My guess would be the hole he drilled wasn't quite as big as the "stem" of the head. If so, the problem is easy to fix - make a slightly larger hole.

Melee weapons are allowed. They must be foam or something soft enough to not cause injury when hitting at full force.

Sweet. My boffers are definitely in the "safe" category. Now I only need to decide whether to bring the "Overcompensator" or not.

There is a decent chance of me making it to this, and if I do I will be bringing a guest.

My brother and his wife life in Columbus, and I've talked my wife into making a visit that weekend. Now we are just waiting to see if my brother's busy schedule allows it. If so, I'm in, and so is he.


I didn't see any mention of melee weapons in the rules. Will they be permitted? (boffers, etc) The lack of shields will make them somewhat less useful, but I always like to bring anything I might be in the mood to use if it is "on the menu" so to speak.

I voted yes on the "would you be interested' bit, but I wanted to qualify it. It would depend greatly on what kind of setup was required to launch them, how well they performed and the durability, safety and cost of each projectile. If you have to build some kind of crazy setup using expensive or hard-to-find parts (not likely, but you never know), I would have to say no. If they don't go all that far, if they fly apart after a dozen or so shots, or if they cost more than dinner for a family of four at McDonalds, I would have to say no.

Basically - a lot depends on the product and the price.

Well now. That's just downright useful. You would think you want this place to be easy to use or something. Great idea, and well done!

I would consider that a vote for "Still using one". If you intend to continue using your nerf brand blaster, please vote "Still using one". Only vote for one of the other options if you have made a conscious decision to use something other than a Nerf brand blaster.

Noted and vote changed.

I had to vote 2011, but only because I haven't been to an NIC war since then. I still make use of my BBB w/ integrated Switch Shot. It is my most reliable primary currently - it has never failed on me, which I can't say for any other primary I own.

Ummm, yes it is. -.-

Great, first typo in the title.
I suppose changing the thread title is not possible, right?
Sorry! Can a mod help me out here please?

If you edit your original post, you should be able to edit the title as well. (You can't use the "quick editor", you have to click the "Use Full Editor" button below the box that appears when you click "Edit" (at the bottom of your first post). You can then edit both your Topic Title and Topic Description fields.

On-topic, that is pretty snazzy, and I could actually see limited practical use for it in a Nerf war, especially if you got it working for different clip sizes. Assuming you only ever inserted fully-loaded clips, it would always let you know when you are about to run dry. That is never a bad thing to know!

Thanks for the compliments - coming from a pretty competent modder like yourself, they mean just that much more.

I do love my flintlocks. They won't out-range much of anything, but the style factor alone makes them worth packing, and the one-handed cocking, as you said, just seals the deal.

And on the topic of cell phone pics - I just get tired of everyone blaming their lazy, poorly-lit, shaky-cam photos on the device when today's cell phones are capable of much better photos than my first digital camera from 10 years ago.

As with any freedom you allow, some people will abuse it, but that just gives Vacc more reasons to exercise his ban-hammer arm, and we all know how much enjoyment he gets from that, so why deny him the pleasure?

In all seriousness, I greatly prefer when everyone has unique avatars, as it makes it easier for my addled mind to keep up with who is talking without all that necessary "reading the name of the poster" malarkey, so I am all for custom avatars as that makes it easier for everyone to be a unique snowflake.

That's not true. Super Soakers work much better!

For larger boxes, check with grocery stores and "big box" electronics, furniture, appliance and department stores. Most of them just throw their boxes out, and would probably be happy to donate dozens of large boxes to your cause. Most Nerfers can hide behind a box meant for a washer or dryer after all...

A suggestion for keeping cardboard steady in windy areas - just put a brick or some other heavy object in them.

With 10-20 people, a single basketball court sized gym could work. With 50-60, you WILL NOT have nearly enough room. You will simply have a crowd of people milling about shooting each other - especially if you put up any kind of cover. Go with the field (and provide lots of cover). I held a war in which over 40 people showed up, and we played on a large elementary school campus with lots of wooded area. It was great. That same number of people in a small gym would have been awful!

