Board Thread:General Nerf discussion/@comment-27306930-20190923064918/@comment-27306930-20190925032037

Okay. Last and final (...maybe) post on this subject. Tail Induced Turbulence.

Thanks to several progressive Nerfers like our friend Cap'n Slug, we finally have evidence of why some Nerf darts are inconsistent. And it turns out it doesn't have anything to do with the darts.

Through much experimentation, he and other Nerfers have discovered that excess high pressure air exiting the barrel as the darts leave, has a huge effect on dart consistency (aka accuracy). It induces turbulence at the tail end of the dart. To visualize this, there are three basic scenarios.

Scenario #1: The plunger tube is too small for the length of the barrel. When the blaster is fired, there isn't enough air in the plunger tube to actually push the dart all the way to the end of the barrel. It's just the momentum of the dart that overcomes the friction needed to get the dart all the way out. The last few millimeters of the barrel are actually slowing the dart down due to friction.

Scenario #2: The plunger is exactly the right size for the length of the barrel. When the blaster is fired, all of the air in the plunger pushes the dart to the very end of the barrel. The dart is accelerating all the way down the barrel. It exits perfectly.

Scenario #3: The plunger tube is too big for the length of the barrel. The dart accelerates all the way down the barrel, but when it exits, a big blast of turbulent air from the barrel slams into the tail end of the dart. It pushes it up, down, left, right. Some of the pressure creates currents and eddies that push the dart off into some random direction. The dart exits the barrel headed off into the weeds, or worse into a tailspin that results in a whirlybird. Your steely-eyed opponent steadies his aim and BLAM ! You're off to the respawn point. That's TIT (Turbulence Induced Tailspin).

Instead of trying to figure out the perfect barrel length, Cap'n Slug's innovative SCAR barrel diverts excess gasses around and away from the dart. The dart exits the barrel without being bounced around by exhaust gas. Its trajectory is as true as the dart allows. Better darts equals better accuracy. (Hint: see previous post about flat headed darts)

As it turns out, turbulence induced tailspin is a big problem. It negatively affects many stock blasters. Even though it's especially important in super-stock springers, regular Nerfers can be unsuspectedly affected. Even Nerfers like you.

And that in a nutshell is TIT. You might have a really big pluner, but it just doesn't perform, and no one is satisfied. Yet another metaphor for life 😉