I had high hopes for this barrel. I had heard all kinds of great things about it, about how it would make you a force on the field, how it would instantly transform you it to a sniper that had the ability to single handedly turn the tide of a losing game. Well, I guess my name is sucker not tucker. I can't begin to tell you how much of a big fat disapointment this barrel was. In all fairness it does hold true to its one iron clad promise... it will add about 150ft to your shot. The field I frequent most often had a few fields that are just wide and long enough for normal shots to fall short, but with the flat line I was able to hit... no let re-frase that, reach the other side. To be honest, at the very begining I was so amazed at the distance and the flatness of my shots that I really didn't notice the one big glaringly obvious short coming... I couldn't actually hit anything. ( well, maybe the broad side of a barn. ) Once the magic of watching my ball fly gracfully through the air wore off, I noticed that I hadn't actually hit anybody, or even anything I was aiming at. You ever see a really good knuckle ball in baseball? How it seemingly floats through the air, randomly picking a path as it meanders about dancing gingerly on the atmosphere? The flat line does the same thing. Every shot was random. At first I assumed it must be human error, as it often is in most cases, and began the systematic proccess of trouble shooting and eliminating any possible mis-use on my part. I checked to make sure it was fastened properly, I checked to make sure I was shooting completely vertical. I muat have cleaned the barrel a dozon times or more. Nothing helped, it didn't matter, every shot was still random. My next assumtion was that it was a defective product. That perhaps during the manufacturing process, something was done incorrect and I was paying for it. So I tryed my friends gun which also was an A-5 w/flatline. No difference. I can't tell you how heavy the dissapointment fell. Here I was stuck with a device that promised so much and actually delivered very little, that I began to feel like a victim of some wonder drug scam. Sure the barrel added distance, but at what cost? Fundemently paintball barrels all work under the same guidelines; paint to barrel match = accuracy. No wonder it can't hit anything, the flatline is intentionly made extra large. I imagine anything smaller and the paintballs would not be able to handle the rigors the flatline puts them through to achieve its beloved back spin. The wind also wreaks havoc with the flatline. Any sort of cross breeze and the paintball really gets out of control. Anyway, after having said all that, I just stopped using it, and eventually sold it to someone far away, so that they couldn't come and find me.
I had high hopes and was disappointed. Save your money, and remember, if it sounds to good to be true... it probably is. I'll give a three because it does add distance.
The flatline is a very good barrel and is a great addition to your A-5. The actual barrel is curved and hidden inside a shiny hollow shroud. The air may get inside the shroud and cause the A-5 to be very loud. To fix this you can stuff the shroud by loosening one of the screws ontop of the barrel and stuffing the shroud with paper towels and making it airtight. The towels will compress and almost turn to foam muffling the sound. Now to the shinyness, this easily fixed with military duct tape or buy a new shroud. Ok now to the distance, as you already know the barrel is curved and rough inside giving the ball backspin. this were you get the added 100ft of distance and also the problems. cheap paint will get tourn or be unaccurate. Descent paint however will shoot far and fairly accurate. the paint will get less acurate the farther the ball goes. what i recomend is finding what fps your barrel likes with your paint. or get Nitro which fixes the velocity spikes in Co2. This barrel realy needs nitro because it tends to like to shoot far and accurate at one velocity and Co2 spikes too much 4 it. it still works very good though i love it. It locks in place so an idiot wont shoot it on upside down or something. This barrel is unstoppable. anything you find wrong with it you can pretty much fix. still out of the box this barrel rocks but you can still make it that much better. You will either hate it or love it, most love. On my field, everone with a tippmann has a flatline.
use good paint and HPA and you will be fine. this is easily the best woodsball barrel out there.
10 out of 10
Last edited on Wednesday, April 12th, 2006 at 9:44 pm PST
a-5 in camo, flatline, car stock, e-grip, APE board, QEV, polished internals, 32 degrees remote, DOP front bolt and power tube, 50CI Worr HPA
i have only used blaze and monster thru this. neither were that great.
Long distance, Well known and respected.
Ok, last sunday i got to got to go use this thing and there were some cool things about it that i noticed right off the bat. Yea it has great distance, but i would say my groupings at 100 feet were about 10 feet in prone position. I am not a crappy shot either, i can shoot a 286 prone, kneeling, standing.
