Another Which Barrel is Best Thread

[bulzeye]

the most accurate barrel is the one you like the best and have the most confidence in. i've had just as good of accuracy out of my .693 Lucky 15 barrel as I have with my .685 cp 2 piece, shooting the same paint.

i love my lucky 15 barrel

[maniacmechanic]

I would love to see a video of you making a 4" grouping at 100 feet away with a paintball gun.

Man that sounds like a challenge , times 3

[kcombs9]

barrel length does too effect accuracy. how else do you explain a hunting rifle being more accurate than a pistol at distance

I think it was Mike from techPB that said "Every thing you know about real guns, Forget it, it dosnt apply to paint ball" Or something to that effect.

[chafnerjr]

the most accurate barrel is the one you like the best and have the most confidence in. i've had just as good of accuracy out of my .693 Lucky 15 barrel as I have with my .685 cp 2 piece, shooting the same paint.

i love my lucky 15 barrel

I agree... I've never fired anything as accurate as my 14" DW Fibur with freak inserts... but I've heard people say the same about lapco's, dye's, etc...

[jrod]

Excellent discussion guys. Does anyone know what diameter marballizers run these days? I'm thinking a .685 should work best for my needs. Anyone have luck with CP one piece barrels? The price is very attractive.

[SSP-SheiK]

no, that isn't it at all. studies show that length is one of the leading factors to an accurate barrel. the longer the barrel, the closer it is to the target, the less distance the ball has to fly. statistically a 19' barrel will put balls on top of balls at a target 20' away. why wouldn't it work on a smaller scale?

i wonder if it would have enough velocity to even push the ball out of the barrel...

[bulzeye]

Excellent discussion guys. Does anyone know what diameter marballizers run these days? I'm thinking a .685 should work best for my needs. Anyone have luck with CP one piece barrels? The price is very attractive.

.685 should work, cp's are fantastic barrels

[SCpoloRicker]

..

[GoatBoy]

Hanlon's Razor.

[dark blade]

i think i am being summoned to a challenge here... and i will prevail!!!



i will be making the video as soon as i get some paint that isnt 7 months old (and unturned) and a semi decent video camera.

[FiXeL]

Yada yada yada.... Sorry to say this, but we're shooting a viscous material in a gelatin shell. Sure, some barrels perform better than others, and over/underboring also has its effects. But in the end, any good barrel will do. Which barrel is best? I don't know and i dont care. There are certain brands and types of barrels that have good accuracy, so try them and find out. Don't like them? Sell them off and try something else untill you find a barrel that works for you.

Aslong as it shoots accurate enough, im happy with any barrel i screw/insert in my guns. These days i'm not looking at boresize either.. I use barrels within .689 - .691 range and it works great every time. If it works, it works and i dont really want to bother with finding the right bore for the paint i'm shooting.

Currently im using lapco one-piece barrels and i'm very sathisfied with them. For my twistlock mag i have a 16" AA barrel that performs well, and if that fails, dont have many twistlock options, but i do keep a redz pepperstick barrelkit for my cocker threaded guns, but that kit hasnt seen much action this year.

[MANN]

i think i am being summoned to a challenge here... and i will prevail!!!

Out of the hundreds of barrels that I tested I could not find one that gavve a 4" radius at ~80' what was it you used again?

edit: ss freak. Yeah. It is not possible I tried.


Stainless Steel Freak 0.689 RecSport 14"


Stainless Steel Freak 0.687 Xball Gold 14"


Stainless Steel Freak 0.687 Marballizer 14"

These are the shot patterns for the best insert size for the respectable paintball brand/make. none of them were 4"

[SSP-SheiK]

i never actually got to read your findings... what was the best one or ones out of your testing?

[dark blade]

But the difference between your test and my test will be that I hold the barrel steady rather than clamping it... so in truth its not actually 4" grouping but somehow the small movement that my hands cause on the marker ended up perfectly counter acting every slight curve of the ball and gave a great 4" grouping...

Now I wish I had made a video of the test that day

[GoatBoy]

But the difference between your test and my test will be that I hold the barrel steady rather than clamping it... so in truth its not actually 4" grouping but somehow the small movement that my hands cause on the marker ended up perfectly counter acting every slight curve of the ball and gave a great 4" grouping...

Now I wish I had made a video of the test that day

Heh, I didn't mean to pick on you. It just happened that you quantified your statements, and I tend to pay attention to hard stated data, because it should be reproducible.


Now, the rest of you, if you read this entire thread then you'll get bits and pieces of what is the ultimate answer to paintball accuracy in general.

Scientifically, talking strictly about the gun itself, you basically run into a law of diminishing returns, which appears to start around the 10-12 inch mark for paintball barrels and ballistics I believe (I haven't read the studies in a while, but it's probably around there). It's also why most barrel manufacturers will never release barrel accuracy test data.

Outside of that, you have to consider other factors, and in particular, which ones are the dominant factors. Everything will contribute in some part to a paintball marker's accuracy. You have to sort out the nonsense from the relevant. Obviously, if you think your barrel length's contribution to your distance to your target (i.e. a 19' barrel which is 1' away from the target argument) is a relevant, dominant factor on the paintball field, then that's just nonsense. (I believe that is called a "Straw Man" argument, and it's called a logical fallacy for a reason.) Trying to draw a direct relation to firearms is probably another Straw Man fallacy, for many reasons, some of which have already been stated.

Since it's so easy to just get a straight, smooth barrel with reasonably round, well fitting paint, it's fairly easy to get close to the "optimum" accuracy of a paintball gun, which isn't really even that great to begin with due to the inherent nature of the projectiles.

On the other hand, I tend to think of paintball as simply a game of nerves. You have to make the right decisions on the field while under fire, hunched down in some uncomfortable position, wearing some pretty uncomfortable stuff, while probably fighting off fatigue or lactic acid buildup. Is now a good time to post on this guy? When do I pop out of my bunker? Which side do I pop out of? Is this even a good bunker to begin with? Should I move? Should I cover a teammate? Is my opponent going to pop out of his bunker? Which side? Is he right handed or left handed? Do I snap 2 or 3 shots? It's a constant stream of tiny little decisions, and sitting there in the middle of all that while second-guessing your own equipment probably isn't going to help.

So if having confidence in a barrel calms your nerves and helps you make the right decisions -- which ultimately helps you make better choices as to your firing patterns, then I would say that has a significantly greater effect on your perceived accuracy than a measly 1 or 2 inches difference in grouping at 80'. Your gun's accuracy hasn't changed much, but since you're making the right decisions, you're putting yourself in the right places to get the eliminations.

Confidence can of course go too far though (there's that law of diminishing returns again). It starts off with hyperbole, leads to all kinds of silly myths, and finally you wind up with people who just spout nonsense and logical fallacy.