Chris Schneck

Both the BT Apex barrel and the Tippmann Flatline barrels work in much the same way to increase the distance your paintball will travel, but are physically much different in design. Before the paintball leaves the barrel friction is intentionally applied to the top of the paintball creating backspin, also known as underspin, such that the paintball rolls backwards as it travels towards your intended target.

This phenomenon is known as the Magnus effect, whereby a spinning object creates a whirlpool of rotating air or liquid about itself. On one side of the object, the motion of the whirlpool will be in the same direction as the windstream that the object is exposed to. On this side the velocity will be increased. On the other side, the motion of the whirlpool is in the opposite direction of the windstream and the velocity will be decreased. The pressure in the air is reduced from atmospheric pressure by an amount proportional to the square of the velocity, so the pressure will be lower on one side than the other causing an unbalanced force at right angles to the wind. The overall behaviour is similar to that around an aerofoil with a circulation which is generated by the mechanical rotation, rather than by aerofoil action.

A seemingly mystical defiance of gravity is the result, with paintballs traveling in a relatively flat line instead of a traditional arc. As explained above, this is becuase the direction of the spin placed on the paintball creates a lifting force. The solid ( paintball ), spinning backwards through the fluid ( air ).

Ive personally had a chance to use both the BT Apex barrel and the Tippmann Flatline barrel, on both Tippmann 98’s and Tippmann A5’s, and im truly torn between the two. They are both excellent choices, they both do as they claim, but in the end i think the BT Apex barrel is the better choice.

I currently own a BT Apex Barrel on my Tippmann A5. The older models like mine have a .692calibre bore size, however recently BT has changed the Apex to be a slightly smaller .689 - .69calibre. Mimicking Flatline performance is quite easy with the sliding switch on top of the barrel end ( I use setting 4 or 5 ). Drop shots work amazingly! hook shots left to right arent so hot, but it still works. It installs like a regular barrel, cleans like a regular barrel and isnt at all picky about what paint you use. However the more brittle the paint, the more you should ease the slider on the top back, as too much pressure from the rubber paddle inside will liquify paint thats too brittle.

The Tippmann Flatline barrel is no less formidable. Like my older BT Apex, the Tippmann Flatline is a .692calibre. There nothing fancy going on here and as soon as you’ve installed it correctly you’re ready for long shots. It can be a pain to install, its definitely a pain to clean and there’s definitely no adjusting the amount of spin you want to put on the ball. It looks just as bad ass as the apex, I personally think more-so on the Tippmann 98, and the distance for straight out long shots is just as good.

For optimal performance out of either of these barrels, remember to chrono your marker to around a stable 260fps.

Tags: apex, BT, flatline, lifting force, magnus effect, Paintball, tippmann

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 6th, 2007 at 11:11 pm and is filed under Info, Paintball, Science. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.