2 piece barrel kits--all but useless for open bolt guns?

[lather]

While sizing my paint last week before a game I got to thinking, is there any advantage of matching paint besides efficiency? I understand the advantages of using paint sizing to barrel for closed bolt guns, but what about an open bolt?

Lots of people claim accuracy gains with matching their paint, but how is this possible when the front part of the barrel is most often a much larger bore than the back/insert size?

[Outbreak]

I've used nothing but .692 and larger on my A4 Fly, DM4 and timmy and I haven't had a single barrel break with any of them in months. You may lose a bit of air efficiency but the advantages of never having to squeegee your barrel on the field far outweighs the lesser shots per tank.

Accuracy is consistency and my DM4 still gets +-3 at the chrono with a .693 insert in my freak all day long. Sell all your old aluminum tubes and buy a single .690+ ultralight or similar barrel.... its all you'll ever need (unless you have a cocker/excaliber ).

[automikey]

I think the first 5-6 inches is where the ball gets most of its acceleration, so that is most important. Most barrels in this category get larger after that. If the paintball fits well there, it will continue straight out the barrel. If the first 5 inches is too large for the ball, it will start bouncing off the sides of the barrel and continue all the way down and out. So it should help with accuracy (accuracy=consistency, but this is probably on of the few times that consistency won't help you.)

[Counterfeit_Syn5304]

Ive been told by many people that you need at least 8" of control bore for the barrel...after that you dont need anthing, The fact that the tip of a two piece barrel is large is because it needs to comply with all the different back id's that it can use. There's not sense in using a 685. id and have a 685. id back and then put a 693 id. back on and be choping like crazy if the paint is tight in the 693. Sorry if I'm not making sense but I've already had 2 fire alarms and got about 20 mins of sleep.

[VFX_Fenix]

TK has a piece on barrels and efficiency, as I recall the general point of his findings were barrels of 10" or so of unported barrel length are ideal (for the Automag anyway) with the unported section being longer or shorter based on the operating pressure of the gun. Stepped bore barrels fall somewhat outside of this because the control bores are rarely more than 6" long, generally shorter. The advantage to the Stepped Bore (Boomstick and it's lineage, JACKO Infinity, LAPCO Snapshot, All American/Freak, CP Pro, etc.) is they achieve consistent velocity by having very short acceleration zones which doesn't allow the influence of variance in the air flow through the bolt to have as great an effect on ball velocity.

Barrels of 8" Length - Consistancy
Unported tube < Muzzle Break < Stepped Bore

Barrels of 8" Length - Efficiency <- It should be noted that I believe this is a marginal gain
Unported Tube > Muzzle Break > Stepped Bore

Barrels of 8" Length - "Loudness"
Unported Tube > Muzzle Break > Stepped Bore

Above is a general rule of thumb, at least in my head, and it seems to hold relatively true. Consistancy can be reached with any barrel by shooting good paint and having a good paint/barrel match (or having a consistant overbore or underbore). Assumptions are that Stepped bore barrels are going to have lots of porting in the tip section (after the overbore step) and that barrels with a muzzle break have only that, such as the AGD Crown Tip/LAPCO Bigshot/TASO Proseries Stainless Steel. Barrels that aren't stepped and ported have been ommited because how their porting is arranged will have an effect on their efficiency/consistancy/loudness.

[White_Noise]

for most purposes, i use a .693 bored j&j edge for my sfl. i should be picking up a proto trix soon, and im only planning on buying a .693 bore CP barrel. only reason im getting a 2 piece for my proto is so i can have 2 differenty colors.

i dont see much need for bore sizing, id rather have less breaks, and bit of inconsistancy than a greater chance of breaks.

[Creative Mayhem]

I got myself and Edge kit for my xmag, and I think I have actually sized paint 4 times... every other time I just used the .693 back. Sure, I may not have the best paint to barrel match at the time, but during the day, the paint will swell some so I am lazy and will just use a larger bore to start with so i dont have breaking problems and then have to change backs.

[punkncat]

I am in agreement with and have been saying for a long time that a big bore is the way to go. A barrel break will affect your accuracy much more than a "matched" bore to a bag of inconsistantly shaped spheres.

The ONLY marker I recommend matching bores for is an autococker. The only reason is to keep the paint from rolling out the end of the barrel.

[kevdupuis]

I originally picked up the edge kit for my cocker but usually just use the .691 back on my mag.

[nt2004]

I used to match my bore, and I used to break alot of paint. Now I just use a .693 all the time and I rarely break paint, plus I havnt noticed any difference in accuracy from when I matched the bores

[Automaggot68]

The only reason why I use a kit it to change the length of my barrel.

[GT]

out of all the barrel kits I have owned I cant tell a difference, eff or accuracy, bewteen a good or poor paint to barrel match. The most consistant, i.e. accurate, gun I have ever owned was an eclipse shocker. If it wasnt shooting quads, 279, 279, 279, 279, it would run +/- 1, all on CO2, incredible gun.