The Huntsman Big Boomer has been known about for about half a year, when it first appeared in SE Asia as well as select places in eastern Europe. I finally came across one at a Go! Games and Toys this past week, not knowing exactly how much of a disappointment it was going to be. Your money is better spent elsewhere.

Large and Not in Charge

The Big Boomer is a large blaster, mainly in length. It comes with a removable stock, a giant scope attachment (that doesn’t detach), and an eight shot cylinder that is removed for reloading. The trigger is cosmetic; this is a slamfire-only blaster. All said, this is a long blaster without much capacity to match. With so much plastic in front of the grip and priming pump, it also isn’t the best-balanced blaster in existence.

Once we open up the blaster, it becomes clearer that we’re paying largely for a giant hunk of plastic. The internals are straightforward – a decently sized plunger gets pulled back by a bar and sled. The catch (and an associated metal pin) ride on a ridge within the shell, releasing the plunger at a set distance. It’s a strong spring and a fairly large plunger, too.

The priming bar also operates the rotation mechanism, lining up the cylinder barrels with the plunger on the prime, then moving them forward another 1/16 rotation when moving he priming grip forward. However, the rotation mechanism is a key weakness, as it turns out.

Major Issues

The rotation mechanism is secured at the back (with a shell ridge) and at the very front where the removable cylinder sits). In between, nothing keeps the mechanism centered – it’s assumed that with everything in place, the system will remain lined up. That is not the case. Most of the time, the indexing gear actually gets shoved slightly to one side, instead of properly turning. This is in stark contrast to a blaster like the Dart Zone Legendfire, which has its rotation mech firmly secured at the point where it exits the blaster shell. Zero rotation issues in that blaster.

While we’re on the topic of removable cylinders…the cylinder is fairly tedious to remove and replace, but even more so when loaded with darts. It’s like there’s just not enough room to put the cylinder in its place without squishing a dart or two.

Blaster Performance

The Big Boomer, when the barrel is manually lined up, performs superbly. The included darts, which have fairly poor foam, average 65fps. Nerf Elite darts, which fit the barrels tighter, average 75fps. However, that’s when you physically line up the barrels properly.

Normal operation, with the incomplete rotation, results in the dart firing off-center and rubbing inside the faux barrel piece. As such, dart performance varies wildly in normal use, but averages in the 50s. Many darts, however, just end up fishtailing and failing to get any real distance.

Last Thoughts

$40 is a tough sell for a large hunk of plastic with very little in terms of blaster internals. However, there are numerous issues with the actual operation of this blaster, from the faulty rotation to the mediocre reloading. Buy something else.