Broke the GoGun SixNeedler Out This Morning ...

Thanks again to Kent McManigal for calling this cool CO2 revolver to my attention with his review.

Mine arrived a couple of days ago, but I didn't have time to mess with it until this morning.

I also didn't mess with it for very long this morning because it's cold out (for north central Florida, anyway -- it was 25 degrees fahrenheit when I woke up and is just now climbing into the 40s) and why stand around in my yard in the cold if I don't have to?

But, I installed a CO2 cartridge, loaded it with the hardened steel darts (about 4" long) that came with it, and tried it out.

I can't really tell you how accurate it is because I'm not a great pistol shot. At five meters, it seemed to be hitting about an inch from where I was aiming. Not bad for my purposes. I don't foresee any situation in which I would 1) need to shoot someone more than five meters away and 2) pick this weapon to shoot them with.

As for how much punch it packs (again at five meters):

• I shot six darts into a piece of half-inch plywood and they pierced it all the way through with about half an inch poking out the other side (I had to use pliers to get the darts back out of the wood); and
• I shot one dart into one of those "decorative tins" that butter cookies come in. Only one because when the dart pierced the metal, went through the interior of the tin, pierced the other metal side of the tin, and stuck itself maybe an eighth of an inch into the plywood behind the tin, the little rubber fletchings/chamber sealers on the dart were stripped off and went flying off somewhere. I didn't want to ruin a bunch of darts doing that over and over again.

I wouldn't intentionally take the SixNeedler to a gun fight, but I also wouldn't want to get shot with it. I suspect it would bury itself completely in a human body (losing those fletchings and having to be dug out) unless it hit bone. Probably not a killer absent a very lucky, or very skilled, shot that got to the brain or heart without encountering bone, but painful as hell (especially if dipped in, say, cayenne oil) and calling for medical attention.

So far, I can't really find anything bad to say about the SixNeedler. It's cheap to own, cheap to use, fun to shoot, doesn't require the kind of range conditions needed for "real firearms," doesn't require the kind of cleaning a gunpowder-fouled weapon needs, and is pretty comfortable in terms of size, weight, and grip.