paintball advice barrel bore and lenth

Conroy Bumpas

sorry for bad spelling im dislexic


i have a tippman 98 custom first marker. been playing for along time so desided to save money getting own gear ect.


the first thing i did was get myself an apex barrel

the places i play at are woodsball and only semi auto is allowed. so no point realy upgradeding the trigger or the loader.


so i have stock 8" barrel

and 8" bt apex barrel



now on a few of the game areas we play there is hight towers ect. and some people change to a longer barrel. they say longer is more acurate and they have an elavation advantage.

so i was thinking should i do this too?

i know lapco do a 98 custom 12" barrel and they also do one that can take an apex tip


one thing i have noticed is both my barrels are lableed 0.68 and the lapco barrels are 0.687 and 0.690


can someone explane do i need to buy diffrent painballs or is teh 0.687 one ok?


is there anypoit be getting a 12" and is there any point me getting a 12" with apex when i already have a 8" BT one


thankyou for your advice (any other marker advice about upgade apresated thanks)

Improvolone

From what I remember of playing, 11'' is the optimum length giving the gas enough space to expand. My friend prefers shorter barrels to more quickly move around objects. Anything over 12'' is stupid, except for the flat line which gives the ball a back spin and increases your distance (but you loose a sizeable accuracy). Honestly when you get down to it, the little bit of added distance you might get from a barrel is negligible, you should always be moving in paintball when possible.
You still have a very good reason to upgrade your trigger and hopper. A force feed hopper will prevent chops and a good trigger will allow you to lay down a lot of paint. Semi-auto just means one trigger pull one ball, you can still shoot 14 bps if you're fast enough on the right equipment.

Want more consistent shots? A good regulator and nitrogen tank will do more than a barrel.

Conroy Bumpas

the site i play at is air and its free refills all day ect. so not alot of point changeing to nitrogen.

apex barrels are like flatline except adjustable. so you can mess around with abount of spin and direction.


so what would be the diffrence between a 8" apex and a 12"

Scrublet

A couple thoughts.

1. Putting nitrogen on a model 98 is absolutely retarded. The gun is solid, yes, but not good enough to take advantage of the benefits of nitrogen. Fuck just the conversion alone would probably be close to the cost of the gun (or more) by the time you've got the drop forward, the necessary changes to the gun, and the tank. Nitrogen makes more sense when you start going up to the $500+ base cost of a mag or cocker or something else.

2. The flatline does not "lose accuracy" all the time. When that thing is working properly, it is super accurate. The issue is that IF you chop a ball in that you better have a straight-thru squeegie because until that thing shoots clean there is no way you can predict which way the ball will spin out of the barrel. Also, it is a common misconception that the point of the flatline is to improve distance. That is not really the case. Yes it DOES improve distance, but at those ranges more often than not the paintball is not going to break, which kind of defeats the purpose. What the flatline DOES give you is the ability to shoot completely straight without needing to arc the shot at all. This contributes to the improved accuracy I mentioned earlier.

3. 8" is pretty short man. I think the stock barrel is 7.5", or used to be. The ball is still unstable coming out of a barrel that short. I used a Lapco 12" Autospirit for two years before I had my flatline and it was great.

4. I second Improv's comments about the hopper, trigger, and regulator. Remember...even the Angel and those other guns are "semi-automatic" by the definition of a trigger pull. It just stretches the definition when shivering your finger moves the trigger back and forth.

Conroy Bumpas

i tryed teh flat line and the apex and i prefered the apex.

im quite happy with my rate of fire for the time being. so i may upgrade the hopper and trigger at some point.

so how much diffrence will there be between 8" and 12" is it worth the money?


also with teh lapco i could use it with our without the tip

can you explane to me about the bore?


the lapco barrels are 0.687 and 0.690

and teh two barrels i have are marked up 0.68

McGibs

I have a Tippman X7 that came stock with an 8 inch (or 6 inch... i cant recall) and when I switched to a 12 inch I noticed a definite improvement in accuracy. Partly due to the ball stabilizing, and party due to the fact that I find a longer barrel easier to aim with. I can see the tip of the barrel and draw a line to my target. The shorter barrel is hidden by the gun body, and it's much harder to shoot from the hip.

Honestly, if you're running with a tippman 98, just spend the 50$ and get a non-fancy 12 inch barrel. You don't need any of the snazzy muzzle breaks or bore inserts. It's the way you play that will make the difference.
Tippman guns are like battleaxes, not precision sniper rifles. Pin 'em down, flank in close, and light em up when you hold all the cards.