What is the best A5 Sniper barrel on the market today.

When you here the term sniper most people think of distance. In paintball there is not really a need for the long distance kill though you may get one now and then. The need for consistent accuracy is the biggest thing when you buy a sniper barrel. If you want a little distance, Apex/Flatline. Both are decent but the Flatline is a little more picky for using good paint. The Apex is a little easier to clean plus adds the bonus of a curve shot. The best consistent no muss/no fuss barrel is the Palmer's brass(will shoot just about any paint consistently) or the J&J ceramic. A lot has to do with what you want you marker to look like. I seen that you can put an Apex adaptor on a PPS brass. That should shoot pretty well. Lapco makes a good 12" barrel and there is a thread that if you mention A5OG you get a discount. http://www.a5og.net/paintball-buy-se...ighlight=lapco It is really how much you are looking to spend and what you want your A5 to look like.

__________________
You must be the change you want to see in the world ~ Gandhi

Before voting watch this-Link #1 & Link #2!

Hoo boy. That's a great question - and at the same time a terrible question, because it's technically unanswerable. In the "Barrels and Paint" section, there are whole threads devoted to this debate. I'll try to sum it up here for you as simply as I can:

1)Your marker's accuracy is much more reliant on consistent velocity than on barrel choice. If you're using unregulated CO2, your shots are going to be going all over the place (relatively speaking) regardless of your barrel.

2)The other major factor is paint to barrel match. If your paint goes in the threaded end of your barrel without rolling out the other end freely, it's not too small. Now blow a quick puff of air down the barrel. If the ball comes out the muzzle end, your paint isn't too big. It's just right.

Some paintball barrels I personally recommend: Palmer's Brass, Opsgear Interceptor, J&J Ceramic.

__________________

I currently use a Freak barrel kit. Its the best kind of barrel kit out there. Is super accurate and cleaning is just like any other barrels.



Inter changable front and back with different bore inserts.

Id say a good old 12" palmers brass is your best friend here!

So, you wanna be a "sniper" hey?

Class is now in session

First, your marksmanship must be beyond compare. So, you need a target, and you need to measure distances. You need to shoot a lot of paint, and you need to learn how to measure the distance to your target. Learn your paintball drop, and learn how you will need to aim to hit a target at a range of 50 feet, 75 feet, 100 feet, and all the way out to maybe even 150 feet.

You need to be able to look at a human and say "He is 75 feet away from me". Then you need to be able to say "She is 140 feet away from me." You have to KNOW this. You have to be able to identify the ranges INSTANTLY. Keep practicing until you are there. Even if it is impossible to know the range instantly, the practice will do you good. You are going to spend a LOT of money on paint for practicing hitting your ranged targets.

Measure your paintballs. Yup, you need a ball-sizer. You'll need to measure every single paintball you buy. Some of them will not be good enough to use in your kit. The more room you leave for error in sizing your paint will leave more room for missed shots while you are on the field. Dude, you've accepted a very expensive role as a sniper. Don't worry, you get to be cool at the end of the day, and since you'll only fire 50 shots to every one else's 2000 shots, you come out ahead in the long run.

You will need to be accurate:
Trigger pull will matter somewhat, but less so in paintball. According to the Army standards, I should have a terrible trigger pull. Instead of using the tip of my finger, I tend to curl my middle knuckle around the trigger. However, I have a naturally very smooth trigger pull that way, which according to the military is not possible. My 25m groupings place 3 shots within the diameter of a quarter, so, I'll let that speak for itself. A lighter trigger pull can help by allowing you less muscle work to achieve a shot, and therefore, less barrel deflection from that muscle work. In the case of the A-5, there's not much you can do with this system using the stock trigger assembly. That bolt is catching the seer with a decent amount of force, so, we can't do a whole lot about that.

Steady yourself against something. If you're standing up, you're inherently less accurate than if you're prone, resting your gun on a fallen log, and feeling relaxed. You need to stabilize yourself, because a half centimeter of movement equals feet downrange.

