The Progressive barrels are available in lengths (12/14/16/20") and are available for most paintguns. They come in black, blue, red , silver & green.
Product Availability
The Smart Parts Progressive Barrels are newer, so they should be commonly available, both new and used. Check out the Places to Buy links below for places to purchase them new.
tippmann 98 custom, BT-16 adjustable sight rail, Pro team tippmann 96 m4 6-position stock, 98 custom double trigger
Recommended Paintballs:
anything
Strengths:
Consistant Accurate
Weaknesses:
A little loud
VERY hard to clean end proting
Review:
Ok, so me and my brother both have a 98 custom and I have a lapco big shot and he has the progressive. He let me use his barrel and i saw little difference.The lapco was a bit louder but a little more accurate, and that's about it. He bought this barrel for $35 and i got mine for $50.
Conclusion:
This is just as good as the lapco for $15 less, although just could be a little more accurate.
Rating:
8 out of 10
Last edited on Saturday, May 20th, 2006 at 11:11 am PST
A5
Smart Parts Proggressive 16" barrel
PMI coiled remote w/slide check
20 oz CO2
NXE 4+1 harness
Recommended Paintballs:
Xball
Strengths:
Quiet
No barrel breaks
Accurate
Reliable
Cool looking
Weaknesses:
Hard to clean end porting
Review:
When i went to my local shop to pick up a new barrel for my A5, i was hoping to walk out with a JJ ceramic barrel. They said they weren't getting any for a month, and showed me this one. They had it in 16 inches, and it cost about the same, plus i had a game tomorow and didn't want to use the stock barrel so i bought it. I can tell you now im not dissapointed.
First off, i have the old one (2005) and it looks pretty darn cool as far as barrels go. It is also very noticably quiet. Me and my friends had a competition to see whos was the quietest. We all had A5's and 98cs. This came in 2nd to a stiffi on an A5 (its not [i]that[/] quiet), and was quieter than a JJ ceramic on a 98c, which is a quieter gun. As well as being quiet, i have put a whole case of paint through this barrel, and not a single ball has broken. As long as you have a good paint match, this thing will shoot all of the balls in the same direction, and that direction will be right where you are aiming at, not 20 ft to the right like with some crappy barrels.
The one negative is that i have heard that it is hard to clean the portings if you break a ball, but as long as you keep your barrel clean, theres nothing that is going to break it.
Conclusion:
I give this a 10 because it is all pros and no cons as long as you maintain it properly and buy good, quality paint for it. I strongly recomend Xball, it is a great bore match
Tippmann 98 custom with:
Smart Parts Progresive 16"
Tapco T6 butt stock
Cyclone feed system
Low profile Butler Creek cap(realy a scope cap)
Recommended Paintballs:
XBall Bronze
JT woods ball paintballs
Strengths:
It is quiet,cheap,strong,and just nice.
Weaknesses:
Colors it comes in and how hard it is to clean the muzzle break.
Review:
Ok this barrel I have had for a while and here is what the good things are.
1.it is very cheap
2.it is very accurate with the right paint
3.it is very quiet
4.it is very sturdy
Now here are the bad things.
1.The colors it comes in. I went through about 5 pb sites just to find the dust black one.
2.It takes FOREVER to clean the muzzle brake. I stuck the barrel in my bathtub and sprayed it down and after a minute or two the paint finally came off.
Conclusion:
This is a good barrel if you don't have enough money for a more expensive barrel.
This barrel shoots marginally straight, but is too long to play air-ball with. I had to use the stock Tippmann barrel when I played air-ball (my Ion wasn't working at the time since I didn't have Nitro). Overall it's a good barrel that keeps the gun quiet and marginally accurate.
Conclusion:
It was ok in pricing and keeps the gun quiet, but I like stock when it comes to air-ball (unless you have a much better gun.)
Tippmann A-5
Black Six Position Stock
Opsgear M82A1 Shroud
Opsgear M82A1 Mag KIt
20" Smart Parts Progressive Barrel
20oz CO2
Recommended Paintballs:
PMI Big Ball
or
Scorch
Strengths:
Quiet
Accurate
Cheap
Weaknesses:
Doesnt shoot well when cold
Review:
I got this barrel in January and i went to play and it was breaking everyball. So i stopped and played a couple days later and it was about 45 and it was shooting like a Dream. I was shooting at about 140 feet and hitting within a three inch radius every time. Seems like ROF decreases because of length but it doesn't really.
