Dart Zone Max Venom Pro Review

It’s been a hot minute since many of this summer’s blasters hit shelves – until recently, I hadn’t been able to buy the blasters so that I could properly try them in foam combat for review. Thankfully, that’s finally changed!

The Dart Zone Max Venom Pro is a stupidly fun blaster to use, and even more so when you have one in each hand. When $50 gets you a full-auto pistol with two magazines and a rechargeable battery, it’s already near-impossible to beat the value. The blaster working as advertised is just icing on the cake.

Dart Zone Adopts a Magazine Standard

Mag-in-grip blasters have been out for a while, with the Worker Nightingale (as well as the recent 2.0 version) being the most notable. They used thinner magazines than normal to make the form factor as compact as possible. These blasters, however, are online-only options. With the Venom Pro, Dart Zone has taken that blaster format and magazine profile and put it on store shelves for $50.

This observation is anecdotal, but while the mags are cross-compatible, the Nightingale mags that other friends have used tend to have feeding issues if the darts aren’t a mm or two shorter than the 38mm length Dart Zone uses. These mags, meanwhile, haven’t had any issues so far with darts that length.

The Venom Pro has a unique (among dart blasters, anyway) rev trigger located on the back of the grip, in the style of firearm grip safeties. I find it quite intuitive, seeing as you barely need to squeeze the handle in order to activate the switch inside. Some users have turned to various kits for making the blaster use a two-stage trigger, but ultimately this choice comes down to personal preference. Given the compact platform, it’s a sensible option, and I’ve had no trouble or discomfort with it so far.

If there is one issue to nitpick, it’s the magazine release button. Depending on the size of your hand, you may find it hard to hit the button with your thumb or a finger without adjusting your grip significantly. It’s a minor quibble, though, as the magazines gravity-drop and can be changed very quickly.

The blaster comes with two 12-round magazines and 24 Nitoshot+ darts (an improved Bamboo-type dart), along with a small rechargeable 2S Li-Ion battery and USB charger. It’s smaller than the previous Dart Zone batteries (two 14500 cells in series, compared to 18650s in the Omnia/Hydro Strike/Gel Zone packs), but it’s enough to run the blaster. Interestingly, if you don’t mind extra weight in front, it is possible to fit the 18650 battery packs in the blaster. It just takes some careful placement of the battery wires. Finally, a small iron sight fits on the top rail.

The blaster uses an XT30 for the battery connection, so other batteries can be used in place of the included pack if you so desire.

Performance

The Venom Pro averaged about 134fps in my testing, with rate of fire at seven darts per second – both as advertised on the box (the “range” claim typically does translate to fps on the various Pro blasters).

More importantly, it was lots of fun to dual wield at a local war.

Internals and Modification

As mentioned above, some users have already elected to convert their Venoms into dual-stage trigger blasters. There are plenty of other options online, ranging from body kits to barrel inserts for lowering dart velocity.

As for the blaster itself, I went with swapping out the motors and flywheels to adapt one Venom for indoor arena use. I grabbed Pulsar wheels and Loki motors from Out of Darts, as well as a generic 12v motor off Amazon for replacing the pusher motor (some people have burnt out the stock motor on 3s). It’s not pictured, but I did have to shave down the outside of the top “bell” on the wheels in order for them to fit under the flywheel cage cover (which is important, since that cover is where the trigger mounts). With the new motors and wheels, 2s batteries hit 140+fps and 3-4 darts per second, but above 160fps and 7dps on a 3s battery.

Final Thoughts

The Venom Pro is an amazing blaster for the price, and nearly perfect, in my opinion. $50 for a blaster that comes with this many features, extra magazines (more available from Dart Zone), and its own battery? As much as I love the Nerf brand, Hasbro would never have a deal this good on shelves.