Okay aside from skill, equipment DOES matter. You'll need a good barrel, yes. 16 inches is probably only slightly better than 14 inches, if it's any better at all. It's a hard test, and no-ones proven that 16 offers any advantage whatsoever. Beyond a doubt, more than 16 inches is worthless from what we've (the paintball world) has been able to verify.
Your basic 8.5 inch tippmann barrel is NOT going to cut it. Even a cheaper 12 inch barrel will be a better choice, and is probably the minimum size you want. Your barrel will of course, need to be ported. More porting is not completely "better", as more porting will detract from the propulsion, and require more gas to compensate. On Tippmanns, this isn't actually so bad, you'll just be pulling the FVA out further, which does NOT affect gas consumption.

Regulator.
You NEED a regulator. Period. I don't care if you're on C02 or HPA, you need a good, consistent regulator. I don't know how accurate the regs on HPA tanks are, they may be good enough. If anyone has scientific proof either way, feel free to join in.

Silence:
You want an LPK. It will lower the sound on your marker. The lower PSI in a burst of air is going to creat less of a disturbance in the marker, in the barrel, and outside of the barrel.
Internals, there are a few custom things you can do to quiet down your marker. Your bolt has a metal face on it. That's bad. This can be modified if you're creative. I won't give away my secret, but, just apply some creativity... and I'll just mention "furniture feet"
As far as the seer goes, I haven't yet come up with a perfect solution to modifying it in any sort of permanent way to provide silencing on the bolt/seer catching. I'm working on it, though.

Paint:
DO NOT SKIMP! You want to be a sniper, you need expensive paint. Higher cost paint has a much smoother seam, and a MUCH smoother surface. Worrpaint's Dominator line at $40 a case is not gonna get you there. You need premium paint with very slick casing, and very smooth seams.

Matching Paint: You need to match your paint to the BARREL! Not to the Bore. Or, at least in theory. If your paintball is exactly 0.689 inches, and your barrel is 0.689 inches, you should have a very accurate match, and ensure optimum efficiency. Now, if your barrel has a .689 inch insert, and the rest of your barrel is .695 inches, as soon as the paintball leaves your insert, it is free to "rattle" around inside a much wider barrel. I cannot prove why people with "insert" systems still have good accuracy beyond barrel length, but they do seem to have good luck. I personally believe in a single diameter barrel, and preferably single piece. At any rate, if you want to be a sniper, you don't want to compromise on anything.

Another thing worth noting is the "eliptical hone" on the Palmer's Brass. Theoretically, this should be the perfect system, as it accounts for the paint's distortion while pressurized by air. I've yet to find a bad review of one, and I've looked throughout Ebay, and it seems not one person has ever sold their Palmer's Brass. I can go right now and get a Freak or Hammerhead off of Ebay. That is something worth noting.

Hide:
You need to be unseen. Your camouflage needs to blend in well with the terrain and vegetation around you. Better camouflage means better hiding. You will need to consider surrounding colors, and try to blend in with them.
Shiny things: No! If it shines, you have to lose it. Period. Find a way to prevent your lens from reflecting anything. Use sandpaper to "rough up" any shiny surfaces. Or paint them. At any rate, reflections and glare are the easiest way to give up your position.

Movement:
Don't do it. Movement attracts attention like nothing else, except maybe shiny things. If you have to move, learn to low crawl. This requires you stay on the ground, and lift NOTHING off of it. Your feet, legs, chest, arms, and mask must be in contact with the ground at all times, or as much as reasonable. You will need to look where you're going, so your mask is going to have to be lifted up at times. This is also tiring. Try low-crawling for 100 feet. You'll be tired at the end of it if you aren't used to this sort of thing.

Lift yourself up more if you need to move a bit faster, but the faster you move the easier you are to spot.

Choose your moving points. Larger trees or bushes will provide concealment, and in paintball, cover too. If you run for 10 full seconds, you're spotted, that's too long. Again, I won't give away my tactics, but shorter movements are better. If you have to dart from place to place, your destination should completely conceal you. That way, even if someone catches some motion, they won't be able to verify where or what it was. They might be suspicious, but they probably won't be zeroing in on you. If they start to hunt, you should be in position to monitor them, and take your carefully aimed shot.

Escape route:
Have an escape route planned. Your hiding spot will be found eventually, and you will need to "didi mao" (sp?) outta there. In other words, you'll need to get gone fast. This is an occasion where the "7 seconds of running" rule may be ignored. If you're busy trying to save your own arse, hiding becomes less important than simply not getting hit. And in paintball, even 30 more feet of distance matters.