The jail system could work, but you will still have people "sitting out" as they wait in jail. Better to have designated respawn areas, and have them go and count themselves back in. (With that many people in play, I would up the count time significantly, so one team could actually make some headway toward reducing the other team's numbers - say something like a 30 count or more (we typically do 10 or 15 counts at our wars).

If you have two flags, make it two teams, unless you have something for the other half of the crowd to be doing. Who wants to sit around a watch others having fun when you could be having fun yourself?


Also, I suggest you look into other game types mentioned on this site. Look for things like "Defend the Core", "Humans vs. Zombies", and "Sieze the Balls" (aka "Carpe Testiculum" - this one is great for breaking down into multiple teams - you could even do five or more teams if you wanted) as great alternative objective games that are great fun and where nobody sits out.

They are quite fun - mostly due to the stylishness and one-handed cocking. I've mentioned this elsewhere, but I love to use my brassed version as an alternative to barrel tapping. It is so low-powered that even a point-blank shot with a slug would only hurt if I shot you in the eye (or if you are five years old). So I keep it loaded and in my pocket, and if a barrel-tap situation arises, or I sneak up behind someone and don't want to maim them with my primary, I just slip it out of my pocket, cock it one-handed, and take them out with a flourish. (And maybe a nice "yaaar" if it is "talk like a pirate day"...

I highly doubt this due to the plungers volume. I have one of these that I have put an internal cpvc barrel into it and I'm getting 40'. I honestly just don't think it will be effective enough to be worth using with the inline clip. I recommend sticking with the speed loader. By the way nice mod.

Thanks, and yeah - I realize that it might not be feasible to use an in-line or anything, but I want to at least experiment a little. If I can find something that works and fits the coupler, it would be worth it even if I lost a bit of range in the process. Since this thing is nice and small, if I keep the attachment small as well, it might be holsterable (or pocketable) and able to be pulled as a last resort weapon (as it is now) that allows one-handed access to multiple shots (instead of just the one shot as it does now.)

Yeah - I'm trying to come up with something that would work to have more than 1 shot ready for it before reloading, so that I can take better advantage of the one-handed cocking, but so far I haven't had time to try any of my ideas. I doubt an RSCB or hopper would work with such a tiny plunger, but maybe an in-line clip with 2-3 darts might be feasible.

The shell is the basically same width from front to back, but the limiting factor here is the cocking mechanism. If you want to keep the stock cocking mechanism (which works by pulling the hammer back, rotating an arm that pulls the plunger rod back via the cocking nub until it seats on the catch), you couldn't really do any kind of draw extension.

However, if you switched it over to a pull-back design similar to a Nitefinder, it would be doable. But of course, the whole point of this blaster is the aesthetic value and styling of it - which the hammer-style cocking mechanism is a big part of. If you wanted something with more power and the ability to do a draw extension, just use a Nitefinder - they are cheaper and easier to work with.

Here is my modded Buzzbee Flintlock:



The write-up can be found right here.



Cost: $10.88 ($8.99 blaster, $1.54 springs, $0.25, $0.10 worth of Goop)

Time: Roughly 1.5 hours

Stock Ranges: 17'-22' (19' average)

Mods Done:
barrel replacement (CPVC endcap "coupler" for CPVC speed loaders)
spring addition
catch spring replacement

Modded Ranges:
Stock Darts: 25'-30' (27' average)
Slug Darts: 30'-35' (32' average)

I love the aesthetics and style of the Buzzbee Flintlock. I love the fact that you can cock it one-handed. As a single shot pistol with a fairly small plunger tube and rather specific spring size requirements, there isn't a whole lot you can do with it, but I wanted to see how far I could take one without destroying the look and feel I love about it. (This blaster was created for the "Awfuls" mod competition at NerfRevolution.)

This write-up will show you how to take this seldom-seen blaster and turn it into something that you could use to at least hold your own with during a pistols round, or as a sidearm/holdout pistol. Here is what we are starting with:



The stock range isn't bad - I was showing an average flat range of 19', with the furthest dart in my test group going 22', and the closest still flying a respectable 17'. Not bad for a stylish and inexpensive blaster (I've gotten two so far at Cracker Barrel, paying $8.99 each.) We can do better though!


