Greetings fellow nerfers,

Just got my account validated (thank you NerfHaven). I'm excited to make my first post on a Nerf Forum since Nerf Online.

I'm not sure who remembers me--if anyone--but just wanted to say, "Yo." Things that might jog your memories: poorly written mods, the impossible triple barrel SS1 mod, that guy with the crazy rattler, first homemade plunger guns, a god-awful webpage (and the list goes on).

I hope to bring in some new mods to NerfHaven soon! Final exams are just a few weeks away... then after that I'm off to post write-ups.

Ah, Nerf Community, how I've missed you so!

What ranges are you pulling from them?

Is there any chance I can get a pic of the internals? I'm curious as to how large the air compression chamber is, as well as the spring size.

I'm going to pick several of these up to paint into budget Star Wars replica props, but having a nerf-worthy one would also be nice.

Frost Vectron's Weapon Facility?

Don't remind me! That was the random babblings of a 13-year old... ehh.

I've dug up a lot of my old guns (most of which aren't in operating shape) and I'm starting to rebuild them. My plan is to put out some nice write-ups on old goodies (Triple Strike is on the list just for you NerfMonkey, as well as the Rattler for you Pineapple).

I have to admit, I've stayed away from nerf for a long time. The real thing that brought me back:

I was over at the RPF (Replica Prop Forum) and I saw somebody post up a really incredible paint-job for the longshot. I looked up the gun and said to myself, "Man I gotta buy this beast."

So I did. After getting it, I was fiddling around and I figured I'd look up mods over on NHQ or NerfEvolution or NerfHaven or whatever forums are operating at the time. I found a lot of great stuff. The mods that really inspired me, though, were Forsaken Angel's. Yeah, that brought me back--way back. So then I forced my friends (like NeoMike88.. I know I've seen you somewhere before--like real life) to buy guns and we've got ourselves a lot of partying to do over the summer.

I'm back in my hometown this weekend (visiting from college), and I was tinkering around with my Rattler. I hope to have a mod write-up within a few hours, so go check it out!

Thanks for the warm welcomes, guys, I feel great to be back. Hope I can prove I'm the real Frost Vectron

Thanks for letting me in

Don't worry 'bout the registration. I've had to wait half a year for the Replica Prop Forum to let me in... and after that, several forums were locked off to all new members for several months and a number of posts. After the time and post limits were passed, I had to petition the admins for an account upgrade. Pretty crazy stuff if you ask me.

Greets. This mod is rather complicated, so I'll split it up into 3 Parts:


The overview of the gun open. It's already modded, but it is similar to the original specs.

PART A:

This will be the most general of the mods. First of all, we need to take off the original 4-barrel assembly, open the gun up. The tip of the air chamber has a hole in the side (for use with the auto-rotating and 4-barrel assembly). I apologize for the lack of pictures, since my Rattler was already modded in this fashion before photos could be taken. So:

Step 1) Drill a hole in the center of the tip of the air chamber. This will allow the air to come straight forward since I'm abandoning the 4-barrel assembly. The side hole should be plugged for optimal preformance. Your center hole should not be extremely large--or else it will eventually crack under the force of the plunger being slammed into it continuously (which is what happened on my Rattler). My rattler, then, has to use steel wires as a plunger stopper.


Image of the inside of my air chamber... note the metal wires for a plunger stopper.

Step 2) Remove rotating advancer. Since this mod abandons the 4-barrel assembly, there is no need for the air chamber to rotate 90 degrees every shot. Take the white piece that advances the rotating mechanism and file off of tip.



Step 3) The plunger will need repairing. This is an extremely old gun, and in addition to that, the older plunger head designs made for some poor seals. The new suckers all have these nifty o-ring stuff. Back then they were big rubber things. As used in my homemade plunger guns, I will be adding a disc of lubricated leather to the original plunger head--as well as some 3/8" FBR for impact-padding. So get yourself to goodwill and pick up a cheap leather purse or handbag.



