So the big thing for the Summer of 2012 was the N-Strike Elite lineup. At the head of this new lineup was the promise of 75 ft "Elite" ranges. While this has proved to be a bit of a let-down in terms of delivery (blasters typically get 50 feet flat, 75 ft angled) the Buzzbee Air Warriors line has a contender that's aiming to gain your business.
This is where the
Range Master comes in. It's a "Sniper Rifle" design that actually lives up to it's looks. The Nerf N-Strike Longstrike CS-6, while it looked the part of a long-range dart-slinger, got the same if not worse ranges when compared to other standard N-Strike clip-fed blasters. However, to get that range, the Range Master relies on the good ol' air tank... something the Nerf brand seems to have abandoned at this point.
Where most folks will jump at the 60 ft range claims (which are accurate) there's an Achilles heel to the Range Master that still gives the Elite blasters an edge: priming. With it's manual prime, the Range Master is easily outgunned by anything in the Elite lineup in terms of dishing out foam darts. Manually loading each dart on top of pumping 5-6 times in between each shot kills the Range Master's Rate of Fire.
It's clear that the Range Master was targeted towards the Nerf N-Strike Elite line as far as range goes, and it certainly does that well. However, when it comes to using these blasters in games, scales tip towards the faster Rate of Fire that the Elite lineup has where this clumsy bolt-action air blaster fails to keep up.
With a pump and barrel replacement, this could possibly outperform the Elite blasters in both rate of fire and range, depending on the volume of the replacement pump; I've seen some dual-action pumps that could fill the tank in one of these in one cycle.
ReplyDeleteA fairly large dual-action pump with pump-action pumping and a hopper clip should get this things rate of fire up to par with the Elite line.
DeleteNo flywheel testing yet? sniff sniff sniff
ReplyDeleteBazookafied,
ReplyDeleteAfter I read your review on this over at NM&R, I'm impressed.
Is there any noticeable range differences when you let the door inside create the seal?
Didn't notice any range difference. The door inside pushing the dart back does a good job when it WORKS. Sometimes, the dart gets pinched/jammed in that area, so it's more for reliability that I push the dart in myself.
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