OK, from what I've been hearing, the Invert Mini's stock barrel is decent. Well if it's only decent, then odds are I'm gonna freakin' hate it. I've never bothered with bore matching kits (backs or inserts or whatever) before, but that's not to say I wont, so what barrel do I need to be truly satisfied?

From what I've been hearing, there are some cocker threaded barrels that work great on some markers, but the Mini just doesn't like them. I played awhile with somebody's Mini with his favorite barrel installed, & all I could think was, "Are you freakin' serious?" It was shootin' like I'd just chopped one in my A5. If you can say for certain any barrels to avoid with the Mini, please do!

So anyhow... I'm foggy on the whole bore-matching scene. From what I understand, consistency is achieved by either over boring, or under boring, while bore-matching will usually result in inconsistent velocity due to the slight size variation of the paintballs. Does that sound about right? Underboring will give me more shots per tank with a greater chance of barrel breaks, while over-boring hogs air with a reduced chance of barrel breaks. Does that sound about right?

I seldom shoot more than 400 rounds during the games we play, so if my bore-matching assumptions are correct, then I'd probably prefer a large-bore barrel, since efficiency isn't really an issue, yes? Well, let's hear it from the experienced folks then. What would you guys recommend? And if your Mini's shooting ropes, what barrel do you use?

Your friends Mini may be in need of a tuneup, a good cleaning or better paint... To the best of my knowledge a good barrel is a good barrel, if you put it on an inconsistent marker or put out of round paint through it it won't look so great but the basic physics of barrels should be the same regardless of what marker you put it on. A ball leaving the breach at a given velocity / acelleration *should* be subject to the same physics in the (same) barrel whether it's coming out of an Ion, Tippy, Bob Long, Ego, or Mini (assuming the same velocity and paint).

Couple factors to consider though, carbon fiber barrels are brilliant but if you're going to be slamming into rocks and trees alot their life expectancy may be significantly shorter than expected. I still love my old Stainless Steel Bob Long barrels, they weigh almost as much as some of the current tourney markers but tough as hell! And over-boring does consume more air but not as much as you might think... A good bore to ball match does seem to provide noticeable improvement with decent paint but if it's badly out of round it almost seems to make things worse (or at least I notice the odd out of round ones more).

Dye UL expencive but VARY worth it.

Word.
I would just shoot it stock myself but if I just had to do something shiney and new like, then a UL would be first on my list.

That's how I see it too, SW, I just figured there might be something about cocker threads, like maybe....

Oh, hey! Look what I just found on another forum:

"Unfortunately when Budd Orr made Autococker barrels he never made a technical drawing available to everyone to specify exactly how they should be made, or how the gun's internal receiver for the barrel should be made.

This has led to many different people "having a go" at it with varied success, and unfortunately we have ended up with many different set ups hitting the market such that there has been compatibility issues in the past between what were supposedly "autococker" threaded barrel and "autococker" threaded guns.

We ran into this issue when we made the Invert Mini. The barrel was a beautiful fit to the gun, but unfortunately some aftermarket barrels didn't fit or were crazy tight because of the slip fit dimensions we set up for the inside of the guns breech."

Hmmm.... Maybe I will just stick with the stock barrel. We'll see how she shoots first.

Hmm. The guy who I quoted above has been busy. Here's his excel spreadsheet that compares the I.D. of some markers to the O.D. & collar length of some barrels.

http://www.simonized.com/images/simons/Sta...rrel%20Spec.xls

As you can see, the Mini's I.D. is substantially smaller than the rest, and the stock barrel has one of the longer collars. The collar of the Dye UL is 0.012" shorter than that, so I'm wondering if the shortness in collar length would allow the UL to be easily over-tightened?

1/100th of a inch - yep, that'll make all the difference in the world - World Cup Titles are Won and Lost in the descrepencies caused by that .012 of a inch - shoot it stock because by this time next year you'll be shooting a different gun anyways. That is if your a gun whore like the rest of us.

Why the sarcasm? Obviously there is an issue with the small I.D. of the Mini, or I wouldn't have heard about the incompatibilities with some cocker barrels in the first place. All the barrel measurements listed are within 0.015" of one another, so it wouldn't surprise me if that .012" gap was enough to be a problem, considering the squeeze the narrower Mini might exert on it. Perhaps I should be looking at barrels with a longer collar to ensure it seats properly... I really don't know, that's why I'm here looking for answers before I go blow a wad on a nice barrel kit that performs like crap in the Mini.