Listen:
Anything you can do to open the sides of your mask for sound will help. Try getting rid of things that rub/rattle/jingle/clank. You need to be as quiet as possible on yourself so that exterior sounds are harder to identify.

Radio:
You need one. Preferably with a headset attatchment, and more preferably with a transmit/PTT button you can place on a finger, but that might be hard to find. Vox will work, but sneezing will activate it, so that could be kinda strange. You'll need to have the opportunity to relay info back to your team members about enemy movements. You will not be taking shots at every location, and every opportunity. You may go entire hour long games and not fire a single shot, you may see 15 people walk past and not take a shot.

wow dude you really like to type about being a sniper! lol

__________________
Our Paintball father, who art in heaven Tippmann be Thy name. Thy Kingman come and tourneys won on fields as it is Indoor. Give us this day our daily Grenades and forgive us for our cheating as we forgive our cheaters and lead us not into the bunker but deliver the enemies flag.

I hate to break it to you guys, but there is no such thing as a paintball sniper.

a) Flatline barrels have negligible range increase for the role.
b) There is generally little opportunity for a sniper in the woods.
c) Most of what CameronB sais is misleading, besides, he fails to mention more important points.

__________________
Rucksack Feed System | A5 Silencers | Ultimate Q-Loader Thread | D.I.Y Swivelling Bipod

This is not significantly applicable to paintball markers.


Erm, ever heard of a bipod?


Afaik, for paintball, 12 is all that's ever required. I've seen several tests.


You've forgotten the most important device...A silencer.

__________________
Rucksack Feed System | A5 Silencers | Ultimate Q-Loader Thread | D.I.Y Swivelling Bipod

I'm chuckling as I read this...

Quote:
Originally Posted by CameronB
A lighter trigger pull can help by allowing you less muscle work to achieve a shot, and therefore, less barrel deflection from that muscle work.
Derf wrote:
This is not significantly applicable to paintball markers.

As I mentioned. I am pretty sure that I said it was less applicable to paintball guns. I still believe that the trigger discipline has it's value, as it's all about "the big picture". I'm a marksmanship fanatic, and trigger pull is one of the simplest things to hit on. Granted, if you're shooting ropes, trigger pull isn't going to mean much of anything, and in paintball, sometimes you just need to lay out paint. I still believe that paying attention to the small details is the difference between an amateur at heart, and a professional at heart.

Quote:
Originally Posted by CameronB
Steady yourself against something. If you're standing up, you're inherently less accurate than if you're prone, resting your gun on a fallen log, and feeling relaxed. You need to stabilize yourself, because a half centimeter of movement equals feet downrange.
Derf Wrote:
Erm, ever heard of a bipod?

A Bipod would be an EXCELLENT thing to stabilize your shot with, as long as you don't mind the weight. I personally don't use one, but I can see the point in having it. Of course, I can't afford to "trick out" my A5 yet, but it's on the list of "to-do"s. A Bipod may become one of those modifications.

Quote:
Originally Posted by CameronB
Okay aside from skill, equipment DOES matter. You'll need a good barrel, yes. 16 inches is probably only slightly better than 14 inches, if it's any better at all.
Derf Wrote:[/i]
Afaik, for paintball, 12 is all that's ever required. I've seen several tests.

Well, it does seem like 12 is named as the optimal length, but I prefer porting to be present, and I do not count the ported portion of a barrel as the useable length. So, a 12 inch barrel, being good, with 3 inches of porting then, would be a total of 15 inches.

The reason I don't count the ported portion of a barrel is that you no longer develop velocity after the porting. If you do get any extra velocity, it's very minor. People are going to disagree with this. Until I can get my hands on a 10, 12, 14, and 16 inch version of several barrels to do comparisons, I can't make any claims personally, so I won't. But, I want to! (So, if you guys have any spare Hammerheads, Stiffis, Black Cell (type of Stiffi), Palmer's, Freaks, or J&Js laying around that you don't want, just PM me, and I'll give you my address

Quote:
Originally Posted by CameronB
Silence:....
Derf Wrote:
You've forgotten the most important device...A silencer.