Is the Nerf Rival Pilot Really BETTER Than the Forerunner?
Or is it just another boring Plinker Pistol?

Yup! Read that title again. This is it! This is the Nerf Rival Pilot, the latest cute ass little Nerf blaster from Hasbro. And it’s a blaster so powerful that it sounds like it’s breaking every time you shoot it!

Just joshin’! It is powerful, but the Nerf Rival Pilot only has typical Nerf Rival performance. Good thing typical Rival performance is usually clocked at firing velocities of around 100 feet per second. Still not impressed? Well, what if I told you it’s a better shotgun blaster than the Forerunner? Because it is.

Better than the Forerunner?

Yep, it’s better! This little blaster is basically a Nerf Rival Jolt and as well all know, the Jolt is the standard that every blaster is held up to! So, yeah, the Nerf Rival Pilot is a Jolt, except it’s break-action and breech loaded. Oh and it can do a pretty effective shotgun blast!

Shotgun Semantics

Neither of these blasters, that is the Nerf Rival Pilot and the Forerunner, neither of them are true shotguns. They’re not designed to shoot a buckshot of foam or multiple rounds at once like shotguns usually do. But while the Forerunner has the look of a short barrel pistol grip shotgun, the Nerf Rival Pilot has a much more impressive shotgun blast! Loading multiple rounds is also quicker and easier. But the Pilot doesn’t look anything like a shotgun, does it..?

The Nerf Rival Pilot is a Knockout

No, it doesn’t look like a shotgun. It looks a lot more like the Nerf Rival Knockout, which was the very first NERF Rival Jolt… Unless you count the BigShock. The Knockout and the Pilot are around the same size and they both function similarly, except the Knockout isn’t break-action. The Knockout loads much more like the Nerf Rival Fate, which saw the barrel extending forward to expose the breech.

Pilot Aesthetics

Differences aside, the Pilot and the Knockout are both compact little Nerf pistols with priming rods at the bottom of the grip. They’re both breech-loaders and they’re both cute as a button. What else is there to say? If you’d like a formal blaster comparison, just let me know!

That’s cool and all, but the Nerf Rival Pilot is just a lot more fun to use than those other blasters! Break-action is an absolute blast to use and using the Nerf Rival Pilot actually reminds me of the old Zombie Strike SledgeFire, which is a favorite of mine. All in all, the Pilot is the real knockout here.

Taking the Pilot for a Test Flight

Like I said before, the Pilot has average Rival performance, much in line with the other blasters in the Rival Series. And to prove it, let’s take it outside and conduct a quick firing test. You can view the firing test footage by clicking on the YouTube video above or you can just stay here and read all about it right now.

Range

The Nerf Rival Pilot performs much like any other Rival blaster and like those blasters it maintains good range and accuracy as well. I don’t know if it’s because of those little blue ball Accu-Rounds, but this blaster seemed pretty darn accurate and it hit targets at ranges of about 80 feet away. There’s a railing there in my courtyard which was 80 feet from where I stood during the firing test and I actually had to go down below and retrieve a handful of balls that shot over the railing.

Accuracy

As far as accuracy, I was also able to pretty much put my balls where I wanted to and consistently land shots on targets that were pretty far away. Although as we all should known by now, Nerf Rival blasters are pretty much close to mid-range blasters. After a certain point, the wind takes the ball and it will curve pretty noticeably. But within that mid-range of about 45 feet, I was hitting my shot and that’s very impressive.

Reliability

The Pilot is also an extremely reliable blaster. As Coop would say, I didn’t experience any jams or malfunctions when shooting the Nerf Rival Pilot. However, when overloading it with three rounds there was a time when it only shot two and the third round stayed in the barrel. It was not a problem as I just re-primed it and the third ball shot out just fine.

Similar results were observed when trying to triple load the Forerunner as well, so it’s not unique to the Nerf Rival Pilot. That’s why I say two balls is the sweet spot. I guess God knew what he was doing when he only gave us two.

Priming Problems?

Another issue that I ran into was more of a physical problem. Since the priming rod sticks out so far, and it has a beefy handle, it would snag on my clothing a bit sometimes when raising the blaster to shoot. This isn’t a huge issue and really depends on what kind of clothing you’re wearing.

To avoid this issue, just be conscious of your shooting technique and keep the blaster extended away from your body. If you raise the blaster with your arms just a little further away from your body, it won’t be an issue either way. Not a big deal, but it’s something to think about.

