It's Nerf or nothing. The song of many of our childhoods. Although Nerf itself is a brand name, "Nerf Guns" is a term used colloquially to refer to nearly all soft projectile gun toys. And while we tested several Nerf-branded products, surprisingly none of them made it into the winners' circle after our rigorous testing.
As far as brands are concerned, Zuru's X-Shot products seem to be doing better than the official Nerf products. Of course, as you will read in the following passages, it really isnoneof these brands that end up getting more praise here. I have the hard data to show which guns rule and which drool. Buckle up and put on those glasses!
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So I'm walking through a retail store one afternoon and I see this pack of two Nerf-style blasters marked $15 for the pair. I found them so cheap because they weren't good. Boy was I wrong.
X-Shot Fury 4 is aunbelievableblasters And you get two for the price of one! The only real complaint you can have about it is the fact that the swing barrel only holds four darts at a time. But that might be enough to get the job done anyway.
The Fury 4 had the highest average speed of our blaster models, only one of the single-shot rifles was faster - the same goes for the multi-shot rifles. It also scores above average in our distance and accuracy tests. In a total nerf war, I'll probably pick something with a higher dart capacity, or at least magazines that you can swap out quickly. But if you're in the mood for a high-stakes Wild West showdown, I'll turn to this blaster first.
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The X-Shot Dino Attack Claw Hunter is another case where I only have to complain that you often have to manually reload it as it only holds two darts at a time.
The Zuru X-Shot Dino Attack Claw Hunter has the highest average speed of any battery-less unit we tested and the second highest average distance of any model we tested. It fell a bit behind on general accuracy tests, but this gun feels great. Just ask Ruby, one of our kid testers. She grabbed this gun walking in the door and we had to practically snatch it out of her hands for anyone to use it!
When it was released, it was available on Amazon for $20. Especially if you want to hurt something - I mean it's part of the Dino Attack series. I assume you want mega speed when facing a T-Rex.
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This weapon looks cool. As a huge Arnold Schwarzenegger fan growing up, I'll accept any excuse to recreate a scene from Terminator 2 with that mini gun, some shadows and one of the worst Austrian accents to date.
With the Zuru X-Shot Excel Crusher, I can't make the same complaints I made above about the insufficient amount of darts. This thing has a self-rotating ammo belt that holds 35 darts. Initially, I wasn't very enthusiastic about the performance of this weapon. He was testing in the lower half of the mid-range speeds, which contributed to poor performance on distance testing. However, it placed third overall in our accuracy and consistency tests.
Fast forward to the end of our testing period, the last remaining part of our Nerf-style gun reviews was hosting a Capture the Flag game at our testing facility. I was busy setting up the course and everything and by the time I got to the weapon selection table most of the obvious options were gone - the Fury 4s, Dino Attack, sniper rifles etc.out of stockwith the mini gun. And... I... Mastered. And learned an important lesson in the process.
Dart capacity is an important consideration for these types of events. I had enough arrows to fire to lay down merciless suppressive fire and allow my teammates to complete our objective. If I ever find myself in another Nerf War Draft, the Crusher will be my first choice.
$20 on target
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OK. I'll try to make this as brief as possible. The TL; DR here is that the Dart Zone Pro-Series MK-3 Motorized Flywheel Pro Dart Blaster (phew!) beats the rest of those guns like Mike Tyson did against his 8-year-old nephew.
I had several other categories planned for this list: Best Multi Rifle, Best Powered, Most Carnage, Best Accuracy, Greatest Range, etc. But the MK-3 took them all. So I summed it up with the title Best Overall, and now I'm here to commend it before moving on with my life.
To be fair, this gun costs a bit more and has the term "Pro-Series" in the title. However, we've all been fooled by similar nicknames before, so I figured it deserved a try. It has an optional fully automatic fire mode and comes with full and medium sized sport darts.
Partly due to being a motorized unit, the Pro Series MK-3's speed was more thanquadruplethe candidate for second place. Of course, this enormous speed number means a longer distance on the course. We saw an increase of about 30% in the gap between this unit and the runner-up. The accuracy and consistency were equally impressive. With a score of 2.5 (smaller is better), the half-size darts in the MK-3 are impressively consistent. The second place received a grade of 3.4, the last place an 8.6.
With so much firepower it should be obvious, but it's worth noting: this gun is not for children and is recommended for ages 14+. If you qualify I can tell you this gun is super satisfying to shoot. Because of its excellent test results, we disqualified this weapon from use in our last Capture the Flag fight because we didn't want tothe truth ismurder someone.
If you want the best, get the MK-3. Currently for $130 on Amazon.
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Other Nerf-style guns we tested
Disruptor-Nerf-Elite: This is a really great blaster, but not the best. He had the highest blaster top speed and missed the highest average. The Disruptor also easily won the Blaster's distance tests, but was tested with the second-lowest overall score for accuracy and consistency.
Nerf Elite 2.0 Phoenix CS-6: This motorized blaster was not well received. He had the lowest average blaster speed and distance stats, and was tested 3rd worst overall for consistency and accuracy. Because it's motorized, you'd think this weapon would outperform most purely mechanical models, but it doesn't.
Nerf Zombie Strike Hammerwerfer: It looks cool (I'm a zombie enthusiast), but the performance is good. Its consistency and accuracy scores were good, but everything else was just below average. Good aesthetics, but there are better blasters out there.
