What size barrels do you use?

[Deerslayer]

I know that when one buys an assortment of washers, screws, bolts, electrical crimp terminals, etc. we end up using a very few sizes of that assortment and most of the rest will find its way to our estate sale. Some posters here have said they use primarily 3 barrel sizes, at least one said the barrel inserts do not mike to what they claim to be. My guess is were I to buy a Freak set of barrel inserts, two or three would see the most use and the rest would probably be rarely, if ever used.

What sizes do you use, (please list them in descending order of frequency)?

[iamthelazerviking]

You can thankfully buy single inserts for a good price from ANS, 15 each for stainless is good!

However I'm a Dye UL fan and have 680 to 695 just because. The 684 and 688 get used the most whether that's on a pump or Emek. Even the 692 has come out.

[Chuck E Ducky]

I use .681 the most currently.

[RAZRBAKK]

Both of my CA guns have .689 barrels. Thank god for detent fingers.

[Chappy]

My open bolts are .687 or bigger.My sniper I use a .684 barrel with 676 and 680 breach inserts as needed. They are the lapco breach sizers so they’re avian inch and a half

[Trbo323]

I've used everything from 675-691 before. Typically these days the smaller sizes are more useful though

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

[The Great Equalizer]

I have several full freak sets but I noticed a few years ago I have only ever used 0.679, 0.682, 0.684, 0.687

My theory is players in similar climates will use similar insert sets. I live in northern Vermont and this set works for my climate. I'd imagine someone in a cold desert area (Oregon/Washington/Idaho) would have shrinking paintballs due to the cold dry climate and would use a smaller set than I do and someone in the Southeast (Mississippi/Georgia/Alabama etc.) would have swelling paintballs due to the hot humid climate and would use a larger set.

[MrBarraclough]

All but one of my markers are open bolt, and for those I use barrels that are .688 or .689 (DYE and Planet Eclipse stock barrel sizes). I've got one outlier that is .691 that came on a marker I bought used. Those are good set-it-and-forget-it sizes; they'll be consistently overbore for pretty much all paint under all but the most extreme conditions. It's hot and humid where I play, so paint tends to swell a bit.

In my one closed bolt marker, an Autococker, I still use a .688-689 barrel, but to prevent roll-outs I have a set of LAPCO bore sizers. These are like barrel thread adapters and screw in between the marker and the barrel, except they are cocker threaded on both ends. My set runs from .676 up to .685. Depending on the paint available, I usually find myself using the .676 or .678 sizer. Low grade G.I. paint seems to be running rather small lately.

I'm firmly of the belief that overbore is the better option. Bore matching will mean that your shots are randomly alternating between overbore and underbore due to paint inconsistency, which will introduce the most variation. Underbore can eliminate that variation, but at a cost of increasing the risk of a ball breaking in the barrel. Overbore also eliminates that variation while reducing the risk of barrel breaks, at a slight cost of air efficiency. Since I'm not shooting 6 or 7 pods worth of paint in a game, I'm happy to make a small air efficiency trade-off in order to reduce the incidence of barrel breaks.

[The Inflicted]

I don't bother with freak inserts in my open-bolt markers. With those I just run the .689 stock barrels, or an old 10" WGP Kaner with the .689 back (I use it because it's short).

With my Phantom or Sniper only two inserts have been necessary in the last decade or so- .675 and .679
I always start with the .675 but switch to the larger insert if I'm getting a lot of barrel breaks.

I've never owned a full set of Freak inserts and probably never will- the larger sizes just aren't useful.

[$L!mBo]

All of my barrels are one piece pipes that have been freaked by various machinists, mostly BMC. my cockers get old Bob Long Longshots and my phantoms just have cci barrels. guess my duckslide technically is a two piece with the 'muzzle break'.

i have only ever needed:
.677 Teal
.679 Silver
.682 Yellow
.684 Orange

[glaman5266]

.689 or .690. For me it boils down to one thing: not busting paint in the barrel. Overbore is king for 90% of situations.