This is probably the most comprehensive barrel testing I've seen for the FSC/TCP. I really like your range and the quantitative approach you take to the data analysis. Whether any of these differences is worth the "upgrade" is subjective. But here it is all laid out for potential users to examine. Cost is obviously a major options for most of us, so I'm really jealous that you got one of those eBay barrels. That was lucky!
I have the ebay barrel and it was only $8 and it performs phenomenally in my FSC. With upgrade O-ring and a tune I get 40 joules average! But now I guess the secret is out on the eBay barrels... 😊
Thanks for the reply. I have the 8” Grimburg barrel in my VKS. Along with other mods it performs great. I was hoping for a little longer barrel for the TCP but it’ll work. Thanks for the suggestion. Take care.
Thats right..you dont want ur gun to just go pop-pop...as the bang alone sounds like a cannon!! it's enough to scare the BJesus outta several home invaders.
The stock barrel is great. At the time I bought the Grimburg barrel they were the hot new thing. They add a few Joules, but it's definitely not essential.
Great comparison. Thank you for sharing. I’m considering turning my TCP into a carbine. Have the ASA bottle adapter, FSC Carbine Rail Kit. But having difficulty locating a longer barrel. Couldn’t find the longer barrel you have in you vid on Ebay. If anyone who has purchased the barrel can provide me with a link that would be great. Or any suggestions on other barrels would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!!!
Unfortunately the cheap eBay barrels from China dried up and nobody knows when more will come. Fortunately Grimburg has 8” barrels. Combine with their JULv2 for best results.
Yes it could break bone with the right shot. Definitely head shots could be lethal. These aren't toys and can with the right setup be used effectively for personal protection.
@@ScaredyCatTactical Quite honestly a cool conversion. Not sure about the legalities though. In countries where you couldn't own a firearm, what you did is a great option to really make sure it lays down some power.
@@Ardeact There are 3 main ways to increase power in these launchers. You can add barrel length, increase the size of the air chamber, or push more PSI through from the tank or CO2. The barrel length is the only change that is free from stress on the launcher internals. The other two will cause problems with o-rings or damage internals eventually. I avoid the others, although many rebels just throw caution to the wind and go for max power.
Great comparison test! Keep up the good work! Pretty sure I heard a leak with your eBay barrel after that fifth shot. I've never had a CO2 die out like that so that would make sense. Even at max velocity I can finish an eight round mag. 🤷🏾♂️
Thanks! I appreciate the encouragement. I heard something too on the video but not when filming. However, I'm standing right next to my furnace which came on at the same time and I had on hearing protection. You could be right though. In real time I ran the stock then eBay barrel, then swapped out to the Grimburg barrel last because it required changing out the screw. You may notice the same furnace sound still running during the Grimburg shots. The Grimburg barrel then ran well. I'll be doing more fine tuning so this is just N=1.
Yes, that's the main difference that I see. Either method is fine. I personally like the twist-to-pierce for several reasons that I'll be talking about real soon in a video. Stay tuned.
I checked eBay and they are not currently listed. I purchased mine in May 2021 for $17.10. They were called "New Paintball Barrel First Strike T9.1 & T8.1 Tiberius Arms Threaded Tip 9 Inch". These are probably shipped in batches from China. So wait a while then check again with those search terms.
I have compared them a couple times in the past. The first shot with either will be basically the same. But the fall off in FPS will be a little greater for shots 2 and 3 but then really fall off fast with the 8g CO2. So the last couple shots are weak. I do have some shooting with an 8g CO2 coming up at the beginning of a video scheduled for mid-March so stay tuned for that. I didn't chrono there but I show the power on a target. With the PRV delete kit from Daniel Sterling the 8g CO2 performs admirably but all things considered you can't go wrong with 12g. They are cheaper, abundantly available, and you can use all the CO2 in an efficient manner.
