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• If your barrel is too small for the paintballs you’re shooting, the shell can rub against the barrel on the way through, inducing a spin, and you’re suddenly shooting accidental “curve-balls”, since a spinning sphere creates “lift”, pulling the ball in various directions. Simple physics.
• If your barrel is WAY too small…GAK! The ball will be squeezed and may break in the barrel leaving a mess that must be squeegied out and swabbed dry before any reasonable accuracy can be restored. Not a good position to be in when you’re about to get bunkered!
• If your barrel is way too big, it can be a problem, primarily on closed-bolt AutoCockers and `Cocker-clones. With a barrel that’s much too big, each ball can roll forward a few inches or more before firing, reducing velocity - or it may even roll all the way through! On Cockers and Cocker-copies, the correct barrel fit is absolutely critical to holding the ball in the right position for firing consistently, from the same position in the breach, shot after shot.

By understanding the “why” behind this simple science, you can make great gains in your accuracy and your shot-to-shot consistency of velocity and distance. Correct barrel-to-paintball sizing is a vital key to tight shot groupings, trouble-free marker performance, and improved velocity consistency. For this often-misunderstood concept, there’s a short explanation and a long one, but the short answer will only help you a little. Instead, we will use up-to-date technical information and physics to crush the old wives tales, myths, and mysteries about the BEST barrel/paintball size relationship, and get you some reliable accuracy you can win with.

To understand this very misunderstood technique, you must first understand some elements of the two major different marker designs, plus certain basics of paintball manufacturing, and a few simple technical concepts.

UNDERSTANDING PAINTBALL SIZES
There are definite differences in the size of paintballs that are produced by various manufacturers, and there are also slight size differences between various brands. To make it even more interesting, there are also very slight differences between “batches” and sometimes colors, made by every single manufacturer and brand.

Sometimes these differences are so small, they may only amount to the thickness of a human hair - or less.
But that tiny size variation may be the difference between the ball leaving the barrel intact and flying perfectly, or falling out of your barrel onto the ground, or possibly breaking in the barrel, rendering your marker inaccurate until you squeegee your barrel. If another Player happens to be shooting at your head at that moment, it can be very inconvenient!

UNDERSTANDING “CALIBER”
The word “Caliber” is a strange unit of measure, which divides the U.S. Standard units of inches, into metric portions. Thus, “68 Caliber” means, “Sixty eight hundredths of an Inch”, or “.68 inches”.

UNDERSTANDING MARKER and BARREL INSIDE-DIAMETER VARIATIONS
Even though all of the paintball guns on the market today are labeled as “68 caliber Paintball marker”, many of them are not 68 caliber at all. One reason for this is that there is no officially endorsed trade association, and no widely recognized industry manufacturing standards. Over the years, the inside diameter of paintball markers has changed a whole lot. Today, there are markers available with breach* and barrel inside diameters that measure FROM as small as .686, to as large as .696, more than a full caliber larger!
(*the “breach” is the area on your gun that the paintball drops into, just before firing through the barrel)

UNDERSTANDING PAINTBALL DIAMETER VARIATIONS
As you can imagine, you can also find a tremendous array of sizes among the paintballs themselves. Even though every manufacturer labels their products as “68 Caliber” paintballs, the manufacturers actually must simply do their best to find a size compromise, as they try to make a paintball that will shoot well through the wide array of inside-diameter bore sizes that are in use today. The best paintball manufacturers are striving to make a paintball that is not too big for the smaller-breach guns, and not too small for the bigger-breach guns. When you carefully analyze the paintballs manufactured today, you’ll find that 68 caliber-labeled brands range from as small as .675” up to as large as .697” (almost 70 Caliber !!). The average majority measure in the “68-and-a-half” to almost 69 caliber range.

UNDERSTANDING BALL DETENT SYSTEMS
To understand which approach to the “paintball-to-barrel” size relationship or “fit” will give you the best results, you must first review your gun’s detent system. Your marker’s vital ball-detent prevents feeding more than one paintball at a time, AND it holds the ball in place in the breach, in the same place every time, in position for firing. To make matters worse (again), not all marker companies use the same “detent system”.

OPEN BOLT/BLOW BACK MARKERS use a Detent system to hold the ball in place after it moves from the hopper into the breech. Most use a Spring-Loaded BALL DETENT, which is a metal or plastic ball that protrudes slightly into the breach (or chamber), and it remains there, “in the way”, preventing the paintball from rolling out of the breach and into (or through) the barrel. It must be checked periodically and kept clean. Paint, grit, or corrosion can foul it’s movement, preventing the ball-detent from protruding into the breach where its job is to hold the ball still. This effective system will hold even most “small” paintballs in place. During firing, the bolt shoots forward, pushes the ball into the barrel, and then instantaneously fires gas at it, before re-cocking and starting the cycle again.

