1. Stock A5 Barrel



The A5 barrel is pretty short, about 8" in length. The bore is bigger so that it accepts pretty much any paint and can shoot it right out of the box. However, it's usually one of the first upgrades that most players make.

As expected, the A5 barrel was "all over the place". The groupings were wide and not consistent. You can see that one shot ended up way on the upper left, and another went under the picnic table hitting the cardboard in the back. No other after market barrel did this.

2. J&J Ceramic 12"



The groupings were more consistent, more shots were delivered closer to each other. Asides from the 2 strays on the upper right, all the shots were in an 11" range. More accurate than the A5 barrel.

3. J&J Ceramic 14"



So finally the question of "Does size really matter?" comes up. This is the eaxct same barrel as the 12" only a couple inches longer. If you look closely, the impact marks (what I will now call shot "centers") were only 8"-9" apart.
Also notice that there are more "shot on shots", there's a lot more paint centered rather than scattered around like the 12" version.

This truly is more accurate than the 12" barrel. Even if it's only a slight improvement, it does show that the extra length is doing something positive.

4. Special Ops / Stiffi Blackcell C-series 12"



The Special Ops barrel is a stepped bore. the first few inches are smaller, then the bore gets bigger in one step. The barrel is carbon / fiberglass and has a different finish from the Stiffi barrels. This one is .691 but the bore looks HUGE compared to other barrels that are also .691.
By the picture, the grouping is good (in the 9" range) but what amazed me during shooting was the shot on shot consistency. Even though the bore was really big, the "centers" were laid on top of one another, almost like Robin Hood "splitting an arrow with a second arrow". I was quite surprised by the results.

5. Smart Parts Freak kit, .687 bore, All American 12" front



Asides from 2 stray shots (far left and bottom middle), the 12" All American Freak performed well. The most consistent centers were about 9" apart. The ball on ball accuracy was not as good as the Special ops C series, but fairly consistent.

6. Smart Parts Freak kit, .687 bore, All American 14" front

Again, let's see if size matters. This All American tip is 2" longer than the previous barrel.



The shots are somewhat more consistent in that they are grouped more tightly together than the 12" version. It's comparable to the 12" in that most of the shots are about 9" apart, but there's more ball on ball consistency.