As we all know, Barrage's hit calculation is sequential, not simultaneous; you shoot until you miss, and then Barrage ends. If you miss Barrage entirely, you are missing 1 arrow from your inventory; if you land a 3-hit Barrage, you are missing 4 arrows (hit+hit+hit+miss). So if we are capable of landing a 7-hit Barrage and we only land 6 hits, that means that we should be missing 7 arrows from inventory.
We decided to do a 3-part test:
1) AF+1 equipped for activation and firing
2) AF+1 equipped for activation, normal gloves equipped for firing
3) normal gloves equipped for activation, AF+1 equipped for firing
Just for baseline comparison, you can see here that this weapon combo gives 10.x% TP per shot:

Test 1 - AF+1 all the way
You can see here that AF+1 equipped for activation and barrage gives the expected result: 74% TP return, -7 to ammo inventory.
Before:

After:

Test 2 - AF+1 when activating Barrage, normal gloves when firing
You can see that this combo returns 63% TP and that the ammo count went from 90 to 84; a 6 ammo decrease.
Before:

After:

6 hits with 6 less ammo afterwards indicates a 6-hit Barrage that landed all its hits.
Test 3 - normal gloves when activating Barrage, AF+1 when firing
And here is the real payoff. Prepare to see a result that, to my knowledge, had not even been suggested to this point:
Before:

After:

74% TP return, -7 to ammo inventory. I was pretty amazed, myself.
So it appears that contrary to popular opinion, not only is the practice of equipping AF+1 during activation and normal gloves during firing ineffective; it's the exact opposite of what you need to do to get the 7th hit from Barrage.
I would like to see screenshots from anyone that claims to be able to land a 7-hit barrage with normal gloves equipped. The screenshotted results of this test seem to clearly eliminate that as a possibility.
Extra special thanks go to Corwen on Midgardsormr, who did practically all of the actual work in this test.
We decided to do a 3-part test:
1) AF+1 equipped for activation and firing
2) AF+1 equipped for activation, normal gloves equipped for firing
3) normal gloves equipped for activation, AF+1 equipped for firing
Just for baseline comparison, you can see here that this weapon combo gives 10.x% TP per shot:

Test 1 - AF+1 all the way
You can see here that AF+1 equipped for activation and barrage gives the expected result: 74% TP return, -7 to ammo inventory.
Before:

After:

Test 2 - AF+1 when activating Barrage, normal gloves when firing
You can see that this combo returns 63% TP and that the ammo count went from 90 to 84; a 6 ammo decrease.
Before:

After:

6 hits with 6 less ammo afterwards indicates a 6-hit Barrage that landed all its hits.
Test 3 - normal gloves when activating Barrage, AF+1 when firing
And here is the real payoff. Prepare to see a result that, to my knowledge, had not even been suggested to this point:
Before:

After:

74% TP return, -7 to ammo inventory. I was pretty amazed, myself.
So it appears that contrary to popular opinion, not only is the practice of equipping AF+1 during activation and normal gloves during firing ineffective; it's the exact opposite of what you need to do to get the 7th hit from Barrage.
I would like to see screenshots from anyone that claims to be able to land a 7-hit barrage with normal gloves equipped. The screenshotted results of this test seem to clearly eliminate that as a possibility.
Extra special thanks go to Corwen on Midgardsormr, who did practically all of the actual work in this test.
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