Loadouts 11: Sniping Part 2

It's been a while since my last Loadouts post. This one'll be pretty short since I don't have much time these days, but hey, exams'll be over in around 3 weeks.

Scenario Description: Player is relatively well concealed, behind or near cover, and can hit enemy players/targets while not being within range of enemies.
Keys to Victory: Accuracy and patience. If you can't get a good shot off, don't waste your ammo and give away your position. Sure, if you really need to fire then go ahead, but if there isn't that urgency then keep your shots for when you can guarantee hits.
Unnecessary Burdens: Large, non-sniper primary blasters. As a sniper, you should be travelling light to be able to fire, then move from cover to cover to prevent being retaliated against. Alternatively, if you're good enough, you can prevent enemies from taking your hiding place, which is good if you've found a particularly good spot for sniping. To do this you'll need lots of ammo and quite a bit of skill. If you are constantly being shot at, then either the play field is unsuited to snipers, you're not being a good sniper, or you're holding a critical position.

Single Shot 1

Primary: (m) N-Strike Nitefinder EX-3 OR Elite Firestrike
Secondary: Mid range blaster of choice (e.g. Elite Alpha Trooper CS-12, Elite Strongarm)
Gear: Dart holders (e.g. pouch on belt), sling/holster for secondary, ammo holders for secondary
Ammo: Suitable darts - stefans if possible, ammo for secondary
Purpose: To provide compact, high power blasting with a single shot pistol

Strengths: Range (primary), accuracy (primary), lightweight, compact
Weaknesses: Reload time (primary), priming strength required (primary)
Description: Both the Nitefinder and Firestrike have reasonably large direct plungers, meaning that a good spring upgrade and proper rebarreling/couplering can get you an extremely powerful and surprisingly compact single shot blaster. In the modding community Nitefinders were quite popular due to their ease of modding, the great results and their low price and availability. Though Firestrikes are not quite as easy to mod, they can produce similarly impressive results, with both blasters being able of breaking 100ft (30m) with well done mods and strong springs.
Either way, if you want to be able to fire darts accurately at long range but do not have the money for a Buzz Bee Range Master, Longshot, etc, a Nitefinder or Firestrike can be a good alternative.





Single Shot 2
Primary: Dart Tag Sharp Shot
Secondary: Mid range blaster of choice (e.g. Elite Alpha Trooper CS-12, Vortex Praxis)
Gear: Dart holders (e.g. pouch on belt), sling/holster for secondary, ammo holders for secondary
Ammo: Suitable darts - stefans if possible, ammo for secondary
Purpose: To provide compact, high power blasting with a single shot pistol

Strengths: Range (primary), accuracy (primary), lightweight, compact
Weaknesses: Reload time (primary),
Description: The blue trigger Sharp Shot, although it has a reverse plunger, has a stronger spring than the original and can fire darts up to 17m flat on a good shot (average shots are around 15m), making it a good alternative to the traditional Nitefinder/Firestrike. For us Aussies with weak downtuned blasters, the blue trigger Sharp Shot is probably the best ranged dart blaster that has really good accuracy at good range, since all Elite blasters use somewhat inaccurate Elite darts.
Besides the Range Master this is probably the best you'll get for stock modern micro dart long range firing. Against other stock dart blasters this loadout will probably actually do decently.




Single Shot 3
Primary: Wipeout Chalk blaster (m optional)
Secondary: Mid range blaster of choice (e.g. Elite Alpha Trooper CS-12, Vortex Praxis)
Gear: Dart holders (e.g. pouch on belt), sling/holster for secondary, ammo holders for secondary
Ammo: Suitable darts - stefans if possible, ammo for secondary
Purpose: To provide compact, high power blasting with a single shot pistol

Strengths: Range (primary), accuracy (primary), lightweight, compact
Weaknesses: Reload time (primary),
Description: The Wipeout Chalk blaster, once available in Hot Dollar stores, was a very powerful direct plunger blaster, with average ranges of 17m and max ranges of 20m. It was also compatiable with streamlines and even those had decent accuracy. However, this blaster is now very rare in Australia and if you see one, pick it up as it is a very good alternative to Firestrikes and Nitefinders. Besides the Range Master and the Sharp Shot this is probably the best you'll get for stock modern micro dart long range firing. Against other stock dart blasters this loadout will probably actually do quite well. Modded, the Wipeout is even more beastly than the Nitefinder or Firestrike.

