So what’s the new barrel meta?

[$L!mBo]

buy the cheapest one piece you can find, or even better, send your old barrels to BMC and have them freak bored
make sure you send em in CLEAN
and pray they sit centered enough for him to do the work. hes a little picky

[Jackson]

Anecdotally, the best results I've had in the past couple years was this year with my 2006 Grey Ghost and stock .690 Big Shot barrel. In most pumps, that would be a recipe for rollouts. But on the "new" Grey Ghost the ball doesn't sit in the barrel, instead being held just behind the barrel by a Spyder style detent. Conventional wisdom says that this is less than ideal since the ball is "shot" into the barrel, crossing the breach/barrel gap. I have had no issues ever. Maybe that new Nova autococker with quad detents, when using a sufficiently large over-bored barrel, isn't such a bad idea.

[dutchcommando]

I'm a believer in bore-matching whenever possible for optimal efficiency, or I'll run a slight overbore with open-bolt markers. How I look at it is that I already have the kit, so I might as well try. Plus you can pick up a standard Freak kit for around $100 new. It's arguable how much it effects your efficiency, but it does have an effect.

I generally try to run a good paint such as Marballizer or Evil, too.

[SockeyeSteve]

Freak XL is nice, bore match as best as possible (I tend to over bore one size up) and let the detents do their thing.

Always buy the best paint you can afford. Usually evil in my area and I've always had good luck with that. Occasionally my home field has defy and upgrades to that for the same cost, their paint tends to run smaller or that's been the case with every case I've happened to have but it shoots pretty consistently and I find less oil in their bags than I do with evil or G.I. Custom

[Impactfour]

I've always been a fan of freak kits. A few weeks ago I had the wild experience of chopping a few balls in a pump only to realize the paint I'd switched was a whopping (by today's standard) .685 and I'd foolishly assumed it would be tiny like all modern paint. Being able to switch on the fly is nice even when I'm too lazy to borecheck a new bag of paint sometimes...

[Brandon]

I've been using a Freak pretty much since they first came out, both the OG size and the XL. I've also acquired most of the sizes in brass for the newer Tiny Paint.

I did try the Acculock for a while, but there just isn't as much variety in the inserts as there is with the Freak. I was talking to Hellion360 on Saturday about the PWR inserts, specifically the Inception inserts. They look really nice and seem very well thought out, especially with the nicely transitioned edges.

In the end, though, they do the same thing when used as intended, and I really don't need to spend more money on another barrel system.

[Chuck E Ducky]

Agreed this is why I don’t have anything that takes XL inserts or a PWR. However if I didn’t already have what I need and was buying a new barrel insert system I would go PWR since that’s the latest barrel bore system all the manufacturers are embracing lately. They are definitely more durable than standard freaks. Not that durability is an issue for me anyway I take good care of my stuff. However Older freaks are easily bent if abused. Also the design of the PWR is likely better if a ball is ever broken vs a freak that never shoots clean without a full break down clean of the insert and barrel.