Creating Backspin

[Dawg047]

Hey guys, I was thinking. A paintball fired out of a marker has a flat flight path and gravity will cause it to arch downward while it is flying through the air. Now the Galatic Z-body was designed to create backspin on a paintball so when it hits the air, it tends to "climb" istead of falling downward. This same principle applies to the Flatline(correct me if I'm wrong guys). But, what if you were to roughen the upper part of your barrel or put a piece of tape in the upper part so when a paintball hits it, the friction on top exceeds the friction around the rest of the ball causing it to spin backwards. I read about this somewhere but is it possible? Or would the velocity of the paintball traveling down the barrel be so great, that it would not make a difference? Any input would be great. Or, is this just a stupid idea? Thanks guys and I'm interested to here what you say.

[JoshK]

or would the velocity be so great the tape would burst the paintball? I wouldnt be surprised.

[wanna-b-ballin']

a while back i put a piece of masking tape on the top of my barrel from my dragun TES on the inside, and i shot, and guess what happened....... the ball broke. and i lost the piece of tape.
this was when i was having velocity issues, bad issues, only 220 fps tops.

i think for this to work, you would need a ginormously large bore size and some kind of tape that is really really sticky.

[noahyay]

its like the hop up in airsoft

its been tried but it will break the paint, and if it was soft enough not to it wouldnt have any affect

[ScatterPlot]

The Hop-up thing works differently. I think the way that works is that there are I think 3 slots along the top of the barrel, so when the air goes by it there is less pressure because of the faster moving air, spinning the ball backwards. But I'm not sure. And I think there was some discussion a while back with this system and paintball. There might be a barrel out right now that uses it, but I really can't remember.

[Dawg047]

Hmm. So, do you guys think that the paintball breaks because the bore diameter is to small with the tape in? I will try this today and report back. Paint is probably going to break though. Thanks guys for all the responses.

[ScatterPlot]

You should probly try a bunch of different kinds of tape and see which works best. Like painters tape, electrical tape, masking tape, scotch tape, ...

[Dawg047]

Well, I tried this little experiment today with some blue painters tape. I tested it on a Spyder Shutter, (I'm awaiting a valve for my Micromag). I took the tape, placed it inside on the top and left some hang out, then I pressed that to the outside of the barrel so it didn't fly out when I shot it. The first shot I took busted a ball. I cleaned the barrel and then shot some more. The tape inside bunched up a little but still stuck. I noticed that some of the balls had that "floating" affect but then the others were going in all directions. This could have been do to a small area of the tape that bunched up. I will continue to try some other methods and see if I can some how improve on distance by backspin. Thanks and keep posting.

[paintballer25]

Isn't that the point of rifled barrels- to put back spin on the ball... I remember reading that somewhere, could be wrong.

[Dawg047]

Yeah but rifling doesn't work on a paintball because the outer shell spins but the gelatin center does not. This probably contradicts my whole thing with backspin but then again, the Galatic Z-body worked.

[JoshK]

Rifled barrels are SUPPOSED to put sideways spin on a ball...not back spin. It makes it spin in circles i guess.

[ScatterPlot]

Rifled barrels dont work because paintballs have crap aerodynamic properties. Check the thread in Deep Blue, it explains all this. But it's not because the insides do or do not spin (which I think they actually do).

[flatline-5-0]

Nice try.

To put this ridiculous idea in perspective, I'll just say that the flatline barrel works because it was engineered by professionals with degrees in physics, infinite resources, and lots of time. You're a kid with a piece of tape.

Just in case there is any confusion on the physics involved, I'll explain for you. The flatline barrel curves downward. The centrifugal force of the ball moving forward exerts pressure on the upper portion of the barrel creating just enough friction to roll the ball backwards. Upon exiting the barrel and contact with the atmosphere, the reverse spinning motion of the ball displays what we in physics refer to as the "Magnus effect". This causes the air coming in contact with the ball to shoot under it creating lower pressure above the ball. Basically, it works on the same principle as an airfoil (an airplane wing). Tape would do nothing but screw up the polish on your barrel. Do not try this, please for your own sake. Tape...

Rifling in paintball is a joke and a gimmick used by paintball manufactures to expand their product's "features list". Correct, paintballs have crappy aerodynamics (ballistics is the term) just like musket balls, but the reason rifling doesn't have any effect on the trajectory of a paintball is because a paintball moves at an average of 290 fps, whereas a bullet moves at an average speed of 1200-2650 fps. Even if there was an effective way to give a paintball "sidespin", it wouldn't make any difference because at the speed the ball moves the difference would be insignificant to say the least. It wouldn't make any difference at all. Not only that but there is a difference between rifling and spiral porting. They are just completely different, and spiral porting has no advantage over straight porting.

Hope that clears things up. Again, please don't f*** up your barrel by jamming tape inside it. Actually, go ahead... I don't care.

[Buff]

well........flatline-5-0....it seems you registered to discourage the idea.......

it can and does work.....but not with tape.
I drilled a hole in the top of one of my old barrels......and stick a rubber detent in it.....
barrel was small bore, broke paint, but the ones that didn't break "flatlined"

[Dawg047]

Hey flatline-5-0, first of all I'm not just a kid with a piece of tape. I have a frickin machine shop and could probably make anything I wanted to if I had the time. As far as Physics, yeah I probably do not know as much as a genius that works for Tippman, but I know alot about Physics being I have taken it. And on top of that, I have taken college level Calculus, 1, 2, and 3 so don't think I don't know numbers. The reason I bring up the tape is because I heard about this idea in APG magazine and that it could possibly work. So don't jump on my case because I post an idea. The reason guys like Tom Kaye, Bud Orr, and Bob Long got to where they are is because they started out with an idea. Oh, yeah, and screwing up the polish on my barrel? I used blue painters tape dude, it hardly sticks plus the polish on a barrel is pretty strong anyways. Further note, so Buff, your rubber detent did produce backspin on some balls but broke some too. Interesting. Thanks for the responses.