New Recruit Motherfuckers!
June 25th, 2011By Langley
Langley Note: This post will rape your bandwidth and mine. You’ve been warned.Â
Last year, Split and I wanted to have a gentleman’s wager, over the redesign of the +bow. We never really wrapped it up, but I missed the deadline by a bit if I remember correctly and what have you. First time it got used was May last year when I got to chill with the U3 and all my NJ friends. Anyways, a while before this wager, I had made a Solidworks model of the +bow and set to modifying it to change little things that I thought could use improvements. Making this model was at times…. frusterating.
This mod was originally created before Apoc ’10 in Split’s workshop in an effort to make the seal on the plunger tube perfect, as this is the absolute biggest issue on the Arrowstorm. The original idea was to completely replace the plunger tube, but that seemed like such a waste, as the original plunger tube has such ample volume to work with. By chance, I realized that the ID of the plunger tube is VERY similar to that of the +bow, so I grabbed a spare skirt seal I had and went to work. The results were pretty fantastic, and I decided to purchase another one to do a write-up for. (shoutout to Ubermensch for a good sale)
I constructed a new SNAP variant today in an attempt to use the Suicide Trigger with a 360 degree catch notch (similar to Carbon’s Mk II design) but it seems that the plastic couldn’t stand up to repeated abuse from the metal catch pin despite my best efforts to smooth it out. Pictured at right is the catch notch on the plunger rod after about a solid day’s worth of use. It actually hasn’t failed yet, and works fine in this state, but I doubt it would last much longer in this condition. I was successful in making a solid, stable handle with a smaller footprint for use with a sleeve-style pump action. More photos after the break.
Nerfers and Nerf Modders have gotten some (arguably) bad press lately, and the reaction has been, for the most part, “That’s what you get for talking to the press.” This is a sentiment that I can totally get behind. However, the attitude that certain people have expressed compels me to remind everyone that it’s not us that are doing something wrong, it’s the media.
Unfortunately for our community, the press has everything to gain by pandering to outraged parents, and nothing to loose by upsetting outraged nerfers. For that reason alone you should never do anything to entice anyone from the mainstream media to focus on your nerf war, or your modifications, or your website. They will find the one one thing which, when taken out of context, can leave you with your pants down.
At the same time it’s important to remember that we really haven’t got anything to hide. Anyone who looks at that CBS piece with a critical eye will see that a caring mother took time out of her day to express to that reporter how proud she is of a son who’s taking part in a really great hobby. As futile an effort as that may have been, I think it’s far more telling than any youtube video of some moronic teenager doing something irresponsible in their basement. So if you came to this site or to NerfHaven looking for more dirt on the evil scourge of Nerf Modification, feel free to take a look around. All you’ll find is a tight community of people who are involved in a hobby that’s about half as dangerous as high school football, with about ten times the benefit. Read the rest of this entry »
Update – 1/5/11 – Photos of the new proof of concept at the bottom of this post.
I’ve been trying to put together a catch mechanism that can sit behind the spring, like the rainbow, so that I can make a pumpsnap where the pump doesn’t have to stick out in front of the gun. I had some ideas about using a 1/2″ flat endcap as a catch plate, but a post from PVC Arsenal 17 got me thinking about using a simple clothespin trigger on the plunger rod itself, and just using narrower pipe behind the spring to eliminate the space in between, to prevent the pin from being able to wiggle free. What I came up with is surprisingly simple.
As we all know, the Hopper clip has been changing the name of the game. High-powered long range guns now have the rate of fire to compete with pretty much any other gun. However, the biggest drawback of the hopper is that its unwieldy as fuck: I’m not a fan of dealing with a two foot clip sticking of the top of the gun. Thus: I introduce to you, a new style hopper.
I call it, Muttonchop’s Hopper, also known as, THE CHOPPER. Lets get a video of this in progress
I’m not a huge fan of breeches, although I’ve never really used one in a war. However, I got a good idea to make one, so I decided to make it and post a write up. So here we are.
To help get the idea of what this is, here’s a link to an LARGE cross section image of what this breech looks like. It’s pretty High res, or I’d just imbed it here.
Click for big
The idea is that it’s a breech that can be used with high volume springers. I’ve been using 5†of 17/32†nested in PETG with amazing results in my xbow’s speedloader, but unfortunately with a breech you can’t really twist the dart in. So with 1†of unconstricted 9/16†before the 17/32†you can push the dart 1†into the 17/32†if you’re using shorter darts that 2†there could definitely be some adjustments made. If people are interested, I can make a plan like the above for 1.5†darts or whatever, just ask.