Clip (Mag) System 3
Primary: Mega Centurion
Secondary: Mid range blaster of choice (e.g. Elite Alpha Trooper CS-12, Elite Strongarm)
Gear: Mega clip (mag) holders, sling/holster for secondary, ammo holders for secondary
Ammo: Mega darts and clips (mags), ammo for secondary
Purpose: To provide the highest (stated) range of a currently available stock blaster

Strengths: Range (primary, on good shots)
Weaknesses: Dart cycling time (primary), accuracy (primary), dart fragility (primary), ammo incompatability (primary)
Description: Ah, the Nerf Mega Centurion. Quite possibly the biggest disappointment in the N-Strike/Elite era with its incredible jam rate, dart deterioration rate and general terrible performance. Nevertheless, its awesome design lends itself to being a sniper blaster, and on a lucky shot it actually fires near its advertised range of 100ft. That is, at an angle. A very high angle.
For us Aussies the range doesn't even go near 80ft, advertising a mere 20m and quoting Urban Taggers, "An N-Strike Nitefinder performs better.". So if you're dead set on getting a Centurion, get a full 100ft US version.
Seriously though, you're probably better off just using a lightly modded Longshot than a Centurion. It'll be far smaller and easier to handle, not to mention the Longshot can use existing common ammo types, and is much more consistent.


Why no Vortex you may ask? Simple, the velocity of Vortex discs is far slower than darts for blasters of equivalent range. Though Vortex blasters do fire much further than regular dart blasters, their low muzzle velocity makes it much easier to dodge incoming discs than darts. Additionally their vulnerability to the slightest change in conditions (darts are less temperamental) and tendency to veer off make them bad for proper sniping.

HFCBE - Nerf Maverick REV-6

A classic old blaster I absolutely despise, the Maverick is a simple 6 shot revolver. Being a six shot revolver, there is an expectation that you can quick-fire and quick draw it as you'd see in cowboy movies and all that. So just how well does the Maverick perform in this way?

Long story short, if it doesn't misrotate/misfire, decent. I still hate it. If you want guaranteed revolver rapid fire, a Strongarm is far better choice with its much more reliable rotation mech and slam fire.
Time: 1.1
No. darts: 4
Theoretical ROF: 2.73dps or 163.6dpm

HFCBE - Nerf Spectre REV-5

The Spectre REV-5 is in a sense a replacement for the Maverick, with a far more reliable rotation system which rotates on prime. This however results in misrotations of primed too quickly. With the rotation slip mech glued together to avoid this, can the Spectre match the Maverick's ROF?

Not quite. With less than a 0.3dps difference, the Spectre can nearly match the Maverick's ROF, but not quite beat it. Nevertheless the Spectre is far superior to the Maverick.

Time: 1.63
No. darts: 5
ROF: 2.45dps or 147.2dpm

Nerf Elite Alpha Trooper Slam Fire Demonstration

I did this video in reply to a skeptic, nickpro11 of Youtube. It's my method of slam firing the EAT. Accuracy goes out the window but ROF is very high.

HFBCE: Nerf Vortex Praxis

The Praxis was part of the first wave of Vortex blasters released late 2011. It was considered by many to be the best of the original Vortex, as it used Vortex mags, had good ranges and was pump action. However, the Praxis lacks the slam fire that makes the Pyragon so much more spammable. It was found though that holding the trigger down after priming back resulted in a psuedo-slam-fire style firing, which allowed drastically increased ROF at the cost of greatly increased jamming chance. So just how fast can the Praxis be emptied, both with and without psuedo slam fire?

Two test were completed: traditional pump action and psuedo slam fire.

