Barrels?

[om3n]

I have always used J&J ceramic barrels on my guns because they come in one size- .688 cal - and they fit the paint I use perfectly, and they are also relatively cheap. However, I want to step out of the relatively cheap range, so I am willing to spend about 70 or so dollars on a barrel. So I would like to know; what barrel manufacturers do you guys like?

I was looking at lapco- I have heard alot of good things about their barrels from other woods ball players, but I want to hear your guys opinions on them too. There is one barrel I was looking at- the stiffi metal free, and I would like to hear your guys opinion on stiffi and their metal free barrel as well. I realize the metal free is like their budget barrel, but I've heard good things about stiffi (and I hope it's not just people justifying their overpriced purchases), so I would like your opinions on them as well. If there is a certain manufacturer I should be looking at please mention them :) Again, the paint I use is about .687 - .688.

thanks guys.


EDIT

lol the last two numbers were changed from .667 - .668 to .687 - .688... I think you guys knew what I meant :rolleyes: :p

[Watcher]

.667 and .668 bore? The only barrel you can possibly get that small is a Palmer's brass barrel :p



OK, well, I use Lapco and J&J barrels and I can tell you that although J&J is the cream of the crop with budget barrels, Lapco makes the best damn 1-piece barrels I've ever used!


Lapco crams their barrels with features you don't get anywhere else, for example the muzzle is crowned so the inner diameter flares out over the last 2 inches or so. This is just in case you turf the barrel and dent the muzzle, it wont interfere with the bore.

The outside is milled and fluted to reduce weight, the porting is all at the end to increase effective barrel length (length the air can push the ball), and the inner finish is perfect!
And get this, each barrel is enscribed with the name of the gun it's threaded for. My Tippmann Bigshot says "Model 98" around the center, my Piranha's says "Spyder", and others say "Cocker", "Impulse", "Phantom", etc.

For $50, you can't beat the price either.


Paint seems to be getting smaller these days so I would suggest against the Bigshot (was .689 but is now .690), but look for an Autospirit. They are .687 bore, a very happy medium.
They sometimes call them Bigshots now as well, but the bore is usually listed so there is no confusion.




Hghly recommended :cheers:
I'll be getting one for my Phantom, my TL RT, my Micromag, and probably a second A/C threaded one for my Autococker.

[om3n]

.667 and .668 bore? The only barrel you can possibly get that small is a Palmer's brass barrel :p



OK, well, I use Lapco and J&J barrels and I can tell you that although J&J is the cream of the crop with budget barrels, Lapco makes the best damn 1-piece barrels I've ever used!


Lapco crams their barrels with features you don't get anywhere else, for example the muzzle is crowned so the inner diameter flares out over the last 2 inches or so. This is just in case you turf the barrel and dent the muzzle, it wont interfere with the bore.

The outside is milled and fluted to reduce weight, the porting is all at the end to increase effective barrel length (length the air can push the ball), and the inner finish is perfect!
And get this, each barrel is enscribed with the name of the gun it's threaded for. My Tippmann Bigshot says "Model 98" around the center, my Piranha's says "Spyder", and others say "Cocker", "Impulse", "Phantom", etc.

For $50, you can't beat the price either.


Paint seems to be getting smaller these days so I would suggest against the Bigshot (was .689 but is now .690), but look for an Autospirit. They are .687 bore, a very happy medium.
They sometimes call them Bigshots now as well, but the bore is usually listed so there is no confusion.




Hghly recommended :cheers:
I'll be getting one for my Phantom, my TL RT, my Micromag, and probably a second A/C threaded one for my Autococker.

lol I changed the numbers of my paint... thanks for pointing that out :p

Also thanks for the excellent reply. I will definitely keep the lapco .687 barrel in mind then- do you or does anyone else have experience with the stiffi?

[warbeak2099]

Yea I've actually been considering getting a Lapco Microshot what with cockerpunk's findings on underboring. .684 is perfect for the trend in smaller paint these days and CP clearly showed that underboring doesn't result in added barrel breaks.