This system theoretically provides a forgiving blend of both worlds; It allows gun manufacturers to use a fairly large breach, which will allow fairly large paintballs to pass through, while the ball detent will “hang on” to the smaller paintball sizes that are preferred in more advanced competition. The kinds of markers with this spring & ball detent system include low-end markers and high-priced guns too;
the popular Kingman Spyder™ line, the famous PMI Piranha™ series, National’s Rebel™, Mongoose™, ICON™, and Silver Bullet™, the ACI guns, Indian Creek™ models, and Brass Eagle’s Asian made entries, not to mention rippin’ fast tournament guns like The Bob Long Intimidator™, WDP’s Angel™, and the only non-blowback model on the list, the spool-valve powered MATRIX™, which uses not one but TWO ball detents.

TIPPMANN OWNERS ALERT: The excellent Tippmann™ markers use a very effective fiber-type detent, but it must be changed every few months to compensate for wear. Instead of a spring-loaded ball, a fibrous “flap” protrudes into the breach to do the job. However, a worn Tippman detent will periodically soften and collapse a bit, allowing some balls to roll down the barrel, double feeding, and causing breakage in the gun. Replacement fiber detents are very cheap and can be changed in a few seconds. If you shoot a Tippmann, go get some replacement detents right now. Game field operations should stock a bunch of these for every marker in the rental fleet to ensure customer satisfaction!

CLOSED-BOLT MARKERS: The correct Barrel-to-Paintball size is absolutely CRITICAL in these markers, because it is the last resort for ball retention! For purposes of maximum theoretical accuracy, Bud Orr’s legendary “WGP AutoCocker™” (and it’s many loyal custom-shop derivatives), uses a proven “closed bolt” system. Once the ball drops into the breach, the bolt moves forward and closes BEFORE FIRING, placing the ball IN FRONT OF the ball detent, prior to the trigger pull.

The closed-bolt theory is that before firing, the ball sits, momentarily undisturbed in the breach, so that it is stable at the moment of firing for enhanced accuracy. However… in this position, with the ball in front of the detent, the ball detent system is no longer effective. Thus, to take full advantage of the closed bolt requires that the ball must be held still, by means of the barrel being VERY CAREFULLY SIZED to the “average” maximum size* of the batch of paintballs that you are firing. (*measured at the largest place on the ball)

And remember, at an event where a high volume of paint is being consumed, you may enter the first day shooting one particular batch size of paintballs, only to find yourself in the semi finals shooting another batch or “lot number” from a different day of production, and then in the finals, yet another batch. No matter what brand or make of paintballs you’re using, you are always wise to double-check your barrel-to-paintball size relationship or “fit” before taking the field, in order to avoid surprise roll-outs or barrel bursts. Take nothing for granted.

It may seem that sizing barrels for the closed-bolt system seems unforgiving or too much hassle... You may wonder, “Why not just use a blowback marker or Matrix, with the more forgiving ball-detent system?” For the answer, just ask any dyed-in-the-wool `Cocker user and you’ll understand. Go ahead… try to take the “Naughty Dogs” AutoCockers™ away from them… You’d have to kill them first. People who shoot Bud’s `Cockers are usually closed-bolt fanatics, true believers, and nothing will make them change.

BARREL SELECTION: EXACTLY WHAT TO DO
Most performance oriented players have learned that a slightly smaller ball affords slight aerodynamic advantages, and they seek “small-bore” batches when they can find them. Diablo paintballs were the first to market this simple physics concept in the late 90’s, securing many wins and championships with their small-bore “Darts™” batches of their popular brands. The Darts name was actually coined at the `99 Las Vegas Open tournament. Dozens of players were shooting the new small-bore Diablo Inferno, and they all kept saying,
“ Man, this stuff shoots like DARTS!”… The name stuck and the rest is History!

BARREL KITS: The Swiss-Army Knives of Paintball
Experienced players have learned that the one-size-fits-all barrel simply does not exist today. Most seasoned competition players own a multi-bore kit, or several barrels of various inside diameters. Since the Diablo/DraXxuS brands became dominant on the scene in the late 90’s, many barrel manufacturers began manufacturing multi-caliber kits to enable people to shoot anything they encountered, from standard bore paints, to the smaller-bore competition “Darts” sizes, as well as some of the very large-caliber brands you may find at bargain-price tables at the local store. Multi-caliber barrel kits enable you to “rig” your marker to work with most of the paintball sizes you may be faced with at a tournament, scenario or big game. Sometimes at “field paint only” events you will be shooting a paintball brand that you are not used to - and the best advice is to be prepared to adapt!

