Hammerhead Barrel Review...

[Steers]

Interested in the Hammerhead?







In this thread, I will post a review of the Battle Stikxx, of the many Rifled barrels made by Hammerhead. My intention in this review is to simply give you all that I have observed in the last 3 weeks of testing. Please take note that I am not here to cut-down any other barrels out there and have respect for everyone's personal preference. I will simply provide you the facts for the sole purpose of you making a good decision when the day comes that you want a better barrel.

************************************************** ********
A couple of months back I began to ask questions about the Hammerhead Barrel System. It made sense to me when I first heard about it and learned how worked that a rotating paintball would be more accurate vs. a paintball being shot with out rotation. But being that paintball is a fairly expensive sport and I'm not made of money, I didn't want to buy another barrel that was expensive, advertised (like every other barrel) to be accurate, and in the end took endless tweaking to get balls shooting straight –but not super accurate. Receiving positive feedback from Rembrandt, Little Ho, and jhardy66 concerning the Hammerhead, I figured that it was worth a try and being at the time I managed to get a couple things sold and I had the money to go for it.

So I got a hold of Robert Judson with Hammerhead and asked about the barrels and how they worked. Even while hearing good things, I was very skeptical about buying something that was advertised and said to be very accurate when almost every barrel on the market is advertised that way. One thing that impressed me was that I spent about 20 minutes on the phone with Robert as he walked me through how the barrel worked and what it should do that other barrels would not. It made sense to me and I was pretty sure that it would work, but still, I had to try to believe it. I thought that the 12in. Battle Stikxx would be a good barrel to start with so I got a Hammerhead kit containing one 12in. Battle Stikxx barrel, 5 fins (bore seizers), Lithium Grease Paint, and a stainless steel Hammerhead bore sizing kit. Off the bat, I was impressed with how important the matching of paint to barrel was along with the rifled inside of the barrel. Another thing I noticed was the the threading for the bore seizers were extremely tight. I asked Robert what the purpose of the threading was, he said that it was twice as small as regular aluminum bore sizing kits and that it matches the bore to the barrel better giving it an almost perfect match which would add increased accuracy

On Saturday, January 28th, I went with Pain-Cell to Saluda Paintball located in Honae Path. There, I extensively tested the accuracy of the barrel. Saluda Paintball was based right next to the Saluda River. The Saluda River had targets like rocks and trees that were as far as 150+ feet. In shooting the Hammerhead using a VF-Tactical Auto-Cocker with a Qloader and shooting Engage and Nightmare paint I was able to accurately hit rocks no less than 150 ft. with almost perfect accuracy. When shooting at the targets, the paintballs were hitting the splats made on the targets, this continued as long as I was shooting with the exception of a few rounds. The shot grouping was incredibly tight. I was completely astounded when I participated in a speedball tournament with 2 friends and was able to shoot 5 rounds and 3 of them hit my opponent just barely sticking out of a bunker. Spyderman, a member of Carolina Pain was helpful in helping me test this barrel. He assisted me as I walked 150-175 ft. away from him and allowed him to shoot me with the hammerhead to see for my self just how accurate it was. He shot 15 rounds at me with 7 rounds hitting me with the other rounds missing by inches -infact, I did move my stance a little to avoid getting hit so technically I should have been hit closer to 11 times. He then broke a paintball inside of the barrel and continued to fire in order to test the "self-cleaning" feature. The rounds were very inaccurate and few came close to me. Later on it was argued that nightmare and engage had very thick paint.

I also used my Auto-Cocker pump with the Hammerhead and compared it with my 16in. old school Freak Parts barrel which was accurate and quiet. The Hammerhead was just as accurate with the pump as it was with the VF-Tactical but was loud in comparison to the Freak Parts barrel. The accuracy of the Freak Parts barrel did not come to be as accurate as the Hammerhead. The extended distance that the hammerhead gave clearly outmatched the Freak Parts. When I speak of distance, its credited is partly due to the soaring shots that pumps usually give. The rifled internals cause the ball to spin, creating kind of a needle nose of air creating less turbulence while traveling.

I tested the Hammerhead in rainy weather for 2 days. Testing in rainy weather, the Hammerhead did well, the self-cleaning in the barrel took care of water inside; it didn't disrupt its performance in accuracy and distance. Remembering the keep the barrel down helps a lot when playing in the rain. Windy weather did not affect the performance of the Hammerhead considerably, but it did make the paint fly a bit to the side. The Quality of paint is not as important as I thought it would be. I shot Draxus, Engage, Nightmare, Marbalizer, PMI, and even Wal-Mart paint and all shot well with the Hammerhead. When it comes to chopping a ball, I’ve found that it mainly depends on what kind of paint you using, if it is thick paint, you will have trouble self-cleaning the barrel and will probably need a swab, if you have thin paint, it is easier to self-clean with a few shots and your back to normal.

One thing that did get my attention is that as a result of the paint rotating through the air, it makes a very intimidating swooshing sound as it flies past your head. At first I thought that the gun was shooting hot when Spyderman was shooting at me, but it turns out that as the ball rotates, it creates a tornado like cone that drags behind it. It’s almost the same idea as a bullet. The science of the barrel with its function and the way the air is reacting to the paintball as it leaves the barrel the air is swooshing as the paintball travels through the air. Also, one thing that I’ve learned about the hammerhead is that it is a very unique barrel. As such, it has been made to fire paintballs no higher than 385fps. Any higher and the paintballs would break. This is not a bad thing, being that at 280fps. The ball goes farther and straighter than a normal aluminum barrel would.

