PSA: Do Not Buy Headshot Ammo!

Absolutely do not buy Headshot Ammo.
Headshot Ammo was one of the first viable third-party alternatives to name brand rival rounds from Hasbro; I gave it a glowing review back in 2016 and even started selling it on the shop. Unfortunately, Headshot has changed, and not for the better.
These new rounds bearing the Headshot name are lighter and stiffer than their older counterparts. They will wreck any flywheels they come in contact with, and we absolutely do not recommend this ammo anymore.
FAQ & Corrections:
-If you have any questions about products we sell on the shop, don't hesitate to shoot us an email: [e-mail]
-To be clear, using Headshot rounds in any blaster -- especially flywheelers, is bound to cause problems. More specifically, you could damage the motors by getting a ball stuck between the flywheels and causing them to stall. I'm afraid in the rush to get this out, I must have cut the bit where Luke stated this more clearly. Thank you to the people in the comments who pointed this out. - Perry
Timecode
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Edited by J Perry Heun, Out of Darts Video Editor

[@outofdarts]

To be clear, using Headshot rounds in any blaster -- especially flywheelers, is bound to cause problems. More specifically, you could damage the motors by getting a ball stuck between the flywheels and causing them to stall. I'm afraid in the rush to get this out, I must have cut the bit where Luke stated this more clearly. Thank you to the people in the comments who pointed this out. - Perry

[@gamingwithlucasdowning9453]

@Out Of Darts Hey Luke to let you know my motors were stalling in my Perses and it was frustrating when you get your proton rounds back in stock I’ll buy a few packs

[@ETA_404]

I guess you could really say you're out of darts now.

[@olivermensinger6022]

Hey, Luke, what happened to the waffle head darts on the store?

[@alaeriia01]

What would you recommend for Rival rounds that aren't too pricey? I've been buying Little Valentine and haven't had an issue.

[@superfunforce8052]

Is this still current? Have they fixed their ammo and went back to softer rounds?

[@LordDraconical]

Real shame to watch em fall so far. Good on you for pointing it out and testing.

[@Savage_Alex121]

Hi drac

[@Future_Doggo]

2016: Headshot ammo 2022: Concussion ammo

[@SamDaNerfer]

i see why this is top comment, also first reply

[@drflux]

Thanks for putting this out! I'm going to go back and pull my old recommendations from my videos.

[@Boomstickmods]

Returned 1000 rounds myself. I’ve been trying to get people to stop buying them. Thank you for making this psa. We were really disappointed to see them drop in quality. I do recommend little valentine darts myself.

[@dmfyre]

My friends and I at college were doing a nerf war this past Autumn/winter, and we decided to get Headshot rounds to help do team stuff and make tagging others easier since we used different colors. Some people's turned out fine...but 90% of them were hard as rocks and stung (because they were using modded or decent rival blasters), or like mine, were foamy and more uneven/pockmarked than a bag of popcorn. I would NOT tell anyone else to get these.

[@shatteredskies191]

Good on you for telling people about this. If you start producing proton rounds again, I will likely get quite a few!

[@genedocsinnovations8319]

Yeah Protons in various colors would crush Headshot sales based on this subpar ammo

[@KekusMagnus]

Damn, that's pretty disappointing. I have some of their old ammo and I was really impressed by how good it was for the price. Shame they sunk this low. Definitely shows there's a lack of QC

[@scottjs5207]

Already knew what this was about. Had to dump a 1/3 of the rounds that ended up at my last indoor event.

[@eecubical]

I like those a lot better for springers, they seem to be more consistent. In fair view can't call it "garbage", its just not for flywheels.

[@jeffreybradley3736]

I'm actually happy to see this video . I don't have any Nerf rounds to compare and had purchased 800 HS rounds from Amazon . These HS rounds exit my two flywheel blasters at pretty extreme left angles . My springers seem to be ok with them with the exception of the Kronos . My three Kronos deliver Maverick ranges on 80% of the shots using these rounds . I really thought something was wrong with my blasters , since everyone was recommending this ammo . Thank you Luke , may be a good idea to get the Captain in on this to help get the word out ASAP .

[@stevenshade5358]

It’s hard to beat the dart zone 150 packs for $20

[@craigjoe8691]

Their 200 round set just went on sale for $8. Picked up a few sets in different colors. Can't beat that deal.

[@bhizzle64]

Very much agreed. I had to basically stop using stock rival blasters at public games for a bit because public ammo could easily have some headshot in there. It’s a shame because headshot used to be really good.