Next thing, you can not shoot fast with this.... at all. Even on 3 round burst with brief pauses it was still chopping over 50% of the time. So you would have to stay on semi so you wouldnt chop as much, and even then, it would still chop some of the time. After you chop thats when you will lose all accuracy and be better off throwing them at people. Investing in thumbscrews for field stipping and cleaning on the front hardware and cyclone feed area would be a smart idea.
This is a so-so barrel, but i would rather get more accuracy with a shot that just acting like a "flamethrower" when i play. I am getting the J&J full tilt ceramic instead. I dont know if my info is skewed because of it being 40 degrees out while i was playing or what. because i didnt have a crappy grade of paint and didnt have my fps turned up high at all. this barrel might be good if you were throwing some cover fire, but not good for someone who wants accuracy.
nothing quite like it.......
Smart parts progresseive
Smart parts freak
Tippmann and spyder stock barrels
A-5, flatline barrel, 20 oz. co2
Nothing cheap. Get draxxus or marbalizer if u can.
Loud, expensive paint
I tested my friends A-5 with his flatline barrel and iI was slightly dissapointed by the barrel. He didnt have very good paint in the gun and after a couple shots in my first game with it there were three breaks in the barrel in a row. I got it cleaned out and it did shoot fairly well and accurate. It definetly added a lot of distance. I don't know about 200 feet but maybe. My other complaint is it's way too loud. You can't sneak up on anyone.
Overrall this was decent. Not what I would choose if i had an A-5. Too loud and expensive paint is needed. But it does help if you can spare a few bucks on paint.
Tippmann A5 E
Ak Folding Stock
Pure Energy 72/3000
I've been using Eliminator Paintballs and they work great.
May need "fine" tuning
Alright, I've read many reviews about this barrel having horrible accuracy. Well that was not the case for me. Infact this is one of the most accurate barrels I have used.
I have also read many reviews in which people stated that the paintballs were just floaing, and would not break on contact... well of course it is a lot less likely for a paintball to break at 150+ feet, but with the flatline at least you have the chance to take someone out at that distance. I have no had a problem with bounces at all yet.
I will agree that the balls look weird when they come out of the barrel, the first time i shot it it made me wonder, but the ball flies straight and flat, and breaks on contact.
I find that my barrel likes the velocity to be set at around 275fps, it seems to be its happy zone.
I have no problem with cleaning this barrel, i know that there are a lot of people who don't like the fact that you have to loosen a couple of screws and take the barrel off, but come on, it can be done in a very short amount of time if need be.
I recommend this barrel to anyone that is looking for an accurate barrel that is also great with distance.
Tippmann A-5 Stock Barrel
Smart Parts Linear 14' Barrel
4-point adjustable stock
Smart Parts 14' Linear Barrel
Get the best stuff that you possibly can. Although this thing is not as paint picky as people claim, it does break paint a bit more often than other barrels and when it does it can be a little upsetting.
The range on this barrel is everything Tippmann claims and more.
Difficult to aim
Little bit harder on paint
Basic Things to Point Out:
1. this is no speed-ball barrel. if you play woods-ball however you this is a cool choice.
2. This barrel is NOT inaccurate it is just very difficult to aim. the reason for this is that you have to hold the gun PERFECTLY straight or else your shot will curve off to either side.
3. Try to avoid shooting to fast with this barrel as it tends to break paint more frequently this way.
- range. nothing is more satisfying than out ranging the defenders in a game of king of the hill. makes for UNBELIEVABLY EFFICIENT suppression fire while your team moves up in any game.
-Loud and Distinct. this is perhaps the most useful factor of the barrel. the sound it makes when you fire is unmistakable. when players hear it they know someone is shooting a flatline and that they can be painted and never even have a chance to shoot back. however the more experienced players know that the chance of this is slim so the flatline psychology will not work on them.
-Awesome suppression fire ability. enough said.
- No Sniper Barrel. 100 shots 1 kill philosophy.
- breaks suck
Whether or not you buy this barrel should be based on 3 things.