No offence intended. Sarcasim is my middle name. Inappropriate at times when comic relief is not yet in order sure, but yeah, that minute difference could cause an issue. If 3/1000ths of a inch ( .012 vs .015 ) on the inside diameters from where breach meets barrel exsists then the physics of this world as we know it can come into play. A 3/1000th of a open gap where products meet together causing over tighting or a greesed goose on the loose? Sure - it's a factor. A different oring might be in order. It's not enough to alter a purchasing decision IMO though.

My only thing is nothing is perfect, not paint, not players, not products, not anything that matters when we all start talking about physics and accuracy for ID bore matching and barrels. We're not firing machined bullets at 1500+fps.

If there is a robot in lab with every vice created for paintball marker positioning. Wind free. One ball perfection scenarios...it all doesn't matter.
Players are in movement when playing, more then one ball is being fired as you run to bunker a guy out or gain another position.

I don't blame anyone for wanting the best barrel for thier setup - I'm just sticking my tounge out at the notion that 3/1000ths of a inch when pairing up a mini to a new barrel purchase is truly going to effect much of anything - same with a collor length, and thread hieght and other factors that can come into play with descrepencies in 'autococker threaded' barrels.

My Halfblock has a battle scar from me cranking in a barrel that was different and not a made to match my previously installed stock barrel - I just shook my head, said 'fawk' then tried another - it has another scar from me being unable to remove a barrel that the tip was reverse threaded from the back - again I said 'fawk' and ended up getting assitance to remove it - I've had barrels that didn't stay secure when playing and had to continually tighten up during game play (mainly because they needed a oring) - but even with all those descrepencies - all those barrels shot paint just fine. The gun still shoots fine. Shoots with ULs, Shoots with MatchStix, Shoots with Lucky 15's with no noticable difference between the three attached. Matches were won, matches were lost and handfulls of barrels have been tried. I'll bet all along that there were many desrepencies in ID's and everything else involved. It just didn't really matter.

If Kee/Empire really has a barrel compatibility issues when it comes to the Mini then perhaps a email inquire to them could have a more definitive recomendation - a solution perhaps to the descrepencies noted in thier product. A do not buy list will most likely not surface and wording may lean towards other Kee products.
You're the first one I've ever heard wondering about it - I've seen tons of Minis in use at tournaments, many with different barrels from across the board. I've never caught wind of anyone having a issue with purchase options for the Mini until I saw this post.

BUT what I would do is just poke a buddy standing next to me and have him hand me one of his barrels to try for a round or a handfull of paint.
This could be accomplished easily enough this Saturday at The Cage - a Mini will be there and a good handful or two of different barrels as well.

I would buy a barrel based on build quality and durability after taking some acidental core samples. Regaurdless of any love triangle between barrel, gun and forum recommendations.

Well that's uplifting...

I first heard of the barrel option issue from a Mini enthusiast/ tekky at my local field. Apparently either she or someone she knew had slapped on a really nice barrel that did nothin' but break paint, so she warned me (although I don't remember the barrel, or even if she told me what is was). Oh well, I'll find out soon enough. At least I'll know of one barrel on the "do not buy" list.

sounds like wrong bore.........and what nice barrel wazz it??.....

I think the bigger concern is that a very few barrels on that list actually have a larger OD than the mini's ID which means they won't even be able to be put on the marker at all... that's a pretty big oversight that I'd be surprised if they haven't addressed in subsequent versions of the marker but I'm inclined to assume nothing.

I do have a few older Cocker Threaded barrels that I can't get onto some of my markers because of the outer diameter of the collar (not the threaded portion but immediately in front of that) is too wide to fit into/around protrusions on the front of the marker (cocker pneumatics and LP reg).

Well... if/when we next play together I will bring up a bunch of different barrels for you to try out. I have a set of Luckys, a bunch of Bob Long Barrels, an old freak etc etc etc ... you can try them all.

Myself as well, I have a J&J barrel and a backyard special brass barrel laying around collecting dust

That reminds me, if you're not using the Freak kit these days I'll probably snag it back from you so Alex has a Cocker back as well. I expect he'll be stepping up to one of the Marqs pretty quick when we get back out playing again.