[@taimaishu-nao1922]

Luke, the Headshot stuff had been awful for some time. I can’t say when but at one point, they were TOO squishy. I think the last time I played with my own blasters, the ammo wasn’t great. But I think that the change was due to complaints that the ammo would squish too much so they made them denser. But then now they’ve gone and made them TOO dense which if you’re using a springer isn’t going to matter too much except it’ll sting more which is a thing with guys running K26-modded Kronos blasters. But yeah, I can’t recommend them. In fact, Pups of War (my local spot and friend to the shop and channel) had to return them ALL because the performance just wasn’t there. I don’t know who they eventually switched to but all the Headshot ammo has been replaced. I think they’re using Little Valentine rounds which have been more consistent with their squish and accuracy.

[@Gretschdrums01]

Huge thanks for this, I have a mountain of old Headshot that I loved, if I hadn't of seen this when I run out I would've gone right back to them none the wiser.

[@Slimmeyy]

If your old ammo is fine then you should definitely keep it, only yeet the ones that are this hard to compress.

[@Gretschdrums01]

@@Slimmeyy For sure, I guess I worded that poorly I meant I would have gone back and ordered more had I not seen this warning

[@Slimmeyy]

@@Gretschdrums01 alright that makes more sense lol

[@timkaase87]

Those are almost like they're solid rubber compound, something towards a giant hyper round. Why not cut one in half to be sure

[@tsmcgu]

Yeah, cut one in half (safely) please, very curious...

[@ForRealConfused]

I just bought the tachi magazine and it arrived today thank you so much for making such a awsome magazine

[@digitalben420]

Luke, as always, thank you so much for doing this work. Imo, your videos are the most credible source of information in the hobby. Your team rocks!

[@charleslaine]

I bought two bags of Valentine brand rounds from Amazon and they had the same issue. They were all noticably stiffer. I even did a blind test where I shuffled up some genuine nerf rounds with the off brand rounds from Valentine, and I correctly identified the Nerf rounds accurately 100% of the time. I will be sticking with genuine ammo. Not only are these stiff rounds hard on your flywheel blasters, they are also much more likely to cause injury to you or your pets.

[@bojingly6759]

The 500 yellow rounds have been pretty good for me, some of them being a bit too squishy. However the blue and red HS rounds were rock hard like this video.

[@aavaataar9618]

RIT HVZ has been considering banning Headshot because of how hard it is nowadays - it’s to the point that it’s becoming a player safety issue. We want people to feel getting stunned, yeah, but we don’t want it to outright hurt, and that’s exactly what’s been happening.

[@frankyworldwide]

Thank you. I just returned to the hobby and noticed my nemesis was jamming. I realized I had some headshot ammo from 2021 that was causing the issue.

[@IchibanOyabun]

Literally saw this video after I received my rounds from Amazon! Which was minutes before this video was posted… HS Ammo seems to work fine in my Kronos. Just won’t be using it for anything else but target shooting at home.

[@themoltenphantom1871]

yeah i just got a nemesis and rachargable pack, i saw some bad reviews popping up and was a little confused because of the recommendations from others, so instead i bought dart zone rounds and i think theyre just fine.

[@joelcarstensen6351]

I bought about 400 a few months ago and returned them. Same problem they were too hard. I was afraid that someone would get hurt or they would jam the blaster. Luckily I found some genuine Rival rounds for a good price around when I returned them. I think I left a 1 star review on amazon so hopefully that helped someone decide not to buy them.

[@Windle_Poons]

Wow, thats a shame. They had such a good reputation. When I saw the title I figured it must be bad. I get the feeling Luke is the kind of guy that doesn't like to trash talk products but if he felt the need bring it up it must be bad.

[@iClamperson]

Thanks for doing a video on this. Bought a bag earlier this year and almost wrecked my Perses with them.

[@heatherbaer2898]

mine got wrecked and i just got a new one but im having trouble finding rival ammo pakcs with high amounts

[@scotthaddad563]

I have ordered from amazon both the official Nerf ammo and recently Pokiiulk brand and after measuring both with a dial caliper, I see that the off brand is running about .005” smaller in diameter. After giving them both the squish test , the Nerf is a slight bit harder than the off brand and then after shooting both it seems that the off brand does fly a little faster. My blaster is un-modified. (Edit) I forgot to mention that the Nerf brand was almost twice the price.

[@jonathonchabluk5070]

Really unfortunate seeing their quality take such a dive. I remember buying a bunch of them years ago, was absolutely astounded seeing how inconsistent each batch was, either too squishy or way too dense. Given how expensive authentic Rival ammo is I can’t wait to see Proton rounds potentially brought back.