Conclusion:
So over all it is a great barrel that is extremely accurate but doesn't like the cold. It is a great affordable upgrade.
I think that this is a pretty good barrel I just used it for the first time last weekend and it worked perfectly I got 2 people out the first game right away. So if you need a new barrel and need something that is pretty good then I suggest that you get this barrel.
Conclusion:
I think that this is a all together good barrel I think you should go right now and go get it.
stock tippmann barrel, teardrop, j and j ceramic, flatline
Marker Setup:
tippmann custom pro w response trigger
smartparts 14 inch progressive barrel
vl revolution loader with xboard
shocktech superfly bolt
rocket cock 2
Recommended Paintballs:
i use marballizers but pmi superswirls also work great
Strengths:
Acccurate, price, fairly light, rifling, shoots it self clean well
Weaknesses:
Sometimes hard to clean the porting.
Review:
I got this barrel for 35 dollars and didnt really expect much. my first impression was that the barrel was rifled. so i screwed it in and took it out to the field. fires very consistantly. extremely accurate for the price, shots itself clean pretty well, and was quieter than i expected. after playing with it for many games i realized the only problems with it is when a ball breaks some paint gets stuck in the porting, not a big deal or anything but never the less it was kind of hard to get out, and the second problem is the length but that is my fault, i bought a 14 inch and i drag it on the ground all the time.
Conclusion:
Overall an awesome barrel. great for any player who wants cheap performance that is remarkably better then their stcok barrel.
Spyder E99 Avant
Viewloader Revolution X-Board
20 oz. CO2
Recommended Paintballs:
Scorch
Draxxus
Strengths:
-Accuracy
-Looks
-Price
Weaknesses:
-When ball breaks, barrel is insufficient
Review:
I found this barrel for an amazing $30 on ebay. What a steal! This barrel is great for anybody that just wants to upgrade from their usual stock barrel. It is accurate, at least for my gun, up to 200 ft. This gun looks great on any gun and comes in various color. The first day that I played with this gun I was so amazed. I was able to stand back and shoot people down. But if anybody wanted to come close this barrel still did the job. The only downfall to this gun is how it performs after a ball breaks in the barrel. This barrel will not even shoot ball accurate up to 50 ft. That bad. Just make sure you have a squeegie with you at all times and you will be fine.
Conclusion:
My final recommendation on this barrel is if you are looking for something that will perform, looks good, and is cheap, then get this barrel. It is a great step up from your normal stock.
Spyder Victor
VL Maxis E/G
SP progressive '06 (used to be an '05)
Delrin bolts (well maxis one is being done custom)
nothing too fancy just the usual home mods to both
Older 2005
Hard to clear porting
New 2006
Poor quality proting
Flat bore face
Review:
'05 - my first barrel, was a good replacemnet barrel and I had no real complaints about it, it greatly increased my markers accuracy. It didn't cause ball breaks, and was realtively quiet. overall a decent barrel for the money.
Based on this experience I bought -
'06 - this barrel has a nice wasp waisted shape that better matched the overall looks of my marker, so based on my previous barrel I bought the new design online. OOOPS! I noticed I was ahving a lot of problems with barrel breaks ... figured it was just old paint. then i noticed my squeegy was getting chewed up ... tok one really hard look and gave the barreel the third degree - the bore face was a flat entrance which will increase ball breaks, the porting was a mess of burrs, not big nasty ones but more of a knife edge effect.
what I did was chamfer the barrel bore face and snad and polish the bareel proting end ... since these changes the barrels has performed much like my earlier version.
Conclusion:
If you buy this barrel get the earlier version or buy the '06 after visually going over it and check the barrel porting by sticking your finger in and feeling it first ... or be prepared to do a bit of modding to make it useful. I'll give it a 6 because the '05 was good but the new '06 blew (or should I say spewed)
Cheap(I got it new for $8), accurate, helps make the gun more compact
Weaknesses:
Doesn't self clean very well
Review:
I got this barrel after playing one day with the stock barrel and not being able to anything. I found this barrel new on eBay for $8 so I jumped on it. I noticed a huge difference in accuracy after installing this new barrel, now my balls didn't curve tp the left all the time. I used a bucket as a target and was able to get a spread of only a few inches at about 120ft.
Conclusion:
I think this is a great barrel for anybody who wants an accurate marker without spending a lot of money.
