Paintball

[hank_k]

I've got a project I'm working on, and I'm thinking of porting a barrel for about 60 - 75% of its length.

My worry is that this will have ill effect on the accuracy of the barrel.

Is there any conclusive evidence that this will happen I should be aware of before I commit a barrel to the drillpress ?

[Deus Machina]

Porting itself has absolutely no bearing on accuracy, only a good (in some's opinion) effect on the noise level, and a bad effect on efficiency. Especially for that much of it's length.

If you screw up the porting and leave flash on the inside of the barrel, kiss your accuracy goodbye.

[hank_k]

Hmm, sounds to be less worthwhile than I was originally thinking.

Plan was to attempt and create an integral suppression system that would use the barrel as a part of it, however, I'm not sure I trust my abilities enough to put a barrel under a drill bit. Not at this stage anyway ..

The efficiency is one side I hadn't really thought too much about, at least not in terms of there being too much of an effect, but with that much being ported, I can see it becoming a concern.

[TrracerAce]

Originally Posted by Deus Machina

Porting itself has absolutely no bearing on accuracy, only a good (in some's opinion) effect on the noise level, and a bad effect on efficiency. Especially for that much of it's length.

If you screw up the porting and leave flash on the inside of the barrel, kiss your accuracy goodbye.

If you mean the jury's out on porting reducing noise level, compare a Trracer with the stock barrel to one with the 14" J&J Ceramic. It goes from "BLAMMO!" to "poof".

Or if you mean that some would just rather go unported and stick AA Intimidators on to scare the birds in the next county, then I gotcha.

[Deus Machina]

With a good hand and the right tools, porting can turn out well. Test it on a stock Spyder barrel or something first. Even just some tubing.

And I've seen a couple 'rain covers' that quiet a barrel down well. I'd like to see one integrated.

[Mr. Furious]

Just make sure you keep a minimum non-ported length of around 4"(but I'd recommend 6") to keep you from dealing with efficiency/consistency issues. Porting does a lot to quiet the shot but does absolutely nothing for accuracy despite what the Smart Parts brothers were spreading around when they started selling their patented spiral ported barrels.

[A.C. Basbas]

Originally Posted by Mr. Furious

Porting does a lot to quiet the shot but does absolutely nothing for accuracy

6+ inches of porting can act like a muzzlebreak on a rifle, except in this case it prevents escaping gasses from throwing a paintball off-trajectory... There is a reason that Palmers doesn't like selling unported barrels, you know

In theory there is a barrel length on blowbacks (between 8" and 10") that would allow enough pressure to propel a paintball and not throw it off course that would not be effected by porting other than the volume of the report... There's a large thread on PbN about it, and I contributed some info, but it was all done with 98cs so it doesn't have much bearing on high-end markers that have for the most part left the 98c desingn in the dust.

[hank_k]

Originally Posted by Deus Machina

And I've seen a couple 'rain covers' that quiet a barrel down well. I'd like to see one integrated.

I may or may not have made a few precipitation protection devices that have hushed an ACI maverick substantially. I also may or may not have strung three of them together to make it silent (though, probably at the expense of all but 4 or 5 fps).

The idea is to take a maverick, and make a rain cover pump handle that would sit on about 60 - 75% of the barrel.