X-Shot Excel Hawk Eye Blaster: With a break-action barrel, this rifle is fun to shoot. It scored mediocre in all of our tests. You can only carry one dart at a time, so this could be a great option for the younger Nerf enthusiasts that you might prefer not to carry.constantrain anger on you
Nerf Longstrike module with extensions: Both of the sniper rifles we tested were underwhelming. I will say that the Nerf Longstrike moduleSinnmore solid than the X-Shot option. However, compared to the X-Shot, its performance was poor enough to make itself felt.
Regenerador Zuru X-Shot Excel: Compared to the Nerf sniper option, this gun felt cheaper and weaker - especially with all of its stackable attachments (we had several misfires in maxed build with all attachments). But the numbers don't lie, and the regenerator outperformed the longstrike modulus. This complete setup gave us the second-best accuracy score of any unit at 3.5, despite misfires.
Nerf Mega-Mastodons: Aptly named, the Mega Mastodon is a ton of fun. It has the highest non-MK-3 speed, but its distance is still only average. This is probably partly because the darts are larger and weigh three times as much as half-size MK-3 darts. Accuracy and consistency weren't very impressive either. However, darts will whistle as they fly through the air! That has to be worth something, right?
How we test Nerf Guns
In addition to the walk-through phase, we have three main tests that we run with these soft, Nerf-style projectile toys.
First we have the speed test. We bolt each unit and fire 10 darts through a chronograph, which is a gauge used to test projectile velocity. We threw away any obvious runaways, misfires, etc. and calculated the average velocity of 10 good shots. We then compare the averages and create a chart like the one shown below. There's a clear winner in the Dart Zone Pro-Series MK-3, even your longest dart will beat the competition. You can see that the Nerf Mega Mastodon takes second place clearly, and the leftovers are contested by almost everyone else, with a slight edge over Zuru's X-Shot Dino Attack.
From there it goes on to the distance tests. The test units are still in place and we fire 10 darts down a long corridor. I have runners available when each shot is made and they will use tape to mark the ground with the location of each arrow.Firsttouch the ground. We don't count jumps or rolls. Just like with speed measurements, we average these results to look at performance. In the table below you can see that I have listed the average ranges for each weapon as well as the maximum range for each unit. Once again, Dart Zone is clearly leading the pack with several supporters behind them.
I conclude the tests with our accuracy and consistency test. I love this test for its ability to generate comparative numeric data (nerd number here in case you haven't noticed) as well as a nice visual chart. I've broken these charts into three separate categories: Blasters, Single-Shot Rifles, and Multi-Shot Rifles.
To conduct the tests, we fired five darts from each unit while they were still locked in the previous tests. Before each dart is fired, we press the tip against an ink pad. This leaves a very clear mark on our target paper. After all five arrows have made their mark, we measure the distances from arrow 1 to each of the other four - then arrow 2 to each of the other four, and so on. By averaging these numbers, we get a single consistency score that is comparable from unit to unit. The number is a measurement in inches. This indicates how much variation you can expect, on average, from one dart to the next fired by the same unit.
For example, half-size darts fired from the Dart Zone Pro-Series MK-3 deflection is 2.5 (inches), while the less consistent X-Shot Regenerator equipped with the long barrel is one variance of 8.6 (inches, the same fully clad unit has only a 3.5 variance - the second best match score).
choice of children
I would be remiss to leave this part out of the nerf gun reviews. We recruited three professional toy testers: 10-year-old Jackson and 8-year-olds Hamilton and Ruby. They had to walk around the lab for a day shredding hundreds, possibly thousands, of fired darts (some right at the test staff). !). At the end of the day, each of our subjects had strong opinions about their favorite gun.
I'll start with Ruby, which we'll refer to as the Nerf Clairvoyant from now on. Ruby walked in, almost immediately identified her favorite weapon, the Zuru X-Shot Dino Attack Claw Hunter, and we giggled. She could barely pull the butt back to fire. How could she love that two arrow weapon so much that she could barely fire it? Apparently, she was plagued by a lack of information and experience. But with the test results, the smiles faded from our faces as we realized that Ruby was indeed the chosen one. Chosen to lead us to one of the best weapons we would end up testing. I imagine she still sleeps with that gun under her pillow to this day.
Jackson chose the Nerf Longstrike module. Although this gun didn't fare well in our formal tests, Jackson obviously has an exquisitely refined palate and chose the most expensive non-powered unit on the list. It comes with two magazines, a detachable scope, extendable bipod legs and a barrel extension. The bolt action rifle on this gun is really satisfying. Who needs to shoot faster, further or more accurately with such a cool weapon? According to Jackson, nobody.
Last but not least is Hamilton. Unsurprisingly, Hamilton opted for the Nerf Mega Mastodon. Hamilton likes big things. Big trucks, big fireworks, big splashes of water, big explosions. So it came as no surprise to him to choose the weapon that most closely resembles the weapon of a demolitions specialist armed with the dart world's mortars. I can personally attest to Hamilton's destructive nature and I am sure that no innocent neighbor or small animal will be safe from destruction from his mortars.
Frequently Asked Questions About Nerf Guns
Which Nerf gun has the most ammo?
There are some options that can hold around 50 darts, but the current title holder should go for the Nerf Elite Hail Fire Blaster. This gun can hold up to 144 darts (additional darts and magazines required).
Are all Nerf bullets the same?
Nerf style toy bullets or darts/bulletsNOall the same. Most of these toys can use the same darts as most other toys, but there are some exceptions. It is best to look at the product packaging which should clearly state which dart series each product is compatible with.
Can a Nerf Gun Hurt You?
Nerf-style toys use darts as projectiles. These darts have very soft bodies that pose no real risk of injury. However, dart tips are made of a harder plastic and there is some risk of minor injury, most commonly potential eye damage. For this reason, it is recommended to wear safety goggles or goggles when using these toys.