6.02 229mm Precision Barrel (AEG) | FREE Delivery over €50 (ROI)
It may sound redundant, but your barrel is one of the most critical components to your airsoft gun. They fire 6mm smooth plastic BB's, without rifling, relying on the backspin from a small contact patch of rubber to give it distance. The barrel is responsible for guiding your BB downrange, and the single most important part for your shot-to-shot grouping.
The BB will travel down the barrel, hugging the top (due to the backspin) - it will only leave the top of the barrel if it hits dirt, or an imperfection. When this happens, it will bounce around the barrel, introducing a wildcard for your grouping. The tighter the barrel, the more vicious the bouncing, and the longer your barrel is, the higher the likelihood of hitting an inconsistency.
A factory standard barrel is typically 6.08mm wide, and little more than a brass pipe. When you move towards tightbore barrels, you decrease the variance (in theory), as the BB is closer to all sides. Tightbore barrels start at 6.05mm, but are most commonly found in 6.03mm, 6.02mm, and 6.01mm. Generally, 6.03mm offers the best all-round performance, however there is a sweet spot in length - you typically do not want to go over 455mm, as the resonance of the barrel can start to impact on your shots (i.e. the vibrations of the BB travelling down the barrel can physically move it, affecting your performance).
For longer barrelled replicas, it is typically advised to go wide-bore. These have a greater volume, so need more energy behind them, but the pay off is in greater range (albeit with lowered consistency).
By far the most important aspect of a barrel is its quality - you want as few imperfections as possible, and the ideal is that you have a consistent grouping that you can depend on.
Maple Leaf exploded onto the scene with their innovative hop up designs, becoming the first choice for virtually every gamer. Offering performance that was the remit of highly custom jobs, in an easy-to-install package, they have gone from strength to strength. From VSR series, sniper rifles, GBB pistols, and AEG's, Maple Leaf have something for you, even producing their own range of tightbore barrels designed to match with their hop ups perfectly. Without a doubt, they are the leaders of their own niche.
This precision barrel from Maple Leaf is a 6.02mm tightbore barrel, and comes in at 229mm making it earmarked for smaller guns e.g. SMG's etc. It has an AEG barrel window, and as such is only compatible with AEG replicas.