Multi-size barrel kits or individual barrels of many different inside-diameters are available from;
ACI, Armson™, CP-Custom Products™, Dye™, Empire™, J&J™, Lapco™, PMI™, Smart Parts™,
32 Degrees™, etc. If you don’t want to pay the price for a kit yet, the generally accepted order for adding one barrel at a time to your collection goes something like this;

• Most markers come with a .689-ish or so (except Tippmann, which is more like a .692 ”)
• Next, get a .686 or .687 to handle the widest array of performance paints.
• Next, consider a .684 for serious small-bore usage.
• Next, to cover Big Caliber possibilities like VERY humid days when shells can swell, find a .692 or .694
• Then, for SUPER-Small size balls, get a .679 - .682

HOW TO DECIDE ON WHICH BARREL SIZE FOR WHICH PAINTBALL DIAMETER- Method for best accuracy:

1. Be sure the paintballs will “FIT” through your barrel.
   1. Align the SEAM or EQUATOR (usually the largest part of most paintballs) with the opening in the barrel. “Put the circle in the circle”
   2. Do this at the THREADED END of the barrel that goes into the marker.
   3. Paintballs should easily pass through, or at least be very easily “blown” through the barrel, with little or no resistance, like blowing a pea through a pee-shooter (Be SURE not to Inhale!!!)
   4. Try this with 20 to 30 paintballs from the batch, to accommodate slight differences from ball to ball, in order to get an “average” of the general sizes within the batch you ’re shooting.
2. If the paintballs resist moving through the barrel, then the barrel is too small for that batch of paintballs, and you may need a larger inside-diameter barrel. Try the next larger size available, at least 2 – 3 thousandths of an inch larger. If you tried a .686”, try a .688 or .689, and repeat the process as needed.
3. HOT TIPS ON FIT AND ACCURACY:

   OPEN BOLT/BLOW BACK BLOWBACKS: Ignore the old-fashioned rules of yesteryear, which claimed that “the ball should “just sit” at the end of the barrel, and shouldn’t move unless you blow on it hard” That rule was excellent for the Pump Guns of yesterday, which were all Closed Bolt systems without effective ball detents once they’re cocked.

   Today’s Open-Bolt blowbacks and Matrixes GAIN GREAT ACCURACY from a fit where the BARREL IS JUST BIG ENOUGH FOR THE ball to just FALL RIGHT THROUGH THE BARREL, but be sure that the ball detent will hold on to the ball to prevent the ball from rolling forward into the barrel. On some markers, the amount of detent protrusion can be adjusted a bit to accommodate this setup. This low-friction “roll-through-the-barrel” setup has won many events and championships in the last several years since Diablo and DraXxuS came onto the scene.

   CLOSED BOLT MARKERS: In this case, Embrace the old-fashioned rules of yesteryear, which claim that “the ball should “just sit” at the threaded end of the barrel, and won’t move unless you blow on it”. This rule was excellent for the pump guns of yesterday, which is basically what an Autococker is; A pneumatic cocking device, very rapidly cocking a kick-ass pump gun.

   On these closed bolt systems, which are basically without effective ball detents once they’re cocked, you NEED to carefully size and double check every time you change paint batches, just to be sure. Remember, gelatin paintball shells can swell quite a few thousandths on a humid day, and there are slight batch variations from every manufacturer. Better safe than… gakked and hunting for your squeegee when the pressure ’s on!

   COMMON MISTAKE MADE BY PROS and NEWBIES ALIKE, on ALL MARKERS:
   Be sure your barrel is SUPERCLEAN and free of Gelatin Buildup

   1. Swab or Squeegee any paint residue from your barrel
   2. Use a gelatin build-up remover like Pro-Team Products’
      “Pro-Clean” to remove built-up gelatin residue. A squeegee WILL NOT remove accumulated
      gelatin. This residue builds up fast, it’s almost invisible, and it will ruin the performance of a
      perfectly good barrel, and you won ’t even know why. REMOVE IT!
   3. Check for burrs, scratches or sharp snags in the breach & barrel that could cause breakage.
      Any such sharp edges must be repaired.

Armed with this information and a super-clean set of barrels in various sizes, you will notice a distinct tightening of your shot groupings, a measurable improvement in your velocity consistency, and a whole new approach to one of the most misunderstood physics concepts in our science-centered sport. You’ll find hundreds of people with dozens of contrary seat-of-the-pants opinions, but you can tell them that this one comes right out of Dr AXxuS’ paintball factory laboratories.

CORRECT STORAGE:
Keep paintballs in dry, room temperature environment.
TEMPERATURE: Store between 50°F to 86°F or 10°C to 30°C.
HUMIDITY: Store at Relative Humidity between 35% to 50%.
Word to the wise: “Never leave your paintballs anywhere that you would not leave a human baby. If the conditions would make the baby cry, they will ruin your paintballs!”

(artikkelen er klippet fra http://www.draxxus.com/ )