[Discraft] Discraft Predator history

[Phillyjordan]

Hey all, long time lurker here. I've never formally joined but I am on a quest and looking for as much info as possible. My apologies if I break any forum rules. I have spent a considerable amount of time searching and haven't come up with much.
I have been playing since 2014 and have relied heavily on predators for most of that time. I was fortunate to run into several older runs of z predators early on and they simply fly differently than todays offerings. So the dilemma is simply that I am now having to source more specific backups and I am finding somewhat inconsistent discs. Not in flight, but in tooling, embossing, etc.
I subscribe to the few molds in different stages of wear philosophy.
For reference, my predators typically come out 350'-425', Wraiths 425'-500ish, anything past that, I'm throwing destroyers. I prefer a full power shot. Beat Predators are my most trusted disc for controlled shots. Plain and simple. When seasoned, they bomb.

So, to the history. (Z plastic only)
I started collecting towards the end of 2014. So from what I can tell my predators from then include text on the back of the flight plate. "Discraft z predator" they also have the cross hatched grip section on the inside rim)
I have traced these back to atleast 2013 and I believe that the labels on the back of the flight plate was gone by 2018. I do have some Nate Doss predators that do not have the label, but I don't know their exact year. Maybe 2017.
(Pics below)

So, prior to these I have several of the 4 point variety. These lack the labels on the back of the flight plate as well as the grip section on the inside of the rim. They also have patent numbers on the inside rim.
Do we know these years?

On current offerings, it seems like we have no flight plate labels, no patent number, and maybe no more elite z these days.

I am trying to nail down more specific years because it's still decently easy to find old tournament stamps and I am able to grab the ones I want without buying every pre mcbeth era predator. Any info would be helpful!


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[RightAJ]

I've been throwing Predators heavily since about 2009. The X pattern over the patent number and Wixom tooling was added somewhere around the early 2010sis what I would guess. I have great Z Preds with and without the X pattern over the tooling, but agree earlier runs are better and the current Big Z just don't fly the same for me. I have some tournament stamps through 2016 that fly like the good stock stamp Zs I like. Never encountered the back of flight plate stamp surprisingly.

 

[Phillyjordan]

I've been throwing Predators heavily since about 2009. The X pattern over the patent number and Wixom tooling was added somewhere around the early 2010sis what I would guess. I have great Z Preds with and without the X pattern over the tooling, but agree earlier runs are better and the current Big Z just don't fly the same for me. I have some tournament stamps through 2016 that fly like the good stock stamp Zs I like. Never encountered the back of flight plate stamp surprisingly.

Thanks for the reply. That makes sense about the X covering a patent number as some of the older ones are very abrupt where as newer ones seem more refined. Some of the big z are okay I guess and I don't mind pearly plastic necessarily, but they're incredibly inconsistent. It seems like discraft isn't paying as much attention to their consistency as they once did so I'd rather buy all of the older ones I can find and not have to rely on the big z preds. If it's at all helpful to you, the stock z stamps are good until atleast 2019.


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[thatdirtykid]

I have been throwing Predators for the majority of the last 18 years. I have sadly sold my backups a couple times thinking I was moving on, but always come back. The disc in my avatar pic here I will pay $50 to get back if one of yall still have it (It flew like a fresh leopard when I traded it...). I am extremely partial to the semi opake Purple 4 point preds and will buy/trade for them any time. Semi opaque reds are good too. Yellow 4 points were most OS, and I like blues too. . . Anyone got some old preds?

X Preds were looked at like the PD/Starfire/OLF and later Thunderbird slot disc before it was a common bagged slot and people carried 3 speed classes of driver. I had Z preds to cover all those slots as well and used to use them much like it sounds you do now. I step up to holes now that I used to toss preds at and thank the disc tech gods that I can still reach those holes throwing a hurricane or wave...

I believe it was 2002 the pred came out in Z plastic. First runs had a ghost stamp Predator Lion printed on them as well as the 4 point stamp. I believe most were yellow. I believe they had a different stamp 2007ish and on. 4 point and 2 point maybe used occasionally for tourney stamps after that.


What specific flight characteristics are you looking for in your preds? I may be willing to do some pred for pred swapping if you have some old old stuff and are looking for the mid era goodies.

I have not thrown much that wasn't avaliable pre 2018 or so. I did pass on some of my good middle era (2012-18) backups recently when I wasn't throwing them and had a ton. The newest pred I think in my rotation is a sparkle flex from a ledgestone run. Its a beefcake and great for winter and thumbers.

 

[thatdirtykid]

you probably already found this pred, and it doesn't answer you questions exactly, but we can add it to keep a lot of this info together:

https://www.dgcoursereview.com/forums/showthread.php?t=50345

I do disagree about yellow being one of the flippier colors, though I never saw an opaque yellow. My yellow 4 points tend to be more translucent/harder/more os in general as well. I have compared SP Tsunami to original mold preds as well, but never found as drastic of a difference as the picture in that thread.

 

[strunk flugget]

My first OS speed 9 disc was an ESP predator with a rainbow stamp. I still have it in my closet along with my original champ eagle and ESP Buzzz. I had that Predator for a few years before I started taking disc golf more seriously and then when I did it was hard to find predators. And one of the few rules I have for myself in discgolf is to not throw OOP discs or 'special' one-offs. So I forever shelved the predator and moved on...But man, that predator was beat in just right--it actually had some decent glide to it finally and flew a lot like 9 5 0 1.5.

 

[Phillyjordan]

I don't have many I am willing to get rid of tbh. I prefer mid era (2012-18 or so) but I assume once I run out of those I'll be using the 4 points. My main reason for trying to nail the years down is simply to snag up every single tourney stamp I find in those years. I have 10+ from 17,18,and 19 and they'll do in a pinch, but they lack the high speed turn that the older preds get.

I love to release them flat and completely overpower them, know that it'll get some turn 3/4 of the way through the flight and always come back at the end. The newer ones turn much earlier in the flight when beat, and do not come back nearly as reliably. Much more high speed stable and much less low speed stable.

I am working on a 4 point collection atm and if those don't work out I'd certainly be down to trade for pre 2018 preds.


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[Phillyjordan]

As for color. I think yellow sits right in the middle with green. I do feel like red are slightly more overstable. The main colors were red, orange, yellow, and green from what I've seen. Stability goes in the order of Red, yellow, green, orange to me. Orange are my go to. Again, I don't use them for meat hooks. They don't necessarily do the s turn, but they just turn, ride straight, and fade. I'll pull out the yellows if there's a bit of wind.


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[Phillyjordan]

My first OS speed 9 disc was an ESP predator with a rainbow stamp. I still have it in my closet along with my original champ eagle and ESP Buzzz. I had that Predator for a few years before I started taking disc golf more seriously and then when I did it was hard to find predators. And one of the few rules I have for myself in discgolf is to not throw OOP discs or 'special' one-offs. So I forever shelved the predator and moved on...But man, that predator was beat in just right--it actually had some decent glide to it finally and flew a lot like 9 5 0 1.5.

I don't want to throw stuff I can't get anymore so that I don't miss them when they're gone, but there are still plenty of predators to be had. I have plenty for the rest of my life, I only want more so I can use the best ones available. They're semi consistent run to run, but there are def some differences.


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