Are you looking for the perfect barrel for your paintball gun? Well, if you are, then you are in the right place. In this post, we have chosen the top 10 best paintball barrels for your paintball gun. Whether you want it for high accuracy or less noisy we have the best option for you.

Top 10 Best Paintball Barrels

Last update on 2022-04-26 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

Tippmann Sniper Barrel

This is one of the finest barrels that comes in two lengths; 14″ and 16″ and with a 98 Custom Markers as well as 98 Custom Pro Markers.

It is well designed with a super smooth and perfect finish on the inside and super rugged with the hard anodized black surface on the outside.

The barrel’s design is simple and incredible with some fluting and porting at the end that helps to disperse the gas that comes out at the end of the barrel in a quiet way.

With the longer, more accurate or more precise barrel setup like this, you are able to achieve great performance.

Tippmann sniper barrel comes in the matte black finish to give it that stealthy look. It’s available in both 14 and 16-inch lengths.

The barrel is available in A-5, X7, and the Tippman 98 thread. It’s made out of lightweight aluminum and the inside is a low friction surface. Tippmann sniper barrels are just micro honed for accuracy so it has got a super smooth and perfect finish on the inside.

It is a one-piece barrel. It is a great upgrade for any Tippmann marker. Tippmann sniper barrel is going to give you a longer barrel than the stock ones that come on most of the Tippmann markers so it gives you a different look.

It has a hard anodized black outside to it so it is super rugged, super durable as well. It is made up of light aircraft grade aluminum so it’s going to be super-lightweight.

The pattern or the design is very simple on the gun. It does have some fluting and some porting at the end but not
throughout the entire barrel so definitely your sound signature will be different than a barrel that’s got more porting throughout.

It does have a good amount of porting note to help disperse the excess gas as it comes out the end of the
barrel trying to make the barrel a little bit quieter.

As I always say that barrel length should not exceed 18 inches and not below 12 inches for the higher accuracy and Tippmann sniper does have a perfect length and it definitely helps in taking the accurate shots.

 

DeadlyWind Null Carbon Fiber one piece Paintball Gun Barrel

As you got to know from its name it is made up of Carbon Fiber so it is an extremely lightweight barrel. These barrels are completely manufactured in the US and they hand check each one of these for quality control.

Deadly wind is so confident of their quality control and their manufacturing processes that they have a lifetime guarantee against manufacturing defects but what else sets deadly wind apart from other carbon fiber barrels?

Well, Deadly wind manufactures their barrels using a unique three-layer process the most important layer though
is their inner layer and that’s what they call as the silk fiber. It is super slick, super smooth and it’s gonna lead to a
nice accurate shot.

DeadlyWind Null Carbon Fiber one piece Paintball Gun Barrel comes with A5/X7 Threads.

It also means you’re gonna be able to do something that not all carbon fiber barrels can say you can
use certain barrel cleaners to clean out your barrel when you have broken paint. A lot of other carbon fiber barrels will experience issues like fiber threads will come out from the porting holes edges which make the surface rough.

I can tell you this confidently that you’ll never encounter such problem in DeadlyWind Null Carbon Fiber barrel.

DeadlyWind Null Carbon fiber barrel is one of the extremely light-weight, accurate and quiet barrels weighing an average 45 grams for a 12″ and 50 grams for a 14″.

It is manufactured using a unique three-layer process; a silk fiber layer, which is super silked and super smooth, a uni-direction fibers layer, which has a strong multi-vector pattern, and a 2 by 2 satin twill external layer.

It gives a nice accurate shot with the ability to use a barrel swab, a bomb swab or a barrel made and it has a lifetime guarantee against defects.

Despite its lightweight, the barrel is so tough and durable as it remains intact even after being run over by a car.

 

Deadlywind Fibur-X Carbon Fiber Autocker Threaded Paintball Barrel

This Fiber-X barrel is made of carbon fiber body hence making it one of the lightest barrels in the market. An amazing feature about this product is its ability to interchange its backs with swappable threads.

It also has an ability to utilize the Freak inserts kits which are replaceable so one barrel and a few inserts will accomplish the task of multiple barrels.

In addition, it is comprised of three parts; the thread adapter which matches your gun type, a carbon fiber which is the main part of the barrel and the freak insert which aligns the bore of the barrel.

 

BT Paintball APEX 2 Barrel

This is one of the hottest barrels in the paintball market which are available in 14 inch or 18-inch lengths and a Tippmann 98, AS and Autococker threading.

It has an impressive nine different points of adjustability on the very top and curve positions to hit your target. it also has an ability to curve your shots in order to hit your unreachable targets.

