Strength in Whiteout?

So Nerf Mods & Reviews got me thinking today.  They tested all the different color variations on the Maverick REV-6 against each other and found that the Whiteout outperformed them all.  While I'm curious to see if it's just the luck of the draw (that the only difference is the darts or that certain production of blasters at the time) or if they legitimately are better for some reason, I couldn't help but wonder if my Longstrike was worse than my new Whiteout Longstrike, so I ran a series of my own tests.

First I put both Longstrikes on even footing.  6 Dart clips with normal streamlines (E Type), no barrels.  Both of these blasters have their AR's removed (my blue one already had that, so to have an accurate test, I did it to the Whiteout one too).  Weather conditions were sunny with hardly any wind.  I set both of them down aimed over my porch off of the railing and fired each one 6 times and inspected the results.  Both blasters achieved the same range at the end of the test.

Nerf Mods & Reviews goes to great lengths to test things out with detailed results, so I trust their information.  However, looking at the chronological releases of Mavericks, seeing that the Clear and Sonic series Mavericks performed as poorly as the original Blue one doesn't lead me to believe that Mavericks have been getting better over time.  I think the real culprit here is that we're applying an exact science to toy blasters that shoot foam.  There's bound to be errors in the production run, especially considering how long the Maverick has been around.  Whether they turn out better or worse than before is kind of a luck of the draw if you ask me.  I wonder if we were to perform AR removal Mods on all of the Mavericks if it would even the playing field.

If there is truly any sort of performance difference between the Whiteout Series and normal blasters, it's likely not with the Longstrike from what my tests revealed.  It is possible that if I had used stock blasters that the results might have been different though.  However, I wasn't about to pick up another blue Longstrike just to run that  scenario.  It's likely that if there IS actually a performance gap, it's due to the fact that Nerf may have tweaked the older Maverick to perform better.  With the Longstrike being a newer blaster, I doubt they needed to make any changes.  Out-of-the-box, the Longstrike gets pretty pitiful ranges for a glorified "sniper rifle", but the bolt action is smooth and it hardly ever jams (unless it's a beat-up dart).

My Whiteout Longstrike will be the recipient of the Stage 1 kit from Orange Mod Works, so I'll be interested to see what the performance is like between my AR-removed Longstrike and my AR-removed Stage 1 Upgraded Whiteout Longstrike is.  It's just a great looking blaster with a comfortable feel and, being a long-time Longshot user, the bolt action makes me feel right at home.  I'll be posting details of that upgrade once the parts come in.  In the meantime, you can check out Nerf Mods & Reviews' post on the Stage 1 kit >here<.  MAN am I stoked to get mine!  Should get here within the week.  Seeing what it's capable of, I'll likely install it the second that package is on my doorstep.