Materials Needed:

Buzzbee Flintlock Pistol (no, really - this is kind of important!)
1/2" CPVC endcap (or 1/2 of a 1/2" CPVC coupler*)
Amazing Goop
replacement or additional spring(s)**

* My local hardware stores all only seem to stock the barrel-shaped CPVC couplers, which are much more difficult to cut in half. I would rather spend $0.50 to buy two endcaps and then drill them out than to buy one $0.25 coupler and fail miserably at cutting it in half.

** I wasn't able to find a stronger replacement, or a single spring that would fit inside the stock spring, as the size requirements for the spring are pretty tight - it has to fit on the plunger rod, be able to fit it over or past the cocking nub on the plunger rod, and fit inside the plunger tube. I ended up finding two smaller springs that fit the bill, and stack to provide decent extra power. At my local ACE, they are labeled as #10 springs, but I don't know what brand they are or any other specs on them.


Tools used

#0 Phillips head screwdriver
3/16 flat head screwdriver
needle-nose pliers
X-Acto knife
Dremel rotary tool (cutting wheel, various grinders)
power drill (bits ranging up to 5/16")


First things first, we need to get this thing open. The flintlock has an orange ring around the front of the barrel which you need to pry off. I used my needle-nose pliers and just wiggled and twisted until it came off. You can be a little rough here, as we won't be keeping the stock barrel, the very front of the shell or the orange ring, so just get it off. (Mine wasn't glued very well, so it pretty much came off without much effort.)




Now unscrew the 6 screws. They are easy to find, and easy to unscrew using a standard #0 Phillips head screwdriver. There aren't really any parts that try to pop out when you open the blaster (not with the stock springs anyway), so once you have the screws undone, you should be able to just pull it open. The internals tend to stick to or be attached to the left side of the shell (if you are holding the blaster by the handle and pointing it downrange).



Carefully pull out the plunger tube and remove the plunger rod.



Using your Dremel and cutting wheel, remove the main barrel to the point shown below. (You could also use a hacksaw, pipe cutter or some other means, but the Dremel is usually fastest and easiest)



You should now have a face at the end of your plunger tube that looks like the image below. Make sure this face is straight, level, sanded down and cleaned up as shown. (Clean any rough edges up with your X-Acto blade and/or your Dremel grinding bits.)



Take your CPVC endcap and sand/grind down any raised lettering on the top face to smooth it down and have it level for gluing. Then drill a hole in the center of the top face with a 5/16" drill bit. (I found it much easier to start with much smaller bits, then step up one or two sizes at a time until I got to the 5/16" bit. This allowed me to have better control over the centering of the hole, and made it much easier to hold the endcap steady while drilling.) Clean up any rough edges with your X-Acto blade and/or your Dremel grinding bits.



Using the Amazing Goop, and following the directions on the package, glue the CPVC endcap to the prepared plunger face, centering the hole in the endcap over the hole in the plunger face.



Using your Dremel and cutting wheel, cut the front of the shell off just in front of the brace forward of the two screw posts at the front end. (See the two images below to see where I made my cuts.) Use your X-Acto blade and/or Dremel grinding bits to clean up any rough areas.




Place the plunger tube back into the blaster, checking the fit. If anything does not fit properly, shave off a bit more of the shell until it fits correctly.



Make sure you close up the shell at this point to check the fit on both sides. (You don't need to screw it together yet - just make sure it will close properly.



Get your springs and plunger rod together, and take out the small screw on the cocking nub, removing the little brown plastic ring as well. (Do not lose these!)



Get your replacement spring or spring combination onto the plunger rod. (This probably involves removing the stock spring, at least temporarily.)

I had to use a 3/16 flathead screwdriver to pry open the end of my smaller springs to get the first loop past the cocking nub, then it was a simple task to twist the rest of the spring past the nub. I stacked the two #13 springs onto the plunger rod.



The stock spring then slid over these with just a little twisting.



This assembly was then slid back into place in the plunger tube, and the blaster was put back together and screwed shut.



After all this, I found it would accidentally fire while cocking, or while aiming, so I had to put in a stronger catch spring. I found a small extension spring at Ace that fit the bill, but I forgot to note down what spring# it was. The added strength was all that was needed to keep the misfires from happening.


