tipman question

[eaglelox]

hi everyone, more Q+A. i was wondering how well this flatline barrle works. does it realy shoot farther, 100+ feet. and what is the large barrle looking thingy in pic. thanks

[BobTheCow]

Alrighty, here's basically how the flatline barrel works. It curves upward, giving the ball some backspin, theoretically giving it some extra distance. The reason it looks so gigantic in that A-5 pic is because it's got a sheath around it (an uncovered flatline is butt-ugly). Now, there's a slight problem with the flatline's idea. The paintball *may* fly significantly further, but it will take on a weird and unpredictable trajectory at some point. Additionally, and more imoprtantly, since the velocity of the paintball is (relatively) constant each time it leaves the barrel, for any barrel you use, it continues to slow down as it moves farther. Once it reaches the point where the flatline has made it go farther than any other normal barrel, it's probably moving too slowly to break on impact.

Sooo... you can shoot farther, sure. But you most likely won't be able to get the ball to go where you want it to go exactly (remember, we're still dealing with fairly large gelatin spheres filled with liquid) or even have it break if you do miraculously hit what you were aiming for.

Long rant short, go with a cheaper, more standard-type barrel. It'll end up serving you better, plus you can switch between barrels easily and don't have to worry about any complicated installation (both issues with the flatline).

:)

/my helpful post of the week

[master_alexander]

when i had an a5 i borrowed my friends flatline, i hated it it curved, everywhere, it was big (looked cool though) expensive but it shot further and i got comments on it. it is realy what you want in a gun. go to pbreview.com and type in a-5 flatline, that is searching. you will then find the link called flatline and click on it. you can then get a rating for the peeps frpm the peeps by the peeps, have fun.


the method i described up there was called searching, not to be mean but to it. i have learned after getting "yelled at" by a couple of people from having too many threads.

~alex

[eaglelox]

thanks bobcow and alexander.

i have searched, i know how it works, i have read reviews at pbreview, and numerous other places. what i wanted was the opinion of mag shooters that have no reason to lie or exagerate. please in the future dont be so quick to scorn.

[skife]

the advantage of it is the "flat" trajectroy but its just easier to market a greater distance.
the flat trajectory is awsome, its weird to get used to at first though, flat lines also work good for shooting around corners, i was playing some rec ball in this village one time and this kid kept poking out thinking he was smart and stuff, i just turned the gun sideways and shot a few balls around the corner.

[Mosfet]

It has its pros and cons
It does give you greater distance, but it may not break at the further distance.
The flatter trajectory can make for some easier shots in the woods where overhead branches may be low.
You can sometimes get it to curve under low openings. :P
The trajectory is rather odd. Mine always dropped a little then came back up for a while, then back down. but it was rather flat.

The greater distance is caused by backspin.
This backspin seems to affect accuracy, since it seems to be more affected by wind or something.
Its like a trade off on distance and accuracy.

Anohter con is that it can be picky on paint, especially with cooler weather.
on warm days I never had a problem, but once it got lower than 80... barrel break city.

Heres a little expansion on BobTheCow's explanation.
It doesn't actually curve upwards. The curve is actually downwards from an already upwards trajectory.
When the ball enters the barrel it immediately hits an upward slope on the bottom side of the barrel.
This pops it up, and makes the ball roll on the top side of the barrel.
since it it only touching the top side of the barrel, it makes the ball roll along the top, giving it its backspin.

if I had the time I'd make a little diagram :P

The breaks I've had didn't really occur from hitting the initial up slope, but from rolling along the top. Or maybe the initial hit cracked the shells, but the rolling ripped the paint apart.

In the end I went for a J&J Ceramic barrel.

[Automaggot68]

when i had an a5 i borrowed my friends flatline, i hated it it curved, everywhere, it was big (looked cool though) expensive but it shot further and i got comments on it. it is realy what you want in a gun. go to pbreview.com and type in a-5 flatline, that is searching. you will then find the link called flatline and click on it. you can then get a rating for the peeps frpm the peeps by the peeps, have fun.


the method i described up there was called searching, not to be mean but to it. i have learned after getting "yelled at" by a couple of people from having too many threads.

~alex

Yeah? Lemme tell you, you aren't making any freind by being a smart #$% either.

[BobTheCow]

Heres a little expansion on BobTheCow's explanation.
It doesn't actually curve upwards. The curve is actually downwards from an already upwards trajectory.
When the ball enters the barrel it immediately hits an upward slope on the bottom side of the barrel.
This pops it up, and makes the ball roll on the top side of the barrel.
since it it only touching the top side of the barrel, it makes the ball roll along the top, giving it its backspin.

if I had the time I'd make a little diagram :P

Good point. I don't think I'd ever really thought of it that way, but you're right.

