Customer Service

Frequently Asked Questions:

- What is the purpose of the Fin?
With any barrel, the closer you can match the diameter of the barrel to the diameter of the paint you are shooting the better results you will have. In order to achieve the best accuracy enough pressure needs to build up behind the ball to distort it enough so that when it reaches the larger dia, the ball will continue to distort and create a seal in the barrel front. If the match between the paint and barrel is poor the pressure will rush around the sides of the ball and dramatically decrease the accuracy and air efficiency of your marker.

- Which barrel Length is the best?
Barrel length is really just a matter of preference. The performance differences between the 14 and 16 inch barrels are negligible. Speed ball players tend to lean toward longer barrels for the benefit of having more length to lean into air bunkers. The shark tooth was designed for the specific purpose of close quarters combat in mind. We are seeing many speedball players picking up the shark-tooth barrels for their front players.

-What is the difference between the Shark-tooth, Battlestikxx, and Bangstikxx?
The shark tooth is a 8.5” barrel that is rifled and counter-bored with no muzzle. It is a great barrel for close quarters, night play, and for speedball. The Battlestikxx is a 14” barrel and is threaded for various muzzles. The barrel is a good all around barrel for all types of play. The Bangstikxx is a 16” barrel and is the longest barrel we make. This barrel is preferred by snipers and scenario players that want to reach out and touch someone and count kills/ball. All barrels are gun-drilled, and made from billet 6061 aircraft aluminum. We make no barrels from pipe or tubing. Our rifling methods are done using state of the art technology exactly that same that is used to make real fire-arms. The longer barrels tend to get slightly more distance than the Shark-tooth due to slightly more ball rotation and time in the barrel.

- How do I find the correct fin to use and how do I use the ball gauge?
When sizing your paint it is best to measure more than one ball. Paint size varies even in the same bag of paint. The best paint to bore match allows the ball to slide through the Fin with a little bit of resistance from your pinky-finger or enough to blow the ball through the fin. A good rule of thumb for sizing your barrel is a little looser is better than too tight. You should be able to push the ball through the sizer with your pinky finger with some resistance. The ball should not fall through, and you should not have to force the ball through. Also, remember, close-up your paint from bag to bag. Moisture and temperature will cause the water vapor in the air to be absorbed by the balls resulting in ball swell. All you need is a pin-hole in your paint ball for vapor pressure to make its way into your paint. We suggest monitoring your paint size with a ball guage several times a day when playing to confirm bore and paint match. It is also a good idea to store your paint in the shade, and if possible in a cool environment if at all possible. (Ice chest with no water is excellent).


I want to get a barrel and one Fin, what bore size should I choose?
If choosing 1 bore size the .688 or .690 will cover more paint than the others. However, to gain the most efficient marker set up, choosing a sizer that fits the paint is the best choice. At D-day this year (2008), the German Tank was shooting a “Double Trouble” set-up for two Tippmann A5 ‘s shooting a competitors barrel and shooting a legal 275 ft/sec. The tank commander then replaced the competitors barrels with two 16” “Straightline” barrels on their tank using 0.688 ball sizers and the velocity jumped from 275ft/sec to 318 ft/sec. The commander then turned his guns down to 275 ft/sec saving approximately 15% air consumption while shooting the same legal velocity.


- How do I maximize accuracy with my barrel?

1. Choose the correct Fin size. If the sizer is too large for the paint you will are may see much improvement over a standard smooth bore. The ball sizer and the barrel system all work together to provide the high level of accuracy we are striving to achieve. If the Fin size is too small you will break paint. The correct fin choice will allow just a little bit of resistance against the ball. Be sure to check the size of your paint if the humidity and air temp change a lot during the day. Temp and humidity effect paint size.

2. Paint quality: The most important criteria for paintball accuracy is paint quality. While our barrel has been shown to handle lower grade better than a smooth bore, Old or highly dimpled paint is difficult for any barrel to perform well with. Old paint has a tendency to become oblong, swell, and develop flat spots. Any barrel’s performance is directly related to the quality of paint you shoot.. The Hammerhead system provides help in shooting poor quality paint over a polished musket barrel, however, good paint always results in better results. We like to see players use good paint, but our barrel system will still shoot better than a polished bore due to the ball rotation. Our players say “Save paint, Shoot a Hammerhead!”. So you can choose to shoot accurate with less shots, or spray and pray, so it is much easier to justify spending a little bit more on better paint. Players are able to put a lot more paint where they want it to go reducing the need to paint and spray with our system.

3. Velocity: The rifling of the Hammerhead was designed to work best between 260 and 280fps. The ball rotation requirement to develop a cone of eddy currents behind the ball to minimize ball drag, and minimize eddy currents and knuckle-balling is designed at 280 ft/sec. Ball velocity greater than 280 ft/sec results in greater ball rotation which can develop ball Yaw, or curvature. Speed less than about 260 ft/sec does not fully develop the required ball rotation need to achieve optimum ball rotation and accuracy. Avoid shooting above 300fps. Any velocity less than about 285 ft/sec should perform well.

4. Muzzle Design: The reverse ported muzzles we manufacture are all reverse ported in some manner. The muzzles are counter-bored which results in a greater bore diameter than the barrel. The effects of a muzzle with a greater diameter than the barrel has the effect of reducing air pressure in front of the ball as the ball transitions at the interface of the barrel-to-muzzle transition. The reduction in pressure at the transition allows the pressure on the back side of the ball and the front side of the ball to become more neutral, allowing the ball to regenerate it’s shape, or become more “round again” since it shape became non-uniform when the force of the bolt was acted upon it. The reduction in pressure at the counter-bored barrel/muzzle interface (Venturing effect) allows air to enter the reverse ports reducing the turbulence at the muzzle exit resulting in a less-turbulent ball release at the muzzle exit. Less turbulence at the muzzle exit further contributes to long-ball accuracy.

5. What are the effects of Rifling on Ball breaks?: In the fire-arm industry, Rifling is described in terms of “lands and grooves”. During barrel development, we built barrels with varying rifling rotation rates, land widths, and depths to develop a specific ball rotation rate when shooting at the legal rate of 280 ft/sec. The riflings of the Hammerhead barrels are continuous from the marker breach to the barrel muzzle. The reverse ported and counter-bored muzzles create a venturi effect when the balls pass from the barrel to the counter-bored muzzle. The venturi effect results in a lower pressure at the muzzle. This combination allows broken paint to travel down the rifled grooves and exhausted at the reverse ported muzzle. Typically, the design allows broken paint to self-clean in a few shots. However, there are some paints like Evil, and Ultra-Evil which are high-quality thick paints that are hard for any barrel to clean out however. A highly polished mirco-honed barrel with no riflings (musket-type barrel) has a surface area of high surface tension (like glass), that is difficult to clean by simply shooting balls through it.
 


 
   HAMMERHEAD®    M-F  9am - 5pm CST    Orders: (800) 908-9060    Fax: (972) 231-9319

  HAMMERHEAD® has an active program of research and engineering that keeps us on the leading edge of paintball gun technology. Our barrels are covered by U.S. Patents, No's. 7,302,944 B2 and 7,441,557, and we have other patents pending covering barrels, methods of making barrels, and paintball projectiles.

The trademarks HAMMERHEAD, Battle Stikxx Recon, Bang Stikxx, Shark Tooth, Dominator, Mofo, HAMMERHEAD Torpedo, and Protip, as well as JUST. PLAIN. MEAN, the distinctive Shark logo, and the distinctive fluted barrel design are registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.