The barrel is equipped with a durable aluminum material with a tool-less disassembly for easy maintenance. In order to eliminate a distant target, the BT Apex 2 barrel enables you to take long trajectory shots with a quick twist.

However, due to the limited size of the barrel porting, it makes a louder shot.

So let’s go over some of the features of that Apex2 barrel.

It has a durable construction with aluminum casing and adjustable ramp. The ramp is on nine points it has
nine points of adjustment so it basically just puts a flap down so your balls have added curve for tricky shots and hard corners. It also has an on/off capability.

I love the length of this barrel. 14- inch is just so accurate.  I always go with a 14-inch or a 16-inch barrel but if you’re into sniping probably 18-inch would be a good choice for you.

This Apex2 Barrel looks so much stylish and adds a nice performance to the gun. 14 inch Apex2 is a Tippmann A5 threaded barrel and as it is a  little longer thread so there are no o-rings needed for the extra seals for air leaks. and

In my opinion, I think Apex2 Barrel is a great choice because it’s great for CQB situations and maneuvering over tight corners.

Also, there is a switch that you push forward and in to get to your next settings and what the settings
are is a flip up lockdown in the front of the barrel that makes your balls curve either up to the right, left or dip.

These curves are not as like the Empire predicted in the picture. It goes over and get a gradual curve instead of like
straight on. So that’s something you need to note when you want to buy this barrel.

 

Empire Apex 2 Adjustable Barrel Kit

This is an additional tip section to the Apex 2 ready Barrel that comes in pieces with an intention of assembling them.

It is composed of the stabilizer, the tongue or ramp, adjustment slider, four rings and the outer sheath which are all put together.

It possesses an on/off capability and has the ability to hit the previously untouchable targets with the new feature. Due to its ability to assemble and disassemble, it makes it easier to clean up.

 

Tippmann 98 Platinum Series Barrel

This is a reliable type of Tippmann 98 Platinum series Barrel that is easily customized and durable due to its aluminum material.

For a newbie, this is actually the best paintball gun to start with. It gives the best features like improved performance and accuracy of the series.

The customization ability allows users to make a crazy selection of accessories in several ways and upgrade possibilities.

Due to its lightweight, players can easily move in the battlefield with ease and does not slow down the playing speed.

Moreover, the barrel does not make a loud sound due to the moderate operating pressure.

 

Tippmann A-5 Flatline Barrel With Built-in Foregrip

This is the first backspin barrel produced for a level and precise shot using the patented technology.

It is designed for longer ranges and accuracy of up to 250 feet and it also offers trajectory for canopy play and thick bush. The backspin is created by the curved barrel which applies centrifugal force to the ball.

Additionally, it has a built-in foregrip which includes wide mouth barrel sleeve which is compatible with all the Tippmann AS makers.

 

Dye Precision UltraLite Boomstick .688-Inch Paintball Barrel 

This is the best barrel of its kind on the market that gives the players the best accuracy and improved performance. Since it is made of aluminum construction, the barrel is tough and durable.

It is made of a two-piece design comprising of a barrel front which comes in a variety of lengths and heavily ported to improve your accuracy and a barrel back which is about 6.5 inches long.

Additionally, Ultralite Boomstick is more appealing, has precise quality shots, and has a low-level sound signature hence the preferred choice of the world’s top professionals.

 

DYE Precision GF Boomstick Barrel

Glass Fiber barrels are made of carbon fiber and stainless steel thus yielding an advanced performance barrel. It is a combination of utmost accuracy and stunning looks with an amazing muzzle port design.

This design has a steady port that gives the barrel a low sound signature. The barrel has a back length of eight inches that allows the paintball to reach the terminal velocity before porting optimizes the performance.

Furthermore, the barrel has a lightweight design, excellent quality and a smooth bore making it the best in the market.

 

GOG Freak Jr Paintball Barrel

This is actually like a three-piece barrel having the front, the back and has an insert inside of it No matter how picky you are, the selection of inserts will satisfy all your needs.

You can find the perfect fit for the ball to barrel match and the get great performances, accuracy, and distance that is possible with the barrel setup.

The tip is a generic 14-inch length barrel with Freak junior profile to it and is compatible with other tips.

The barrel is most reliable and accurate for the players at any level and its port is one of a kind.

 

How to choose a paintball barrel – Buyer’s Guide

Factors to consider while choosing the Paintball Barrel

Paintball Barrel Bore Size

So I’m sure you’ve wondered what size bore should I use. Well, I’ve gone through this too and through my experience, I’ll explain how you should be picking the bore for your particular paint. So, there are so many different bore sizes that you can get.

