A tale of two discs (Star Katana & ESP Nuke

[twmccoy1]

Took a few discs out to the field to throw for the first time in several months. The weather wasn't great and I didn't throw for that long, but I tried a couple discs for the first time, a 175g Star Katana and a 174g ESP Nuke. I figured these discs would fly similar, but I was wrong.

The Katana was lightning fast out of my hand and would flip over just a tiny bit. Problem was it would then fall out of the air as if hit by a shotgun. This disc had FAR more low speed fade than I was anticipating and the glide really wasn't there. As soon as this disc slowed at all it just fell like a rock out of the air. It was doing OK distancewise, but frankly I was disappointed in it. Still, the Katana was routinely 30' short of the Nuke on every throw. The lack of glide just kills it.

The ESP Nuke on the other hand was amazing. It is a somewhat flippy disc (not a pushover), but holds a line nicely without diving off to the right. Unlike the Katana the Nuke would just hold a perfect straight glide all the way to the ground and had very little low speed fade. It also had MUCH better glide than the Katana. I'd say it's probably among the top 3 longest discs I've ever thrown. It basically reminded me of a surge with slightly less stability and better glide. Fast too.

I also had a champion Ape out there, but it was obvious from the first throw that it is an overstable pig. Much beefier than I thought it would be.

Just some observations. When the weather improves I'll compare the Nuke to some other discs. I am impressed by it for sure though.

 

[jubuttib]

I've seen some Katanas that have a hefty fade, but they are usually also pretty overstable overall, with a lot of HSS too. The Star Katanas aren't known for being great (apart from the Farting Lemons). Is yours flat'ish by any chance?

The ones I have (R-Pro, Pro, two Champs, two Echos and a Farting Lemon Star) definitely don't fade harshly, and they fade very lat in the flight, but like I said, I've heard lots of people complain about the production Stars.

 

[JR]

Nuke is longer but they vary a lot in HSS. Flat ones are rollers.

 

[twmccoy1]

The star Katana is definitely on the flat side and is a regular model. I'm guessing a domier one would have better glide. Kind of a stinker of a disc. Definitely more stable than the flight chart on Innova's website would indicate.

 

[jubuttib]

Yeah, sounds like one of the bad ones.

 

[archmage]

Nuke is longer but they vary a lot in HSS. Flat ones are rollers.

Nukes really are the mold I've seen greatest variations in, but my experience in flat Nukes are completely opposite of yours. My flattest Z Nuke is every bit as beefy as a good Z Force, and my domiest one is very flippy, and the rest are inbetween, with pretty good correlation between dome and PLH. Domier ones are noticeably lower PLH than the flatter ones.

 

[jubuttib]

I haven't noticed a distinct pattern in Nukes. Some domey ones are beefy, some are flippy, some flat ones are beefy, some are flippy...

 

[turso]

Probably a case of seeking correlation with a way too small sampling.

 

[JR]

I've seen wide variances in PLH with the Nukes even flat ones. Usually flat tops pull the outside edge up apparently that varies a lot in Nukes because the ones i've seen are mostly opposite to the observation of VTO. So the flat Nukes seem to be even less reliable as a whole as i thought and i didn't trust them from the get go :-(

 

[pdiddy71]

I have only used the proto pro Katana's. These seem to have a lot of glide. While I have used the Nuke some, I have been throwing the Z Nuke SS. It did well with a strong tailwind. On the next hole though, that wind became a crosswind due to basket location. So I tried the Anhyzer into the wind to let get the wind to catch the disc and carry back to the left. The Nuke SS kept on turning into the wind all the way down the hill to the right.