It has been pointed out to me that a lighter dart may require less spin than a heavier dart. If you've had better results with your Bamboo 2.0's please let me know, though I still believe the lighter weight will mean at least worse accuracy and range than heavier darts.
I would love to see the same comparison but shot at something around 150 fps, I think the dart zone darts aren't really meant to be shooting double the velocity their first party blasters shoot at while the worker darts are more made for the niche paintball-tier velocity applications. I would wager it's less about the quality of the dart and more about each of their intended use cases.
Your results match mine when I did some quick tests of the new darts. Any dart design is going to be a series of compromises. I bet DZ took a look at how most people play Nerf and figured out that engagement ranges were often 100 ft or less. Given that fact, it makes sense to balance the dart design for velocity more than absolute range. I also found that these fed more consistently and offered more consistent shot-to-shot FPS numbers than the AF pros I was using before.
@@BradleyPhillipsYT I tried them in pretty much all my springers, but focused on my modded aeon pro and conquest pro since they’re both hitting 200+. My aeon had a spread of 203-214 with an average of 208 when I shot ten of these through it, which is scary consistent. EDIT: I actually went ahead and ran some darts through them again to get some new numbers AF Pro: - Aeon: 191.8 Max, 181.7 Min, 186.9 AVG - Conquest: 172.5 Max, 157.4 Min, 168.5 AVG Bamboo 2.0 - Aeon: 214.8 Max, 208.9 Min, 212.6 AVG - Conquest: 203.3 Max, 198.1 Min, 200.9 AVG So as I said before, crazy consistency with the Bamboos vs AF Pros. I think that's due to the body design causing less friction on my brass barrels.
My group found the foam density was more stiff in the worker HE, fed more consistently and jammed less. Green bamboos get crushed easily on the ground and then lose the seal around the 12.7mm bands.
IMO the best compromise is worker bamboo, the bamboo rings give it higher fps and it’s the same heavy worker dart that gives very good accuracy at range with a scar
So seems like these darts are better for raw velocity rather than range and accuracy. Sounds like they'd be better suited for close engagement ranges and run - and - gun playstyles, which is a cool way to further differentiate the role of a blaster.
Thank you for your in depth test. I always watch and learn a lot from your videos. Although I'm only into the foam blaster segment of your videos, I still enjoy watching your videos and gameplay footage.
Thanks for always being a no bs “nerf” RU-vidr Brad, you don’t complain about blasters looking too real or guns shooting too hot. You’re awesome keep up the great work👍🏻
I know you rarely use flywheelers BUT for a regular game of a group , we need a dart that can be used by both springers and flywheelers, we don't want to have to supply two kinds of half darts. I don't think the 'less' contact that the bamboo darts will have on the flywheels will be much, hence less performance. Great testing - extremely useful to the rest of us in the hobby.
It's odd because these were originally released with the Mk3 which is a flywheel blaster, but I'd have to agree. Less contact would mean lower performance in flywheel blasters.
And I'm here after trying these darts in my Lynx, and against another Lynx at an event, range, and accuracy seemed pretty on par with HEs. We both has rifled scars on our blasters (old injection molded worker rifled scar, and 12 Line SLA Worker Scar) shots went straight.
Huge fan of your work Bradley! Especially these type of videos with testing and data. In my experience, the DZP2 bamboo are really only better with Flywheelers. I have had the best accuracy and muzzle velocity compared to worker and other DZ darts when testing Flywheelers. That is using short to medium range. I don’t have a real ink e set up for testing distance/range or long distance accuracy. Keep up the great content man! 👍👏👏
That is interesting. I would have expected the thinner middle not to play as well with flywheels as a more uniform foam dart. Does velocity suffer at all?
@@BradleyPhillipsYT Yeah, I was surprised as well. I was always a fan of the DZ Diamond-Ruby-Max (red ones from Target in the states) for Flywheelers but then tried the DZP2 in a few different Stryfes and Rayven when I got my first MK3 and was surprised that they did better than everything else including the Worker HE. I think it has to do more with the diamond pattern eagle head than the bands though. I’m sure velocity does suffer a bit compared to Worker, especially at longer ranges but I haven’t seen anything noticeable. Most of my range is medium to short, so That plays a big factor.
Seems pretty obvious to me the main issue with the dart is it didn't play well with your particular SCAR barrel. I'm sure with a SCAR barrel chosen and tuned with the Bamboo gen2s in mind, you'd see much better performance. That SCAR was already chosen by you specifically for the worker dart performance, since that's the dart you typically use.
