barrel kits

[Looper]

Can anyone speak of these? Titanium Barrel Kit

Is the price directly connected to hype or are they really worth the dollar they are charging?

I've been toying with the idea of selling my SS freak kit and barrels, Evil Pipe kit, 7 piece Powerlyte Scepter Kit and DW Fibur (DW is actually spoken for) to pool some fundage together and buy the Titanium Kit but would like to have somebody vouch for it before I go through all the effort of BST...

Mann... you out there.... would I be disappointed?

Never mind... I have just finished skimming the "Mann Barrel test thread" and it looks like I'll be starting a BST thread soon...

[JaNordy]

I find the best value kit is the Redz Pepperstick, I got it for my angels. Can get a 5 piece set for between 50-80 dollars. 14+16 inch tip, and 3 bore backs. I own just about every barrel, I go with old style Dye/AllAmerican barrels if I can, but when I need to change bores I use my CP barrel kit.

[DJLilJon]

Can anyone speak of these? Titanium Barrel Kit

Is the price directly connected to hype or are they really worth the dollar they are charging?

I've been toying with the idea of selling my SS freak kit and barrels, Evil Pipe kit, 7 piece Powerlyte Scepter Kit and DW Fibur (DW is actually spoken for) to pool some fundage together and buy the Titanium Kit but would like to have somebody vouch for it before I go through all the effort of BST...

Mann... you out there.... would I be disappointed?

Sorry about the late response, I have a Titanium Longbow Kit that I bought from Mann, and it seemed to be the best barrel of all the ones that we tested, but the price is very steep. It does shoot a little better than the freak, which is what I had before the Titanium. Hope that helps.

[Looper]

Sorry about the late response, I have a Titanium Longbow Kit that I bought from Mann, and it seemed to be the best barrel of all the ones that we tested, but the price is very steep. It does shoot a little better than the freak, which is what I had before the Titanium. Hope that helps.

Late response... it looks like this is your first response...

Thanks for chiming in... I did read the PBNation thread that Mann put up and I gathered that the Longbow was a good kit from that. After he tested all of those barrels it is his stated barrel of choice, and any one else that was involved with the project...

I will admit that when I look down the barrel of the Freak and the Scepter insert kits it seams very touchy to get the insert centered perfectly in the barrel. It looks like it is always hugging one side or the other and would thus cause the Apex/flatline effect. I have found that rotating the insert, or carefully screwing the sections together in the case of the scepter, and I can get them fairly lined up but it seems very touchy. And if you use a longer barrel tip you almost certainly asking for trouble, more chance for the ball to bounce in the front section.

The above is only my opinion and my main reason for looking at the non insert two piece barrels and with all the hype in the PB world you can never do too much research.

I have been getting ready for a VMware user group presentation that I am giving in Boston tomorrow but I'm hoping in the next few days to get some pictures of my kits on line in the BST and pool some money for the cost of the TI Longbow.

Thanks for your input.

[SR_matt]

ive shot a decent amount of kits on cockers and mags.

and frankly i cannot really come to a conclusion on weather or not longer backs are better or not, intact i think paint seems to be a bigger issue. when it comes to it consistent paint and a good barrel have given me great results. but for what kit is good (note i have not looked at kits for about 2 years and havent shot a kit for about that long except probably once).

evil pipe kit
-is pretty good
-pretty solid
-decent range of sizes

CCM CF kit
-quiet quiet quiet
-light
-but the backs are shot but for the most part i didnt notice any ill effects from it
-cannot use swabs

kramer kit (wgp)
-didnt use many sizes of it but the ones i did seemed ok
-nothing special

UL (dye)
-hard to find range of sizes
-my preferred barrel just from experience

Dye AL barrel (no longer made, hasnt been made is years)
-hard to find, probably next to if not impossible to find in multiple sizes
-with paint that fits its an awesome barrel


over all if i could get any kit in all sizes i would get gloss UL backs for my UL i have now. but the biggest issue i have is that paint has gotten much smaller since i started playing in 2001. i remember using a 689 or 691 normaly, rarely 693/5 and 686 and rarest of all the smallest size i owned. but in the last 2-3 years i have had to use the smallest size more and more frequently (maybe just the paint i have had access to) but even with small sizes i get roll outs on my close bolt guns.

not sure if this helps you though. to be cheap get what ever the smallest size you can, 686, 689, and then a large bore 693/695. if you want to build up start with a 688/689 and then buy the smaller ones then the large ones.

-matt

~edit~ looper, for that price that barrel better clean it self, self correct the size per ball and automatically drop out the balls that will break before they do. over all in paintball titanium is over kill IMHO

[Looper]

~edit~ looper, for that price that barrel better clean it self, self correct the size per ball and automatically drop out the balls that will break before they do. over all in paintball titanium is over kill IMHO

LOL True... True...

But if I added up all the coin spent on the other kits I have it works out to about the same dollar. According to Mann's test it does do a decent job of self cleaning, not so much based on the TI factor but, from what he believes, how the front/backs are joined. They sell an Aluminum version that is much cheaper and I may go with that. The 2000 Scepter kit also did well on his self cleaning test but they change the design in 2004 and again 2007.

[SR_matt]

ya, i mean ti may be a little better of cleaning because IIRC it smoothes out more than other metals (some times for good some times for bad). for knives its bad because it makes it very hard to sharpen and you have to keep the blade sharpened with a "toothy" edge to basically work like serrations at a microscopic level because making it to a mirror finnish the edge wont stay correctly (i forget all the specific exacts on it and im tired so ya).

but the other issue with it is that you cannot ano it in all the colors you can other metals because you use electricity to produce the color where as AL you use dyes so ya.

ok i need to get sleep im just rambling at this point, curse portfolio week
-matt

[Looper]

Update
Sold all my other barrel kits, ordered the Ti Longbow, showed up last week, got a chance to practice with the my team tonight and all I can say is wow....

shot a case and a half of last seasons paint that was crappy and dimpled; I figured heck this is practice lets get rid of this nasty stuff. I only had two or three barrel breaks and never once pulled out the swab... Within two shots of the break everything was back to normal as if nothing ever happened.

After the practice I tore down the marker and the barrel was as clean as when I put it on, even the front section, not a spec of paint to be found. And for accuracy, the old dimpled paint from last season, it was right on target with no crazy curve balls.

Just for the record a list of kit's I have had...
Stainless Steel Freak
Deadly Winds Fiber
2007 Powerlyte Scepter
Evil Pipe Kit
Custom Products .689 barrel

Nothing I listed above can compare to the performance that I saw tonight. Accuracy may be only as good as the person pulling the trigger but when you do not have to stop and clean a break... that just the icing on the cake.