Smart Parts - Progressive Barrel v. Evil - Driver Barrel

Smart Parts Progressive Barrel uses spiral porting like the tear drop barel, but the port size gradually increases towards the end of the barrel. It is pretty accurate, on scale from 1 to 10 I give it 7.5, and does not break paint by the boxes. I noticed that Draxxus Midnight Paint is not its favorite, and it has low tolerance for misshaped or slightly odd sized pait (like they give you on some fields), but fed PMI Premium shoots through a box full with no breaks. SP Progressive will set you back about $35 - 50 (depending where you buy). It definatelly is worth the price, the 14 inch Progressive shot far more accurate than the stock 12 inch non ported barrel that originally came with my Pirahna. What you see here is the older version of the Progressive, Smartparts very revently in 2006 upgraded to look if, but the technology and quality are the same.

Evil Driver barrel looks like a 2 piece but its not. It is also not trully 14 inch because last 1.5 inch is much wider and ported. It also comes in different sizes, mine is .689 inch in diameter, it is engraved on the barrel so no confusion there. I tried it on a day when I was doing 1 on 1 with my friend. I let a case of paint through it with 3 ball breaks. It shoots straight! I was amazed by the level of accuracy on this barrel. I did some test shooting, like standing 200 feet from a bunker holding the marker perfectly still and shooting out about 20 balls in a row, almost all of them hit the bunker in the same place. Price is $40 - 60 (again diff stores have diff prices, and there is E-Bay).

In conclusion: They are definatelly far better barrels than most Spyder/Spyder clone stock barrels, if you can spare extra 20 bucks get the Evil Driver barrel. If not I am sure that you will be happy with the Progressive I played with it for 9 months with no complaints.

Generally there is a lot of myths and overblown reviews about different barrels, truth is to really make an accurate non-biast test you need to goto an indoor field (because wind can change data), get something like a heavy duty tripod or a work bench, clamp the marker in something like a vise or other type of sturdy holding device. Then you need to take a box of paint, good quality premium paint. Run balls through a sizing ring and make sure all balls are exact same size and none are misshaped. Connect air to the marker load the balls screw in the first barrel and start mesuring the distance the balls traveled, the accuracy, test consistency ect, then without moving the marcher or changing the paint screw in the other barrel and run exact same tests. The result will be quite reliable data which would allow to properly rate a barrel. Otherwise everything is just observation. Because different balls have different weights and properties, outdoor has wind and temperature changes which affect how a barrel will fire and different markers actually fire diferently, I bet that a guy with an Angel will write much better review about how his Smartparts Linear (a mid level barrel) performed where as a kid with a Spyder Victor will not be so happy with the performace.