@@BradleyPhillipsYT regarding the first question you asked, then deleted To relace with a question directly calling into question my experience: The shape of the dart is less of an issue. The issue is the scar you used is well tuned to rotate a heavy 1g dart just enough to balance out any inconsistencies in the manufacturing, but not enough rotation to cause it spin out. The heavy dart needs more energy turned into rotation to reach this equilibrium. A dart fired through this scar barrel that is 3/4 the weight of the dart its optimized for is putting the same rotational energy into a lighter mass, causing it to rotate faster, causing the spin out and inconsistency shown in the video. Some spun out completely, some were able to regain some semblance of a flight path, and there was at least one example of a dart that performed very well. For the second question, no, I have not tested these dart types head to head in properly tuned accuracy enhancing barrels, but I do not pretend to be the end all be all of dart accuracy testing and experimentation either.
Perhaps it is too much spin for the darts, I hadn't thought of that given their lighter weight. Regardless do you think that a lighter dart is capable even with ideal conditions of matching the range and accuracy of a heavier one?
@@BradleyPhillipsYT range, definitely not. Accuracy, however, is definitely possible. I know it doesn't mean much to you, being a long range kind of person, but lighter darts can actually be beneficial in short and medium range scenarios. They travel much faster, so time to target is lower. Which means you'll not have to lead your target quite as much. The video also does show a downfall of lighter darts, especially at range. The wind was pretty wild, from what I saw, and lighter darts are much more affected by environmental effects. Such as hot air rising off of tarmac, or cross winds affecting the trajectory. This is also why distance is typically less. The deceleration of air resistance affects a lighter dart quite a bit more.
I appreciate the demonstrations of comparison values, I chose to buy the DZ Bamboo darts for now. But eventually I do plan on stocking up on worker darts for outdoor activities, maybe I'll mainly use my bamboos for just casual use at home. So I don't have to worry about losing them in events & nerf wars.
The lighter DZ did not really do well at range. It lost a lot of energy flying to the target with its drag. Although drag somewhat stabilises the dart (idk about this) but still hurt the range, maybe better ranges can still be done by reducing the drag coefficient (dome-shaped), increasing weight by a little, or just reducing the frontal area altogether with smaller diameter darts (most unlikely change in this hobby, we've stuck to half inchers for so long).
I have thought about this as well, but if you altered the tip to be cone or dome shaped, it might be hard to keep your friends after tagging them at 250+ fps with those.
Brad I love your videos brother. Based on data I’d rather stick with what majority use since it’s available. No need to change a whole range of set up just for a dart unless everyone used it or I can design something better myself
For what it's worth I'm pretty sure the bamboo darts were designed with flywheel blasters in mind. Lighter weight and the reduced middle section won't burden the motors as much as a regular shaped dart.
@@BradleyPhillipsYT I might (even probably) be wrong but I think it still contacts it the whole time through the flywheels, but it being thinner would reduce the drag on the motors since it wouldn't have to squeeze the dart as much the whole way through.
Wow, the wobble is crazy with the bb scar on the dz darts. I had the same thing happen using BlasterTECH's scar and also the worker scar but nowhere near as bad. I've Compared the new dz bamboo and the older ones, the older bamboo's don't really have the wobble in flight. I used a Swift (275fps) prophecy (240fps) nexus pro (190fps) All same results
As someone pointed out it could be the lighter weight darts need less spin. Seeing as you use a Blastertech did you try reducing the spin on Bamboo 2.0?
@@BradleyPhillipsYT yes I did, I normally have it set on 3 to 4 clicks depending on fps and i did reduce it to 2 but the wobble was still there al tho not as bad
@@BradleyPhillipsYT I used a Swift (275fps) prophecy (240fps) nexus pro (190fps) Anything over 200ish fps kind of had the same results, the nexus wasn't bad but i just tried out of curiosity my aeon pro @160 fps with brass barrel and BlasterTECH scar, after reading some other comments and it didn't have the wobble, pretty accurate at 20m. So based off that, scars are fine maybe the fps is the issue.
@@Bobby.botcha it's quite possible that they simply become unstable at velocities higher than 200fps regardless. Have you compared the accuracy against Worker darts with your lowest fps blaster?
If you are playing at a field with a Velocity cap, and you have a blaster that can reach that cap with both types of dart, you would be insane to use the lighter darts. At a given velocity, the heavier darts are going to maintain their velocity and flight path better unless they have much worse aerodynamics/shape. If there was a momentum cap or a Force/Energy cap, maybe you'd use the lighter darts. If you could get a hold of 1.5g darts with good aerodynamics and not using illegal materials (like metal washers), you could take advantage of velocity caps (ie cheat). (probably would work best at a lower cap like 150). In other words, as Brad intimates at the end, Muzzle Velocity is kind of a BS stat. (and fields probably should have both velocity and momentum caps)
Airsoft uses joules limits already because of the different weight BBs available. Would make sense for Nerf. Though the vast majority of darts weigh 1gram so it's not really that important to switch and instead could be dealt with on a case by case basis.