Also, to piggyback on the picky-paint possibilitity (suck on THAT, alliteration!!), cleaning breaks from inside the flatline is a gigantic biotch. Normal squeegie-ing doesn't work well, and so you need to take it off to clean it. Which then presents the assembly complication again, and the whole thing just ends up being a mess.

If you haven't already been able to tell, I really wouldn't suggest the flatline.

[Mosfet]

hahaha! That broght back good memories of using the Tippy 98 quick release feed neck to remove the hopper... uncoiling the flatline cable squeegie... feeding it tail and first through the breech... and pulling it out from the barrel end!

And then having to repeat! HAHA!
and that barrel squeegie never worked well. :P

[eaglelox]

hey thanks all. friend wanted to get the A5 with flat line. i told him that i didnt think the flat line went over well but i would check with the crew at AMO.

[VFX_Fenix]

The Flatline has a steep learning curve, though when propperly adjusted it will have fair consistancy at it's maximum range under windless conditions. The Flatline is picky when it comes to paint and the velocity that the gun is shooting at. Paint needs to be high quality, small bore and very round with muzzle velocity around 260-270fps for best results.

The "huge barrel thingy" is the Flatline shroud, and it's been mentioned here but I'll repeat it that the barrel itself is more bannana shaped than anything else. Generally speaking its a good barrel that'll definately give you an edge on range.

[evo.end3R]

like the others said, you get distance but it goes so slow it doesnt break. one game on speedball i got hit and as i was walking off the field this kid poped out and shot 1 ball from about 35ish yards away and i saw it comin, red ball started at the ground and curved up, up up, ding right in the nuts. luckily for me it was going so slow i didnt feel it plus my pants are bouncy anyway. i would not get one. sure they go far, but innaccurate and doesnt break at far distances.

[peewee]

Flat lines are interesting but cost alot if he's looking for decent accuracy for an aftermarket barrel on the A5 the J&J ceramic & lapco barrels really seems to have a following with Tippmann owners ( we have two in my house). The J&J is the cheapest at abour $32. The only experience I have with a flatline was on a 98C & it worked good but I did notice a few more bounces at long range. I'd tell him to wait till he has enough mad money around & then pick one up for snits & giggles. I spoke with a local shop owner that moves a boat load of tippmann stuff a month about the A5 flat line. He put it this way, out of over 100 barrels sold he has had two come back used for resale & they never came back after being sold the second time. I just got an A5 last week & I want to try one out ( got way to many guns better start selling some off before the wife catches on).

[stealth assassin]

A-5

One comment on the A-5. I sold mine because of shoot down. It can't keep up when rapid firing. Its an okay marker for the price, but when you consider what you can get a used e-mag for on e-bay and the difference in Quality there is no comparison.

[VFX_Fenix]

One comment on the A-5. I sold mine because of shoot down. It can't keep up when rapid firing. Its an okay marker for the price, but when you consider what you can get a used e-mag for on e-bay and the difference in Quality there is no comparison.

Shoot-down? What were you doing to that poor thing to get it to have shoot-down? The only A-5's I've ever seen that suffered from shoot-down were running an LPK or some other regulated system where they had the reg turned down too much. Running an RT with CO2 in run-away mode I've seen an A-5 ice itself, but never shoot-down. So in my experience the only issues seen with shoot-down have been user error.

Long Range bounces, a sad but true fact of life but our projectiles do bleed energy off quickly because of their high surface area to mass ratio. Most of us will get bounces at long range even with a standard barrel, the trick is hitting a solid spot, goggle lense, hopper, pod, etc. But isn't it nice to have the possibility of a break at long range than not being able to get paint there in the first place? That's the Flatline's mentality, and as for people saying that a flatline shoots balls so much slower than a normal barrel, that has a lot to do with the trajectory of the ball. Because the ball travels in a relatively flat manner its easier for people to see the ball coming (and for your brain to extrapolate a flight path), that doesn't change the fact that its still coming at 270fps.

Anyway, I will be the first to say that the Flatline is not the ultimate barrel. Its a picky barrel that won't work 100% of the time, most A-5 and M98C owners will attest to this and is the reason for them having at least one standard upgrade barrel in addition to a Flatline. Personally I don't like flatlines, but I do know that they're good barrels and function well when they've been set-up propperly.