In Conclusion:

After testing the barrel out for 4 play-days and 5 shooting days, I overall consider this barrel to be superior in accuracy and distance combined when compared to any other barrel system. It’s accuracy is superb and the paint goes straight on. Being a newly born pump player, accuracy is one of the most important things to have and the Hammerhead is the best that I have used. For accuracy I give the Hammerhead a 10 out of 10 The Hammerhead is not the quietest out there but is not the loudest either. For noise, I give Hammerhead a 6 out of 10 The noise of the shot is reversed being that the porting reverses air flow and the direction of noise of the shot so it is quiet to the shootee but loud to the shooter. Self-Cleaning again, depends on your paint. For self-cleaning I give the Hammerhead a 6 out of 10. One of the biggest advantages of the hammerhead is that the barrels require fins (bore sizers) to fit on the marker. This gives you the ability to use all of your hammerhead barrels on the same bore sizers and the ability to interchange your barrels. The bore sizers have the marker's threading, the barrel's threads fit on any hammerhead made bore sizer.

After using this barrel, It’s become my favorite. It has rarely chopped for me in using Draxus, Marbalizer, Engage, Nightmare, PMI, and even Wal-Mart paints and has served me well on the field. I highly recommend this barrel to anyone who’s main desire for their marker is to have accuracy.


For more information pertaining to the Hammerhead Barrels feel free to visit their site.

Hammerhead Paintball Barrels and Accessories. Rifled Paintball Barrels

If you have any comments/complaints/recommendations/additions/subtractions go ahead and place them here.

Thanks,

Ben 'Steers' Bowens

[thumper]

I borrowed steer's hammerhead last saturday for a game or two and a hopper full at the range. I think it was a 13"

I was shooting .683 whitebox paint of sorts, '95 ish old school cocker and holding a very respectable 12" pattern at 100'. It seemed the barrel controled the paint well.

It was loud to be, but as I later read online, it is supposed to be - to the shooter - due to the reverse angle porting.

The fins can be a pain to remove from the marker - especially if working w/ a cocker. I didnt have trouble breaking paint shooting 400 rounds or so.

In conclusion I was left with a few impressions:

1) I bet these rock on the Tippmans.

2) I would love to try a longer barrel on a phantom - I can see good things.
If owned a phantom, I would certainly want to try one on it.

3) I'de like to borrow it again using my magic 8 ball sniper II and a variety of paint for a more thorough test.

4) Accuracywise - Im thinking exceptional - beyond anything else Ive used - but mine was a limited test. Im pretty fond of my Kaner kit, but I am anxious to give hammerhead a longer test on the finest Sniper II I own -


NEXT --- A toe to toe comparison Hammerhead against the famed WGP Kaner Kit. ---

[CamoJester]

I shot the the Hammer Head Steers has. I did not use it in a game, but I did do some ranged target shooting. It held an excellent pattern at 150 feet. I really liked it. It seams to be a very good barrel. The fins were no problem on my VFTactical. I would like to shoot it in a game.

[spyderman]

I agree with jester,I didn't get to play alot with it but when I did I was VERY accurate.About 18 of 20 shots hit within a half inch of each other at a range of about 130 to 150ft.I was so impressed I am considering buying one for my new tippman

[drewcif]

I shot it beifly on my cocker and it was pretty sweet, ive liked the ceramic J&J one a little bit better though

Drew

[Steers]

Originally Posted by spyderman

I agree with jester,I didn't get to play alot with it but when I did I was VERY accurate.About 18 of 20 shots hit within a half inch of each other at a range of about 130 to 150ft.I was so impressed I am considering buying one for my new tippman

Yeah, I know you enjoyed shooting me out in the open!

[mini-me]

Ya, my hammerhead barrel is working great, thanks to steers...he filled me in with a bunch of info and, talked to the company about them, told me a perfect kind for me and i got it, great prices too! i really admit these barrels to anyone, i mean i love my ultralite, but hammerhead is top noch on my gun

THANKS STEERS!

[spyderman]

Originally Posted by Steers

Yeah, I know you enjoyed shooting me out in the open!

I will take any shot I can,old people have to take advantage of everything LOL

[Little_Ho]

Hi own a Hammerhead Barrel kit. The Pro Series with the Fin kit.
I have a 14 and a 12 inch Front. With the Fins you will add about 1 to 1.5inch on the lenght. Would mean the 12 would be somewhere around 13-13.5.

I use a Automag with the Barrel and to take the Barrel off its a pain in the Butt. I always have troubel with that and without a Towel and a Chanel lock i cant get them appart. But all together i love mine.

I also own 1 Armson Riffeld Barrel in the case i have too much trouble with the Paint....

Steers that was a Good report on a very nice and good Barrel Kit.

[PaintedWarrior]

Yeah I've seen it in action. It's a sweet barrel, sends the acoustic echo behind the shooter instead of in front of.