Open bolt and Closed bolt

[kupokweh]

my friends says that closed bolt are soooo much more accurate than open bolt (we were talking about me getting a pimp kit form evil, which is open bolt.) I said it comes with an evil pipe barel kit, so my accuracy should be fine (everyone is always saying that accuracy is paint to barrel match, right?) Anyway, can anyone shed some light on my situation? How much more innaccurate are open bolt than closed bolt? Will my pimp kit be shooting to the side, or will it be hitting bulls eyes so to speak?
ty

 

[John C]

In terms of accuracy they are completely identical.

 

[kupokweh]

What exactly is the difference then? I heard that open blot are alot quicker, but what advantages do closed bolt have?

 

[H]

Alegedly a closed bolt is a bit more acurate, but i've never been that convinced. The stuff u wanna be concered for acuracy are your paint to barrel fit and the recharge/flow of your regulator. When rapid firing if your reg(s) are not up to the job then you may experience shoot down with your balls dropping *cough* a bit short.

ADITIONAL: Again, in theory open bolts are a bit quicker (less for them to do). But, i've seen cockers cycle at nigh on 50cps and i think that is quick enough for anyone.

 

[John C]

Originally posted by kupokweh
What exactly is the difference then? I heard that open blot are alot quicker, but what advantages do closed bolt have?

The advantage of closed bolt is that the company who makes the gun can say "our gun is closed bolt" in the hope that this increases sales of their guns.

In reality every top end gun is very similar and companies are forever searching for something to set their marker above the rest. (see Seal Forward Technology, low pressure, etc etc)

This type of blatant marketing without any basis in the real world obviously works because they seem to have your friend convinced.
Hes not alone in his ignorance either!!!

 

[QuackingPlums]

The most often quoted reason for closed bolt being more accurate than open bolt is that in a closed bolt design, the bolt and therefore the paintball are in the forward/closed position when the air is released to fire the ball. I'm sure in a one-shot scenario (say, a non-pneumatic pump gun) then this may well be more accurate, ball on ball, for the one reason that it stands more chance of being consistent.

However, in the world of semi-automatic markers that cycle at rates of say, 20cps, the bolt is moving back and forth, jostling the paint from the bottom of the feedneck to the front of the breach at high speed. The fact that your trigger-pull may release the air at the start of the cycle (ie: closed bolt operation) or at the end of the cycle (ie: open bolt operation) doesn't make much difference to the fact that less than 1/20th of a second earlier, it was being pushed forward by the bolt.

As for which is quicker, that has nothing to do with the open/closed operation. They both need to shunt a ball from where it drops down from the feedneck, to the front of the firing chamber, and the speed at which this can happen is determined by the components that do that. All modern electronic markers are capable of cycling much faster than you can move your fingers, so I wouldn't worry about that too much

 

[Steve Hancock]

A closed bolt would be quicker, but only for the first shot as it would not have the time to chamber the ball. After that it is cycling at the rate you are pulling the trigger same as open bolt.

 

[Burb]

Surely on one ball the open bolt would be quicker? As the ball is sat in the breach prior to pulling the trigger.

 

[Steve Hancock]

if it was the first shot of the day then it would dry fire, but if there was already one in there from last time, it would be quicker.

But anyway my point was it doesn't make any real difference apart from for the marketing.

 

[Rabies]

If there is any difference, it's in the kick. A closed-bolt marker doesn't have any significant moving masses inside the marker at the precise moment the ball is chucked out of the barrel; an open-bolt has the bolt, and usually a hammer, flying forward at speed just before the ball is fired, which could pull your aim off.

Mounted in a vice, there will be no difference in accuracy, but not many of us have that steady a grip! At high rates of fire this all becomes irrelevant, obviously, because if the marker has any degree of kick your aim will be pulled off by the previous shot, although you adust for that as you see where the paint is going.