Originally posted by Bad Dave
Fair point about homogenous burst of gas, but what would happen if u shoot small paint through a large bore barrel?
I imagine that this would cause the bottom of the ball to drag more than the top so causing top spin (this could be the flawed bit)
Now in all arguments of range the determinants are extoled as velocity and paint barrel match. So range would be equal with the same paint barrel at the same velocity. what if u take a poor paint barrel match (large bore, small paint) at the same velocity, what happens then? Range is less.
With a good match the paint would touch all parts of the barrel equally giving no side/surface of the ball no more drag than any other part.
Dave,
for the bottom of the ball to 'drag' (and therefore apply top spin) you would need one of two things to happen, first, the ball had some relatively rough area on the bottom or the bottom of the barrel was once again relatively rough (to the top).Thereby in both cases causing a coefficient of friction differential between top and bottom and in so dong impart top spin to the ball.
Now, neither of these two conditions is apparent in any of the paint or barrels I know of, so there is no way apart from a directional gas flow applied to the top of the ball, you can impart consistent top spin to a paintball regardless of any ball size / barrel size disparity.
Things in this world do not happen by themselves, for a ball to have any sort of spin, a force either frictional or kinetic has to be applied, neither of which is apparent in the normal course of events.
I hope this clears up another old wives tale !!!!
As for your point regarding a loosely fitting ball and resultant range reduction, you have forgotten like a lot of people do, that you chrono the gun at say 290 fps and the ball / barrel disparity is academic.
It matters not if you are turning the gun to 290, think about it !!!!!
You can obviously say that for a given amount of gas, a snug fitting ball is going to have a greater range than a loose fitting ball, but come the chrono, you just crank the gun up to the required velocity anyway, and in so doing negate any negative effect of ball size. You can also say that obviously a good fitting paintball is going to be more gas efficient but who the hell cares when you got a tank that can hold enough gas for more than enough balls you are gonna shoot, coz if you ain't just get a bigger one.
I'm tired
Regards
Robbo
