Like with many skills and equipment that affect speed, often the effect is only noticeable when the numbers are larger. For example, the Hakenbuechse has a delay of 600. This means that your character will be stuck "aiming" the gun for a long time before firing. When Rapid Shot kicks in however, you'll definitely notice the quicker firing time. However, this is not so noticeable when you're throwing a dart, which has a delay of 168.
Edited, Apr 13th 2007 10:07am by LoneBadger