This is a question asked by a majority of paintball players, as the first item that is usually changed on a paintball gun is the paintball barrel.
With the huge number of selections available in the market, it is no surprise that players have a hard time choosing what paintball barrel to buy.
Nowadays, the internet is used to search for what is hot, what works, what doesn’t work and which paintball barrel the top paintball teams use. Of course when people see their favorite teams playing, they love to check out all the equipment they are using and then proceed to purchase the exact same setup, with the paintball barrel.
Choosing the right paintball barrel is still very much a personal preference. Some believe that a longer barrel will be more accurate and some prefer a shorter barrel because they want to tuck into their bunkers and be more mobile.
Then there are others who purchase paintball products including paintball barrels solely because of a certain brand. They don’t care about anything else.
Paintball barrels are also part of a fashion statement. Some players must have the exact same colour as their original setup and others want a colour that will stand out or just want their favorite colours. There has been cases where players have purchased a certain paintball barrel brand just because the colour matched their gun.
As more players become educated in choosing the correct paintball barrel for their marker and use, they will find that the experienced players always require a selection of different bore sizes so that they can “size” the paintball to have the best paintball to barrel match. Now this depends on what they wish to achieve. Some like to underbore and some like to overbore. What this means is that if the paintball size is a 0.689 then they might use a 0.693 so the fit is not too tight or they might use a 0.689 which would be a perfect fit. Using a 0.693 in this case is overboring and players claim that it gives the paintball a chance to expand during its path down the barrel where a 0.689 might be perfect but if the paintball swells a little due to heat and humidity, it might break on its way out. Underboring here would be using a 0.685 bore size when the paintball is 0.689. Some players claim that due to the tight fit, the paintball will shoot a straighter path and be more accurate.
All this is really personal preference and the best advice to anyone wishing to upgrade their paintball barrel, would be to test different kinds of barrels to see what feels best. A lot about choosing a paintball barrel is psychological.
Be sure to checkout http://www.furiouspaintball.com – they have paintball barrels in all colours, lengths and bore sizes. The brand now acknowledged as a leading paintball barrel manufacturer.
