Paintball

[THE-SHOOTIST]

Originally Posted by ant

Thanks for the info, I've been wondering about that for a while. As to whether porting effects efficiency, there's no argument that excessive porting ( porting that begins before the ball reaches max velocity in the barrel) would effect efficiency, surely on longer barrels a good compromise would be reached between longer, straighter flight; efficiently and sound signature? In the same way that a muzzle brake would be more advantageous in shorter barrels.

That was a question by the way.....:-)

After much study 'back in the day' it was found that the IDEAL barrel length was between 10 and 12 inches. Despite the fact that 14 inches were very popular, and some companies were offering 16 and 18 inch barrels.

I'm sure you could guess that the debate went on and on, but thankfully there was no internet back then, so arguing took place at the speed of government.

Some of the debate went so far as stating that a 14 inch ported barrel was about 8 inches long, with a 6 inch muzzle brake built in.

Truly, it all depends on the individual. Does the 'Micro Phantom' have less range as one with a 14 inch barrel?

Do you lose 4 or 5 shots on a 12 gram because you use a heavily ported barrel from another manufacturer?

Does anyone really care?

If you're really 'into' Stock play, you'll want the maximum number of shots off a 12 gram. You'll tinker and tinker and hope for that magical 60 shots. Maybe you'll get, maybe not.

If you're into 'open-class' auto-triggering pump paintball slinging duels on an airball court, you'll be looking for a 14 inch barrel so you can tuck into that Dorito or Temple a little tighter. You'll be running a 45/45 so shots per fill isn't that important.

It's all about what the individual wants on their gun, and the individual's playing preference.

Personally, I use an 11 inch for just about everything.

[CJOttawa]

This post may self-destruct if I'm asked to take it down.

I emailed Mike Casady at CCI and he confirmed details of Shootist's first reply.

To paraphrase:

The post was very accurate. Additionally, the porting with internal fluting reduces the "pop" sound as the paintball exits the barrel.

It was "Smart Parts," AKA the All Americans, that convinced me (Mike at CCI) to make a removal barrel for their Phantoms. Soon after, they had their own screw in ported barrel version for the Phantom.

[casper]

I totally missed all this I never knew it was stickied I just found it !!!Thanks !!!

[BB Cats]

Originally Posted by resistance16

Wow!! And now I know.....And knowledge is power!!!

Ditto!

[Furion]

Nice Info

[Olsson]

Superb piece of information. This is what I like about these forums. I happily remember using muzzle breaks waaaaay back in the day of playing unported pumps. Thank you for bringing back those memories, and as stated, thanks for that superb piece of info.

[3022]

Generally muzzle brakes, porting, bigger second barrel diametres, linear rifling (paralel grooves inside of barrel) - that all does the same thing only by different way.

The most important effect is that they cut down the "pop" of the presured gas leaving the barrel after ball - you need release the gas after ball, decrease the pressure behind them gradually, before the ball leaves barrel muzzle and releases them instanty with big "pop". That reduces the sound signature of the marker... but it looks so that it even improves the marker performance a little - raising the consistency and accuracy a little... at least in ideal circumstances.

(Originally I was not fan of such like inovations (KISS principle), but after some tests and real experiences I have changed my mind.)

Porting is simple way how you can reduce the pressure difference on muzzle end. Optimal porting looks like "muzzle brake"... but the effect of the "muzzle brake" is often insufficient - best effect you have here with big number of small holes - big holes working similar like barrel end - and the space for them on end of barrel is insufficient. You need spread out the holes on barrel lenght... and you need make a lot of holes.

For example I own both 14" and 16" JJ Ceramic barrels. They are one of the most quitest barrels... porting consist here from 96 holes with 2,0mm / .079" ID. But using the 16" on my Sterling Bronze, I have found that even this number is insufficient. So I have entlarged the number to total 204 holes:



...and it was far better. The marker is now a far more silent (on 80 ft you can commonly not hear the shot) and it looks so that the performance has been not affected (at least not negatively).

Other experience I have with one of my tunned PGPs - I have modded him with "hidden porting" (Hidden porting for classic Sheridan pumps



There are now total 38 holes with 2,0mm / .079" ID. It is old PGP which has short 6" barrel, so the porting reduces the unported part after barrel chamber to ~4". But interesting is that the efficiency of the marker has been not affected - velocity graph of the marker after and before:



- surprisingly it looks even so, that it has raised the consistency and efficiency of the marker a little.

So from my point of view:
- conventional muzzle brake is compromise between unported and ported barrels
- porting is not optimal, but efficient way how reduce the sound signature significantly and raise the performance of the marker a little
- even markers with small barrel lenght can use porting like advantage
- porting is big problem when is raining or when you need clean the paint break in barrel
- perhaps the best will be barrel without porting, but with paralel rifling in the last ~1/3-1/2 of the barrel lenght and bigger second ID in the last 1" of barrel.