Ok, if you’re like me you’re always trying to get a little extra out of your guns, but if you’re like me then you’re ALSO probably not looking to do major surgery on you weapon you’d rather use than put on a shelf. That’s right, regardless of what some people might suggest, not everybody is a finely trained airsoft engineer, nor is everyone who claims to be. For this reason, one of the most often upgraded parts of many airsoft guns is the inner barrel. This is the barrel that is often inside (thus “inner”) the barrel you most often see bbs coming out of. It is usually measured in millimeters, made of some form or aluminum or other light-weight metal, and is one of the most misunderstood elements of most guns by most players.
Now before going on I want to acknowledge that most people have probably heard a lot of wild and wonderful claims about the humble tightbore barrel. Some say that it has an almost mythical ability to turn spray-and-pray players into finely tuned airsoft marksmen. Some say that installing the proper tightbore will grant unto the airsoft noob almost god-like abilities to make kills at over a quarter mile away! REMARKABLE! (ahem…) Needless to say, these rumors are not entirely true. So what is a tightbore barrel? What are the benefits? Why might a person want to install one of their very own? Well, I’m glad you asked… Let’s talk about tightbores!
Before understanding tightbore barrels you first need to understand what’s happening in your gun. The airsoft gun operates by compressing air in a piston chamber and funneling it through a nozzle into a hopup unit of some kind. The bb round is loaded in this unit before the compressed air forces it down the inner barrel and out the front of your respective boomstick. Now that we’ve covered the basics let’s talk about the specifics.
As many of you know, both the hopup and the barrel play key roles in increasing the accuracy of the airsoft gun. In the same way as a pitcher in baseball attempts to control the spin of the ball in order to create uniform airflow and more accuracy, the hopup unit controls the spin of the bb in order to similarly increase distance and accuracy. It does this by putting pressure on the top of the bb which, combined with the compressed air, creates backspin as the bb travels down the barrel. What happens in the barrel though? Is it just a tube for funneling the bb? Yes and no.
In the barrel the bb is subjected to a variety of disruptors. Disruptors are hateful little things that slow down a bb, make it spin in unusual ways, and ultimately affect how accurately it travels to it’s intended destination. Now really there can be any number of these little “creatures” that might affect your gun’s performance, but I think you can probably limit these disruptors down to 4 major categories: Bounces, Drops, Leaks, and Obstructions.
As a bb travels down a barrel it does not actually travel in a straight line. Airsoft bbs are 6mm in diameter. The average stock barrel is around 6.05mm in diameter. Airsoft barrels are not rifled nor does the bb maintain contact with the walls of the barrel during flight. Instead bbs touch the barrel (or bounce) numerous times during their exit. This causes numerous problems including bbs that fly up, down, sideways, and generally everywhere the player does not intend on them to go. These bounces sometimes create addition spin backward or even forward causing unreliable bb trajectory. Combine this with the fact that a great deal of air escapes around the sides of the bb and that even small obstructions like dirt, grease, and sometimes broken bbs can slow down a round, and it is easy to see that in a standard barrel a great number of barrel-specific factors can and do affect the overall performance of airsoft guns.
The tightbore barrel solves many of these problems, but can create some of their very own. First and foremost, while a smaller barrel does limit bounce and raise the overall pressure propelling each bb creating a slightly higher fps and accuracy (especially 6.01mm tightbores), they are also extremely susceptible to the same dirt and grime that hurts standard barrels. While standard barrels’ larger diameter do allow them to better cope with disruptors, tightbore barrels are affected more and more greatly by even the smallest of foreign elements. For this reason, a tightbore barrel can be a player’s best friend, but unless he takes meticulous care of their gun it can also be his worst enemy. A player using a tightbore should regularly (I’d say just about every game) clean and swab the inner barrel of their gun with a light amount of water in order to eliminate all traces of foreign elements that might be present.
He should also take a great deal of care when installing a tightbore. While one of the easiest upgrades to perform on a gun, installing a new barrel is also one of the easiest to mess up. When installing a new barrel it must be lined up properly in the hopup unit. It must be the proper length and have the proper fittings for the intended gun. Above all this, a player installing a new barrel must make sure they do not rip or squish the hopup bucking and make sure the hopup once again attaches flush to the air nozzle. All of this, however, is a topic for another time.
Remember, tightbores can be beneficial, but you have to ask yourself if you really NEED one. If you’re happy with your gun’s accuracy and not too interested in becoming familiar with the inner workings of you trusty kill-tube (ahem… gun) you may decide to pass on this (or any) upgrade. It is always better to have a gun that works consistently rather than a gun that “would be great if I can ever get it to work.” That being said, if you’re careful, educated, and you keep your gun clean, you too might just benefit from installing a nice shiny new tightbore into your baby.
