Originally posted by AGD
BJ,

Tippman as far as I know just did empirical testing and never measured anything.
Thanks for "empirical",, I needed that. The definition that I found is: "Based on obsevation or experiment and relying on practical experience rather than theory." Good to have a way to accurately define one's views. Fortunately, it does not preclude the use of measuring devises like a pretty good "calibrated eyeball".


[i]
Intersting that you scraped off most of the powder half way down the barrel. Did you dry fire the excess powder out first? We have never seen that happen in our tests, I might have to repeat them. We have seen the ball on initial launch bang sideways into the bore but most of the time we just got two streaks. [/B]
Actually, I did not dry fire air through the barrels before shooting paint through it but I did blow shop air through them first. I was carefull to minimize the amount of powder in the barrel and maintain a level of consistency by thorough cleaning and re-powdering for each test shot. I even tried smoke coating the inside of the bore with soot from an oil lamp (lamp black) and saw the same basic results.
I kind of figured that you would have seen the only "two streaks" results in your tests and I think I know why. However, there are a couple more things that I want to try/test before I stick my neck out with a plain language, "empirical " definition.

[i]
Yes we are departing from the closed bolt issue temporarily. We are trying to come to terms with the influences on the ball so we can sort them out and rank them.
AGD [/B]
Isn't the most dominating influence on the effective accuracy of a paintgun, the nature of paintballs themselves and the fact that they are relatively inconsistent in size, shape and seem position in every batch of balls encountered ? What is actually to be gained by this sorting and ranking the "influences on the ball". Aren't we really looking for a definition of what it takes for a paintgun to make the most of what we have to work with (paintballs and velocity limits) and be forgiving of the inconsistencies that it is fed ?