Back to barrels again, but can you tell me why..

[Dragons' Frontguy]

Originally posted by IanC
Anyone know if there has ever been some decently conducted research to compare smooth bore, straight rifled and twist rifled barrels?

Probably too much to hope for really!!

Yes I read one years ago, but I can't remember where I found it
I can remember though,that the article concluded that some sort of porting or rifling was superior to smooth bore...

 

[manike]

Cat amongst the pigeons...

Accuracy comes from the paintballs and the gun's delivery of gas = consistency.

One of the best barrels I have used was a foot long piece of PVC pipe...

A tube's a tube... until you break paint in it... then there is a difference (because of if you can shoot it clean or not)... but until then 'pah'

Ohh controvertial huh?

Porting works to make the shot quieter, and to let rain into your barrel...

Barrel matching is very important... to stop the balls rolling out the end of your gun on a closed bolt gun, other than that 'pah'

Ever see pics of the All A's? how come they all shoot Diablo but still have large bore inserts in their gun's almost exclusively?

Same for Bob Long's Ironmen.

I used a large bore barrel for 6 years with my RT and shot all paint with it, dead on accurate with small or large paint.

I've always been a fan of the straight rifled J&J barrels, I'm trying to get a cocker one at the moment.

 

[IanC]

Cat amongst the pidgeons

Well Manike, thats more of a bloody tiger than a cat!!!!

I can't agree with the paint matching not being important (at this point I will admit that I own a full freak so perhaps I want to believe this more than others!!!) as when shifting inserts I get about 7 Fps difference shooting blaze through a .687 insert compared to a .689.

I've also noticed that with a good fit I get far better shot to shot consistancy than if I just bung any old insert in and hope.

Laterz

Ian

 

[manike]

I own four barrel kit sets

A freak, a CP set and two J&J sets (for two different gun set ups).

I agree that if you match your paint to your barrel you can get better efficiency.

I agree you can also get better consistency... IF your paint is consistent.

If you paint is not very consistent you get better consistency from a large bore barrel because you don't get one ball that is big and tight and then one that fits, and then one that is lose etc. They are all lose and have the same resistance to motion...

Large bore barrels are also better with brittle paint, because they don't resist it. Smaller bores or those that have been matched can be bad with brittle paint because the occasional large ball is too tight and gets bust.

Oh and one thing for sure... make sure if you are using a small insert/back that when you look down through your gun, the insert doesn't have an edge showing to the breech... they should be tapered to stop this but occassionally you get some that show an edge and that's just asking to catch paint... It doesn't matter with some paint, but with the brittle tourny paint it can.

 

[Matski]

You cant afford to be cleaning your barrel in many of todays games, if your not shooting your losing.

Use .690 upwards.

 

[IanC]

Cleaning Barrels

Ohh I remeber, those werid squeegy thingies and strange fluffy sticks. Ahh, how quaint I remember breaking balls until I saw the light and fitted my level 10 bolt.

Currently 12 cases since my last burst, which was S**T victory paint, nasty, nasty, nasty!

 

[NulodPBall]

Manike: It's nice to hear someone else post my viewpoint on bore size for OPEN bolt guns I still get a funny look from barrel manufacturers when I ask for a 0.694" in 14". That's my standard ID, and when I get really, really bad paint I go to my custom honed/bored 0.700" barrel. There was one time I was using paint so large that it wouldn't even drop down my drop tube The rather large man behind me wasn't pleased as he kept yelling at me to check for a jammed ball (four times actually) as he was laying on the trigger to take up my slack and on the fourth time I stuck my finger down the drop tube to see if it was wet inside (no comments please) and poked the ball... it was black and hard to see. If a pro player tells you the paint is really bad, and it's been sitting around his warehouse all summer I guess I should believe him

Matski's comment is right

As a side note: I didn't realize that the back cap on my 'Timmy's ram was loose just before we started laning drills, so I was chunking paint bigtime, I'm guessing 'cause the loose cap allowed the ram/bolt to sit further back so I was feeding 1 1/4 balls and the bolt would then slice off the offending 1/4. I blamed it on the barrel I was using, but I discovered I shot straighter in that situation if I just didn't squeegee. I kept squeegeeing and seeing my accuracy get worse 'cause I'd just chunk another ball right away. I think once I laid down a coating of slime inside my barrel, the bore was big enough that the paint still fit without being too tight or too much pressure building up because of the tighter fit with the paint coating the inner barrel. Oh well, just an observation. I used plier to tighten my end cap and haven't had a problem since.

Ray
Relic

 

[manike]

Ray, I've found that wrapping some teflon tape around the threads on the ram cap just at the back, stops them backing out in use.

 

[NulodPBall]

Originally posted by manike
Ray, I've found that wrapping some teflon tape around the threads on the ram cap just at the back, stops them backing out in use.

===
Yes, but at the factory they tend to go crazy if they see any teflon tape anywhere, even if there's no chance of getting it into the solenoid. I just thought it funny that I was better off NOT using my stick squeegee, and then that fluffy thing.

Ray