Traditional Pump Action
Time: 3.13
No. discs: 10
ROF: 2.875dps or 172.5dpm

Psuedo Slam Fire
Time: 1.56
No. discs: 10
ROF: 5.769dps or 346.2dpm

Quick Apology regarding Ranges

I received a triplet of OMW springs for my EAT and Retals, and they're great. But that's not the point of this post.
When I was range testing them with a friend, I told him to ensure I was firing flat, and to my dismay it turns out my natural firing angle is much higher than I expected above flat. I believe it's around 15 degrees above flat.
So yep, all the ranges I've quoted in my reviews are probably 10-20% higher than they should be for true flat ranges. I apologise for that misinforming.
Anyway, in the future all ranges fired from natural firing angle will be quoted as 'roughly flat', and shot fired from true flat will be labelled simply as 'flat'.

EDIT: It appears that I hold the pistol type blasters (NF, Firestrike, Mav, etc) closer to flat than larger blasters like the Elite Alpha, so those ranges will just be quoted as flat.

Also a quick apology regarding the HFCBE that was supposed to go live today, one of the shots I did was terrible and really didn't work, so when I find time I'll be reshooting, and once that's done editing and uploading will follow quickly.

HFCBE - Modded Nerf Raider CS-35

This one's a little late, sorry about that. I was too busy playing Pokemon X which was released on Sunday. Anyway...
I absolutely despise the Raider. As Nerf's first slam fire blaster however, it is important to see how Nerf blasters have improved since 2009.

It is possible to get a good ROF out of the Raider, but its severe jamming problems limit the ROF you can get out of it. As you can see in the video, a serious jam occurs, tearing apart two Elite darts.
Time: 1.13
No. darts: 8
Theoretical ROF: 6.19dps or 371.7dpm

Additions to the Shopping Page

I've made a couple of additions and alterations to the Available Nerf Blasters in Aus page.
Firstly, products and lines which I deem to be 'discontinued', ie go out of stock and don't appear for a while, have their text shrunk to the smallest size possible to save space. I'm not going to delete the discontinued lines though because they are records of the past.
Secondly, each product now has a 'non-sale cheapest' price. Simply put, this is the cheapest price that you can find this product at, if there are no sales or clearances on.
Thirdly, each product has a list of major stores in which it can be purchased. The ones I've listed for the moment are Target, Kmart, BigW, Toys R Us, Toyworld and Myer, as they're the biggest retailers who sell Nerf. Blasters such as the Retaliator will have a number of stores inside it's availability bracket (ie [TA,KM,BW,TRU,MY]) while exclusives like the Elite Alpha will just have one (ie [TA]). Within these lists, at least one store is in bold, and is the store at which the product is available for the non-sale cheapest price.

Hopefully these alterations make the page even more useful.

Modification: Elite Dart Conversion

Ever wished that your streamlines were Elite darts but you're not bothered to buy a pack of Elites from your local Target? The answer is, make your own! Without using $8-12 on a pack of 30 Elite darts, use 2-5 minutes instead and convert your outmatched streamlines to more accurate darts for your Elite blasters!

Disclaimer: Mod at your own risk! Outback Nerf can't be held responsible for any damage to your darts/ and or blasters.

Anyways, on to the mod!

HFCBE: Nerf Alpha Trooper CS-18 (stock)

A while back I did an Elite Alpha slam fire vid, in which the Elite Alpha in question had a BT v2 spring of 8.5kg load, stock spring being around 2kg. So I went and got one of my stock ATs and slam fired that to see what kind of ROF I could get.

Time: 2.91
No. darts: 18
ROF: 5.842dps or 350.5dpm

Strangely enough, ROF with a stock AT is slower than ROF with my 8.5kg EAT. *genius*

HFCBE - Nerf Longstrike CS-6

The Longstrike is one of Nerf's bolt action clip (mag) system blasters, seemingly designed to be a sort of rifle. As it happens, the Longstrike is one of the weakest blasters in the N-Strike line, but we're not concerned with range at the moment. All we're concerned with is how fast it can empty an 18 clip (mag).

Time: 6.48

No. darts: 18
ROF: 2.623dps or 157.4dpm