Out of curiosity, could someone explain to me the need for metal free darts? I feel like I missed a discussion a while back, because all of a sudden there are "metal free dart" posts, and honestly I thought darts with metal were just fine, haha.

In all honesty, the push for metal-free darts is largely based off of the pink foam giveaway for metal-free dart designs. While the people captaining that movement have their own arguments in support of their stance, for the average Nerfer, there's really no need to worry.

To whit, metal free slugs have the perception of being "safer" because, well, there's no metal, no matter how well-encapsulated and "safe" that metal is. Additionally, a lost metal-free dart doesn't turn, over the course of months or years, into a corroded metal washer that some idiot could step on (barefoot at a public park qualifies you as an idiot, mind you) and get tetanus and die from it.

There has also been mention of metal-free darts allowing slugs to be used in an office setting, in which case I have to say: REALLY? If your office "allows" NIC-style blasters to be used at all, you are in the vast minority of Nerfers in general.

The problem is, in my mind, slugs are pretty suboptimal to begin with, and most of the metal-free designs have been attempts to replicate them with worse materials. If the NIC really wants to pursue metal-free darts for whatever reason, I think we're going to have to go back to things that aren't quite so unaerodynamic.

Since he was nice enough to put the shield up, I figure I'll show off what it looks like installed on a blaster.





SnapManta. Based off of one of the Rocket Launcher submissions, it uses 2 Snap chambers to feed into a single 19" barrel. As expected, double-fires are quite common, and the range is frankly a little scary.



Here's the underside showing off the comfy padded handguard of the shield and the double trigger set up. I plan on making a cleaner version (and swapping the shield out) here shortly, but for the moment, I am very proud of this thing.

So, this is basically an Aabow with 5 pounds of wood attached, right?

Assuming that you are using a nominal draw of 7 inches (just for purposes of demonstration and because of my familiarity with Snaps and the like) your cyclic motion for each crank will be nearly 22 inches compared to the 14 inch motion of firing the Aabow in the first place. You may have a small advantage in that the action is almost never in direct opposition to the force of the bow arms, but I'm not sure if the more than 50% extra travel length is worthwhile in this occasion.

I can see some potential here (specifically for high-K-constant blasters), but in its current incarnation, I can't help but think you'd be better off without the wood frame.

Psh. Maybe if I can use unpadded rattan. Basket-punches are kind of like barrel taps, right?

Added this to the 2016 Nerf War Schedule. Please try to post in that thread any time you set a date for a new war.

I thought I did. I may just be too web-illiterate to know the difference. Sorry.

September:
[url=http://nerfhaven.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=23026]29th [TX] HAMNO 2[/url]

NEW DATE SEE BELOW

As discussed yesterday, I am trying to get a monthly Nerf war set up in the Houston area. I really like the wooded area at Schott and as long as nobody sees any reason to move, let's keep going there.

For future reference, I will tentatively schedule a war for the last Saturday of the month unless conflicts come up. The goal here is to expand--we had a lot of fun yesterday but could use a lot more than four people. So, bring your buddies. Bring your HvZ squadmates. Bring your SCA friends--they can run around with boffers and beat us over the heads. Bring your wives and your girlfriends (but obviously not both at the same time).



Location: Humble City Park/Hilton C. Schott Park
8510 Will Clayton Drive Humble, TX 77396
Date/Time: Saturday, October 6, 11 AM until we get tired (I will stick around longer this time, promise).

Specifically, I will try to get us over in the wooded area by the alpine obstacle course. That was a really nice spot in my opinion. Park over by the H on the map--the main parking lot is a bit of a ways away.

What to bring:
-Eye Protection (seriously, guys, let's not get hurt)
-Blasters: Primary, Secondary, Etc. Bring more if you'd like, and loaner blasters are very important if we want to expand. Give the newbies a taste.
-Horribles: Bring at least one truly crap blaster/pistol/what-have-you
-Ball Blasters: We all seemed to have a blast with the ball rounds and they will continue.
-Rocket Launchers, arrows, disc launchers, anything that fires wacky stuff is great!
-Stuff for trading. Work it out in this thread or just bring some choice items. Most of us have a decent collection, so bringing a bunch of crap will just wear you out.
-Hydration. There will be a cooler full of blue Gatorade and bottled water if so needed, and donations are appreciated to cover said cost, but unnecessary/
-Melee is allowed and encouraged. Anything made by Nerf or within SCA guidelines is acceptable to me, although I reserve the right to spot-ban anything that I think is unsafe. Shields are more than fine as well, particularly if you're going melee.
-Darts. Lots of them. There's practically no grass where we've been playing, but you will lose some.
-Good attitude, but that goes without saying.

