Recently I was able to try out a Furious Lotus barrel. I am unable to re create the previous testing environment/setup at this time. This is not per say a "test" as much as it is a "review".
The conditions were hot and humid. ~ 87*F & 45% humidity. I am using Xball paint, and an 04 viking (set in semi). I shot 1 pod of paint through each barrel.
Testing ~ 20-30 balls. The paint size was ~ .684ish. IMO too small for both of these barrels.
To have a point of reference I used my titanium longbow barrel (ti series).
the longbow was .690" back 14" front (msrp ~180.00)
the lotus was .689" back 14" front (msrp ~60.00)
Efficiency:
I shot ~25 balls through each barrel without changing the velocity settings. The longbow averaged ~285 while the lotus averaged ~275. To me this makes since as the longbow only has porting on ~ the last 2" of barrel while the lotus has porting ~ the last 5".
Weight:
Lotus 113g (per their website)
Longbow...I am not sure. It is on the first page somewhere, but it really doesn't take a scale to know that the Lotus is super light compared to any of my other alum barrels.
Sound:
Honestly I couldn't find my decibel meter so I had to depend on my ears. It was quieter than the longbow, but again the porting pattern differences made that pretty obvious.
Accuracy:
The accuracy was slightly above average for the Lotus. I think the paint being too small for the barrel was a deciding factor. The longbow did a little better, but again not as good as it could with a smaller bore barrel/larger paint. IMO it was comparable or slightly better than most "big name" barrels.
Accuracy after a break:
I used an ink pen to poke 2 holes in a paintball, and then shot it through the barrel. It exploded somewhere in the barrel, and left a nice mess inside the barrel. I was not impressed with the Lotus's ability to "self clean" with this paint/barrel match. The barrel's diameter needed to be smaller to effectively test this barrels "self cleaning" properties.
Overall:
When factoring in price/availability I'd say this barrel is a 7/10, and a good pick for a player with a budget. Currently Furious has .693 & .689 barrels available, and .686 will be released soon. I personally would like to have a .683 available as it would allow the player the extra accuracy when using smaller paint.
mfrg website
http://www.furiouspaintball.com/index.html
