SpectreX

Seems relevant to the discussion, but NM&R shared a video which pits the new NSE Retaliator against a Lumitron representing the Vortex line. The video shows both blasters fired flat from the same position in slightly breezy "real world" outdoor conditions. The quality is ok, but not great (I would know I made the video), but it should be decent video evidence to base opinions on.

So is this kit worth getting for someone like me who can't mod a recon very well at all?

Only if you're also going to get the Stage 2 kit as well. To make a good use of the Stage 1 kit, you need to take out the air restrictors. The Stage 2 kit has a metal plunger/bolt that you just drop in to replace the stock piece, so no real modding ability is necessary to get good results.

LS kits for example could really be significant.

They have announced that they'll be putting out a LS "Immortal" kit, but no information about what it will have in it. However, they have announced that it will come in a collectors tin, so that probably means the pricing will be more of a premium than the Recon kits. It will be interesting to see what of the Longshot they decide to make out of metal.

To be fair, OMW's products aren't aimed at the modding community, because modders can already get exceptional ranges out of their blasters. They're HvZ players making products aimed at HvZ players. There's a market out there for these products, and props to them for actually making a serious business out of Nerf modding. I just hope that Hasbro doesn't shut them down.

Besides modding, I'm also a HvZer, so I decided to get the OMW Recon kits to see if they were as good as their claims and worth recommending to other HvZers. I've got the Stage 1 kit installed on a Recon that only has the air restrictors out and the results are impressive. However, I think it'll be the Stage 2 kit that will really be a game changer, but I'll have to wait until it's released at the end of the month to say for sure. In theory, with the Stage 2 kit anyone with a screwdriver and a couple minutes to kill can suddenly go from a stock blaster to an optimized breach setup. No messing around with air restrictors/air release holes/o-rings, just open it up, take the stock parts out, drop in the OMW parts, and close it up.

If you're a modder it definitely takes the fun out of making it yourself, but for HvZ players and lesser skilled modders it allows them to get quick effective results as long as you're willing to pay for it (prices are incredibly reasonable for the results you get).

The Stampede may have to be chalked up to gremlins or I had missed something major ( <--- probably this), because of course it starts working fine once I ask the question. I ran through or already had run through everything you said and I'm posting the answers just incase this happens to someone else.

I'd have to ask a rather obvious question just to narrow down the causes, did you place the batteries in the battery holder with their polarities facing the right way in the beginning? Yes And were the wires from the battery connected to the correct polarity contacts in the battery sled? Yes

Have you tested using AA to D battery converter shells instead? Did you encounter the same "need to be reversed then work" issue? I had tried it and it had the same issue at the time, but works fine now.

Do you have a volt multimeter with polarity indicator? If so, test the polarity of your TrustFire batteries, put the red test lead at the + tip of the battery and the black lead to the - tip of the battery, does it show the voltage without a "-" symbol next to the voltage reading? All of the polarities on the Trustfires are correct, and I tested a regular AA right after for comparison just incase I had the wires backwards, but it's all fine.

Any chance you can exchange your current Stampede with a new one at the store, or test the batteries in someone elses Stampede and see if the phenomenon still occurs? I did the draw-catch battery compartment mod already, so returning it may be problematic. However, aside from the auto-run it's working properly, so I think it'll be ok.

I'm quite curious 'cos you mention that you also face the same issue with your Powerstrike 48, which could indicate some sort of mis-matched polarities in the batch of batteries that you happen to be using too. I'm not sure what the deal with this was, but I fixed it by opening up where the motors are and swapping the wires at the motors. I don't know why reversed batteries and reversed motor wires work, when just regularly inserted batteries wouldn't (AA's would work but the 14500s wouldn't). Maybe there was a contact issue I didn't diagnose with the batteries inserted the normal way. In any event, it works great all modded up now, so I won't worry about it.