Did I get your attention? Good! First I just want to Say Hi, and yes I’m a newbie to the sport. If this post and my theory provides you with a good laugh then I’m glad I made you happy. It might give some food for thought and open up a new line of discussion. Maybe this has been discussed before and I just haven’t ran across it while researching the Flatline barrel. If you think I’m an idiot for thinking about this and want to flame on me then have at itJ

I’m looking for some information and insight from more experienced players and flatline barrel lovers and haters in particular. One of the most important things always mentioned in forums is the ball to barrel match and how picky the flatline is, along with all the other things mentioned in the sticky “A Full Guide to the Flatline Barrel”. Many people say that the RPS Marbilizer’s are the best to use. Unfortunately they are very expensive and not all of us have access to them. What’s so special about the marbilizer’s and the other expensive paintballs?

Experiment;
Wash your hands so they are nice and clean. Open up a new bag of paint balls and mix them up with your hand. When you pull your hand out of the bag does your hand feel slick and oily?

Are marbilizers dry or oily? What about the paint you have access to and use? How do they perform for you?

I did some searching to find out what is packed, if anything, in the bags along with the balls. I did find it mentioned once that oil from the manufacturing process may be left on the balls (mold release oil), or that in cheaper paint they may be adding some sort of oil. Perhaps it is to keep the balls from sticking together or prevent them from absorbing moisture, or maybe it’s so the balls will slip through barrels better to prevent breaks. Unfortunately I can’t confirm this since I only saw it mentioned once. Perhaps someone out there in the paintball industry would have knowledge of this they can share?

Hypothosis:
The flatline barrel depends on the curve of the barrel and friction to cause the ball to back spin. How do you reduce friction between moving parts. You oil them.

If the flatline barrel builds up an oily residue in the barrel then wouldn’t it stand to reason the friction would be reduced and thus the amount of backspin. Even if you boil your barrel after every day of play, if your balls are oily to begin with how many balls can you shoot in a day before an oily residue builds up in the barrel?

Maybe the marbilizers and other high end paintballs simply seem to work better because their dry and packed better. Maybe it’s because they have a rough shell not a smooth one.

The sticky “A Full Guide to the Flatline Barrel” has instructions to boil the barrel after a days use to get out any paint residue so you have a nice clean barrel the next time you play. Could oil from the balls also be building up in the barrel?

Theory;
My theory is that there are other balls that will work with the flatline barrel just as well as the high end balls as long as they are manufactured consistently round, good seems, and the size is small to medium (so the ball can move through the barrel and only be rubbing the top third or so of the barrel when building up the spin). You just need to wipe the oil off the balls if there is any on them, or find balls that are dry to begin with.

Unfortunately I can’t test this theory out at this time since I’m still working on eliminating all the other possible variables that could affect the results.

#1. I have a Palmers stabilizer ordered but its going to be a week or so before I get it. Until I have consistent velocity trying different paintballs isn’t going to give any valid results.

#2. I’m not going to spend $75 bucks for a case of marbilizer’s and other brands and pay shipping when I don’t even know what I would be getting. Are they fresh or have they been sitting in a warehouse for six months.

#3. Great American Paintballs are manufactured by Soft-Gelcaps West, just outside of Carson City Nv. I just happen to live in Northern Nevada so I can get it for $50 bucks a case of 2000 ($45 bucks a case if I use my buddies discount when he’s at work. And I haven’t looked into going directly to the plant to see if I can purchase them directly, yet.) I know its fresh paint and will continue to use it even if I can’t get the flatline to work correctly. I will just have to get a different barrel, probably a kit, but I’m not ready to give up on the flatline until I’ve tried everything.

Conclusion;
If you have oily balls and this is something that you may want to experiment with or share your observations then please do so. Any insight into this theory may help myself and others, or not.

If all I need to do is wipe off the oil on the balls before putting them in the hopper to get the Flatline working the way it’s intended to work then guess what I’m doing.

But then again Maybe I’m just a dumb newbie and my theory is out there with PlutoJ

Thanks for reading thisJ

The Procaps/Draxxus paint that my field uses seems to be very popular with A-5 users. It's a custom field formula and ours actually has our field logo on it. My employer has seen both the RPS and Procaps paintball manufacturing plants and says that the Procaps paintballs are made using cleaner machinery. I've also found that the RPS branded balls have much more oil on them than Draxxus paintballs.


As far as your hypothesis goes, you may be right about the oil effecting how the ball travels through the Flatline. Too dry of a shell and you'll find that the ball gets ripped by the course finish of the flatline though...

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Hmm... my dad uses Nelson Special Forces Paint in his Flatline with excellent results & Nelson paint is very dry...

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Interesting. I myself haven't in this sport long enough to have a good insight but I've tried at least 10 different paints. I use a straight 14" barrel with an APEX tip.

I've been getting pretty good and consistent results with RPS Stinger and Visible Impact. I believe these two paints are pretty oily. Other times, I invested extra $$ and tried RPS Premium and other a bit more expensive paints but rather got disappointing results (rather frequent chops and barrel breaks)

A week ago, I trid a different brand (forgot the name but it was close to $18 for 500 rounds) and the result was horrible. Did a a quick bounce tests with these balls. The test results were was all over the places. (1 bounce-break to 6 bouces-break).

I'm not certain how "oily surface" may contribute to the performance but I believe if you happen to buy a bad batch or a batch been stored badly, you will most likely have a bad day.

There....my 0.02.

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I think the "oily surface" is because they use a mold release int he manufacture of the balls. There's 2 metal molds, one for each half of the ball.

The paint could be old. Or the paint fill is thinner than normal that causes oil to seep from the paintballs.

I was told that they put a few drops of oil in the bag of paint to keep the balls from sticking in hot weather, If you have ever left you paintballs out in the sun on a hot day you'll will no what i mean.

When I first began to play paintball a long time ago i was told if you saw anything wet in the bag that was a big NO NO, and that you would want to pass on that bag of paint because there could be a broken ball inside..

About 5 years ago was told that most paintball manufactures actually put drops of oil in the bags for the specific reasons that I had mentioned above, know weather it's true or not I don't know, but I still visually inspect every bag of paint for dimples, if it has some drops of oil in it I don't threat the outcome as much as I used to.

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MacDev Militia
IRREGULATOR
UMS Guerrilla
Former A5OG Special forces Member
Charlie Company NW Devils Brigade

I know alot of things that I have read on the internet about the flatline say not to use "cheap" balls. Here's what I've found with my flatline.

With 3 kids I can't afford to get the "expensive" paint.

I've used HotSpot $40/case, Worrpaint $30/case, BigBall $40/case and the rest that Walmart carries excpect Monsterballs(too squishy out of the box, don't break in my experience even at close range). To this day I haven't had a break with my flatline in the two years I've had it.

I do keep my o-rings oiled and do routine maint. after every game. Only difference I've seen is that the Hot and the Worr balls were a little better and helped with accuracy a bit. Not that the flatline is a very accurate barrel to start with in my experience. Even at longer distances most of them break on impact with a decently firm surface escpecially masks/hoppers/shoulders.

I can't say much for others like Marb or Draxx though, no experience with them.

i mainly use special forces and never have any problems even with my e grip set to 15 bps i used more exspensive paint and have had nothing but problems you need to use a hard shell paint with the flat line and iv been told from were i buy my paint that they are going to stop making the harder shelled paint do to complaints from field owners so it may be harder to find paint for the flat line soon

Only in the morning. Some GoldBond Medicated Powder, usually helps...

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