@@BradleyPhillipsYT Canada uses muzzle energy in joules for much of the basis of new gun laws. Many were upset they had to give up rifles chambered in .50 BMG because of it. Makes the most sense for nerfing, what matters is the total force contacting your body. If someone could get mega darts to shoot straight at 250 fps, I surely wouldn't want to get tagged in the lips or ears with that.
@@BradleyPhillipsYT they might not be as bad as they seemed if they don’t work well with that scar is all I’m saying. The last shot went real nice without a wobble and hit the target well, the rest were wobbling the back end so I was thinking the scar might have something to do with it. The step down in the foam could make the bearing scars not work properly on that type of dart.
@@wallafied others have tested these darts with adjustable scar barrels like the Blastertech one and even with reduced spin the wobble never truly goes away unfortunately
Let me just call this before I watch this video..... Back in 2015, i had issues when I ordered v1 X darts instead of v2 and v3 darts from Xplorer. V1 x darts had too much spin with my Merlynns (remember, brand new at the time) for its weight being .7 grams (rather than .9 for v2's and 1.3 for v3"s) even the way i make them consistently by hand, darts would just spin out. I could only used them in 2 blasters i didn't use a Merlynn, the Bird of prey Type L and the Ultra Match Firestrike. Weight is a good thing for long range as well as good aerodynamics.... which is why i'm skeptical, but i love the yellow foam, which i could get 1g darts with that.
@@BradleyPhillipsYT I wonder how they would do, stock NP AF pro's vs, Bamboo 2.0, no mods, no scars, i bet they would be dramatically better, and for sidearms, but for my 300+ fps game.... ehhhh.....
I tested these darts before watching your video in a nexus pro with the metal worker mod kit with a 1,8 worker Spring thats is shooting harder than my firefly thats shooting 200fps. It has one of those worker plastic over the barrel scar. I was comparing them with brand new AF pros darts and they were shooting better than those. They were somehow sealing better and shooting a little faster ( because of the Weight difference I suppose). They seemed to be more accurate too( I was shooting from like 15 meters on a rival target and it seemed to hit and be closer on the target than AF pro dart). But now I suppose ill try those worker darts :)
I'd think the bamboo darts have an issue with the scar due to their shape. The scar will only touch on the front and end due to their concave profile. They look very wibbly wobbly out of the barrel probably from that. I think for the rifling to work they have to be a consistent width down their length. Be an interesting test to see both types without the scar to confirm. Totally agree that less weight will also give them more initial speed and less distance.
While the no-rifling performance could be a closer match between the two, I'm not really interested in seeing no-rifling accuracy tests because of how much rifling improves the accuracy of a dart. It's a night and day difference. Something another comment brought to my attention is that the lighter weight of these may benefit from less spin than a heavier dart. Regardless there's other downsides to being lighter that would still see the heavier dart come out on top.
I agree that a dart that only worked in a no rifled barrel is useless. I was just interested in the scientific aspect of the test - is it that shape that makes it totally fail when combined with rifling? That way manufacturers would know that the notched profile in a dart is a pointless design, and users know to just avoid them. Thanks for the videos as always.
Green bamboos spun wildly out of control on my high fps blaster with bcar, but shot laser straight out of a lower fps one with a conventional scar for me.
the scar barrel might be messing up the bamboo darts because of the inconsistent surface of the foam body. I honestly feel like bamboo darts are mostly just a gimmick?
Have you seen the new T238 tracer unit that has a bearing scar? I personally would like to see a accuracy test comparing it to other scars string or bearing. Captain Xavier did a review if you haven’t seen it.
I have one of the them, it's hard to really do a video on a tracer unit to be honest. The darts are much brighter in person than what a camera can see.
@@BradleyPhillipsYT I’m more curious about the bearing scar built in on how accurate is it compared to a normal scar or other bearing scars. Captain’s video showed it pretty well and I believe MTB at least talked about it very briefly in a recent video.
@@BradleyPhillipsYT I'd be interested in seeing the accuracy difference. I noticed they shoot considerably faster I just don't have the equipment to compare accuracy and precision.
These would fire well in my fire rat with my heavy spring and longer barrel I feel, I don't use a scar and it fires pretty straight for a pisstol so yeah need to try it out.
@@BradleyPhillipsYT Yes I did. They are great for low spring load blasters at ranges around 10 metres. They fly really straight. Great for 150 fps games too. Once you try to hit anything above 15m, wind does impact them really badly. I had to switch to worker HE to hit at that range.
Most flywheelers that run half darts run waffles because they need the most contact possible to come out of the flywheels straight. The original bamboo darts are not great for this because they reduce contact with the flywheels making them launch inconsistently. I have a feeling these fly similarly.
@@BradleyPhillipsYT Probably not for me, but we have lots of guys in our club very fixated on pistols, might be worth it for them to squeeze out as much performance as possible. I bought a couple boxes on sale on amazon, but I predominantly run fresh worker he darts.