Some dude on RU-vid is getting up to 60J with Z ram-68 projectiles... Extremely dangerous to aim at someone.. he broke a block of ice with it!! With just one shit with a Z ram-68 projectile u can DEFINITELY put an attacker or intruder DOWN!! I've shot many firearms in life and was very impressed.
Those Z-RAM are serious but I won’t use them in my aluminum barrels. Maybe if I had a steel barrel and they would reliably feed from the mag. I use round balls because of the superior reliability. Jams and other damage from misfed Z-RAMs isn’t worth the risk for self defense.
Great Video as for the Grimburg barrels that's my one gripe how there held in I much more prefer the original system for locking the barrel in place don't like the fact that the Grimburg's can wear from the screw rubbing on the inside
Yes indeed. Kurt from Grimburg explained it to me by saying that doing this allows them to avoid having to get the barrels machined overseas and rely on the supply chain. The hole is a genius idea but it can wear. I've examined mine carefully over months of tension and although the outer coating has scratched some, the hole is holding up. Now I'm more concerned about the other end. The breech is the same tight bore and the firing bolt cannot enter the breach without hitting. In my mind that will limit the power setting that you can safely use without breaking the bolt. Definitely need a VKS spring if you are using a Grimburg barrel in my opinion.
Would you have any problems if the barrel and round rifling configuration are mismatched. I have the A5 but I got the HP68s on sale which are rifled. They also fit kinda tight even though they're .684 and the barrel is .686
The Grimburg A5 barrels are bore-matched with their projectiles for better performance. It should be a very tight fit if you are using the Grimburg A5 and not one from somewhere else. However, I'm not aware of any A5 barrel that fits into the Pepperball TCP or VKS. What launcher are you using the A5 barrel in?
I just determined this recently for an upcoming video. My TCP is 10 turns in from flush. Check out the video for the details. I can't say how far that is from max because I try to never compress the spring all the way. I do use some shims which I will go over in the video. Double feeds generally come from the regulator sear spring being too weak. You may consider upgrading to the VKS sear spring as part of the PRV delete kit sold by Sterling Self Defense. That helps a lot with conserving power and eliminating double feeds.
What barrel would you recommend for grimburg Jul rounds and Canadian riot balls. Want to keep the barrel short. I’ve heard people say they don’t love the grimburg barrel.
JULs are bigger at 0.685 and it’s hard to argue against the matched Grimburg barrel(s) for them. Stock TCP barrels 0.686 fire them admirably too. As far as CRB rounds I know they are about 0.683 so the Lapco Freak 0.684 would be a good choice.
Without changing the firing bolt o-ring you’ll probably blow it out a couple turns from max on the velocity screw. With a stronger o-ring, you can get up to 30+ Joules about 1-2 turns from max. A barrel with a good bore match will get you to the mid-30s. That’s with no other internal mods.
Removing the stock barrel is just a twist and remove. The Grimburg barrel uses a screw to hold it in place. It's easy but you do have to hold it tight and have a tool and you have to do that process everything you do service. Not hard but an extra step. I get the best results with the Grimburg 5" barrel per length not just in this video but consistently. My longer barrels will give more power due to the extra length (6" and 9") but they are much harder to bore-match projectiles. With the Grimburg barrel you just buy JULv2 and that's it.
I did talk about it on my 2024 outlook video and compared it to the Gavle and Byrna. But considering everything I know about it right now I don't have plans to get one. I'm very picky about launchers.
I really like the way you think. That is definitely a good test with them both as smooth bore. Unfortunately, I don't have a smooth bore TCP barrel to do the comparison. At one time I looked for a Lapco 5" smooth bore but couldn't find one. However, I think I know what the result should be. Smooth bore is smooth bore and the TCP barrel is very well matched with the Grimburg JULs already and with a little bore matching like in my prior video, it should be functionally equivalent to a Grimburg 5" barrel. I certainly wouldn't buy the Grimburg barrel if your stock TCP barrel is smooth bore.
