Barrel Upgrades? Opinions welcome

[Showe22]

I've got an HK416 that has been upgraded internally. The only original parts left are the gearbox shell and the rifle body.

While playing a few weeks ago I fell and snapped my mock suppressor off the threading, which was covering the end of my Prometheus inner barrel. Sadly, the barrel bent and is currently being used as a back scratcher.

Time for a new barrel!

I've always wanted a miracle barrel, but the only ones promoting it seem to be ASGI and Airsoftology. I don't want to fall prey to the hype of a company sponsored by miracle barrel. Does anyone have experience with these?

I would consider going back to prometheus. It shot well, and I liked it.

Any other suggestions? My madbull barrel in my TM 1911 was a dream to shoot, but I feel like Madbull isn't on par with Prommy or Magic Box.

[pestobanana]

Magic Box barrels are garbage.

Get a Prometheus or PDI.

[MrCarrington]

Or Edgi (pricey, but awesome)

[BioRage]

Originally Posted by MrCarrington

Or Edgi (pricey, but awesome)

No.

Originally Posted by pestobanana

Magic Box barrels are garbage.

Get a Prometheus or PDI.

Master race.

[cetane]

Is your original pooched to the point that cutting it shorter & recrowning it is out if the picture?

[MrCarrington]

Originally Posted by BioRage

Master race.

Like this?

[BenG]

The fact of the matter is, the barrel is such a teeny tiny part of a guns performance unless you are getting the best barrel on the market your wasting your money. The only barrels in my opinion that are worth spending a dime on are the Prometheus 6.03 and the PDI 6.05 if you have no other option the PDI 6.01 will also do the trick but will require lots of cleaning. If you plan on doing your hop upgrades yourself I would reqomend the prometheus as its hop up window is significantly easier to work on, and in some cases better.

Furthermore the ONLY qualities in a barrel that matter are; in order of importance: bore quality, hop up window size and shape, and material. Smooth and consistant, hop window should be square and long, and the barrel should be made from not more then one peice of stainless steel. As far as bore size goes, it only really affects how fast you start loosing accuracy, and how much air your going to waste, anything bigger then 6.08 in an AEG is going to start loosing more air then its worth and anything smaller then 6.03 is going to foul more then its worth. As far as length goes, the same thing as bore size, the longer the barrel the less air you need but the higher chance you will foul, the shorter the less chance of fouling but more air is needed, anything over 11" is useless unless you are trying to go for some fps record, optimal length cant really be conclusively proven but it seems to be around 8-10" gets the best blend of not fouling and optimal bb acceleration. When it really comes down to it a flat hoped prommy barrel and a flat hopped stock barrel and going to be within inches of each others groupings and within several feet of each others range, the major reason besides marginal gains, behind swapping barrels is its not worth it to spend 40 or 60 dollars on an rhop on a 20$ stock barrel, and even then upgraded barrels are about marginal gains.

Madbull barrels: coated aluminum, they can if your outer barrel is not snug, flex and vibrate, aluminum oxidizes when exposed to air and since madbull makes most of its barrels 6.01 and 6.03 the coating is bound to get scratched and now your barrel is fouling even when your not using it

magic box barrels: are gimicky bullshit, are 2 piece construction, and I have never ever been impressed with bore quality, the only thing that has ever made me not throw up when someone has mentioned a magic box barrel is that they make them 6.05 diameter which I believe is just the right blend of not loosing air catastrophically in an AEG and not fouling after 10 bbs.

And finally to conclude the reason people who have no idea what they are doing claim massive range and accuracy increases from putting their new 6.01 650mm python barrel (this is not a barrel you should get) into their stock AEG is usually because of the following reasons: they have never cleaned their barrel ever, and their stock barrel is terribad. So when they switch to the new barrel, its clean, and its slightly better which translates to it being alot better then their gummed up stock barrel, also a massive placebo effect, and generally when someone does their barrel they do their hop up which is where the real gains happen, and funnily enough is alot cheaper to upgrade then the barrel itself.

[Drakker]

What BenG said. If you still have the original stock barrel use it, and keep your money for more guns/gear.

[ThunderCactus]

What was your barrel doing in your mock suppressor in the first place? lol
Just cut it down to an inch shorter than the outer barrel, it's probably still fine.

[Showe22]

Originally Posted by cetane

Is your original pooched to the point that cutting it shorter & recrowning it is out if the picture?

Sadly, the barrel is toast. I tried cutting it but it's far too short now.

[Showe22]

Originally Posted by ThunderCactus

What was your barrel doing in your mock suppressor in the first place? lol
Just cut it down to an inch shorter than the outer barrel, it's probably still fine.

It extended past the flash hider, so it was inside the mock suppressor. I tried cutting it down, unfortunately it's not fine.

[BenG]

Originally Posted by Showe22

Sadly, the barrel is toast. I tried cutting it but it's far too short now.

short doesnt matter, the outer barrel could extend 10" past the end of the inner and you could stand and spin around as fast as you like and the bb isnt going to hit the side of the outer barrel

[tdotsofter]

PROMI OR PDI, Rhop.

[ThunderCactus]

How short is too short I wonder?
Just for shits, cut it down to the shortest it needs to be and just try it out. Worst case scenario is the cylinder has too much volume for the barrel.
But you can always buy a new barrel if it doesnt work

[Showe22]

Originally Posted by ThunderCactus

How short is too short I wonder?
Just for shits, cut it down to the shortest it needs to be and just try it out. Worst case scenario is the cylinder has too much volume for the barrel.
But you can always buy a new barrel if it doesnt work

That's the problem I ran into, too much air volume for the barrel. I may try to turn it into a pistol barrel if I can modify the hop up window well enough.