Board Thread:General Nerf discussion/@comment-30086876-20161220005221/@comment-29595756-20161223010913

I think I get what you're saying Hogan. I did some tests with my variety of barrels on my modded LS that loves to fishtail darts. I found that all the barrels decreased range and power while making the shots more straight (although some were more effective than others). The Spectre barrel was the shortest and widest and effected the darts the least so it had more power and less accuracy. The Retaliator and Recon barrels were in the middle in terms of range but were more accurate than anything else. The LSFG and Longstrike barrel were in the middle with accuracy but since they are so long, they decreased the power the most.

But here is the interesting part about rifling. You see, there are two types in most common barrels; straight and spiraled. The Retaliator barrel is the only one I have that is spiraled while the others are straight. I found that spiraled rifling does make the darts spin if it is constantly sliding along the barrel but since the barrel is wide enough that the dart can bounce, this doesn't do anything except decrease the range. The straight rifling however, doesn't decrease the range as much because as Hogan said, the dart doesn't hit the rifling at an angle and so will not bounce as much. I also found that a barrel without rifling of any kind is worse than straight rifling because the dart heads tend to stick more to a smooth surface than a rifled barrel. It all comes down to the surface area. A straight rifled barrel has less surface area for the dart to stick to and will slide easier than on a smooth barrel. That's Nerf physics for you.

And to stay on topic, I created this combo for the Retaliator called the Always-Ready. This would be used by someone who wants to be prepared for anything, so he has a 35 round drum for extra capacity, a clear Raider stock just because it matches the drum, a Lonstrike barrel for ranged takeouts, the Stampede shield for protection against stray darts and the Titan for clearing large groups of enemies or breaking down enemy cover.