[Watcher]

Actually, I always wondered why they'd bother to call paintballs .68 caliber when they most commonly were closer to .69 than .68.

Seeing that they are smaller makes me glad to see they have tighter standards now, but it also means all the barrels I own are way to big, especially my AGD Crown Points :(


I might have to do some paint testing and see what is better, .687 or .684...

Although, myTrracer barrel is a .687 so I might as well make a trend in all my markers...




I don't have any experience with the Stiffis, but I know a lot of people like them. They seem to have as big a fan base as the Freak barrels.

If you go to PBReview, weed through the reviews people post. If you can get past the idiots and the flamers and find the legit reviews you might be suprized at what is there.

[trevorjk]

there really is no reason to go and spend that money on a new barrel when your JJ's are shooting like a champ.

[om3n]

there really is no reason to go and spend that money on a new barrel when your JJ's are shooting like a champ.


Well here is the thing... my J&J for some reason has a scratch on the inside of it :( I noticed all my rounds are curving slightly to the right, and when I starting inspecting my barrel, I looked down the muzzel there is a slight scratch inside :cry: it's kind of really disappointing :( I have no idea how the scratch got there either... So I plan on picking up a new one.


In fact, when I first got my mag, I was surprised at how consistent it is. I haven't chroned it or played with it at a professional field since I got it, so maybe I have the velocity too high (from testing the heck out of the thing... watcher knows my pain if he remembers helping me when I first got my mag and all the problems I was having with it) and that is what is causing the inaccuracy. I don't have a chronograph at my house, nor do any of my friends, so maybe I just have to turn down the velocity.... crap why haven't I thought of that before :tard:

I'm going to go try that right now... but still because of that scratch I think I'm going to try going with a new barrel anyways. I have always been one to purposely not buy stuff that is mainstream, so maybe I will go with the lapco.

[chafnerjr]

Anything freak! I love my DW fibur but you'll only get them around $70 used. I've pretty much abandoned everything eslse. However, take a look at a Dye UL in the bore you like... Can't remember what they are new, but you can get a real good deal used. All IMO :cheers:

[paintball72]

i've had my eye out for a lapco microshot for a while now but can't find one. So if anyone knows of a stash somewhere let me know.

[dreadpirate]

i've had my eye out for a lapco microshot for a while now but can't find one. So if anyone knows of a stash somewhere let me know.

What threads do you need? I have one stashed away somewhere that I've never gotten to use. I tried to sell it along with a barely used Auto spirit and unused bigshot, but the local store would only offer me $15 for the whole set, saying they had never heard of Lapco. Their loss.

[paintball72]

Ac

[dreadpirate]

Ac

Ok, I'll take a look at it when I get home in the morning. I can't for the life of me remember if it is a cocker thread or A-5/pro-carbine.

[om3n]

Ok, I'll take a look at it when I get home in the morning. I can't for the life of me remember if it is a cocker thread or A-5/pro-carbine.

pm'd ;)

So you guys who have the lapco barrels...

alot of guys who have them say they weigh a TON. Is that true? Does it make a huge difference to you?

[dreadpirate]

pm'd ;)

So you guys who have the lapco barrels...

alot of guys who have them say they weigh a TON. Is that true? Does it make a huge difference to you?


Well, to be honest, I've never used any of the lightweight carbon fiber barrels, so I may not be the best person to answer. I can say they weigh less than the various brass barrels that were phasing out of the mainstream market when I first started playing, and they weigh less than the used 16" Armson Stealth that I bought with my A-5 back in 2004. My 8" seems comparable to my SS Freak barrel, perhaps marginally heavier. I recently purchased a 12" Apex-ready big shot, and with the Apex tip installed it feels comparable to the Armson Stealth it replaced on my A-5.

To be honest, unless you are planning on playing front man on a pro speedball team, the barrels are not going to kill you with their weight. I'm not exactly a weight lifter, and I don't notice this 'ton' of weight most people describe. Then again, I am in the Navy, and just barely meet the minimum physical requirements, maybe I'm in better shape than the average paintball player, but I doubt it.

