PrecisePro v Accustrike: The Comparison

With the arrival of Buzz Bee Toys' newest product lineup comes their overhauled dart system. As was stated back at Toy Fair, Buzz Bee split their darts according to what all their internal testing reflected. People loved their suction darts, which they do really well, but people also wanted distance and accuracy. For the last part, Buzz Bee developed and now sells PrecisePro darts. They get slightly less range than the long-distance darts, but are supposed to have superior accuracy.

And they come in cute 14-dart packs.

So how do they stack up against Hasbro's Accustrike line? Surprisingly superior!

First, we have to weigh out the darts. They're very close in weight, as it turns out. I chose to weigh ten at a time. I'm sure you can do the math from there.

In case you can't, the PrecisePros on the left are 1.06g per dart. The Accustrikes are 1.07g each.

Interestingly, when you tear a PrecisePro dart apart, you don't get a singular rubber piece. There's actually an insert that goes in the back of the dart head, with little or no adhesive in between the two rubber pieces. The pieces themselves are still glued to the foam, however. I assume Buzz Bee is relying on the air pocket within for cushioning, and the plug just helps to maintain the shape.

Now we get to the testing! It was a warm, humid, partly cloudy day with no wind, so I just elected to use the nearby park. To help with level shooting issues, I put a 5" ID ring on a stick 5' off the ground. Since I hold my blaster at roughly 5' high, that part lines up. Furthermore, I stood 5' back from the ring and forced myself to shoot all rounds through it, aiming for the middle. With this setup, being off by 2.4° means you're hitting the ring. Being off by just 1.9° means that with a .50" diameter dart, you're already brushing the edge of the ring and visibly changing dart trajectory. In a pinch, it makes for an easy solution. Your setup may vary depending on how tall you are.

For my first round of testing, I used a stock Raptorstrike, fifty shots for each separate category. Fitting, obviously. Let's start the data dump! In the interest of brevity, I'll list the end results. I have the raw data points, however, if you're so interested.

PrecisePro                      Accustrike

Mean	35.894		Mean	33.928
High	46.3		High	40.5
3rd Q.	37.175		3rd Q.	35.7
Med.	34.6		Med.	33.7
1st Q.	33.5		1st Q.	31.975
Low	31.4		Low	29.1
Std. Dev	3.683466		Std. Dev	2.539568

The second round of testing involved firing at roughly a 40° angle. I was mainly concerned with watching the darts in flight, but I did my best to consistently aim at a distant point. Both kinds of darts maintained their arcs with little or no sideways deviation.

Angled Accustrike on the left. One full drum of PrecisePro fired flat on the right.

PrecisePro                      Accustrike

Mean	78.48167		Mean	70.25167
High	83.08333		High	74.91667
3rd Q.	80.14583		3rd Q.	71.75
Med.	78.20833		Med.	70.16667
1st Q.	77.27083		1st Q.	69.41667
Low	73.33333		Low	63.83333
Std. Dev	2.277844		Std. Dev	2.502068
Var.	5.188574		Var.	6.260343

The final round of testing consisted of firing the darts flat from my modified Desolator. For reference, I have a 42mm OFP cage, Blasterparts flywheels, Meishel 2.0 motors, and a 1300mAh 30C Lipo battery. It's useful for tests like this because of the decent dart crush and high torque. As long as you're not REALLY spamming the trigger, identical darts will be treated, well, identically, and in a short amount of time.

PrecisePro                      Accustrike

Mean	68.04167		Mean	62.59375
High	83.41667		High	69.91667
3rd Q.	73.1875		3rd Q.	64.33333
Med.	69.41667		Med.	62.375
1st Q.	63.66667		1st Q.	60.75
Low	53		Low	52
Std. Dev	6.862483		Std. Dev	2.892919
Var.	47.09368		Var.	8.368979

As a bonus bit of anecdotal evidence, here's what happened firing at a shallow angle out of my modded 2S Hyperfire. The blue Elite darts traveled farther, but made a GIANT cloud in comparison to the other two dart types. Take from that what you will.

In the end, both types of darts were accurate as well as precise. You can reliably hit what you're aiming at, and you can repeat it consistently. The PrecisePro darts had the edge in range by a few feet, but they also tended to be slightly more spread out, if you check the standard deviations. There will also be more issues to consider with flywheel usage - since the foam has a unique profile immediately following the dart head, there could be issues in stock blasters. This will all simply become a case of finding time to test every possibility.

In any case, the PrecisePro darts will be the cheaper stock option, especially since Walmart will be selling 35 dart packs under their Adventure Force in-store brand. When it comes to dart clones, however, Accustrike clones already exist in inexpensive bulk quantities. At the very least, grab some and do some testing. More data points help!