Nerf Elite 2.0 Double Punch Review

For the moment, the Double Punch appears to only be in Canada. When it hits stateside, however, it looks to be one of the most fun, quirky, and innovative blasters to hit the Elite 2.0 line. And at its price, it’s hard to beat adding one to your collection.

Rule #2: Double Tap

The Double Punch is loud when it comes to looks. It has the typical Elite 2.0 blue plastic, but it also has a lot of green, akin to Zombie Strike. It has the stereotypical “primary” body and foregrip, but it also has two reciprocating barrels in front. And it has sections of clear plastic, exposing the internals for you to see the inner workings, from the barrel movement to the large flywheels. Compared to most of the Elite 2.0 line, the Double Punch just looks amazing.

Naturally, I should mention the other reason why it’s called the Double Punch. The blaster features two magazines, side by side, each independent of the other. You could, if you wanted, just operate the blaster with one magazine. It’ll do that. But once you insert two magazines, the fun happens.

On the trigger pull, the left barrel fires off a dart. When releasing the trigger, the right barrel fires. Each of the fake barrels retracts when firing their respective darts. It makes for a somewhat wide “rifle” with a goofy mechanism, but it’s so enjoyable to watch and use!

Here’s some firing footage and a demo of how the linkages work.

Performance

Of course, how the blaster performs is just as important as the gimmick. To that end, single shots averaged 71fps in my testing. That’s within the expected Elite range. More importantly, however, was the velocity of the followup shot (the second punch, if you will). Trying to fire reasonably fast, the second shot still hit the mid to high 60s. That means if you’re doing two shots as designed, the follow-up is actually useful!

With the binary trigger mechanism, you’re also able to fire off six darts per second if you really want to. Velocity will greatly diminish after that many in a row. But you can!

If you have the trigger discipline necessary, you could fire single shots, holding the trigger down as needed. That potentially means double the capacity for games like Humans v Zombies, if you can get the rhythm down.

Internals

For those of you hoping to modify this blaster into an absolute monster…you might have some issues. A few people have wired the blaster up to six AA batteries for science, getting 90fps or more. I went further and tore my blaster completely apart! Keep in mind that one screw is hiding under the main grip panel – you have to use a screwdriver to pop the tabs loose.

Needless to say, there are some interesting things going on. Notably, the motors have extended shafts that extend into the “Cap” of the flywheel cage, where they rest in small plastic bearings. This presumably helps to limit flexing that could occur from darts contacting the flywheels so far out from the motor. And did I mention these are extra wide flywheels? Yep, definitely not something you’ll find a replacement for just yet.

More critically, the motor shafts are knurled. This means they dig into the plastic when the flywheels are mounted to keep them secure. It ALSO means that once you remove the flywheels, they won’t slip on a shaft again and stay there – too much material gets removed. I’m going to experiment a bit with some epoxies or even ABS glue/slurry, in an attempt to add enough material back to the flywheels to grip, AND to keep them bonded to the shafts. No guarantees, though. If someone has the tools for making flywheels out of some 1 3/8″ Delrin rod, I have the full measurements on hand.

Finally, the flywheel cage is the ONE area with solvent welding. The cage halves screw together, but the faux barrels are glued in. I made a slice in the side of one barrel, then pulled the pieces apart. This seemed the easiest way to open the cage up while keeping the moving barrel mechanism.

Final Opinion

While it’s not quite ready for the modding community to go crazy with it, the Double Punch is an amazing addition to the Nerf Elite 2.0 line. There’s nothing like it on the market, and it performs on par with other Nerf blasters. For the average kid, this thing is a home run.

Hopefully we see them on shelves in the United States soon!