Firing from my 3" barrels, the ranges showed a nice improvement, with stock darts averaging 27' and getting up to 30' at best. With slugs, I was seeing and average of 32', with the best shot going 35'. And obviously the rate of fire is improved a bit with the ability to use speed loaders. (With 3" barrel speed loaders, you can carry quite a few on you with little trouble, meaning you can carry plenty of pre-loaded ammo in a pistol round if you wanted.) And of course, you can still cock it one-handed. (Provided your thumb is strong enough!)

All together, this mod cost $10.88 ($8.99 blaster, $1.54 springs, $0.25, $0.10 worth of Goop), and took me about an hour and a half. (I am rather slow and meticulous, someone else could probably do this faster.)


I would like to apologize. I'm sorry my images are clear, sharp, in-focus, well-lit and - yes - taken with my cell phone. I have a better camera, but I figured I'd use an "awful" camera to make my "awfuls" entry - and show folks that if you take your time, use decent lighting and steady the camera well, you can take good pics with a cell phone.

I had a thought as to a solution to the problem I mentioned. What if you made a thin, cog-like piece that would go in the rear of the drum, to hold the tails of the darts separated. (think of a thin-sliced cross section of the feeder mechanism in a Raider drum). Your spring would have to be strong enough to both move the drum's dart pusher and the darts AND turn the cog, but it might solve the issue. (The pusher for the flywheels would have to be small enough to push the dart without bumping into the cog, and the next dart would advance once the flywheel pusher slides back out of the way.)

I think you can probably figure out what I mean, but if you need me to sketch up a crude diagram, I can do so.

Just remembered another one: VIP

Two teams - one starts off in a designated area and has to make a circuit (we used to go through the whole church, upstairs then down and back up) from point A to point B (or back to point A depending on space available). One member of this team is the VIP - if he is taken out, the other team wins. If he makes it to the designated area alive, his team wins. The other team can start anywhere outside of the starting area, and at least a little ways away.

I like the design you have going for your "round the arm" drum-feed, but I have a question. The way I understand it, the reason Streamline darts were invented is because the standard Nerf darts (i.e. a head with a larger diameter than the foam behind it) wouldn't feed properly in a magazine due to the odd shape. How do you propose to solve this problem since you are planning to use sonics/taggers?

If melee Nerf weapons are allowed, or you can come up with another safe alternative (hand-tag, etc), Humans VS Zombies works really well.

Most players start with their Nerf blasters, while a few (say one for every 5-10 other players) start as Zombies and have only melee weapons (or just their hands, etc). If a Zombie is hit with a dart, they sit down and count to 15, then get back up. If a human is tagged by a Zombie, they go put their Nerf blaster down (and pick up a melee weapons if applicable), then return to the fray as a Zombie.

If you are OK playing in the dark, I've found that cheap glowsticks (the kind that make bracelets and can be found at dollar stores in packs of 8 or 12 or so) make great "melee" weapons for the Zombies. We played that way with my church's youth group, and since we wanted to stay away from the "zombie" moniker, we we called them "radioactive lepers" instead. The glowsticks also made the "lepers" stand out like a sore thumb, while the humans were able to hide a bit better, due to the darkness.

I beleive that is a batman trifire blaster.

Your belief is in error. I have linked an image of the tri-fire below.

Bob seems to have it right. More info can be found here.

My father holds that kids shot each other with toy guns even before real guns were invented. My three-year old son's actions do nothing to dissuade this notion in either my father nor myself.

Of course, you would also have to have a blaster that is firing two balls at once. (For example, bolo-balls wouldn't really work in a reactor, as it would likely turn the first shot into what would amount to a pop-gun, and the second shot would be drastically reduced in range and/or thrown of course by the now-dangling first shot.)

That said, a pair of balls with a cord between them coming out of a barrel designed specifically to hold them would be interesting. A similar concept with more barrels, each loaded with a ball and all connected, would allow for the "net gun" effect as well, assuming your blaster puts out enough air to launch all of the balls sufficiently.

As a fan of shields, I think this is fairly nifty. What are the dimensions of the shield itself? Are the discs similar to those found in the Nerf Disk Shot disc shooter ? (If you are familiar with those that is - they are obviously smaller.)