Optimized for the barrel is probably the most important take away among many other of your great points. I always setup for consistency rather then hail Mary's
I agree. What I got with the 9" barrel is not what I intended to do but it illustrates an important point about the finite amount of CO2 available with a 12g cartridge.
The metal detents come with the stock TCP barrel but you can buy the exact same ones from Lapco Paintball Company. I bought up a bunch of them last year. Check the Lapco website for availability.
I like the white detents much better then the stock there much stiffer for heaver rounds it's a plus for me heaver rounds tend to double shoot or just get pushed out when I power up so heaver sterling self defense all the way for me
@@xpy1 I did it slowly over the course of the first year. About 2-3 turns and you can still shoot pepper balls. After that you are getting into the 20ish Joules range. Yes, it takes about 10 to get to the 30+ Joules range. In a future video I will be unwinding my velocity screw to remove it for maintenance and the exact number of turns will be reported.
Unfortunately they haven’t come back on the market. They were imports from China, high quality, and very cheap. I regret not buying more. Hopefully they reappear.
I checked eBay and they are not currently listed. I purchased mine in May 2021 for $17.10. They were called "New Paintball Barrel First Strike T9.1 & T8.1 Tiberius Arms Threaded Tip 9 Inch". These are probably shipped in batches from China. So wait a while then check again with those search terms.
Can you explain how can be the barrel at fault to lose CO2?Normally there are other issues,like the magvalve or so.The barrel is a fixed metal part what has no influence on the airsystem.
Good question. I don't completely understand the physics but I'm learning more about it. The longer barrel takes a split second longer for the air pressure to exit the system and a split second longer for the bolt to reset. That extra time however small causes air loss. Additionally, in this video I used my JULv2 that were bore-matched to the Pepperball stock and Grimburg barrels but not to the slightly larger bore eBay barrel and that also causes some extra air loss. The follow-up video that came out last week highlights better results all around when I switched to the eBay barrel bore-matched rounds. Check it out as well as the bore-matching video from this series.
@@ScaredyCatTactical Cant believe that.There are other videos with a long barrel and no one had this problem.The ball is longer under pressure because the barrel is longer and so the accelaration time is longer,thats why you get more joules out of it.Thats all.The gun fires the same amount of gas,if you didnt play at the regulator screw when changing the barrels for the test.I just have a stock FSC(barrels sold out all over the world).Sometimes happens leaks,but thats in the interiors of the gun,like mag or some o-ring or so.
@@sven471111 Regulator is same setting. See the later video for comparison. Maybe it was a leak. That’s always possible but the bore matching is also a key factor.
@@ScaredyCatTactical The bore matching is just to minimize losses between ball and barrel.has nothing to do with the mength of gas fired from the gun.however,the test was interesting.just there are no barrels to find on the whole planet right now.the lapco was announced in March and now I read something about summer... what's your opinion about the grimburg barrel?do you thing this last long because of the screw?
@@sven471111 Yes the bore matching does reduce loses. That's why the Grimburg 5" barrel outperformed the Stock Rifled 5" barrel in this video. Less air loss so there was more power across the entire mag (see the graphs at the end). The length of the barrel is also part of the equation. Longer barrel does have an impact but I can't give you a number on how much (yet). These are complex topics that will take further testing. I'm an experimentalist who is seeking the right answers without caring what the answer is because I have no vested interests. As far as barrel availability I did talk about this in my latest video and give my reason why Grimburg is the way to go right now. I love their 5" barrel and the 8" barrel is getting great reviews. I think the screw method is sub-optimal but they have new barrels coming out that seem to be more durable and hopefully will hold up better to that constant tension. My 9" bore-matched barrel is functionally giving what I would expect from an 8" Grimburg barrel. The Grimburg barrel has one advantage in the breach where they have optimized it for feeding but I haven't had any feeding issues with my cheap eBay barrel. The video link is here if you want to hear my discussion about barrel options and see how the bore-matched projectiles do better: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-pnHAJWVCL-0.html
Yes, longer barrels in general provide more acceleration of the projectile by the gas. A 12" will give better power than an 8" which is better than a 5". So rifled builds are always more powerful. The Grimburg barrel has the added power benefit that it's already pre-sized to match the JUL rounds so that less gas is lost per shot.
