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| Why do so many people love these lil' guys? |
Recently the Hammershot has come under fire as not being a
“good” secondary. Although there are many fans, I still feel that it’s worth
explaining the reasoning behind my choice of sidearms. It’s my go-to secondary
for a variety of reasons. While I make no claims that the Hammershot is “the
best” secondary, it is still quite effective and an excellent all around
choice. So read on dear taggers, and learn why the Hammershot is the jack of
all trades, master of none.
Let me start off by giving you some of the requirements I
had when choosing a secondary, and why I wanted one in the first place. For me,
a secondary served as a quick go to if I run out of ammo, or my blaster jams in
the middle of a firefight. Note that while these are MY reasons, they are by no
means the ONLY reasons to carry a secondary. As with everything you choose, I
believe you should be well informed. Play to your strengths and set yourself up
with the tools and equipment to accomplish your goals.
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| B.F.U. - Thug Life |
It had to fit into a holster. That was key, probably my
biggest requirement. I’m a little guy, and I needed something that I could put
on my hip and run with that didn’t flop around. I’m not a fan of drop leg
holsters, I wanted my secondary to be right at my hip, attached to my belt.
Next I wanted something I could fire with one hand. I
generally don’t wear a sling. Why? First, have you seen the sling attachment
points on a stock Alpha Trooper? I’m not a fan of the sling attaching to the
priming bar. I like to change from left to right hand easily, depending on the
corners, and I like to dart push. I also don’t normally run a stock. I enjoy
the shotgun feel as opposed to the full rifle. I didn’t need the stock to prime
with a factory spring, and the accuracy wasn’t laser sighted to where I’d have
to shoulder and take careful aim.
So if my blaster was out of commission, I didn’t want to
drop it. I wanted something I could fire with one hand. I could reload my
primary by tucking it beneath an arm and holding the mag with my offhand. With
my secondary still in my main hand, I could reload mags. It wasn’t pretty or
ideal, but I could do it. So one handed operation was key for me.
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| What's amazing is these darts facing the same direction... |
I wanted something that was front loading. Running anything
larger than a 6 round mag makes a blaster pretty hard to holster, and I wanted
to be able to reload my secondary on the fly. Dropping a mag, and filling it
takes a lot of time and effort that I didn’t want to be necessary for a
secondary. You essentially need two hands. One to hold the mag, then the other
to reload. With a front loader, I could load up even while the blaster was
primed and ready to go.
Finally, I wanted a blaster that used the same ammo as my
primary. In our games, there’s no special rules for other ammo (aside from
vortex discs in which ricochets count). There’s no melee, or shields to break,
so there was no reason for me to run a secondary ammo type. In my opinion that
was just another thing that I had to figure out how to carry on me, and make a
spot for. If no one else was using it then whatever I brought to the field
would be fired toward the other team, and if I ran out I’d have an empty
blaster.
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| Give us this day our daily dart... |
Slam-fire was something I didn’t need or want in a secondary
blaster. It meant using two hands, reduced accuracy, and burned through what
would undoubtedly be a limited ammo capacity of my sidearm. In fact, anything that
was spam heavy wasn’t something I was interested in. I knew that my shots would be limited, and
reloading wouldn’t be as quick as a mag, so I wanted to be able to control my
shots.
Now recall when the Hammershot first came out, pre-Sweet
Revenge, even. There were very few other
blasters that really fit the bill. Only one I could find was the Snapfire 8,
but you had to get creative with holstering, and the trigger pull was something
I didn’t enjoy at all. Since then there’s been a plethora of hammer style
blasters and choosing any of them makes sense to me. The phrase “Buy a
Hammershot” has always rung as a catchall term for hammer prime blasters to
me. Some people prefer the Sweet
Revenge, or 4X4, and that makes perfect sense.
Still, there’s plenty of other sidearms that players can
choose from. Those all work well doing other things, often times better than
the Hammershot. The Hammershot just brings together the bits of each of them I
like. I don’t run my sidearm to fill a niche, some people do. There’s a wide
variety of opinions, likes and dislikes, strategies, and play styles. There is
no “right” or “wrong” sidearm.
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| Dual-wielding goodness |
I’ve tried other sidearms, but none have felt as natural to
me. The same idea goes for my EAT. I get some flak for rocking it occasionally,
but it’s what I want. The mag is where it feels like it should be, the
priming mechanism works the way I want a blaster to. That’s something that’s
important to me. I don’t need the fastest, or furthest firing blaster on the
field. That’s low on my priority list. Comfort and feel is a large part of what
I strive for in my load outs, and my equipment is no exception to this. Yet
others should be encouraged to take advice but make things their own, diversity
is part of what makes things on the field so much fun.
Now, why do I recommend a Hammershot? Well, first it’s MY
opinion that people are asking for. People don’t normally ask “what’s the best
sidearm for X, Y, and Z?” They usually ask what I run, or what I’d recommend. I
think the Hammershot gives the user a little bit of everything. If they want to
concentrate on something specific, fill a niche, or many of the other things
you can do with a sidearm, it may not be the best choice for them, certainly.
Still, it’s a great place to start. ~Josh
That's right! With a little luck and
a lotta leg work we were able to get our hands on the Nerf Rival Apollo fresh
from Target (check out our DPCI post for more info)! Big shoutout to Shawn and
Blood Angel for comin' through on the legwork and getting these in hand super
quick!