Naw - Demon Lord is cool. Knowing him, he's using the thing for something other than Nerf (I forget which group you hang with Demon Lord - Dagorhir? Or was it one of the others I can't think of right now.) He had a huge stash of boffer-type and similar non-lethal weaponry at the last Chicago war I attended. My guess is that the bow is being used in conjunction with those.

If you just get a long enough rubber band, you can slip one end over the barrel area, run it along the side of the blaster, through the loop in the pull-handle, along the other side, and then slip the other end over the barrel. (The two ends of the band should now form an X on the top and bottom of the barrel area.)

Unfortunately, neither date works for me. Guess that means not Cata for Ambience...

Hope you guys have a blast - and hopefully I can still get up that way for a war some time this summer.

I will do my best to get myself and as many of my locals out that way as possible. No promises yet though.

Reading all of this makes me really wish I had been able to find the time to come. Sounds like you guys had a blast, and Cinci isn't much different then Chicago drive-time wise for me. Maybe I can get out to one of your wars at some point. (Hey Ryan & Kane, how's about swinging through Fort Wayne to pick me up? )

+ Biggest war I've been to yet, and possibly the biggest in the Midwest so far.

-Foam In the Fort II, was definitely bigger, but this was close. I know for a fact the Cincy group has had much larger non-NIC wars, so I'm not sure if that counts

Yep, we had just a few more attendees at FIF2. Doesn't diminish the awesomeness of the huge attendence for Ohio Rev though. (And we lured our attendees with free swag...rather than a swaggering Brit.)

+All of my blasters staying in one piece

Pics or it didn't happen. Or at least three sworn affidavits from fellow attendees.

Seeing as a simple syringe* can indeed be used to shoot a Nerf dart (though not necessarily very far), I fail to see how what you describe would be impossible to convert to do the same...? Several people have converted simple push/pull water blasters (the kind where you dip the tip down into water to fill) into fairly effective Nerf blasters.

Basically, be sure that you yourself konw what you are talking about before accusing someone else of having no idea what they are talking about. "Firing anything with pressure" does not necessarily mean that it has a tank which stores said pressure. The Maverick fires a Nerf dart by building up air pressure behind the dart as the spring causes the plunger assembly to compress, until the air pressure overcomes the friction of the dart on the barrel, propelling it forward.


* i.e. a plunger in a tube that forms a nearly/perfectly airtight seal, so as to apply pressure to said tube, forcing whatever is in that tube (air/water/medicine/etc) out of the tube

The price you pay for being so good at what you do. Take it as a compliment.

Congrats and well done on the quals and being selected for the extra training.

But especially big congrats on the new addition to your family. My wife and I had three under three for about a month and a half last summer - so I know the blessings (and headaches) that go along with that!

Time for some math...

2 Barricades + momentary switches in the handles + indoor war = Happy Ambience 327


Finally something that can out-perform my Mavs as dual-wielded blasters. 10 semi-auto shots beat out 6 prime & fire shots any day. The momentary switches, if I can get them working right, will be awesome as I will just need to squeeze my hands tighter (tripping the switches) just before firing - meaning little effect on my stealthy approach before unleashing my foamy surprise!

Find some cheap airsoft Laser sights and you should be laughing...

Especially if I linked the laser sights to the momentary switches... Thanks for the idea Brit! As if the sudden whirring of the motors wasn't enough to scare the teens in the darkened church halls. The sudden appearance of a red dot on their chest to accompany it should really throw them into a panic!

Time for some math...

2 Barricades + momentary switches in the handles + indoor war = Happy Ambience 327


Finally something that can out-perform my Mavs as dual-wielded blasters. 10 semi-auto shots beat out 6 prime & fire shots any day. The momentary switches, if I can get them working right, will be awesome as I will just need to squeeze my hands tighter (tripping the switches) just before firing - meaning little effect on my stealthy approach before unleashing my foamy surprise!

Adding dead-space would probably work well. Just add an extra length of barrel material with a second coupler. Might be a bit unwieldy if you are already using long barrels though.

Not to mention the fact that the shapes can be customized means you can more easily tailor them to the wind situation. We had really high winds at CHANO4, and we found that a triangle shape held up pretty well placed on one of the sides, while still providing usable cover - albeit with serious crouching required.