Board Thread:General Nerf discussion/@comment-27923854-20161104222807/@comment-30373083-20161110122007

Elliottw wrote: Okay, I hate dredging up this topic, but I think I found out why the Double-X darts perform so erratically. (Actually I love talking about darts, can ya tell) Last night I loaded up a StrongArm and plinked a few rounds. There was this one Double-X that kept plopping out of the end of the barrel. It looked fine, the foam was in decent shape, nice and snug. WTH ?

Well, I compared it to a couple other darts and lo and behold, most of these Double-X's are different lengths. Like way different. Here's a pic of a handful I randomly picked up off the floor. That one on the left was the culprit in the StrongArm. Because the head is so wide, and the fit is so snug, it didn't slide down far enough to fully engage the AR.

That might also explain the reduced range in certain other blasters. One more strike against Double-X darts. And I had such high expectations 😡  (sniffle) My experience has been similar - there is some lousy quality control in Double-X foam lengths.

That said, I still think they have a place. For older Nerfers who are interested in power and accuracy (especially with any kind of blaster mod), RadEagles are definitely the way to go. But, and I've said this before - Double-Xs are still the most "cushioned" darts for younger kids to use. If I had a few hundred grand extra lying around and used it to open an indoor Nerf arena today, I'd probably start with 10,000 of both types and selectively issue them based on the ages within a group.