NvZ'16 Dart Observations

At the past Nation vs. Zombies, arguably the 800 pound gorilla of the big games with all the high level players in North America attending, most every modern dart in use was being fired (and sold). Koosh really proved itself with Gen3 by the pallet load. I also got to test the most recent production of a few darts known in the SSC as offenders...

ACC (ACCurate)

I picked only one of these up from the field. No news to report on the factory dart (it caused the expected annoying squib when I stuck it in my Tacmod) but I do have something to report as to the cause of the notorious flywheel incompatibility: It is simply the tip glue. My factory dart was assembled with CA glue on the tip core ONLY and while the tip wanted to stay on, the super elastic compound let it stretch and bend and flop around on the front of the dart.

I refoamed it with a new foam shown in the image and glued the tip properly (by the surface, not the core) and it now shoots fine from flywheels.

FVN/Hardball

These solid ogive things were constantly around Thunderdome. I saved two from the NvZ dart pile for documentation.

I was putting these through my pistol at Thunderdome and they did perfectly fine. Tacmod doesn't mind them either.

Compared to a classic flat dome FVJ:

And to its less painful competitor, the ACC tip.

Yes, these are sharp and hard and not friendly. I wouldn't want them marauding around the field unless eyepro was mandated and bystanders not a factor. The ACC (which is the same tip as used on Artifact short darts) by contrast is VERY cushy and safe.

USC

These were in the minority compared to koosh but I still came home with around a dozen. The "Little Valentine" is a distributor, they also have Gen2 Voberry with the same printing and sell on Amazon. Nice advertising plan, put your brand on your darts which get shot everywhere leaving everyone wondering and googling.

Anyway, these are reportedly awful for flywheel apps: (1) the tips cause malfunctions, and (2) some have overly short foam and FTF. Neither problem is apparent with these, they have correct length foam for a full length dart and have never jammed my Tacmod. They are also accurate as hell! It's seriously impressive. Unfortunately they still have crappy velocity retention and crazy drop, so it's like a weak sagging laser beam. I prefer aiming and I do not lob shots, so they are still a big nope for me.

These tips are plasticized PVC. They are slick, like Voberry, Gen1 koosh and old school chinawhite tips, and feed great. The suction cups overhang the nominal caliber considerably which is weird but seem to flex enough to avoid "rimlock" no matter how you load them.

They would be GREAT darts in an indoor CQB situation being cheap, reliable and dead nuts accurate.

But what about velocity?

Seriously, these darts are all used and beat up, I only have one of one and two of the other, and it could be misleading. Generally the FVN did what I expected from FVJ darts, the ACC was a bit down on velocity as well, and the USC seemed to be close-ish to what Elite does from the same setups. All speaking of flywheel... master race that is.