Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Falling Ranges With Batteried-Powered Blasters

Good evening all! Yesterday I conducted an experiment with the Barricade and Stampede. Everybody probably knows that they both run on batteries, and that battery life effects ranges and rate of fire. I did a range test with my Barricade a few months ago, and it reached about 32-35ft flat. You can watch that video here.
    The Stampede ECS, I find to be basically a better-mobilized Vulcan. Both shoot about the same rate of fire at full battery life. The Stampede range test was done a month ago, but was first used about 2 months ago. The ranges were about 27-33 feet flat with the darts scattered between those figures, and rate of fire was 2 darts per second roughly. That video is on YouTube here. And of course, these ranges are from a stock Barricade and Stampede, since I don't modify blasters or darts.


A second range test was done yesterday which is the experiment and question I want answered. How far does the range decrease with time? Well, the results were clear, and quite disappointing.
     The Barricade ranges, after about 2 months averaging use every 10 days, decreased to about 20-24ft. That is a decrease of over 10 FEET.  Honestly, I wasn't surprised. Since the batteries power the flywheels, the flywheels spin slower when the batteries start to run out. So, don't expect to hold a steadily range over 30ft with the Barricade over time.
     The Stampede has been used about every 4 or 5 days in multiple battles. After 2 months, the ranges decreased to roughly 18-26ft. A decrease of about 10 or 11 feet, which was a bigger decrease then I had anticipated. The batteries power the plunger action, and obviously the air power the plunger produces. Make a note that I may be wrong, and if so please correct me(kindly).

Now of course, you might use your Barricade and Stampede more or less then me, and have owned them longer so your ranges and rate of decrease will probably be a bit different. This post was created solely as a guide to know when and how your ranges decrease, and why a powerful priming blaster is better in my opinion. Example, Longshot.  But you may have better luck with your blasters, because I bet some of you guys modify. So, with all this said, I conclude this post. And in case your wondering why the Rayven wasn't tested, it is simple; I put new batteries in the Rayven awhile ago, and ain't used it but once. Therefore, the life of the batteries is still 100%.
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Thanks all for stopping in to this short entry, hope you have a blessed week ahead of you! Stop in and check out my personal Meteorology Blog if you find some time!

2 comments:

  1. The Stampede's ranges aren't affected by power levels. The stampede's batteries simply prime the blaster, they don't alter the ranges.

    For the Barricade and Rayven, it's a different story. These blasters RoF is controlled by your finger, so that shouldn't change due to batteries. Ranges for these blasters will change with battery life because the darts are launched by motors. So as your batteries weaken you will see a range drop.

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