Out of curiosity, could someone explain to me the need for metal free darts? I feel like I missed a discussion a while back, because all of a sudden there are "metal free dart" posts, and honestly I thought darts with metal were just fine, haha.
In all honesty, the push for metal-free darts is largely based off of the pink foam giveaway for metal-free dart designs. While the people captaining that movement have their own arguments in support of their stance, for the average Nerfer, there's really no need to worry.
To whit, metal free slugs have the perception of being "safer" because, well, there's no metal, no matter how well-encapsulated and "safe" that metal is. Additionally, a lost metal-free dart doesn't turn, over the course of months or years, into a corroded metal washer that some idiot could step on (barefoot at a public park qualifies you as an idiot, mind you) and get tetanus and die from it.
There has also been mention of metal-free darts allowing slugs to be used in an office setting, in which case I have to say: REALLY? If your office "allows" NIC-style blasters to be used at all, you are in the vast minority of Nerfers in general.
The problem is, in my mind, slugs are pretty suboptimal to begin with, and most of the metal-free designs have been attempts to replicate them with worse materials. If the NIC really wants to pursue metal-free darts for whatever reason, I think we're going to have to go back to things that aren't quite so unaerodynamic.