Most paintball guns come with barrels, but many players choose to buy one or more barrels “aftermarket”, either because the stock barrel does not perform well enough, or because the player wants different types of barrels for different situations. Before buying a new barrel, it is important to decide what material would work best. Also keep these two things in mind:
- Honing is smoothing and polishing the inside of a barrel. Honing is critical – the smoother the paintball barrel’s inner surface, the better (except for the flatline barrel, which uses its rough interior to create a backspin).
- The lower the friction, the more air efficient and the less likely to break balls the barrel is (again, except for the flatline).
Aluminum: Cheap and lightweight, aluminum is a very common material for paintball barrels. Another advantage to aluminum barrels is that they are easy to anodize in a dazzling variety of colors and designs (however, if you play paintball in the woods, don’t get anything shiny). The downside to aluminum barrels is that they have a bit higher friction and are more likely to get scratched than stainless steel (however, aluminum barrels can easily be rehoned).
Stainless Steel: Stainless steel barrels are the flip of aluminum: they are extremely durable and scratch resistant, keep honed very well, and have less friction. But they are also make for heavier and more expensive paintball barrels. They are hard to anodize, but tend to look good “as is”.
Two-piece barrels: The right two-piece barrel can provide the best performance. A stainless steel back creates little friction during the paintball’s initial acceleration period, while an aluminum front can keep the paintball barrel’s weight down. However, two-piece barrels tend to be more expensive than other paintball barrels.
Ceramic: Ceramic paintball barrels like the ones made by J&J are quiet, accurate, relatively inexpensive and have very low friction. They have an added benefit: ceramic barrels are “self-cleaning,” meaning if you break a ball in your barrel, you can just fire a few more rounds and the paint debris will clear. Ceramic barrels are also reasonably durable, despite their somewhat fragile appearance.
Brass: Brass was the rule in the old days, but now it is a rare material for paintball barrels. Brass barrels used to have one great advantage—very little friction, but nowadays it is easy to hone the surfaces of other barrel materials so they are almost as good as brass. Brass paintball barrels do have several disadvantages: they are heavier, softer (so can get scratched and dented more easily), and require regular polishing to avoid being tarnished.
While no paintball marker barrel material is perfect (or can make up for poor playing!), different barrel materials can be better for certain situations. If you are a front player, for instance, the light weight of aluminum can give you an edge, whereas if you are more interested in being a sniper, you might be willing to settle for more weight in order to have less friction.
Before deciding on what to buy, also read up on barrel length and porting.
