Originally posted by AGD
Glenn,

If a barrel did it's job perfectly every time and 100% of the spread was due to external forces then it would be a waste of time to try and improve it.
Tom, I have to agree with that statement but it is based on some pretty large and asumtive "IFs". It seems to assume that the barrel is the only factor besides external forces that can have an effect on the placement of the ball. One could also state that if changing only the barrel on a particular piece, produced a measurably improved shot pattern, it was not a waste of time to try to improve on it. It would also be a safe assumption that the way the ball was presented to the external forces, had a significant influence on the effects of those same external forces. Maybe such a barrel was just better suited to the forces behind the ball or maybe just better suited to the balls themselves. In either case, the result was to present the ball to the external forces in such a manner as to allow better consistency of placement of an inconsistent projectile.

[i]
The problem, as I see it, is that people spend 300 dollars for a barrel not knowing if it will make a 1% or 50% difference. [/B]
I know exactly where you are coming from and I whole heartedly agree. New and/or different is not always better.
Even more of a problem is that those same people will often find a way to justify the expence whether it provided an improvement or not. Style points have become far to important to some. [/B][/QUOTE]

[i]
In general I have to ask you, how much of an increase in accuracy have we really seen in 15 years? Given the fact the barrel prices have increased by 10x and are now honed and sized to perfection, what are we getting for the money? [/B]
That is a tough question to answer with any sort of brevity. In the context of this thread, there has been very little improvment in the overall accuracy potential of a paintgun in relation to barrels. Although, I believe that the typical paintgun of today will show measurably better results than the typical 'gun of times long past. It is much harder these days to produce significant improvments to shot groups by changing the barrel because of the general improvements to barrel production as well as the evolution of valving. Essentially, the guns that I built 15 years ago are every bit as accurate (for any one shot) as what we are producing today but I get better shot groups these days due to the better consistency of the air supply being used.

[i]
While you may be willing to spend big dollars on a 1% improvement most will not or at least would like to know what they are getting.

AGD [/B]
To the contrary; I am neither willing to spend my money in that regard, nor am I willing to take my customers' dollars for something that may not be of any real benefit. I've never been a proponent of having a bag full of barrels for your paintgun. Especially since most of my equipment is produced with non-changable barrels. However, we do offer services to ensure that a 'gun and its barrel are tuned to compliment each other and provide the opportunity to put the ball where you need it. I still believe that the valving of the 'gun is at least equally important as the barrel when in the pursuit of optimum performance.