What do you guys think of Hamerhead Rifled Barrels?

[Robg54]

Hey, I was considering down the line getting a barrel kit for my rt. I would someday like a better barrel. I play woodsball and don't have a tendency to prefer accuracy to rate of fire.

Anyway, I saw many people tooting the horn of these hammerhead barrels which are rifled.

There seemed 2 extremes,

Lots of people rated the perfect 10 and sang their praises. Lots of other people gave em ones and 2s. These people called those who posted the 10's employees of the company.

I understand rating, especially on the net, tend to follow this example. There are only two ratings, too low and too high. The first gives it a 10 and the latter a 1.

Even taking this into account, public opinion seemed very polarized.

I was wondering if anyone hear owns some hammerhead barrels or a kit? What do they think? And is rifling the bees knees? I had heard some time back that it didn't help accuracy very much at all and could sometimes hurt in other ways...

[MoeMag]

Welcome to AO


read the link for lots of info about rifled barrels

http://www.automags.org/resource/tech/tomstech/03_spinning.shtml

[warpig13]

well, i dont work for hammerhead, but i own a kit for my ULE mag. it is by far one of the best barrels i have ever used. they are worth the buy.

[OneEyedPimp]

Rifling would only help if the paint ball was conical. Spinning a sphere of any type or perfection will not give you extra accuracy, it will only place a spin on it. Considering the perfection of paintballs, coupled with the fact that they are filled with fluid, any induced spin on a paintball generally leads to it swerving one way or the other.

This is not to say that hammerhead barrels are less accurate, jut that it probably will not give you a noticeable advantage over smooth bore barrels.

Edit: Click link above

[slateman]

Meh, just another pipe.

Save your money and get a Custom Products One Piece

[SpecialBlend2786]

I think they are wonderful barrels. I don't really believe in the rifle effect or anything, but just as a barrel I found the ones I've tried to be pretty damn accurate and good looking to boot.

Of course, there are barrels out there that are just as good and cheaper, but if you can find one used it'd be a good deal

/MacDev Matchstik FTW

[datajack]

I've been playing paintball for 20 years. In that time, I've owned a lot of different markers and a ton of different barrels. As most know, accuracy is affected by the quality of paint and by the matching of paint to the barrel. This is the first step. I've done this with evey barrel I've owned. Some barrels have worked better than others. I bought a Hammerhead kit (5 fins) to use with my Tac-One. I can honestly say that it's the best barrel I've ever used. Like I said, its very important to match the fin to the paint. And even more important to use good paint (look for good round balls. Paintballs full of dimples make for inaccurate shooting). After using a number of difference barrels (Boomstick, Freak kit, etc), I find that the Hammerhead gives me the best consistancy of them all. By consistancy I mean ball spread on the target. The rifling does make a difference. Get your hands on some different barrels and match some good paint to each one and test them out. You'll see that your results will vary. I've done it and all can say is that I find the Hammerhead to be the best barrel I've ever owned.

[SummaryJudgement]

I have alot of Armsons, and they work out pretty well, BUT.................

I have seen paintballs do the WEIRDEST things when they come out of a rifled barrel with ANY broken paint in them. I've seen paintballs make spiraling flight paths or go wizzing off in the most random directions. It's way worse than broken paint in a "normal" barrel.

[Lohman446]

Rifling would only help if the paint ball was conical. Spinning a sphere of any type or perfection will not give you extra accuracy, it will only place a spin on it.

Incorrect. Spinning a three gram, liquid filled, .68 projectile will do nothing for accuracy. Countless muskets using ball ammo have proven that rifling is in fact effective at adding accuracy to the right projectile - just not a paintball.

[maxama10]

Well appologize for hijacking the thread but as seeing this relates closely, how about tippman flatlines with the curved barrels that supposedly but a backspin on the ball to make them more accurate. Do those actually work? Wouldnt that contradict Toms article? I havent searched or anything so I should probably go do that. anyways sorry again and I have no knowledge of hammerheads so goodluck. Id just suggest a boomstick.

[stop whining buy a mag]

Read all of Tom's tech stuff. He gets rid of a lot of barrel myths.

People are going to have their opinions about things like this. I've learned one thing over the past few years and many will agree; any barrel/barrel kit that matches your paint and is made with decent quality will shoot just as good as the next barrel. Paintballs do not have an exact shape so all you can do is match your paint to the bore size.

The Hammer Head kits are very expensive. A waste IMO. Go find a barrel that looks cool and is fairly large bore (.691) so you can shoot all kinds of paint. As long as you are shooting paintballs that haven't been through hell you won't notice anything.

[cowboy_00]

The flatlines work by having a slightly rough texture on the top of the barrel, so when a paintball rubs against it the top has a little more friction than the bottom and the paintball spins backward. This increases range slightly but I have found (personal opinion) that the flatlines Decrease accuracy. again thats just me.

[Lohman446]

Remeber kids, all of Toms findings were axis specific and did not apply to back spin (or front spin for that matter)

[Army]

The flatlines work by having a slightly rough texture on the top of the barrel, so when a paintball rubs against it the top has a little more friction than the bottom and the paintball spins backward. This increases range slightly but I have found (personal opinion) that the flatlines Decrease accuracy. again thats just me.

Flatlines work by bending the barrel which forces the ball to roll along the top of the large bore.

Spinning a paintball axially does nothing for accuracy, neither gaining nor losing. Rifled barrels do nothing axially to a paintball, since the ball will only touch at two places in the bore and cannot fully engage the rifling to impart stabilization forces.

Hammerheads are quality barrels, no argument. They are not, however, any more accurate than any other good quality barrel because of their proprietary rifling. Paint is the deciding factor, always being out-of-round and varying in size from ball to ball, even from the same batch or bag.

For the money spent on a Hammerhead, you can buy a series of cheaper barrels that will better conform to the paint size you may have at any given moment.

I like JJ Ceramics.

[Toll]

Just because I didn't want to make a new thread, has anyone ever had a shaped, conical paintball?

Just wondering as I would like to do some tests (pump cocker converted into lever action) on them. Pity they'd be so expensive if they do infact exist.