The tighter the barrel, the better myth. 6.03>6.01

We conducted a test today, as I was going to finish my VFC Scar-H review, but we didn't have the inner barrel, I just had a PDI 6.01 barrel in it. So, we had our theories, so we decided to prove them.

We did a groupings test at about 60' with no wind factor. (Done inside)

10 shots was made and we had grouping about 4" on average.
Sound good? Well its not for the most expensive barrel on the market. My stock VFC barrel can get that, or better. But my FPS did increase alot. Ask MackPerformance who got owned by it... Haha. But accuracy, not at all.

6.01 make bb's not able to get air passed through them, which makes them favor one side so much, it hits the barrel, which makes it bounce around more. But there is more air behind the bb, which explains FPS increase.

Even on the PDI box it says that the barrel is not made for accuracy, but for power. Mack even contacted the 6.01 makers and said that they are not the best for accuracy.

Prometheus is the best airsoft makers of parts out there. On par or better with systema parts. Wonder why they dont make a 6.01? Because they dont help performance. Which brings me to my question: Why do they make 6.01 barrels if they dont help? Answer: Because people believe the tighter the barrel, the better the accuracy. PDI is apparently not trying to hide it because its on there box!

6.03 barrels are the atmost best barrels for your rifle, they offer premium airflow, but the tightness you want to maintain perfect accuracy. Make it the quality they make it, and at being steel its the best barrel on the market, on par with the PDI. Not the PDI 6.01, but the 6.03.

Im not talking bad about PDI, just the 6.01 barrels. Were getting a prometheus barrel soon, that is actually shorter by about 30mm than the PDI. Im expecting about a 1'' grouping, so I will keep you updated!

nice info, thank you

....not entirely true, you're omitting a lot of variables that still come into play.

First off,
barrel ID or Inner Diameter (to an extent) will only affect FPS based on the SAME SYSTEM.
barrel QUALITY, (consistency) on the other hand, makes all the world of difference in terms of accuracy.

PDI and Prometheus both make excellent barrels, very similar in quality, both top-of-the-line. This leads us to believe that they should shoot similarly, based on the information displayed above. So, why is it that the test results offered by Behave show otherwise?

The tighter the ID (and the resulting higher FPS) will show greater fluctuations in a system that has not been fully tuned in. When I say fully tuned in, I mean ZERO air leaks. This is not as easy as a new O-ring and some grease, this is a several-hour (for AEGs) overhaul to eliminate every possible FPS variation. It's rather difficult and time-consuming to tune an AEG to this level, where it can perform consistently enough that a 6.01 will show any benefit to a 6.03, so you might as well save the money from a PDI and go with a Promy or similar quality steel 6.03 barrel.

That being said, BBs also play a tremendous role in how accurate or inaccurate your airsoft gun is. If you use crappy BBs, then you often won't notice the difference between a stock barrel and a PDI/Promy barrel, aside from the FPS difference. If you use quality BBs, then you will most definitely see the difference in accuracy.

For your bolt-action user, both gas and spring, it's far easier to tune the rifle down to just a couple FPS difference from shot-to-shot, where you CAN notice the performance difference between the two.



The dumbed-down version: The 6.01 can perform better, but you have to have a very high-end AEG to see a noticeable difference. It also helps to use good BBs, otherwise crap in=crap out.


I've used and personally own several of both PDI and Promy IBs, so I've had the opportunity to see these results first-hand.

Ya, I probably should have posted my variables.

Gun: VFC Scar-H. Can't say ive done very much work on the inside, but the US version is supposed to shoot 350fps, but mine shoots over 400, which leaves me to believe it has good airseal.

BB: Matrix .28g

After looking back at this old post, I still wonder if my test could relate to something else, such as making it faulty. Because people still use 6.01 or even 5.99 in there rifles, and still use them over 6.03. This is just what we came up with one day at the shop. Id rather use 6.01 if it shot better, even 5.99,( Not in an standard AEG of course, I was thinking a semi-auto SVD), instead of a 6.03...

It's a very long read but VERY informative. It backs up your statement Behave.

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Thanks for the post Tripps, that is very informative. Im really interested, but might take about an hour or two to read and understand everything, lol. So ill just print it out and read it on a long car ride from here to Wilcox or Tallahassee next game haha.

Um, which article were you referring to, and which statement? They don't cover much regarding barrel diameter, so far as I know.


I've used this research document under various URLs for a couple years, it's a great resource for the kind of testing and tuning I do.