[@superfunforce8052]

I went into my storage of the last batch of headshot ammo I bought last thanksgiving... I had 3 bags; blue, pink, green, i squeezed and I could tell the green was way harder than pink and blue... so I’ll keep my pink and blue but return green and not buy headshot anymore thnx

[@snakesan520]

I've tested the new headshot ammo the closest comparison I can come up with is they've been freeze dried without actually being freeze dried

[@Korviliath]

The problem is that perhaps, that's actually Cosmo and Wanda.

[@smingjr]

Would you try little valentine rounds? I bout 400 the other day and they seem to work fine in my unmoved persess with extended hopper.

[@grahamturner2640]

I wonder if you’ll actually restart Proton round production.

[@Spider2point0]

It's a shame that Headshot Ammo quality has taken such a dive; it used to be some of the good stuff, highly recommended, but the more modern batches have been just like this, rock hard and ridiculously incompressible. Been like that for a few months now, at least, I want to say; makes replacing rival ammo an even bigger pain.

[@timshooter8033]

Thanks Out of Darts for the heads-up !

[@norcalnerfclub3423]

A friend of mine brought over a few pink ones a couple months ago, just to show me that. Right away I said Man, don't put those in a flywheeler. I'd like to try the new Dart Zone rounds. Those have always been decent. The new Nerf rounds aren't bad, but my favorite is the Chaos rounds. They are the most accurate and can be used in any blaster. Good that you gave a heads up about these.

[@donaldcarter1206]

I have been getting little Valentines since i found out these were junk last year. My proton pack/ Jupiter loves em as do my other wheelers. They make different colors too so orange for the proton and yellow everything else.

[@notmuch_23]

How do you think Headshot was able to undercut Proton rounds? Cutting so many corners they made a sphere! *rimshot *

[@Suspicious_Moai]

Dang... That used to be the best deal on decent rival ammo there was... I have a nemesis I use a lot and I lose and go through a lot of ammo so this is really annoying and sad. I hope if enough people stop buying they will fix it.

[@RiverWilliamson]

I had a bag that was fine, then about half of them went stiff, then most. Seemed like they'd retain their flexibility if they stayed in a humid environment, but that's purely anecdote on my part

[@Sillybutts]

Television build you say? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

[@christian5256]

I had a buddy recently completely jam his kronos to the point that it had to be disassembled, due to a headshot round getting stuck inside the chamber. I've not had great experiences with it and would rather use nerf, x shot, or dart zone ammo.

[@1Scimetar]

Not sure if this is a good workaround, but would rival springers be as adversely affected by this? Seems like nearly all metal parts of a rival caliburn wouldn't be as badly damaged as an OOD jupiter would be.

[@DevilZcall]

oh them being generally lighter is an interesting detail. I thought especially the rock hard balls would be denser and they just messed up quality control, but this sounds more like a formula change.

[@pariahstevo52]

I bought some about a year ago. In fact, bought my son a perses and it kept jamming. Turns out, it was the headshot ammo. Took it out, blaster worked fine.

[@imteduck4117]

yellow has worked for me could've changed too, but i do remember my friends ordering red and having most be misshaped or hard

[@FamilyFoamsport]

YEP - I bought a few bags late last year - some colors were ok and other ones were rocks like yours. I've actually been referencing an obscure video of yours where you mentioned a possible reason for this - your mod guide for the Adventure Force Accellerator kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y5WtoXWVg6hpfKs At the time you suggested that it might be the factory selling rounds that didn't pass inspection, and I honestly wonder if Headshot has stopped selling the rounds and the factory is just selling off old failed rounds that they kept with the same labels attached - which might explain why some colors were still ok as of last year. Anyway - thanks for putting out this PSA! Hopefully you save a few flywheels.

[@trilianleo]

surprise it is on sale. they must be trying to move the stock.

[@YourAtool]

I have noticed over the last 2 years that especially with my kronos the amount is either to hard or to soft so it git stuck on the hopup

[@mister_pincerey815]

I had slight problems with the red version of headshot ammo, 1 out of 10 was hard, but the blue and yellow colors acted normally. The blue ones varied from squishy to slightly harder than rival rounds.

[@jordanwilson9611]

i had purchased a 400 ct pack of them 3 months ago and i returned it 3 days later just jam after jam after jam and then i just sucked it up and bought some nerf banded ammo hahah use the ammo that is meant for ur blaster or you may be like me and think ur blaster is broken when its not

[@freethinker3161]

Oh my God I knew it. When I bought my Nemesis it kept jamming it. I can't even use it with my nemesis.

[@Jackalblade9]

Holy cow, what went wrong here?

[@pastiesandagstring]

Good to know. I had been considering getting a batch but now I’m not so sure.

