front or back?

[joe bob]

I am confused (dont want to hear it, it happens a lot) in a freak or similar product what is the part of the barrel with the changable bore sizes the front or back, i think i have heard both

 

[elrikos]

the freak back section has interchangeable sleeves with different bores. the front section is a standard bore, you can buy different length front sections tho. maybe that was what was confusing you?
rich

 

[TheRo0sTer]

That should just about answer your question. It's the same with JT's set-up as well.

 

[joe bob]

are al the changing barrels like that, I think it mite work better if the front was of a diff size

 

[elrikos]

no dude it wouldn't. modern barrels are designed so that the back section (the bit that screws into your marker) has a bore that will closely fit the ball being fired, this stops gas escaping around the ball, decreasing efficiency. the front section (the bit further away from your marker with the little holes in) is there to guide the paintball so that it flies straighter. by the time the ball hits the front section it is at 300fps so the little holes allow the gas behind it to escape. so the front can be slightly larger since a perfect fit is no longer required.
basically
back section accelerates the ball to 300fps
front section guides the ball to make sure it goes straight.
hope that helps out
rich

 

[cowface]

Originally posted by elrikos

back section accelerates the ball to 300fps


rich

so does the front, If u put tape round the end of ur barrel or covering all the wholes up. your FPS will shoot up like theres no tomorow

 

[QuackingPlums]

I notice on the Freak fronts that the porting goes pretty much all the way back to the join between the font and back sections, whereas the 12" stock barrel on my Spyder Xtra only goes back about 3" or so - does this mean that I'd getter higher FPS from my stock barrel than a 12" Freak?
If I upgraded to a freak 12" system would my fps would go down, or does the snug fit of the back section compensate for the additional porting?

 

[elrikos]

wow, opened up a whole can o worms with the porting comment huh??
basically as far as i know (and i really don't claim to be an expert here, for that try rooster or someone!) the porting allows the gas behind the ball to escape so when it comes out of the end, the air is less turbulent, so it goes striaghter. barrels didn't used to have porting (thank smart parts for that one i think). they were just a 1 piece tube.
i've honestly never thought that efficiency may drop with porting, i guess it probably would but i'll wait for an expert to jump in and tell us. i'd assume that the fact that the first part of the bore is such an accurate fit would more than compensate for the loss of gas throught the orting at the end but that's just speculating.
hope that helps
rich

 

[JustDoneRunThrough]

Well, I'm far from an expert, but I'm pretty sure that having less porting increases efficiency, since there's nowhere for the air to escape from until the very end of the barrel. However, this also leads to a louder barrel. I'm not sure why this is, I just know that it is.

Less porting = more efficiency + louder sound
More porting = less efficiency + quieter sound

As far as accuracy, I'd guess that more porting would probably increase it, but as far as that goes, I can't say either way because there are so many other factors affecting it such as good or bad paint, having a stable shooting platform, or actually being able to shoot straight (which I can't always do ).