What Not to Bring:
-Overly powerful blasters, like a singled Titan or whatnot.
-Crap darts. No exposed metal, please. I personally don't care if you're shooting slugs or domes or stock darts or what have you, but let's not go crazy.
-Camo/Black/Realistic blasters. Historically this hasn't been a problem.

We'll be doing a lot of Deathmatch/Team Deathmatch/Wingman rounds and probably some CTF and perhaps Assault the Fort or Offend the Core should we get enough of a crowd. Other games to be discussed.

Mobstacles remain a wonderful dream of mine that has yet to come to fruition, but we'll see what happens with the Mother-In-Law.

Definites:
JPRoth1980

Maybes:
ilikefish58
+1 or 2 for JPRoth1980 (but they always say that)

NOTE: If you need directions or anything of the sort, PM me and I will give you my cell number.

[EDIT: Wow, that was strange. Accidentally copy/pasted the last war instead of the next one. Sorry!]

Homemade PulseStrike a la Buff. Nothing terribly original here:



Sorry for the kind of crappy pics. Pump is a bit leaky but fills to 60 PSI in about 40-50 pumps (which is ridiculous, but hey, I'm new). Ranges are around 80-100' feet at that point. So basically, it's a great big piston-and-pump rocket launcher. Useful for flinging a single piece of foam upfield, but that's about it. Which is why I included the couplers up top. Behold!



That's the PulseStrike attached way off the front of a fugly SnapBow. Great for things like DtC where you need an ordinary primary and a nice rocket to dump in the core. Heavy? Yes. Awkward? Of course. Fun? Oh hell yes.

Plans for the future include a total rebuild with a shorter body (I'm wasting air as it is here) and adding a compressor and turret for more rocket-firing fun.

Parts List:
1 1/4" PVC
3/4" PVC
1 1/4" x 3/4" PVC Reducing Bushing
1 1/4" PVC Endcap
1 1/4" PVC Male Threaded Adapter
1 1/4" PVC Female Threaded Adapter
3/4" PVC Tee
3/4" PVC Ball Valve
3x 3/4" CPVC Couplers
2x Ace 49 Springs
3/4" PVC Endcap
3x 1/2" PVC Couplers
Superlative Plunger Head
Pump

Minus the pump, the total cost is about $20.00. Including the pump, it gets more expensive.


Oh, and for the record, I pretty much suck at getting purple primer to stay still.

[Edited for Parts List]

Changed date to accomodate others.

Okay, after seeing some interest, I'm all for getting this out here. Let's see if we can't do a repeat of the last one (and perhaps with more people).



Location: Humble City Park/Hilton C. Schott Park
8510 Will Clayton Drive Humble, TX 77396
Date/Time: Saturday, August 18th, 11 AM until we get tired (I will stick around longer this time, promise).

Specifically, I will try to get us over in the wooded area by the alpine obstacle course. That was a really nice spot in my opinion. Park over by the H on the map--the main parking lot is a bit of a ways away.

What to bring:
-Eye Protection (seriously, guys, let's not get hurt)
-Blasters: Primary, Secondary, Etc. Bring more if you'd like, and loaner blasters are appreciated.
-Horribles: Bring at least one truly crap blaster.
-Ball Blaster: Bring one. It'll be fun. Trust me.
-Rocket Launchers, because Drac's rockets and contest has been a lot of fun.
-Stuff for trading. Work it out in this thread or just bring some choice items. Most of us have a decent collection, so bringing a bunch of crap will just wear you out.
-Hydration. It's still Houston in the summer. I will bring my cooler of blue Gatorade and Ozarka, and anyone who wants can throw something in there.
-Melee is allowed and encouraged. "Small" shields are fine as far as I'm concerned. Heck, bring what you want and it'll probably be allowed.
-Darts. Lots of them.
-Good attitude, but that goes without saying.

What Not to Bring:
-Overly powerful blasters, like a singled Titan or whatnot.
-Crap darts. No exposed metal, please. I personally don't care if you're shooting slugs or domes or stock darts or what have you, but let's not go crazy.
-Camo/Black/Realistic blasters. Historically this hasn't been a problem.

We'll be doing a lot of Deathmatch/Team Deathmatch/Wingman rounds and probably some CTF and perhaps Assault the Fort. Other games to be discussed. I hope to have a handful of mobstacles thrown together in time for this, but we'll see what happens.

Definites:
JPRoth1980
ilikefish58

Maybes:
Snakerbot
johnnymad
+1 or 2 for JPRoth1980 (but they always say that)

NOTE: If you need directions or anything of the sort, PM me and I will give you my cell number.

I'll give it a try. Why not? The worst I can do is fail horribly and confirm my FNG status.