About the Safety

At the bottom of the blaster, just under the trigger guard, you’ll find the safety switch. When pushed forward, it deactivates the trigger and you can no longer push it in to fire a round. Unlike a lot of other Nerf Rival blasters, where the safety is a little hard to push and sticks a bit, the safety on the Nerf Rival Pilot is very smooth and easy to operate with only a single finger.

Flicking it with my middle finger was actually pretty intuitive and fun, because you can actually flip people off and pretend like you’re just engaging the safety.

Overall, shooting the Nerf Rival Pilot was highly enjoyable and slightly more engaging than other blasters with its break barrel loading and speaking of loading…

How to Operate the Nerf Rival Pilot

Once you get the hang of the operation of this blaster, loading becomes an absolute breeze. It’s pretty simple and you’ll be able to do it more and more quickly the more you do it. Loading one or even two or three rounds at a time will become second nature.

Load

Pull down the t-style priming rod on the bottom of the grip and once it’s all the way down, the barrel will break open, leaving an exposed breech just ripe for the picking. Or, uhhh, loading.

Lock

Once loading is complete, tilt the barrel up and push it in slightly. If you’re a brute like me, though, and you push it up hard enough, you won’t have to worry about pushing it back in. It’ll do it automatically, out of FEAR!

That’s it, you’re locked and loaded and you can unleash a fury of blue balls at your opps.

Pilot Features Overview

The Nerf Rival Pilot features pretty nice ABS sights, with the orange front sight and the black rear sights that work effectively for aiming. And they should, because the Pilot is part of the “Most Accurate Rival System” (or Mars, like I like to call it) and that’s the advanced precision battling system of Rival blasters that come with those little blue ball AccuRounds that are supposed to be more accurate.

ABS Sights

The sights on this blaster are nice and clean, but they aren’t adjustable at all. This is a huge departure from the other blasters in this series, which all feature adjustable rear sights and that green tritium front sight.

Lanyard Mount?

On the back of the blaster is the lanyard mount. This mount is meant to attach a tactical pistol lanyard in case you’re a Nerfer with Butterfingers. It also highly resembles a hammer that you’d find on some real steel pistols, and that’s pretty cool.

Triggered

The trigger is comfortable and the pull is nice and smooth. The trigger has a flat face and the front of it is pretty thick, but not as thick as that grip. “Damn, boy, he thick!” Yep the Nerf Rival Pilot has a thick ass pistol grip and there’s no taper to it either. It’s thick all the way up, starting from the bottom of the grip.

Priming Rod Handle

The bottom of the grip, that’s where you’ll find the t-style priming rod that I spoke about earlier and it’s used for, you guessed it, priming the blaster. The size of the priming rod handle is pretty beefy itself and makes priming the blaster much more efficient. You’re never going to miss that grip!

Nerf Rival Pilot Conclusions

So the Nerf Rival Pilot is a fun little blaster with a thick grip and a break-action that makes shooting it highly enjoyable. The break barrel action of the Pilot makes shotgun loading very quick and easy to do, unlike with similar blasters like The Knockout or even blasters that resemble actual shotguns, like the Forerunner.

The Competition

The Nerf Rival Pilot is in a weird position. On one hand it has no competition. There aren’t any other Nerf Rival blasters that are so compact and have break-action breech loading. On the other hand, there are a few other Nerf Rival pistols that are similar, like the Nerf Rival Knockout. On the other other hand, The Pilot is actually able to compete fairly well with much larger blasters like the Forerunner.

Should I Buy?

Overall, the Pilot is a blast and if you like what you’ve seen here, I say go for it. The Nerf Rival Pilot is pretty fairly priced and I think it’s well worth the purchase, if you’re interested.

Final Thoughts

And that is where today’s article ends. If you made it to this point, let me know your thoughts on the Nerf Rival Pilot blaster down below. Have you modded it yet? I hope you enjoyed the review and if you did be sure to bookmark the site and add it to your favorites, or whatever. Leave a comment and let me know if you appreciate what I do or at least find it somewhat entertaining.

Also, if you’re tired of reading long, in-depth reviews, you can check out my other website Nerfgunattachments.com for a catalog type site where you can browse Nerf related products and discover new things you never even knew existed!

I know I kept referencing the Forerunner and how the Pilot is a better shotgun blaster than it, but the Forerunner is not a bad blaster at all. It does do some things better than the Pilot, so if you’re NOT tired of reading my reviews, be sure to head on over to the Forerunner review here on this website and catch up on that blaster if you haven’t already!

Having said that and with that said, my name’s Blee, you just been tagged out. I love your foam heads and I’ll see you in the next one!