WHICH BARREL SHOULD I GET?

This is one of the most common question's asked by paintballers everywhere. It is also one of the hardest questions to answer. The final choice is dependant on many different factors ... some of which are explained below.

WHICH THREAD DO I NEED?

This really depends on what type of marker you own. We have summarised which thread type to chose below depending on the marker:

READ ON FURTHER ABOUT PORTING

Keeping in mind that you want to stick to a barrel that is 8???-14???, here are some things to consider when choosing a barrel length:

- In warm weather, gas from the tank expands faster, so you can get away with a shorter barrel.
- In cold weather, gas needs more time to expand, so slightly longer barrels are better.
- Low pressure systems accelerate paintballs more a little bit more slowly, so their barrels need to be longer.
- Barrels with porting can be longer, but that just adds to the amount of gas they use up.
- A longer barrel allows you to peak through brush or shoot around bunkers with the least amount of exposure to yourself. On the flipside they can make it hard to hide and manoeuver out on the paintball field when you are tight in against a bunker.
- Longer barrels are quieter than shorter barrels, particularly when they have porting.
- The longer the barrel the gas that is used. (The friction of long barrel slows down a paintball, which means more gas is needed to get the paintball up to a given velocity).
- They do not increase a paintball??™s range. (Two paintballs leaving different size barrels at the same speed will travel the same distance, unless one is a flatline.)

WHAT DOES THE PORTING DO ?

- Barrel ports are basically holes drilled from the inside of the barrel to the outside of a paintball marker barrel.
- Porting comes in many designs (straight down the barrel, in a circle, in spirals, etc) and quantities (from a few holes to over a hundred).
- Portings main role is to reduce overall noise levels by venting excess air pressure behind a paintball before the paintball leaves the barrel.
- To allow a paintball to reach maximum velocity, there should be no porting for the first 8??? (or 6??? at a bare minimum) of the barrel. The more porting, the quieter your paintball gun will be, but also the more of a gas hog.
- Some people also think porting also help decrease the air turbulence behind a paintball, allowing it to have a straighter trajectory. However, this is mostly a myth, particularly if you have a good gun/gas system and use quality paintballs.
- The downside to porting is that by allowing gas to escape early, porting decreases gas efficiency. This means you need to use more gas for a paintball to reach the same velocity with a ported barrel than a nonported barrel.

DOES A 24" BARREL SHOOT FURTHER THAN A 12" ?

Yes, it will shoot exactly 12??? further from the guns chamber. A red paintball leaves a 14??? barrel at 300 fps. A blue paintball leaves a 10??? barrel, at the same trajectory and velocity (feet per second), both of the paintballs will land exactly the same distance away from the barrel. This, of course, bars all oddities like wind and other objects that may be in the way. So, unless you are using a barrel system like the Tippmann Flatline that utilizes backspin to increase range, you can??™t expect a 24??? barrel to shoot any further than a 12??? barrel if both barrels have the same initial muzzle velocity.

DOES PAINT CHOICE AFFECT THE ACCURACY?

Absolutely ! It is a good idea to find a barrel suitable for the paint you commonly shoot.

If you want to get really technical, you can attempt to match the actual bore sizes, but in all honesty, this is not always completely accurate, and what follows should be treated as a guide only !

The tried and tested matching procedure is always the best when it comes right down to it. Paintballs are naturally out-of-round, swell in hot/humid weather, shrink in cold weather, and just plain do what ever they want when they get old. The only sure test for paint/barrel match is to actually test the paint in your barrel:
- Place a paintball in your barrel,
- If it rolls out easily, your paint is too small,
- If it does not roll out, blow in your barrel,
- If you turn blue trying to blow it out, your paint is too big,
- If you can easily or fairly easily blow it out, you have the right size paint.

Steps to find your barrel:

1) Find your favorite paint or the paint you plan to shoot the most,
2) Find its "Bore Discription",
3)Thumb through the barrel listing to find the barrels with the matching "Bore Description",
4) And pick one you like!

If you already have an aftermarket barrel or are playing with your stock barrel, and you desire to find a good paint match, this chart can also help you.

Steps to find a paint match:
1) Find the relevant barrel,
2) Find its barrel "Bore Description",
3) Go to the Paint section and find a matching paint brand.