It is a general misconception that all paintballs are of the same size. Generally, paintballs are of .689 calibers but some paintball manufacturers make them different.

Like few of them producing  .685 calibers. So it is necessary to choose the compatible bore size barrel.  We recommend you to buy Empire Paintball JR Barrel Kit as it contains 3 bore inserts (.680,.685,.690) which is a versatile kind of barrel kit.

Picking a right bore size barrel is really important to shoot straighter. There’s kind of a process that you can go through and see which is going to be the best for that particular paintballs.

You’ll see on any insert or bore kit that there’s are little numbers printed at the bottom. These are the different bore sizes and what you can do is grab a couple of balls and then you’re just gonna put them in the barrel. You don’t want the ball to be too tight and you also don’t want the ball to roll through.

You want to be able to put it in there so that it doesn’t come out of another end on its own but when you blow into the barrel it should pretty easily come out.

So typically you want a barrel size that is a 685 caliber bore size that’s not too snug but snug enough that air is trapped behind it and pushes it evenly and pushes the ball all the way to the end of the barrel.

If you have a really big bore size and a very small ball, when that ball travels down the barrel, it’s going to wobble. And when it comes out the end, it’s going to lose its trajectory of being accurate and you don’t want that to happen.

 

Paintball Barrel Material Quality

Carbon Fiber Barrel Vs Stainless Steel / Aluminium Barrel

Well, If you ask me which one of these 3 material type barrel is more accurate then I would say that accuracy does not really depend on material composition. There is no problem for accuracy as long as the barrel’s interior surface finish is good.

So carbon fiber barrels are super-lightweight, tough and have a nice surface finish. Carbon fiber is strong enough to bear a fall from a multi-story building. So, bearing the force by paintball shots is not a big deal for it. I personally feel that when carbon fiber barrels are on guns it is a little bit easier to move around and whip back and forth. But due to lightweight, the gun kicks. If we have more weight on the front it would kick less so that is a drawback of carbon-fiber barrels.

If we take aluminum or stainless steel barrels they are quite heavy so the guns kick less or you can say that kick of the gun cannot lift the barrel up hence, they help to take some stable shots.

Also, you also can’t have much porting in carbon fiber barrels because the carbon fiber is a weave. You can’t
put tons of porting. So let’s say if you have you have two pieces of carbon overlapped and you put a porting hole
in it, sometimes this middle section just falls out. Empire noticed when they made the Empire super-freak with the carbon-fiber barrel tipped.

They put a ton of porting and pieces of the carbon fiber were literally falling out of the barrel so sometimes it would come off on the inside of the barrel and that’s not good.

And because of the material, the carbon fiber is so dense as compared to aluminum or stainless steel so that sound wave can travel a little bit easier through it so the reduction in porting and the material that carbon fiber being dense leads to the barrels creating a louder sound.

So carbon fiber barrels are gonna be lighter but a little bit louder and definitely cool/stylish.

Paintball Barrel Length

So, many people ask this question “What is the ideal paintball barrel length?”. Well, if put simply it depends on quite a few things like your playing style, gas efficiency, etc. So, today I’ll answer this question in detail and I hope it helps you to choose the best paintball barrel length.

Picking a barrel size has some science in it and some personal preference to it.  A lot of people pick longer barrels. They go for the longer one just because they think it’ll shoot further. But in all reality, it’s not going to make a difference in how much farther it shoots.

Accuracy depends on the length of barrels to some extent but it majorly depends on the paint you are shooting. So, if you want your shots to be more accurate you should buy high-quality paintballs.

It is observed that gas-efficiency generally decrease with increasing length of the barrel. However shorter barrels are more gas-efficient and they need less air to shoot the balls.

But shorter barrels being more air efficient gives a loud pop sound while taking a shot. As more air surrounds the paintball in the shorter barrels hence increase turbulence and results in the less accurate shot.

According to paintball experts, 7 inches is the minimum length of an ideal paintball barrel and should not exceed 20 inches. Only some professional paintball snipers buy the 20-inch barrel. Players buy longer barrels as it helps them to take shots while they are hiding in the bushes if you are into woodsball or air bunkers if you are a speedballer.

It does not mean that longer paintball guns would be very quiet. Well, they are quieter than the shorter ones but majorly porting is the main reason for quieter paintball barrels. We’ll discuss that later.

The recommended barrel size that you’ll want to have is always around 12 inches or longer because you want it to have accuracy.

Self Cleaning Technology

This is a very important factor to look for while buying the paintball barrel. I know it is very annoying when you keep on cleaning barrels with squeegees after a few shots.