[@KenshinPlayz57]

I want some pink rival rounds but I don't know what to buy? If not any good pink ones I would buy dart zone or worker rounds which would be a second choice

[@MonsterZ123]

The density works great in adventure force pump blasters

[@stevegardner8765]

Headshot ammo broke the left flywheel in my Perseus

[@xrp3robot]

What a disappointment. They use to be so good.

[@congokael8087]

Strange that they would make them that hard. I can see wanting to make them lighter (ie: less material) but it looks like they changed the material all together...

[@andyfoammaster2286]

I am so happy you made this video someone needed too. I have had horrible experience using head shot in any rival blaster and my nerf club bought a bunch it has been jamming everyone's blasters and even broke a few plus jammed one so bad had to open it up. Bottom line head shot ammo is garbage and I WOULDN'T USE IT IF YOU GAVE IT TO ME. SO DISAPPOINTING.

[@catternout]

Also Out of Darts: *sells headshot ammo*

[@outofdarts]

We used to sell Headshot Ammo because it was one of the better third-party options available. We've since been out of stock for a long while, and we only would remotely consider selling them again if they fix quality control.

[@catternout]

@@outofdarts oh ok

[@metanoba4099]

That’s so sad a beloved brand that was king of rival rounds have fallen so low I hope they fix this and be back to selling high quality rounds for good prices

[@MeamCity]

I have bought red headshot ammunition and it was literally identical to nerf rival rounds, but I bought it a lot time ago

[@watertakken]

This would be very bad for my Nemesis. The Flywheel and the Conveyor Belt mechanism can potentially jam up.

[@shrilleth]

you should have cut one of them in half to compare to regular Rival

[@christopherramirez3896]

About a year ago I bought a couple hundred rounds of pink and light blue I had maybe 20 to 30 rounds total that were hard and unusable and getting stuck in my fly wheels. But yeah that was back when everybody was recommending this stuff seems like things have gotten worse as time has gone by that’s too bad.

[@kevincarter4782]

I bought a pack a few months ago. Almost ruined my Nemesis with them. My Pathfinder doesn’t seem to mind them quite as much

[@TimeLapsePrints]

On the upside, I am now very curious what this project you needed all those for was! Also, curious what the harder ammo does to a stock flywheeler. If some one has one they are planning on modding and has some of these little pebbles, would love to see a stress test/demo of bad ammo.

[@oshmudungydu3121]

plot twist: they want you to buy their ammo

[@TheSocialProfile]

I was straight up going to buy because of hardness until you mentioned the lighter weight inconsistencies

[@Raether608]

A bit confused as to how and why this happened to such a good product.

[@Benjen-gt3dp]

WHY NOT?

[@TypingWithIsaac]

I've already bought some of this stuff before seeing this video, I wish I had seen it earlier. I can't return the rounds now (purchased them a while ago), but they don't actually seem to gum up my flywheel rival blasters, despite not being very squishy. Maybe it helps that most of my rounds going through are just normal rival rounds, with a few of the headshot thrown in.

[@nathanroussin803]

Hmmmmm well it cannot be the same size and be denser but lighter, at 1:41 you say they are “extremely dense” the lack of density is probably why they had to use a harder material which lessens their compression.

[@another3997]

You're assuming a like for like internal structure, but a hollow sphere made of denser material can weigh less than a solid, less dense sphere of the same outer dimensions. The elasticity of a material isn't defined by it's overall density, but a material can indeed give the impression of being more "dense", when in fact it isn't.

[@rubervenator5292]

Guess that's why they keep jamming in my Perses.....

[@genedocsinnovations8319]

Wow Luke I just showed my wife this eve. how firm some of their Gen 2 HiRs were compared to new accuRival blues. My favs are the unavailable blue track ones picked up in 2019- 2020 before they went to selling only stress balls Thanks for the update!

[@wesleyharris3872]

I’ve got them for Christmas a couple years ago and there were good. Did they just go down in quality or did I just not notice

[@gamingwithlucasdowning9453]

@outofdarts I believe the flywheel motors stalled on my Perses how do I fix that if that happened This happened like 2 months if not even longer before this video was posted

[@spizun]

These destoryed my Charger flywheels even from 2021 and now they make an ear piercing sound because it grinds the blaster. Really sucks the real-deal stuff is so expensive.

[@unclecraig5642]

I'm curious what happens in the blaster that you don't like. Like in the flywheels

[@outofdarts]

The main issue is that hard rival rounds cause the motors to stall, burn out, and be permanently damaged.

