Rifled Barrels

[Knight4612]

I apologize if this is the wrong forum, but I am unsure where else to ask.

I’m considering getting a rifled barrel to shoot FSRs and round ball for monthly Magfed Only Events. I will be primarily shooting Valken Graffiti for round ball. So there are Armson, PE Quake Barrel, and Nemesis barrels that I can think of.

I was thinking of getting a Quake barrel and putting the MG100 tip on it.

Does anyone know if it really matters which rifled barrel to use? Any experience shooting Valken Graffiti though rifled barrels? Any recommendations of scope magnification to use?

Thanks in advance!

[Trbo323]

Nobody has done any legitimate testing on rifled barrels and FSR so there really isn't any data on if they actually do anything

The testing that has been done on round ball basically covers down to, it's all marketing. Rifled barrels are no better than any halfway decent aftermarket smoothbore. They do however, tend to hang onto paint when you have a barrel break or chop

Even with fsr I'm still of the opinion that they don't do anything. The FSR provide their own spin anyway but like I said, nobody has done any legitimate 3rd party testing so it's all players saying "IT'S THE BEST THING EVVVAAAARRRRRR"

which is the same thing players said about rifling and round ball before any real testing was done

Sent from my motorola edge 5G UW (2021) using Tapatalk

[Memornix]

Not a definitive discussion, but I asked a similar question about rifling and round ball here:

Round ball and rifled barrels - mcarterbrown.com

[XEMON]

Don't shoot round ball out of a barrel rifled for FSR (I've had very bad results ...)

If you want to shoot both out of the same barrel I would recommend the "lion claw" barrel, I had one on my tipx and it shot great with round and fsr ...

[woouulf]

Nobody has done any legitimate testing on rifled barrels and FSR so there really isn't any data on if they actually do anything

The testing that has been done on round ball basically covers down to, it's all marketing. Rifled barrels are no better than any halfway decent aftermarket smoothbore. They do however, tend to hang onto paint when you have a barrel break or chop

Even with fsr I'm still of the opinion that they don't do anything. The FSR provide their own spin anyway but like I said, nobody has done any legitimate 3rd party testing so it's all players saying "IT'S THE BEST THING EVVVAAAARRRRRR"

which is the same thing players said about rifling and round ball before any real testing was done

Sent from my motorola edge 5G UW (2021) using Tapatalk

The Data is just not made public.
I have shot buckets of FSRs, new mold, old mold, colors for Data on some of the Lapco T15 barrels...
Lapco purchased every FSR barrel on the market for comparisons ...
And yes the Lapco performed better (after many changes to the prototype's)
Lapco did make a compromise FSR /Round ball barrel that actually not to bad, keep in mind it was a dual purpose so...
Bet you never saw a T15 with 3 sets of eyes? .

[Trbo323]

The Data is just not made public.
I have shot buckets of FSRs, new mold, old mold, colors for Data on some of the Lapco T15 barrels...
Lapco purchased every FSR barrel on the market for comparisons ...
And yes the Lapco performed better (after many changes to the prototype's)
Lapco did make a compromise FSR /Round ball barrel that actually not to bad, keep in mind it was a dual purpose so...
Bet you never saw a T15 with 3 sets of eyes? .

If a 3rd party actually did some legit testing, there's no reason for them NOT to release the data.

If a company that makes barrels does the testing, A) there's no reason for them to even tell you the truth, it's called marketing, not truth telling
B) if they are honest and the testing doesn't go well, then they don't need to release it.


Basically the scenario you just presented, is the exact same result as there being no testing done

Players want an advantage, they are bias to believe that this shiny new barrel is better than the other one. ESPECIALLY if they have dropped money to get it. Nobody wants the hard truth that the $70 they spent on this months Uber leet barrel was basically wasted money

For most players "testing" doesn't even involve clamping the marker to a table. If you can't control variables, then it's not testing

Sent from my motorola edge 5G UW (2021) using Tapatalk

[Lt. head-shot]

Semi-Short answer.

Do not shoot roundball out of rifled barrels. If it catches a lip it will spin out of control. Just swap barrels.

