I bought the 12" .690 Brass Finish. I used it once in the backyard yesterday with an unknown velocity and it seemed to be great. I dont reall know much about pb guns or how they are supposed to act and so on but it thought it was pretty good.

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I bought the 12" .690 black finished barrel. It shoots great, but I haven't really been able to fully test it's accuracy. It's definitely better than my 12" Dye Boomstick. It looks great with the MP5SD foregrip, but I think any long barrel looks awkward without some sort of shroud.

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My review of the SP Ion

I have the 12" .690 as well. With hindsight, I might have got the 10" instead to make it a little more compact, so I voted for that.

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I voted the 10" .690 bore

I suggest reading the thread on how the Palmer Brass Barrel works. I suspected I already knew how it worked, but seeing it in writing got me thinking about the length of the barrel. To quickly summarize, the shape the bore is there to accomidate the deformation of the paintball as it accelerates. Since the constriction and therefore friction is lower than that of a "straight" bore (the 'slipperyness' of brass might also be an added factor), doesn't it stand to reason that a paintball traveling through a Palmer barrel reaches maximum accelaration faster? The implication is that less barrel length is required. You could say that a 10" (10.5") Palmer barrel is roughly equivalent to a 12" standard (i.e. straight bore) barrel in that case. Does anyone agree?

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eh, you may have a point in that, but i don't think that is exactly what Glenn and Craig had in mind.

even stubby barrels can get pretty decent range, and i tend to believe that all we really need is aruond 8" or so of good quality bore control in a barrel.

I don't think Palmer uses brass so they can use shorter lengths and still have range and accuracy. we have all seen the stubby barrels out there that still preform pretty well. pistols have even come a long way in range and accuracy with their short non brass barrels.

I think the reason for Brass is simply for its ease of use and its tollerance towards friction which results in less breaks and of course the ability for the special honing.

I voted for a 10" barrel. i don't like to waste any more air than i need to and my 4 10" Brass barrels for various markers have always served me well.

If you use more or a tourney grade paint then i suggest getting the .685 barrel. the trend in the mid to high quality grade paint is its getting smaller and smaller. the last few times out its been under .685.

a .690 barrel will shoot tiny small paint, even down to .680 and your accuracy should not deminish. however effeciency will as you loose so much air passing around the ball instead of propelling it like it should be. This is why Palmer makes smaller barrel bore options.

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I probably should have also mentioned that I'm often stuck using field paint, which as I'm sure you all know isn't always of the best quality.

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A5, 12" PPS Brass (.690) with Apex tip, Tacamo HK 416 shroud, Tacamo AK-47 Sight Cover, JCS Gold Powertube, E-Grip (APE), Core CQB Wire Stock w/ RVA, Palmer Inline Stabilizer, Lapco Cyclone Ratchet, 450 round Hopper, 48 oz CO2 with remote line

Well once you get a palmers any paint I mean ANY paint will be good paint, they shoot anything you put in em.

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A-5 w/ WAS E-grip w/ JCS trigger / Polished internals / Vortex ratchet / Lightning rod / QEPH / X7 cyclone paddles / X7 Hopper / 10" unported black matte finish Palmers brass w/ Apex / M82A1 gas thru mag / Metadyne RIS shroud / G36 folding stock / Raised rail w/ NcStar red dot sight

Yeah...I didn't mean for it to sound like it was a design choice but just a positive side-effect of what they had done. Like yourself, I prefer a shorter barrel for the reasons you listed. As a bonus, I think the A5 looks damn good with a short barrel! (If you favor the MP5 look.) I have an 8" Lapco Bigshot that I would use more often if I could find paint big enough to match (.689-.690).

That was an interesting observation you made about high end paint. The smallest paint I've ever shot was the Draxxus field paint at D-day this year. I had to use the smallest (.682) back in my J&J barrel kit. Granted, this was the freshest paint I have ever (or will ever) shoot. It was shipped straight to the field from the factory in a refrigerated trailer and kept there until you bought it!

Anyway, I wish PPS would make a barrel with the bore around .687...it would make the decision a lot easier...at least for me!

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PPS can bore down the .690 barrel if you want to whatever size you want. the most common size being thrown around in conversations is .688.

however this would not be cheap by any means. it would be much cheaper to purchase both the .685 and .690

Red Dog, since you are stuck using field paint like so many of us are, the PPS Brass is defentially a good choice. its now a matter of what size. if you wan get a feel for what kind of paint the fields you play at use that can help your decision. but if all else fails. the .690 barrel will shoot anything well, small and large paint. but if you try and use paint thats way to big for the .685, well, your playing with fire and likely to get burned every now and then with a break.

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