Barrels: Good, bad, and ugly...

[zinger565]

Let's talk barrels. With autocockers (and snipers) being what they are, and modern paint being what it is, bore size seems more important than ever. So...

What's new and good?

What's old (and readily available) and good?

Anything people are actively avoiding?

[RedLeaderSB]

[RedLeaderSB]

Mylar plastic wedgits

[zinger565]

Yeah, I've seens those around. Just don't know where to get them. 😕

[ford]

In a pinch, a small piece (or two) of masking tape running just inside the barrel has worked for me.

[Cdn_Cuda]

Freak barrel kits. Just the standard ones. Lots of options, have been around forever and easy to get inserts for. Best bang for the buck going. I hate SmartParts but have a Freak on pretty much every cocker and sniper I own. Insert kits pop up all the time as well, so not hard to get your hands on. I'll include any Freak compatible barrel as well, as I have a few DW barrels.

[Ego10Baller]

I’m a big fan of the Stella freak barrel back and a Stella barrel front (the setup that gets you 14” of overall barrel length). It’s a nice barrel and if you get it in gloss, it matches most markers really well.

That said, any freak-bored barrel will serve you fine. I guess the short answer is that the most hassle free way to play, in my experience, is with standard length freak insert capable barrels.

[Trbo323]

What the hell is that? Super anti roll out barrel?

Freak barrel kits. Just the standard ones. Lots of options, have been around forever and easy to get inserts for. Best bang for the buck going. I hate SmartParts but have a Freak on pretty much every cocker and sniper I own. Insert kits pop up all the time as well, so not hard to get your hands on. I'll include any Freak compatible barrel as well, as I have a few DW barrels.

I'm with cuda on this, as much as I don't like the g brothers, the freak is one of the more widely available and versatile kits

I just gotta DW fibur x-8 recently, love it so far but it does turn out, doesn't matter how nice the kit is if you size your paint wrong

On a side note, shouldn't the freak patent be ending sometime soon?

Sent from my motorola edge 5G UW (2021) using Tapatalk

[Cdn_Cuda]

Not sure when the patent ends, but Empire sold the SuperFreak kit, which was a fully branded Empire Freak system. Even the inserts have Empire logos.

[iamthelazerviking]

With a cocker/sniper, easily removing the back is a big deal for me. Standard Freak backs are a pain. Stella's have holes drilled in the backs for an allen key so removing is easy.

[zinger565]

Oh nice, didn't know that about the Stella's. They look good, I've had my eye on them for a bit.

[Chuck E Ducky]

My favorite is a one piece .681 Lapco Tight Stick for my Snipers.

[MrBarraclough]

For my Trilogy, I just grabbed a couple of LAPCO bore sizers so I can just use my stable of .688-.689 barrels that I already use with my open bolt markers. For super tiny paint I use a .678 bore sizer, for "normal" contemporary paint a .685, and on hot days shooting the Nelson that my local field sells, I can just run a .689 barrel by itself.

[zinger565]

Do they still make those? I remember them being around in the past.

[MrBarraclough]

Yeah, though some popular sizes tend to be temporarily out of stock on an intermittent basis. I ended up with the .678 because I had ordered another slightly larger size and that was the closest they had on hand. I think I bought mine from PunishersPB if I am not mistaken. I know I've seen some sizes listed with ANS/ActionVillage.

[Handy]

It seems like they're out of stock on a lot of sizes, but I got lucky and picked up 4 gloss and 3 dust of the Lapco Tightsticks from PumpPb.com. Sizes are useable, 1 piece makes removal easy, and they shoot well when I use them.

[jokers]

What are the feelings on the iFit kit from techt? I always thought that it was to small to make much difference and never bought into it, however in a kit with a marker i got a complete set and am thinking of buying the adapter to use it with the rest of my markers. I already have all of my barrels freaked so it would likely be a control bore on top of a control bore so i think it would be a waste of money but i have a t2 with the control bore front and think it would be funny to have ccm to ifit to freak control bore. If i use an XL then it would be even better lol.

[MrBarraclough]

Should be fine for preventing roll-outs with closed bolt markers, which in my opinion is the only worthwhile use of bore sizers/inserts anyway.

[zinger565]

What are the feelings on the iFit kit from techt? I always thought that it was to small to make much difference and never bought into it, however in a kit with a marker i got a complete set and am thinking of buying the adapter to use it with the rest of my markers. I already have all of my barrels freaked so it would likely be a control bore on top of a control bore so i think it would be a waste of money but i have a t2 with the control bore front and think it would be funny to have ccm to ifit to freak control bore. If i use an XL then it would be even better lol.

Not a terrible idea, still allows you to use whatever barrel you want if you've got preferences for length/porting/color/design. Probably works great for cockers, also nice that they come in conversion threads too, might look into snagging one sometime.

[Cdn_Cuda]

Given the size of the barrel adaptors these can be tough to use on a cocker. I have two sets of these, one with a cocker adaptor and one for the TIPX with the barrel. Never used them much though.

[cfos00]

I take any barrel I like and freak it. Agree with the dislike of smart parts, but this is something that they got right.