deflection that paintballs can take. They showed that a .003 underbore was about 3% of the total deflection a paintball can take, which makes an awefully good case for underboring.

However, I'm not sure if the advantages are mitigated or not in really humid environments where you can get condensation in your barrel.
I underbore everything. Mainly because I don't like roll outs on the Cocker, but also because I've never been one to follow trends. Somewhere earlier in here, I'd said that I only get maybe one break every several cases. And with that kind of rare occurrence, I think it's safe to blame that break on an occasionally deformed or defective paintball.

As for hot or humid weather, I live in south Florida. It's routinely 90* here with 90% humidity. I don't notice any differences in paint breakage from summer to winter (sometimes in winter, it'll get as "cold" as 60* with less than 50% humidity... sometimes). The paint may be initially a little bigger in the summer, I don't know, but that just necessitates using the next size bore in the kit.

EDIT:
I was just reading the PunkWorks Big Barrel test results. It appears that both underboring and overboring provide about equal levels of accuracy, but underboring provides a little better efficiency. In general, short barrels (10"-12") were actually more accurate than long barrels (16"-21"). But according to the test, the biggest factor by far that affects accuracy is the paintball itself. Bore size, number of pieces, barrel length... none of it seemed to matter because the difference between the worst and the best was very small.

The test utilized all different variations of the CP barrel line, so that the results would be consistent. Now, CP makes a high quality barrel, so I have formed a theory of my own after seeing the results of the test. Aside from the paintball itself, I believe that the barrel quality has a great deal to do with accuracy. Because I know that if I take a stock WGP barrel and compare it to something like my Scepter kit using the same bore size as the WGP barrel and the same batch of paint, the Scepter is going to be much more accurate. So it apparently doesn't matter all that much what the specs of the barrel are (unless you factor in efficiency), however I believe that the quality of the hone has a great impact.

[CockerKiller520]

wow corrupted...i think we actually found something we can agree on (now dont go ruining it!!!), i agree that underboring is better especially for cockers, roll outs are so annoying!

i have always tried to get a nice tight paint to bore match, never bigger, i always felt that overboring wasnt that great, not only cuz of roll outs but because i never felt as though i had good accuracy.

and yes, i do believe that barrel quality is a big factor in that it helps the accuracy, i see better accuracy with my empire barrel kit than my stock tippy barrel (i wonder why....) although with how cold it is here, even indoor fields are about 45-50 degrees inside and the paint is still quite cold so the rounds a bit smaller than average. ive been leaving the paint inside and away from the coldness as much as possible and im going to check the paint to bore match again (using the field paint left overs which is spectrum? (what ever happened to good cheap paint like marblizers)) and i'll let you know how that goes (i'll try both the large and small bore sizes on the barrel kit).

but i also feel as though with a tight and snug paint to bore match that you'll have a better efficiency with the round being shot, less air to escape from around the sides so therefore it would take less air to shoot at say 300 fps in general (kinda more of a theory though when you get down to it)

i have a stock lightning barrel for my cocker which is a massively huge bore and all i see is paint going in every direction like i had a break in the barrel, i dont really trust the larger bore size theory, sorry guys

[Corrupted355]

Well, here in the Tippmann forum, the efficiency issue is moot. Unless you're regulating velocity via air pressure or an RVA, a Tippmann uses the same amount of air whether it's shooting 230 fps or 350 fps.

[CockerKiller520]

well im not talking about just tippmann there, i mean other markers, whether they be electros (which ive never dealt with really) and cockers...they are more friendly when it comes to lower pressure

[Corrupted355]

You are correct that most markers use varying air volumes and pressures to change velocity, so efficiency would be affected. However, in an effort to keep this alive in the Tippmann forum, efficiency won't be affected by anyone sporting a CVX Tippmann valve (at least not without some modification).

[HaloJDawg]

I'm a fan of the flatline myself, but that might be because that's all i've ever used on the a5

[bvdave]

actually a well bored single barrel will generally beat out a kit, however its only usefull if you use teh same paint all the time. I used to have a empire kit, a redz kit and a j&j kit, i threw them all out for a pps brass, which now sits on my shelf as ive been using my flasc double threaded barrel kit... all in all... i wont be using a kit again any time soon. I saw better accuracy with a slightly overbored (.689) one peice with less hassel and less money.

[Corrupted355]

There's something about the PPS Brass and a Tippmann that's just magical. I tried one on a couple other types of markers, and it didn't seem to have the same flair. Regardless, I still prefer an underbored kit, but I'm starting to notice that this is more of a personal preference than the rule.

[CockerKiller520]

seeing as how we're talking about barrels here...what does everyone think of rifled barrels? i just got an empire twister barrel (for my cocker but i figured a barrel is a barrel is a barrel on whatever marker it sits on) and havent fired it and i doubt i'll see any improvement over anyother barrel, i just got it dirt cheap...but anyone know if the rifling even does anything for the paintball?

[Klim0009]

This is my opinion seeing how a paintball is round not cylinder or what ever shaped a bullet is. No I dont think it will make that big of a difference. Round objects just dont fly straight very well. The best thing for accuarcy is good bore to paint match.

I could be wrong. I just see how adding spin to a round object will make it more accurate.

[Corrupted355]

In my experience, unless there is enough spin to create the Magnus effect (ie: Flatline or Apex), then spinning a paintball doesn't do squat.

[thekilleroo]

personally i love the apex barrel i bought not to long ago i have only broken maybe 3 balls in like 5000 shots and its better then the flatline.

[dunner98]

flatline don't even look at another barrel

[Corrupted355]

flatline don't even look at another barrel
I'm sorry, that's just irresponsible advise. Even if the Flatline were volumes better than every other barrel (which is not even close to thinking about being the truth), it would be a move of ignorance to not even consider the alternative. Truth be told, there are much better barrels out there than the Flatline. The Flatty is only good for a certain style of play in certain settings (usually where you're not actually intending to hit anyone). Outside those settings, it gets outperformed by it's straight, smooth bored counterparts

[Lenny17]

Nice thing about the flatline in the woods is that you don't have to arc your shots as much to get distance. For the number of times I've had a shot blocked by low hanging branches...

But that being said, I stick with J&J kits, going for a tight paint/bore match. From what I understand of the flatline, it's picky on paint, and I'm at the mercy of whatever my field sells. The ability to match lots of paint brands is a must for me.