Maybe due to dirt or paint sometimes when a paintball breaks in the barrel only. Hence self-cleaning barrels are the best solution.

Self-cleaning technology is basically the capability of the barrel to clean itself from inside every time you take the shot.

This is possible by the Teflon coating of the barrel from inside. Hence, if the dirt or paint sometimes sticks to the barrel from inside it can be easily cleaned by the next shot. The paintball will take away all the dirt/paint with it.

Paintball Barrel Porting

Paintball Barrel Porting is basically the tiny holes present in the front part of the barrel. These tiny holes are of great importance.

if you have a good quality expensive gun, you’ll see the porting on it. With all these holes that are drilled in the barrel. What that does is it allows the gas — the air — behind the ball as it’s traveling down the barrel to stabilize near the end.

So when that ball comes out the end of the barrel and that big explosion happens where the air dissipates all around the ball, it doesn’t let it have so much energy that it hooks one way.

So that’s why I tell everybody that it’s important to go with a barrel that’s ported. If you have a barrel that’s not ported or has a muzzle brake, I would not use it. It’s going to only make your balls shoot everywhere that you shouldn’t be shooting. Let’s look this into a bit detail.

So basically porting help in two ways.

1.  Reduce the shot sound.
2. Improves accuracy

So, what happens is when you shoot paintball with a paintball marker air pressure is created in the gun and it moves the paintball and gives it the required momentum, very high velocity so the extra air surrounds the paintball and as soon as paintball comes out of the barrel the air produces the loud pop sound for some people which is very annoying.

Hence, the porting on the barrel takes out the extra air even before paintball leaves the barrel hence makes the gun a lot quieter.

The second thing which porting helps in is improving accuracy. As I said earlier that accuracy majorly depends on the paint which you are using. But no one can deny this fact that it also depends on the barrel. The porting plays a crucial role in determining the accuracy of the gun.

Well, as I said when you pull the trigger, pressure develops in the gun and the extra air pressure at the time of shot can cause increasing turbulence of paintball. It can lead to spinning, shaking the paintball which can lead to a wrong trajectory.

So what happens is that most of the energy is used to create velocity and speed as it works all the way down the barrel. And as it gets down to the last couple inches of the barrel, it dissipates some that energy. The ball comes out and all that energy breaks evenly so that ball doesn’t hook.

The ball stays stable and gives it a straight shot. So, the porting can remove the extra air pressure while paintball moves through the barrel and leads to a perfect shot.

Some people argue that over porting can lead to less powerful shot as it removes the excess of air pressure which is required for the paintball to go farther. I completely agree with them, as there is a sweet point between over porting and under porting.

Manufacturers like Empire have already experimented and got to know this sweet point. Hence, they produce the best paintball barrels in the world.

Paintball Barrel Accuracy

How to get better accuracy:

1. Keep your barrel clean.
2. Use the proper barrel bore size.
3. Use good quality paint.
4. Correct Barrel length.
5. Proper Barrel Porting.

Let’s talk them one by one.

Keep your barrel Clean

It is very important to keep clean your barrel clean. Sometimes dust or paint get stuck on the inner part of the barrel which can slow down the velocity of the paintball or increase the turbulence. Both of which are bad for the accuracy of paintball guns.

Use the proper barrel bore size

As I have explained this earlier that accuracy also depends on barrel bore size. You should always go for ideal bore size. If the bore size is larger than the paintballs then paintballs would freely wobble inside the barrel and can shoot them in wrong directions.

If the bore size is less and paintballs are larger then paintballs can get stuck inside and it can slow down the velocity of the paintballs or they can even break inside the barrel.

You should choose the barrel bore size which is just right for the paintballs.

Use good quality paint

As it is said, “Garbage in, garbage out”. If your paintballs are not of the good quality they are not gonna be totally spherical, or they might be having bad surface finish hence many things can happen. Either it would slow down your paintballs or not shoot straight.

I would always recommend you to buy good quality paintballs if you want your shots to be accurate.

Correct Barrel length

I think I have explained it earlier paintball barrel section. You just need to select neither too short nor too long barrel. I feel that ideal barrel length should be between 12 inches to 18 inches.

If it is too short then due to high air pressure more turbulence will lead to less accuracy and if barrel length is quite large then that would slow down paintballs and shoot weaker shots.

Proper Barrel Porting

Barrel Porting is important in increasing the accuracy of a paintball gun. As we’ve discussed before they remove the extra air pressure helps in stabilizing paintball and leads to smooth and very accurate shots.

Faq’s

1 what is a paintball barrel insert?
2 what is a paintball barrel sleeve?

 

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