1. are you a team player (suppression fire)
2. do you want to shell put $150 for this barrel
3. do you have money to buy enough paint for suppression fire AND hitting your opponents
i will give this barrel a 9 because it does do what it says it does but is not very easy to aim.
I bought this barrel off of a friend for a very good price. It was in perfect condition, and I have always wanted one, so I bought it. Big Mistake. First off, I had a terrible time trying to get my velocity up on it. I couldn't go above 255, so that means a new spring kit, more money. I was finally to get my gun up to speed, so I figured that it would be great. It's not. The flat trajectory is nice, but the accuracy is not. I couldn't hit anything if I wanted to. I also didn't notice that big of a difference in distance. Maybe a little farther, but not much. Finally, it eats a lot of gas, because you have to use so much to get the velocity up.
I would not recommend this product to anyone. The stock barrel is better, and if you want to upgrade there are way better barrels out there for a cheaper price.
i bought this barrel in hopes of finding good accruacy over the stock barrel. found out that the Flatline makes the ball go further and is somewhat accurate. the problem is not the barrel but the paint. you need good (expensive) paint to make the barrel work really well. since in my mind, going broke to buy something that will break (the balls) is not an option. i wanted to be able to shoot any kind of paint any day of the week. not the case. it shoots well but my dad's j & j shoots better with the type of paint we use. i am not a professional so i will not buy professional grade stuff. i just want to have fun. so that is why i am getting rid of this barrel for something else.
its a nice barrel but you can get more else where.
Nice barrel but would not recommend it to others. why? because if you just want to have fun, save money and shoot someone accurately, this is not the barrel. it is too bad i could not use the barrel to its full advantage.
Nothing's quite similar to the flatline that I can compare it to, except for maybe the Apex, which I haven't used.
Tippmann A-5 Basic, Black Finish
Smart Parts Progressive 14" barrel
BT Designs Carbine Stock
Brass Eagle 20oz Co2 tank
Atomic Energy 12 oz Co2 tank
CP gear Canadian Forces helmet scrim for the barrel
PT Xtreme Jr, black finish
Anything that's of decent quality.
-Shots move faster than they look
-Replaces your barrel thread adapter
-Brutal on cheap paint
-Lots of tinkering
The Flatline barrel for the A-5 is something I have no extended experience with, so I speak with my occasional testing games with my friend's A-5 (did a swap a few rounds), and I've only used about three types of paintballs with it. The A-5 I used this with is a response with a remote coil, BT carbine stock, and the Flatline installed on purchase.
This barrel didn't do me any impression I found favourable. Installing the barrel itself involves taking the gun apart (or loosening up the front three screws, which I would discourage, due to the stress now at the back of the marker), and unless you are like some other reviewers who are quite good with troubleshooting, this is going to be very discouraging for many potentual buyers. I'm certain that this is an isolated incident of what happened with my friend, but I think I should share it incase it happened to other people.
On his first field experience with this marker, by the end of the day, the barrels threading was quite loose and the adapter part fell out. He tried putting the stock one in, but it didn't stay in place. I blame this on having the marker purchased with the barrel installed, because there's a chance of that happening like that. If you're going to get this barrel, buy it seperately and not attached, which I would recommend. Would somebody please comment on their opinion on the matter if they did this? I speak from one experience, so I can hardly say it's the majority of cases.
Moving on, I would deathly discourage you from having a response trigger with this unless you're using compressed air or Nitrogen. All C02 likes to do is act inconsitant when it's fired fast, and if that happens with this barrel, you will start to hate it. This barrel relies on consistant performance to meet up to it's hype, and you need a 285-300 feet per second velocity for it to actually work well. It takes a lot of omph for it to get the barrel around that curved barrel properly, probably more than a completely straight barrel. Stick with a basic A-5 configuration and this should be no problem, even with C02.
I still can't help but think how cheap the construction feels because the shroud is screwed together with light weight, thin metals and the barrel itself is free floating in the shroud, connected from one hole to another. Make sure you line up the barrel when you put it in and test it for best accuracy and range, because if it's a little off, you will end up curving off to the sides and not have it get the range it's famous for.
