Board Thread:General Nerf discussion/@comment-27306930-20170606234825

I noticed an interesting phenomenon while range testing my new Elite Stryfe over the past few days. There was a significant increase in the number of crappy shots with the Spectre barrel attached. About one in eight shots was way off target, or considerably short.

Without the proper equipment I can’t conclusively prove it, but I think some of the darts are ricocheting off the inside wall of the barrel extension and exiting the muzzle at various angles. When they exit left or right, it’s noticeable because they’re way off target. If they exit at a downward angle, they’re short. And the few that exit at an upward angle aren’t as noticeable, since they tend to add a little range, and of course nobody complains about that.

I might have expected something like this from a thinner, longer barrel. But the inside diameter of the Spectre barrel is much larger than say, a Retaliator barrel, or a Recon, or Long Range extension. And when I do put a Retaliator or a Recon barrel on the Stryfe, the problem only gets worse, which more or less confirms my suspicions.

The funny thing is that without any barrel extension, it seems to work just fine. So I’m calling bull**** on this “barrel extenders increase accuracy, but decrease range” maxim. For a long time I’ve suspected this was an urban legend. I’m thinking that other than improving aesthetics, barrel extensions don’t actually do anything to improve Nerf blasters.

Rebuttals, of course, are welcome (if accompanied by appropriate empirical evidence).  