Hammerhead, Carmatech and Lapco all make great FSR barrels.

Hammerhead's bore is large, so if your FSR does NOT have a detent, you could have roll outs. (really bad problems with a MCS 468 on this barrel)

Carmatechs are harder to source (sometimes) in the size/thread you need.

Lapco makes good barrels, but if you have a 683 barrel and the new batch of FSR swells/is large, you might have issues. Maybe order the 686 and lose some efficiency?

After testing between all three barrels, personally I like Lapco and Carmatech, and its a toss up depending on what gun its mounted on. (Hammer 7, mg100, ADN, etc). But in reality the best barrel is... the one you have on when it comes time to shoot. No point in second guessing when it comes down to shooting.. Bring what you have and sling paint while you have it.

[Knight4612]

So does a rifled barrel make a big difference for FSRs? Also, and thoughts on scope magnification?

[Trbo323]

So does a rifled barrel make a big difference for FSRs? Also, and thoughts on scope magnification?

Short answer, no

The FSR itself is doing an the heavy lifting. Much like roundball the paint is 90-95% of where the accuracy comes from.

After that like I said, nobody has done any legit testing so people/companies just make claims that theirs is the best with no real proof. So it's kind of a best guess scenario but really you are only getting minimal gains at best so it's not a huge deal to get it wrong.

Scopes, the biggist thing is to make sure it will work with your mask, both the sight picture and height above your marker. If you have a sporting goods store that sells scopes, bring your mask in and see what you can see with it on. Getting a riser is pretty simple if you need it but some scopes are built in such a way that they won't work for paintball because they require your eye to be too close to the lens, doesn't work with the mask on. Don't go crazy on magnification either, remember, you are only shooting around 300-400 feet at most. You'll still be able to see your Target with your naked eye, the scope is just assisting. If you are shooting at a close target, you also don't want the button off their jacket filling up the whole sight picture of the score either. Makes it more difficult to sight in quickly

Sent from my motorola edge 5G UW (2021) using Tapatalk

[JeeperCreeper]

Would the paintball even catch enough spin to make a difference? It works on real steal because the hot bullet gets forced through the rifling at a very high velocity, and the barrel actually cuts into the bullet. FSR rounds have fins to cause this spin already because you can't cut into the casing of a paintball and expect it to leave the barrel in one piece.

My guess is the tech has been out there for this long, if there were an actual clear advantage, it would be known. And if there were such an advantage, you can bet it would be taken away by your local field with specific rules.. As it is my local fields have a minimum distance that anyone with FSR can engage, so basically it's only good for long range engagements, mostly for people that love to defend (but I know that's not everyone and some rare people actually use them for offense)

If you can't hit your target, dont be scared to get closer. This is the way.

[Seajay]

The problem with data is that there are too many variables. Each marker, and each personal marker can and will all perform differently. It's just too much variable for a company to publicly make a blanket statement.

I do find that rifled barrels positively impact FSR shooting beyond 60 yards. Which barrel, bore size, length, and attachment will be different for you as "the best barrel".
If you have a really nice smoothbore that you shoot well with now, and you play within 80 yards, I'd just try that and see what you think. If you find you are having to shoot more FSR than you think you should to get those pin-hole shots, try an equal length rifled barrel.

[the_hyren]

So with FSR they will rotate themselves a certain way due to the fin shape and you need to make sure the barrel rifling matches the the direction of the fins. Otherwise you can cause undue drag during flight and the FSR with do worse in terms of stability and range.

A straight riffled barrel that fits your paintball well is nice. You want the rifling to touch the ball but not the walls of the barrel. The rifling will give you zero net spin on the ball this way. If the barrel is over sized or under sized however the rifling tends to be a problem as it can abuse the shell of a paintball quite a lot and lead to lots of barrel breaks.

Since all of these barrels are very uncommon they tend to not come in a enough of a variety of bore sizes to actually be useful.

As such the ruling on the field is that while science says they could add maybe a single % to the performance of your paint, there are no actual products which provide rifling in the ways required for this performance advantage to take play.

Sent from my LG-H931 using Tapatalk