When you think small airsoft guns, very rarely do you ever think that this can equate to long range. The Lancer proline rifles have been known for being insanely capable long range shooters, but does that performance translate to a small PDW like the Needletail? Today, we aim to find out.
We've seen one of these types of guns in the last year, the Battlehawk PDW, but the newest version of the Needletail does feature a few small differences.
The most significant of these differences is in the handguard. The Needletail manages to actually be smaller than the Battlehawk, even if they are primarily otherwise identical. Whether or not you like this is going to be mostly a personal preference thing, but we found the Needletail rail significantly more comfortable than the Battlehawk due to the removal of the extra picatinny segments, and the overall smaller diameter of the handguard. It is still MLOK, which is a fantastic choice as it becomes the more supported modular system for the AR15 and firearms world as well.
The quality of construction is still top notch, as we've come to expect from these Gen 2 rifles Lancer Tactical has been putting out. If you slept on Lancer previously, give one of these new models a try before you cast judgement, as they have really been making some phenomenal strides to try and improve the quality of their products, and we think it's been a rousing success.
The first thing we noticed before test firing this gun, was that the MOSFET from inside the tube is now absent, at least on the model we have. This made for a much better time fitting the 600mah battery designed for this gun into the stock tube. While we still hold the same grip we had with the previous PDW, the Battlehawk, at least a battery option exists and is readily available, and now it's much easier to install.
The gearbox is the same high quality pro-line box we have come to expect from Lancer's gen 2 rifles. This means you are getting a lot of torque out of the motor, a balanced gear set, and very thoughtful, durable construction.
On the note of performance, this gun has the same internal components as the previous ProLine models we have reviewed. We had expectations to meet, having looked at a couple of these models already. These were absolutely met. With the advent of more time perfecting the craft, the ProLine's have been getting progressively better as we test them, in little ways too.
We found the Needletail to be the most consistent of any of the PDW's with only a variance of +/- 4 FPS in our testing around the 340FPS mark on our standard .20g bbs. We found accuracy with .28's to meet the same level of performance we got out of the battlehawk, and this particular gun set a lofty long distance shot at 235 feet. For a gun this small, that was incredible. While accuracy past the 185 foot mark is so dependent on environmental variables at this low of FPS, it was still impressive. This definitely gives a battlefield advantage.
That's a tough question to answer.
The Battlehawk we reviewed previously was the same price. However, the Needletail is objectively superior in performance, in however small a way.
Ultimately, this falls into the same category as the Battlehawk did.
If you are in the market for a badass small blaster, this is a worthy purchase. If you wanted something more traditional, pick up any of the other Lancer Tactical proline rifles, they'll serve you well.