About Paintball Barrels

In buying a paintball gun, one must always consider the various parts. This is the reason why it is so important to know more about paintball barrels. Choosing a gun with the right paintball barrel will allow a person to make sure that the gun will perform according to, or even better than expectations. Here are some things you should know about paintball barrels:

1) Does length matter? – There are a lot of myths concerning the effects of barrels size on your paintball game. There are sellers of paintball guns which make the paintball barrels longer in order to attract customers believing in these myths. Although the paintball barrel does affect many things about the paintball, it is only the first 8-10 inches that does so.

The first 8-10 inches of the paintball barrel decides just how fast the paintball would go. This is because gas expanding inside the paintball barrel would determine the power of the paintball when it leaves the gun. Because of this, the first 8-10 inches of a paintball barrel determines the range of the gun.

There are people who would suggest that a longer barrel equals farther range. This is not true, at least not after 10 inches. After ten inches, you have about another 4 which helps in determining the accuracy of the paintball gun. Beyond that, any additional inches of barrel size will just create friction and thus, reduce range.

2) Porting – porting is the procedure of boring small holes in a paintball barrel. Porting is often done to reduce the amount of noise that a paintball barrel makes. This means that porting is most often done by snipers who do not want to give away their position by the sounds their rifles make. This is especially effective in a "woods" type of paintball field.

There is, however, one disadvantage to porting and that is the fact that porting makes the paintball gun use up more gas. A ported barrel lets gas escape. This means more gas is needed for the paintball pellet to gather the maximum power for release. Since a person can only carry a limited amount of gas in a paintball game, it can be concluded that he or she should take care with every shot that he or she takes. This is not a problem in a sniping situation when a person can take all the time to aim, but once the sniper is discovered he or she has to resort to using a sidearm.

3) Material – the material that the paintball barrel is made of needs to be considered in the selection of a weapon. This is because the paintball barrel's material determines the amount of friction that the paintball goes through before being released. This means the paintball barrel material actually helps determine the speed of the paintball and thus, the range.

The paintball barrel material also determines the weight of the gun. This is very important since you will need every ounce of stamina you have to play the game. This means anything heavy will make you consume energy faster and thus, get tired more easily. By getting a lightweight gun barrel, you should be able to conserve your energy.

An important thing to remember about choosing gun barrel material is not to choose anything shiny. Sure, it may look cool in the display case, but in the field it would reveal your position quickly and cause your defeat.