And for the love of all things holy, if your paintballs seem brittle and uneven in parts, do not use them with this barrel and use them with a shorter one piece barrel, because if they break (which there probably is a likelyhood of doing in any barrel, let alone one with a curve), you're going to have to loosen the screws, take the barrel and it's adapter out, and throw in a swab or pull through squeegie to clean it. If you're at a field with a reputation for it's paint being mediocre quality, consider trying a different barrel for the day.
Okay, now that the problems are out of the way, here's the good stuff!
If you're fortunate enough to get this barrel installed without difficulty and it's in there nice and tight and alligned properly, you'll probably love the thing to death. It's pretty accurate (there's still much more accurate barrels out there, however) and it's distance is quite a marvel. If you like distance and accuracy, this barrel strikes a pretty good balance and does it in much shorter lengths than most of the more accurate barrels. Since it doesn't have fluting, it's loud, so I wouldn't recommend it for a sniper barrel, as snipers are supposed to hit things within regular paintball range with minimal shots and not be seen or make a distinct enough sound to pinpoint their location, so check out longer, fluted sniper barrels if that's what you're interested in. For you individuals who like to lay on the paint from outside everyone else's effective range as a supporting individual and don't care if people know where you are, this barrel was practically built for you. I said earlier don't fire fast with this thing with Co2, but if it's a consitant gas or an expansion chamber, it's not much of a concern as the diviation in the velocity isn't all that much different. Great for defense, supporting the assault, or being able to shoot through windows without calculating angle when you're going for your glory moment. In my opinion, this barrel is good for just about anything but sniping or CQF. You can be a marksman, just not a sniper. If you can't tell the difference between the two, you probably shouldn't be a sniper, anyways. If you should snipe with this barrel, for the love of all things holy, relocate after 1-2 shots without being seen, you won't be hunted down as easily that way.
From all the people I know who've used or owned this, I've only met one person who hasn't liked it, so it's a quality product that requires some tinkering and it will meet most people's needs.
Aparently, however, the word of mouth is that the Apex barrel's longshot setting is just as far, if not farther, than the flatline's barrel. Could be worth researching if you're in the market for a long ranged barrel.
It's a great barrel if you don't want to be quiet and you don't need to be pinpoint accurate in just about every category, buy it if you're more experienced with your marker and don't mind some tweeking to perfect it's performance. Make sure you have a consistant gas supply and buy medium to high quality paint, and you should be ready to go.
With some parting words, the Flatline works for a lot of people, but research other barrels for your A-5 before deciding it's a must have. It isn't the best of the best barrels (There is no such thing, they all have different strengths and weaknesses), and it isn't required for every A-5 to be flatlined.
7 out of 10
Last edited on Wednesday, February 22nd, 2006 at 4:28 am PST
Ive used both Walmart and Proshop brands (evil etc.) and any will work BUT DO NOT BUY FIELD PAINT!!! It will bust weak paint such as this
Distance and Accuraccy
If weak paint busts in it, you must squeegie it because it DRAMATICALLY loses accuraccy
I got this as a gift from my dad, and i have to say i was impressed. It preforms good in my book and if you know it well enough, you can play speedball great with it. Everyone says that it doesnt go good with speedball because you cant get in the bunker good, but you can easily shoot to the other end of the field. I mostly use ZAP in my gun, but super swirl, bigball and scortch are all runners up in it. as for proshop paint: Marb, Evil and anarchy are good in it aswell.
I have only had one kind of paint to bust in my gun and thats field paint. It sucks. walmart preforms good imo
NOTE: If a ball happens to bust in it; you MUST clean it before you can play on. It is horible when it happens. You cant even hit bunkers at 30 feet! but once you clean it you could easily shoot whatever you need to. I played speedball a few weekends ago and the owners like "I hope you have your stock barrel cuz your screwed if you dont" and it preformed awesome. I got just as many if not more than i wouldve. I also tried a J&J ceramic out after i got it. I HATED IT. It wouldnt even shoot 75 feet. it was pathetic. after about 20 rounds through it, i switched back to my flatline.
This barrel is very accurate. people think that it has good distance but not accuracy. Now this is not true. This barrel has superb accuracy. I can hit a small bunker at about 80 yards. and im not that good of a shot either
BUY IT because you will not regret it. i highly reccomend it
10 out of 10
Last edited on Saturday, February 11th, 2006 at 10:40 am PST