Endgame Compression Barrel review By ChefDave

[Rayodder]

The Saint was kind enough to send a loaner 14" Endgame Compression Barrel to me for testing and evaluation.  I'd like to thank them now for standing behind their product and making such a gesture.  In testing the barrel, I shot 200 rounds through it. Unfortunately, I was not able to actually play in a game with the barrel due to weather conditions.

Barrel was mailed to me by USPS Priority Mail and was well packed.

Appearances



Barrel appears very well made with tight tolerances.  Exterior of the barrel and shroud is nicely annoed in black and laser engraved.  The barrel and shroud do show the slightest lathe marks.  The shroud easily screws on and off revealing a barrel ported with spiral teardrop ports.  Barrel looks very cool both with and without the shroud.

Interior bore of the barrel is scored with "micro rifling".  Basically, it has a series of very fine spiral scratches.  You can actually feel the roughness of the internal finish with your finger.  This had me concerned and later I found some surprising effects that this had on the paintballs. I'll get back to that though.

Shroud as stated is removable and has a foam baffle material on the inside.  Exterior of the shroud is covered with a series of teardrop ports.  From previous experience, cleaning the baffle material in the event of a barrel break can be a pain.

The basic construction is identical to the BOA Concealer.  The main differences being the attachment of the shroud to the barrel with threading and the porting of the shroud.

Testing

As stated above, I fired about 200 round through the Endgame alone and about another 150 through assorted Phantom barrels for comparison.  My Phantom was chronoed to 280 fps on constant air.  Endgame barrel was washed with hot water and dried before the initial testing began.  All testing was done in a 70* environment firing at a target 30 yds. away.  Paint was fresh and round premium brand (.689-.690).  Subjective sound signatures are given on the right (1 being lowest).

Barrels tested:
-14" Endgame Compression (3)
-14" Endgame Compression (w/o shroud) (4)
-14" CCI ( 8 )
-14" CCI with old TASO suppressor (1)
-14" BOA Concealer (2)
-13.5" CCI Carbon Fiber (5)
-11.5" ANS Stainless (6)
-11" Dye Aluminum (3)
-10" WWA Frantom 1 (7)
-9" BOA Snakebite (9)
-7.5" J&J Ceramic (10)
-6" BOA Custom  (11)

All barrels had comparable accuracy and range IMHO.  I did have problems with barrel breaks in the BOA Concealer, Frantom, and J&J Ceramic.  The Endgame had no barrel breaks.  The Endgame was mostly right on with accuracy and on par with any quality barrel.  However, occasionally I would get a left or right flyer or a drop shot.  This did not happen with any of the other barrels and I suspected it may have been caused by the rifling.

Sound signature of the Endgame was middle of the road and comparable to a Dye Aluminum.  The 14" CCI barrel with an oldschool TASO suppressor was by far the quietest (and most unwieldy) barrel.  A different type of baffling could easily be added to the shroud to decrease the sound signature of the Endgame (RoosterCogburn claims to have done this himself in one of his posts).

Other Findings

Abrasion?
After my initial 10 shots through the Endgame I removed the barrel and inspected the bore with a flashlight.  I was surprised to find that the bore had actually scraped away some of the gelatin from each ball fired.  This was shown by streaks running straight down the barrel (2 contact points per ball) from breach to muzzle.  At one point, I fired a ball that did not exit the barrel due to low CO2.  Upon pushing the ball out with a squeegee I found that the barrel had a demonstrated abrasive effect on the shell of the ball.  It almost looked like the ball had been scuffed by sandpaper and the shell slightly melted from the friction.  There was an identical abraded patch on the other side of the ball.

I believe that the abrasive effect of the bore on the paintballs was the cause of the flyers and drop shots seen with the Endgame.  The rough patches on the ball acted just like a pitcher using a roughed up baseball to give movement to a pitch. 

A positive effect of this could be easier breakage of the paintballs on target.



Barrel Breaks
I induced a barrel break to determine how hard it would be to clean out the bore.  The roughness of the rifling seemed to retain paint and was resistant to squeegeeing or swabbing.  Rinsing with hot water seemed to be the only way to get it completely clean.

Patent Analysis

As to the patent application claims  (which have also been used in marketing the barrel):

"Unfortunately, the smooth inside barrels causes the paintballs to bounce within the barrel when the shots are fired, thus resulting in lower shooting accuracy." The gelatin tracks left in the barrel show that the balls do not "bounce" down the barrel at all but maintain 2 contact points.  "In addition, the rapid release of CO2 reduces the distance traveled by the paintball."  The other barrels tested showed no decreased distance when compared to the Endgame barrel.

"However, the outer tube also has an internal filter which essentially slows the release of the CO2, thus providing greater accuracy and distance when firing paintball shots."  No increased accuracy or range was evidenced by the Endgame barrel with the shroud on or off.

"This reduction of CO2 released speed will increase the accuracy of the firing of the paintballs. In addition, the spirally scored inner tube will impart a spin to the paintball for even better accuracy." Again, the gelatin tracks left in the barrel prove that it induces no spin on the balls.  Spinning a round projectile is also commonly know to reduce accuracy.

Conclusions

I think that the Endgame barrel looks great and that is it's primary strength.  It would make a sweet scenario piece.  The machine work and anno are high quality.  The barrel is solidly constructed.  General shot to shot accuracy is on par with any other quality Phantom barrel with the exception that it will have the occasional flyer or drop shot due to the bore treatment. The barrel was relatively quiet but not in an exceptional way compared to the other barrels tested.   Also, thoroughly cleaning barrel breaks on the field may be extremely difficult. 

However, the patent application claims do not hold up and the marketing thus far has been deceptive in my opinion.

Considering that it is a handcrafted, low production run, rare barrel the retail price is not outrageous.  Whether or not it is worth it is up to you.  Personally, I think a price point in the $75-100 range would be a much easier sell for the intended market.

[Meph]

Something not really mentioned that I have seen with similar barrels. A rough finish inside + geletin shelled paintballs are not good in a game where you shoot more than say 1/2 a bag per game. Or Scenarios where you strap on a whole case to your back.    The reason being that the geletin will build up and become the new friction point. Instead of the paintball gliding across metal it'll be against a slick gel layer. There will be no stability guarantee and is the direct cause to a wild shot. Dips, dives, corkscrew, etc.

It happens with most all barrels but usually the geletin buildup doesn't become noticeable until about 3/4+ of the case is used up. A squeegie down the barrel every so often can cure this problem. But as you noted a squeeg doesn't seem to be totally affective. Used to not have to worry about it since evil and marbs were corn starch based, but they stopped doing that and now all good paint is gel again. Sucks I love that advantage shell paint. I didn't even need to bring a squeegie with me on the field. Now I lose about 5 a season.