9 replies to this topic

[Azrael0987]

When I first got the new suction darts I started testing their accuracy. They are significantly more accurate than the standard elite darts, and I was very happy about that. I was thinking I wouldn't have to mod all my clips to accept stefans for my longshot. But after further testing, I have noticed and tested some more to make sure, that the darts have a higher rate of misfire. The suction tips sometimes flare out like washer sandwich seals, and cause a squelch sound in the barrel and either plop out or don't come out at all. And i'd say that 2-3 darts out of my 18 dart clips have that issue, and another 4-5 are less accurate than the others; curving off path some (although not nearly as much as normal elites). So I decided to weight some of them to see how much better they could get. This is what I came up with:



Basically making a full length slug, but melting into rubber instead of foam, and using a 3/8 inch felt pad. I also superglue the felt on rather than hot glueing them. It holds better to the rubber than hot glue. I use a single copper bb, and the misfire rate and inaccuracy rate have both decreased a fair amount. I made a clip full and ran them through a few times, so roughly 100 shots, and am very happy with it. They are lighter than a typical slug, but are just about perfect for higher powered clip fed mods. The tail wiggles a little in the air some of the time, but shoot straight other than that.

Being lighter than slugs, and fully felt covered, I would think that they would be easily war legal. I wanted to see what all you fine people thought of it.

[Daniel Beaver]

Kind of unfortunate to have to mod them like that (you pay a premium NOT to have to futz around with the darts). Do you know what the suction darts are catching against? There shouldn't be any "true barrel" around the head of the dart, so maybe it's getting caught up in the loading mechanism?

[Azrael0987]

The suction part of the tip flares out and rubs along my cpvc and brass barrels (all i'm using currently) like a washer sandwich does to form a seal in a plungertube. It's not just the brass in my angel breached longshot either, its my brass breaches too. If you've ever fired a homemade using a washer sandwich seal without lubricant in the plunger tube, you'll know what sound I mean when I say the high squeak/squelching sound.

[Zorns Lemma]

How did you determine that the new suction cup darts are more precise than elite streamlines? Are the new suction up heads much more massive?

My anecdotal non-scientific heirarchy goes seomthing like: elite streamlines > dart tag > suction cup > non-elite streamline

[Griever 2112]

I would normally agree Zorn, but the new design is much better than the old style. And removing that suction tip pretty much gives you a nerf style slug so to speak. If t they came in higher count packaging (I have only found the 10 or 12 count packs) I would pick them up for my AT.

[Azrael0987]

I fired a clip (18) of normal elites, then a clip of the suction tips (done multiple times for a good test group). They curve off still, but around a 5 foot spread (approx.), whereas the normal elites were closer to a 15-20 foot spread. All tests were fired out of my angel breached longshot from my shoulder at eyeballed level. I have measured my basement before, and it's 55 feet from end to end, and once i'm standing there the tip of thee barrel is roughly 50 feet from the opposite wall.

The darts are not much heavier than normal elites, barely noticeable when comparing one in each hand. I do not have an accurate scale to verify this though (I might soon). The main bulk of the tip (under the suction tip) is shorter than a normal elite tip, but its a solid chunk of rubber. Id expect it has a larger mass of rubber than normal ones.

The felt pad weighs less than hotglue, so they're a little lighter than cutting off the tip of a normal elite, dropping a bb in, and hotglueing over. But they still weigh a decent amount more than the unmodified ones, and more than an unmodified elite.

Griever- I have been purchasing them in 30 packs at my local walmart. They've kept them pretty well stocked too.



EDIT: Here's a picture of the heads of a suction tip dart and a zombiestrike elite. The regular elite heads have a more plastic-ish nub that goes down into the foam, whereas the suction tips are all rubber. I personally think the rubber would be heavier than the plastic to begin with, plus they are longer, leading me to believe they are heavier.

Edited by Azrael0987, 27 March 2014 - 10:44 AM.

[He Who Mods]

Wow, that's interesting. I expected a range decrease from the less aerodynamic suction heads. Anyways, I would definitely do this mod if I didn't have to pay the ridiculous amount of money for 10 darts.

[Azrael0987]

I think the range is SLIGHTLY less, but the accuracy is tons better. And by the time its being fired from something powerful it doesn't make a big difference in a few feet of range, because it gets there fast.

[Zorns Lemma]

I'm pretty sure you're talking about precision: http://nerfhaven.com...ndpost&p=336339

I hate to be a pedant, because now I'm in the same category as Bob, but when we're trying to empirically assess dart performance so it isn't just confirmation bias everywhere, using the empirically relevant terminology is very helpful, especially because both accuracy and precision are problems with Nerf (accuracy mostly being a problem with barrel wobble, hence the various designs to anchor the barrel to the blaster body).

[Azrael0987]

I am not too high and mighty to admit that you are right, and don't mind being corrected. Precision is probably the correct word to use. I do believe higher precision translates to higher accuracy though. If it consistently shoots slightly to the right, consistently aim slightly to the left. I wont say they go hand in hand, but I think precision lends to accuracy, although accuracy does not always lend to precision.

Edited by Azrael0987, 28 March 2014 - 01:11 AM.