Well, what can I say. I’ve been around this sport for some time now, worked for several paintball companies, and I own pretty much every barrel on the market. I have 2 Freak Kits, a full set of Ultralites (Yes, that’s $500+ in these barrels alone), Empire, Stiffi,Phat, Hammerhead, Longbow….Pretty much every kind of barrel kit imaginable, ranging from “the best” to…..noticeably crappy. As most tournament\industry players will tell you, most products on the market are just a regurgitated form of someone else’s idea.
Well, times have changed.
Background:
Tyson Evenson, the developer\owner of SLY Equipment, has worked in the industry for quite some time. Some of the players in Southern California, and most industry professionals recognize his name, as he is quite clever in marketing and sales. Recently, Tyson left his previous employer to form his own company; a company the paintball industry will come to know as “SLY Equipment”. The Dual-Carbon Barrel Kit was the first product released by Tyson’s company, and was given to me for review.
Tyson gave me this barrel, with the understanding that I would be completely impartial; if the barrel sucked, it would reflect this in the review. If you want to see how bitter and uncaring I can be, just do a quick search of my posts on the ‘Nation…I really could care less, I’d rather be truthful than “politically correct”. Here it is, the unadulterated truth.
Review Time!
The first thing a customer will notice upon purchasing the barrel is the packaging. There is no other barrel in the market that is packaged this way; rather than a flimsy cardboard box or plastic tube, it comes in a graphic-covered plastic “pillow” pack, which contains the barrel wrap and barrel.
Now, the barrel comes with a pretty stylish looking barrel bag\wrap, which can hold up to 4 barrel tips, and six backs in an elastic sling\holster, and also has a zip-up compartment for whatever you please. It’s pretty nice looking, compared to some of the bulky crap you see paintball companies normally give you to hold your barrels.
The backs are 3 ¼ inch long, and matched with the tip that you’ve chosen; they come in bore sizes .686,.689,.692, and .695. If you’ve ever owned a kit with more sizes that this, you know perfectly well that it’s rare you use anything other than these sizes.
The tip is carbon fiber, apparently made of 12 layers of “unidirectional” graphite. All this means is that it’s really strong and durable, woven graphite (aka carbon) that is wrapped in one direction, so that the ball doesn’t catch drag on messed area of carbon weave and go astray. The “compressed hidden o-ring” is the o-ring between the back and tip, stopping the pieces from vibrating apart, and also from having any way of the air escaping from behind the ball. Essentially, if the back were not sealed, air could escape from behind the ball; and result in you having to turn up your gun to reach the desired velocity. Most of these features are fairly standard in similar products, but here’s the unique part.
SLY Equipment has patented a new technology which is fairly revolutionary. This is most easily explained in pictures.
Most barrels (cheaper ones) are one piece, one bore, like so:
This is a fine design, but if you have an irregular sized ball, or a mismatched bore, you will be stuck shooting through broken paint all day.
Now, if you ever experienced a barrel break, and you’ll notice that it rarely will break a ball in the first 5 inches of your barrel, especially if you have a two piece. Know why?
Some two-piece barrels are not machined as well as others; the tip will actually be a SMALLER bore than your back piece; the picture illustrates (although exaggerated) the choke effect that some barrels put on paint, thus resulting in broken paint.
However, most high quality barrel makers know that this is not the desired effect; they will make the tip a larger bore, and generally thread together. However, this presents a two-fold problem; either the barrel will immediately step TOO large, thus the ball will actually begin to bounce around within the last 5-6 inches of the barrel, and decelerate. Or, in some cheaper thread together barrels, the pitch of the threads will actually create a cockeyed seat between the two, however minute. The bounce\turbulence effect is illustrated below:
Well, the different thing about the SLY is that it’s tapered. So, there are no harsh transitions, there is no choke, or any crooked machining. The ball rides on as much barrel as it needs, because the design allows it to glide along the edges as long as the ball needs.
This allows for imperfections in the ball size as well as shooting through breaks EXTREMELYeasy. I was shooting RIDICULOUSLY brittle paint through this barrel in cold weather, and if I had a barrel break (the paint I was using would break from a 6 inch drop) the barrel would clean itself after about 3 shots.
The barrel is available in 3 different styles, the “Stealth”, “Camo”, and the “Pro”. SLY sent me the Pro and Stealth tips to test; both of which are functionally identical, but stylistically diverse. Essentially, they offer a tip that suits the demands of ALL types of paintball players.
I won’t shoot anything else after using this barrel. Literally. There is no turning back after getting your hands on one of these. I picked up some winter shell paint, and ran over 6000 rounds through the barrel—shot like a champion. This barrel is lighter, more durable, and more attractive than the Stiffi for the same price range. It’s pricing may seem high ($90 tip, $90 for four backs with your thread choice) at $180, but it is in line with the rest of the barrel kit market. If you want the best, this is the ONLY logical choice for the player after the highest performance.
I'll leave it open as long as you all want to discuss it, but it's not going to be left open for publicity.
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