Another thought: the original big shots (ca. 1994-early 2000s), and the whole series of Lapco's one-piece barrels were made from un-anodized stainless steel, and are probably pretty hefty. Maybe this is why they have a reputation for weighing a ton. The new ones, anodized black, are aluminum.

Personally, I wish I could get hold of a stainless big shot to throw on my old school Spyder Basic. I get a lot of positive comments when I take that old brush-finished aluminum block onto the field with a matching nickel Palmer Stabilizer hanging off the bottom, connected to the ASA using clear macroline. Looks more like a purely functional industrial machine than a paintball marker. A stainless or uncoated brass barrel would look a lot better.

[om3n]

Well... I won't be buying a "new" barrel now guys (unless I buy a "new" used one off a member) because I just bought a chronograph instead :p I have been putting it off waaay too long, and since the games we've been hosting at my house have been growing over the past few years, I figure it's time to buy a chronograph. This year we are expecting like 50 people to come every couple of months when we have our "big games," and around 15 - 20 about every 2 or 3 weeks.

Anyways this is the chrono I've been looking at for a while, and I finally decided to jump on it.

http://www.pyramydair.com/images/zoomed/Chrony_F1_geen_1174_zm-0.jpg

It is the chrony f1- i've heard great things about it and about chrony, so I decided to buy. I got it for about $85 shipped.

EDIT

but still, I think I have learned alot from what you guys have said, and I think the lapco is the right barrel for me. If I can get one from a member here I'm talking to then that would be awesome- if not, then in the future I'm sure that's the barrel I'll pick up.

[Watcher]

I did some scrounging on Lapco's forum and they claim that when Lapco made the switch from .689 to .690 they did away with the "Autospirit" named barrels. The new ones are either Microshots in .681 and .684 or Bigshots in .687 and .690.



Yeah, any scratch inside the barrel can cause wild shots, ball breaks, or in some cases it can just plain tick you off.
I actually had a screw fall off in the Cyclone on my 98, jam the gun, then get shot out with some paint.
I was so scared that it had damaged the barrel, but a quick squeegee and a clean out and it was spotless. I was so relieved :clap:


I was never a big fan of 2 piece barrels... I think they defeat the purpose of having multiple bore barrels as only the back 6 or so inches are bore matched, and after the back ends it is all porting from then on. A 16" 2 piece barrel is like a 6 inch barrel with a 10" muzzle...
If you need a barrel kit and can't afford 6 1piece barrels for the same gun, or want to use the same barrel of different lengths on multiple guns I'd say go for it, but otherwise 1 piece is the way to go.


As far as weight, considering the weight of the tank, gun, paint, hopper, batteries, etc a few grams of a difference in the barrel isn't going to be noticeable. If anything, barrel length will have more of an effect on handling than anything else.



From what I hear, CP makes some great barrels for cheap ($30 for the CP classic) and you can get them in any size bore you want. Apparently they are on par with the J&Js, only differences are the CP has less porting (louder but longer effective length) and doesn't "shoot through" as well.

In my experience, the Lapco can and does shoot through breaks very well, I'd say slightly better than the J&J simply because of the porting being at the end and for the fact that the Lapco barrel is crowned. When you shoot through with the J&J a lot of the paint goes into the porting and falls back into the barrel, in the Lapco it all gets blown out the end and if it gets caught in the porting and seeps back it stays in the recessed muzzle.

I don't think I'll ever buy a barrel that isn't a Lapco after using one...

[dreadpirate]

Yeah, any scratch inside the barrel can cause wild shots, ball breaks, or in some cases it can just plain tick you off.
I actually had a screw fall off in the Cyclone on my 98, jam the gun, then get shot out with some paint.


Heh, yeah, I completely forgot to mention that Lapco uses hard anodizing, which is a lot more durable than the soft, milspec anodizing used on most barrels, and paintgun exteriors. People think that 'milspec' always means quality, but when it comes to paint and anodizing, you have to remember, the military keeps buckets of paint all over the place, they don't need ultra durable finishes.

[om3n]

Well if anyone has a lapco .687 14" barrel they don't want just let me know :p

I am now in the market for one. Thanks again for all the advice guys!