Using a Sabre Apex Prime in CQB
When I personally collected our first Sabre order, including my Apex Prime, from Sabre’s HQ in Singapore, I discussed my plans for it with Conrad, Sabre’s owner. My idea of converting the Apex Prime—a 250-300+FPS dart sniper—into a short-barrel, 150-180FPS CQB blaster faced resistance, and I’m understanding why…
Laws, insurance, game frequency, and access to high-quality, high-FPS blasters differ vastly between the UK and places like Singapore and other international markets. In the UK, we’re allowed Airsoft guns, Paintball guns, Pellet guns, and Shotguns (with a license). In Singapore and Australia for example, Foam Dart or Gel Blasters dominate due to bans on alternatives, fostering larger, more active dart-blasting communities. Consequently, high-powered springers, AEBs, and some HPA blasters are often designed in Singapore and surrounding areas as well as some fantastic flywheelers. The UK’s legal diversity allows projectile sports typically for ages 16+, leaving dart blasters as a middle ground—not as powerful as Airsoft or Paintball but stronger than entry-level Nerf.
I’d prefer more 250+FPS events, but they’re rare due to factors like insurance, space, costs of organising, player equipment, and location convenience. Despite this, I wanted my Apex Prime to be “the only blaster I’d ever need,” so I sourced springs and barrels to lower projectile velocity while retaining accuracy. This counterintuitive approach challenges the Apex Prime’s design—a long-barrel blaster with huge plunger volume—but I set out to test it.
On November 17th at Barnett Battleground (FPS cap: 250), I tested the Sabre 10KG spring and Kuryaka 35cm barrel. My own chrono tests showed an average of 192FPS with Sabre T-darts. In-game, the setup drew comments about it “hitting hard,” prompting me to verify the FPS with the organisers' chrono using 1G Worker darts, showing a compliant 191-210FPS. The “hard hit” likely stemmed from the firmer Sabre T-darts, which excel at 200FPS+. More on this in a later post! Despite a few used stray darts, accuracy was strong, and our team placed second in Speed Dart, competing against opponents with close-range flywheel setups. This confirmed the short-barrel configuration’s viability.
Later, I tested an 8KG spring at home, mimicking CQB conditions (15-20m range). Surprisingly, even at 187FPS average with Sabre Bearing SCAR (designed for 200FPS+), the Apex Prime hit a 30x30cm target consistently. While blasters like the Worker Seagull excel at 150FPS with lighter darts, I used 1.3g Sabre Heavy darts and found the accuracy sufficient for what would be both moving and stationary human-sized targets. The biggest gain here was a featherlight prime which helps make up for lower power with a higher fire rate. For context, my 5 year old son can prime the blaster with ease, even if it does weigh substantially more than a nylon moulded blaster. I have since ordered a 3 row Gavin Fuzzy B-car which I believe will increase accuracy below 200FPS, results to follow.
Having reached a baseline that was A. consistent and B. was within safer limits for lower FPS games the next test was in a full CQB environment. We meet every Tuesday at a venue in the West Midlands. The goal of this project was to see if I could take the Apex Prime into a scenario like this and be an effective player. The Apex Prime performed well but wearing a full face mask meant I required a scope riser to make aiming easier. I was pleased with results considering.
I have since purchased a scope riser and we will await further results when the Gavin Fuzzy arrives. I will also be testing this setup with Worker standard and Bamboo darts. At this stage I genuinely believe you COULD run an Apex prime as your only blaster however this depends on how much further I’m able to reverse engineer the set-up. At 187FPS at it’s lowest I may need a custom 6KG spring to hit the 150-170 spot… this summary is bought to you by someone who owns 4 blasters, with 5, 6 and 7 on the way..!