[@Rub1xHimself]

Srinks because i just got back into nerf and have wanted a hera my plan was to buy headshot and now i probably wont buy a rival gun anytime soon

[@darkshock42mlg05]

Well i guess it's fine if you play bazooka ball which is basically a paintball gun that shoots .68 cal foam balls. Still you want soft ammo. Theire is also bazooka ball branded ammo but that's 50 mm vs 86cal.

[@accuratechicken]

man those are pretty terrible. we have a lot of rival users at our club and i'll be sure to share this video with them. still somehow not the worst rival rounds I've seen though. a few years back my friend bought some off of amazon that were hard as rocks and not even round (not sure what brand they were). they were also smaller diameter then normal rival, not matching the images at all and had visible flashing on most of the rounds. they wouldn't fire well out of anything (short of a literal slingshot lol).

[@erikvil45]

Wish I could have watched this before purchasing that ammo. I found an Adventure Force Quantum at a thrift store and when I put some Head shot ammo it jammed and stalled my blaster

[@MrFeeblweebl]

Got it. Thank you guys!

[@darklyo3784]

I still have absolutely no idea why less squishy rounds are bad

[@outofdarts]

Especially for flywheelers, firmer rounds can jam your blaster and ruin your flywheel motors, and they are not fun to be hit with either.

[@darklyo3784]

@@outofdarts ok neat

[@martinmarinelarena8508]

I was about to order some of these rounds for my Kronos to save a few dollars but I will avoid them and keep using Nerf Rival original rounds.

[@aaronstafford6296]

The softer the rounds get the more jams we get out of our automatic guns. So i would think the hard the better for this issue. Do you have any suggestions on balls become used and to soft??

[@outofdarts]

The problem comes when flywheels and motors expect some amount of give. At this time, we really don't recommend anything other than Nerf Rival, Dart Zone Ballistic Ops, and X-Shot Chaos rounds.

[@royethan2094]

Maybe is not meant for flywheel. So i dont see the real issue other than it is not compatible for flywheel. Isnt it ? Just my view.

[@austindaugherty5933]

My headshot rounds seem to work well in single shot/ pump action blasters but they jam in flywheels almost everytime

[@thatguybob1986]

I have never found any other brand of rival ammo to be good except for the genuine Nerf rival. If you can get the proton rounds at a cheaper and good consistency I will buy into the platform over Nerf rival rounds.

[@christian5256]

I like X shot ammo, and Dart zone makes ok ammo too.

[@TheBloxer15]

Perfect ammo to shoot as hard as rocks

[@airsoftluke17]

ngl they work just fine for me

[@Freakmaster480]

Random question. Are you thinking about swapping to, or at least testing, the X1C. It's print quality appears to be on par with the prusas while being able to easily print 2 times faster without signifigant quality loss. I've seen them so even faster when tuned. This is all while being only a little more expensive.

[@FreejackVesa]

I know nothing about this hobby, I came here from a comment on an Adam Savage "Tested" video. Can someone explain what the problem is. Do they not shoot correctly if too hard or too squishy? Or is it because they might be kind of painful? I feel like darts that might give a little bit of sting would be more fun, but I can understand that would be specialty items rather than the standard expectation for essentially a children's toy.

[@outofdarts]

Hi! Thanks for checking us out! The Headshot ammo currently sold is stiffer than stock rival rounds, and their own previous batches. This is likely to jam, stall, and burnout flywheeler motors, which expect the balls to give a little. While some may point out that springers are fine to use them, many clubs restrict the use of hard darts and rounds for safety reasons.

[@FreejackVesa]

@@outofdarts thanks! I appreciate the answer. Makes sense now that it's explained. Like I said this isn't a hobby I have really any knowledge in but it seems interesting. I'll subscribe

[@outofdarts]

@@FreejackVesa thanks for the support!

[@adriansue8955]

Well Yeah Didn't I make this thread like.... 3 years ago saying they were crap? Tho my personal experience with Headshot was the rounds were Too Soft and Oversized, not Too Hard like yours. bottom line is INCONSISTENCY some batches are too hard, some batches are too soft, etc big gamble if you're going to get anything useable.

[@adriansue8955]

In all fairness when I complained at that time they refunded me, didn't even need to mail them back. Hey maybe the subsequent rounds being too hard are backlash? they tried too hard to make them not too squishy and went the other way?

[@ZakLeek]

Is this large "TV Project Build" the head-mounted Mount-Olympus by any chance? Looking at the results you were getting, do you think it's possible they were trying to make Hyper rounds but put the Hyper material in the moulds for the Rival? It's weird that they were lighter but harder, meaning it can't be the foam cell density that's charged but the actual material itself?

[@AJcore]

Did you cut one in half? Almost seems like it’s got a core or something seeing that close up squish comparison shot at the end.