@@ScaredyCatTactical thank you man ive been so fascinated with this recently and have been binging your videos a lot. which barrel would you suggest personally?
Thanks for watching! Personally, I will always go with Grimburg for smoothbore barrels because they are always available (made locally) and are bore-matched to the JULv2/v3 projectiles. The 5" barrel has never let me down and keeps it as compact as possible. Plus Grimburg Less Lethal has great customer service.
In this case size dose matter 🤣🤣 so I changed my thoughts on getting a Grimberg barrel after Christmas probably I tested my upgrade work on an ebay barrel I have 2 of 14" & longer way to long but wow the fps I got wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of that so I'm thinking 8" would be perfect for my setup
That eBay barrel was a great purchase for me. I got the best power with bore-matched rounds. See my other video using the 9" barrel where I got over 50 Joules. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-pnHAJWVCL-0.html That's basically reproducing the power of the Tiberius T8.1.
The TCP has the VKS bolt spring, VKS sear spring, and the PRV has been deleted. Those are good reliability mods but don't provide more power. They do reset the bolt quickly and efficiently, conserving air for the next shots. I have of course changed the air chamber heat-core o-ring to the Grimburg one. I have shimmed the regulator spring to allow the velocity screw a little more room and prevent brass vs. brass contact. The only changes that improve power are the longer barrels. With my 9" eBay barrel I get mid-50 Joules easily when the projectiles are hand bore-matched.
these should be given along with a crash course in how to use it and every teacher should have access to one in schools in the US ofc i know a teacher with a firearm or armed security would be more effective but a pepperball at an active shooter would deff impair him long enough for people to escape or cops to get there and it doesnt have to make direct contact either pepperballs in combo with steel balls or coned rounds from umarex or bryna probably could have saved alot of lives specially if 2 or 3 people firing from different areas alone shooter would be very likely made in effective
Certainly a good idea for these to be in the hands of teachers. They have to deal with a range of violent situations that often fall short of a mass armed shooter. Many applications exist for these in prisons, schools, and other areas where armed guards aren't feasible or legal. Pepperballs shouldn't be underestimated. I know a lot of the less lethal community have moved on to kinetic rounds. But Pepperballs at the rate that can be delivered by something like the VKS is a very capable method of crowd control and/or could incapacitate a single shooter.
The 9" smooth bore barrel was an import from China that was readily available on eBay in 2021. Unfortunately, the supply chain or other issues may be to blame. There is no link at this moment to share. Hopefully they come on the market again soon as they are quite well made for the price. I will certainly post a video whenever I hear about these barrels being available again.
In my recent 2 videos the first shot was 36 and 34 Joules. You aren't that far away. Use a good lube like Dow 33 or Dye-slick lube on the air chamber/bolt. It bumped up my Joules significantly when I switched to it.
The velocity screw is 10 turns in from flush and is probably too high for best efficiency across the entire mag. I may adjust it back down for more consistency but I don't really want to crank it up higher. Hitting 400 on the first shots might feel good but the 12g CO2 will run out fast. Maybe with a 16g or 20g CO2 mag it might last a lot longer. Thanks for watching.
Ciao io ho HDR 50, 11 joule umarex e nei primi 12 copli mi raggiunge oltre i 15 joule , una bestia di potenza xbun arma da 11 joule... E originale 😊😊... Poi ho una altro revolver blauoptick da 12.7 joule che però raggiunge i 11.15 joule e xcio meno potente ....😊😊