So first cut a disc of leather slightly larger than the size of the plunger tube inside diameter. If your disc is too small, it will not seal correctly. If the disc is too large, the leather will fold and you will lose seal. Now cut a small slit in the center of the leather by folding it and taking the scissors to it. The Rattler's plunger has a small nub that we will put into this hole. Hot glue the disc on as well. Then hot glue a small piece of 3/8" FBR (optional.. I only did this because I have metal wires as a plunger-stop). Now all you have to do is lubricate it up with your favorite lube. I personally use motor oil (it seems to work for me), but I'm sure silicone lube would work just as well.



Step 4 -Optional-) I decided to replace the spring on this gun. I had a broken razorbeast that I never had the heart to fix (the firing mechanism is simply retarded once the chain-advancing assembly breaks on you). I slapped that spring in the gun. It wasn't a huge power boost, but it was helpful.


The rattler spring is off the plunger (bottom) while the razorbeast is already on the plunger rod (top).

Step 5 -Almost there!-) Okay, at this time you can assemble the gun now. Put all the greeblies back in place. Now you'll have a small 3/4" piece of the air chamber sticking out from the front of the gun (the same as you saw when you first removed the 4-barrel assembly. You want to take a 1/2" PVC Coupler and glue it onto there. You can use whatever: hot glue, plumbers goop... whatever you're comfortable with.

Congrats, you've finished Part A. You can stop now and enjoy your single-barreled Rattler or man-up and move forward...

PART B:

Okay, so the general stuff is taken care of. Now what will set your Rattler apart from the rest? Well... in part B we will be adding a manual-rotating assembly. I had first developed the system on one of my homemade plunger guns. Some gentlemen at Foam Corner at the time had contacted me and improved on my design (Cadmond, Taberubaron) and made it much more compact.

I apologize for the lack of in-progress photos as always. I'll try my best to explain, but either the concept clicks or it doesn't... I had a hard time figuring it out in the first place. There is a lack of steps because... there's just so damn many! Instead, I'll walk you through the assembly of several necessary parts to continue.



This is the original concept drawing by Cadmond. The Rattler uses a similar system.

First we have a wooden dowel with diameter 7/8". Then we get five 1/2" CPVC barrels, approximately 3 inches long and we glue them together like so:



So the wooden dowel will be fixed on the gun while the cluster of five CPVC barrels can swivel around it.
I also got some thin white cardboard and cut a nifty covering over the cluster of barrels, then glued it on. It adds a nice touch.

Now, the front of your Rattler has a 1/2" PVC coupler on the front. Cut a 1.5" length of 1/2" Sch. 40 PVC. Now you want to dremel out the inside so it will fit a length of 1/2" CPVC. Once it fits, PVC cement them together. The length of 1/2" CPVC should also be approximately 1.5". Now cement (or hot glue if you might feel the need to rip it off later) this to the 1/2" PVC Coupler in the front of your gun.

Next we will need some random ass size of tubing that will fit inside of 1/2" CPVC. I used a length of 1/2" O.D. clear tubing sample from Petro Packaging. Even then I had to dremel it down to fit. Another option are Wide Body pens from BIC.



Anyways, long story short, you need a tube to fit inside the CPVC. This piece, I will call the bridge. It bridges the gap between the 1/2" CPVC glued onto the front of the gun and the five 1/2" CPVC cluster of barrels.

Now we will need to do a little more demeling. The wooden dowel should sit flush onto the 1/2" CPVC that is glued onto the front of the gun so the 5-barrel cluster (which is swiveling on this wooden dowel, remember) will align with the air source. However, there is a 1/2" PVC piece on top, so dremel a groove into the 1/2" PVC until you hit the 1/2" CPVC. The dowel should fit right in. Hot glue the dowel in and clamp it for support. The dowel length should be approximately 4".








Congrats! You've passed through Part B of the mod--which is probably the worst part of this write-up. It's smooth sailing from here on out! You can stop here and enjoy your Rattler with faster-than-single-barrel rate of fire, or you can move on to really make your opponents afraid!

PART C

Here I went balls-out with the Rattler. I took the "Part B" Rattler into a Nerf war and I wasn't doing well at all! So I'm pulling all the stops now.

Here I'm going to slap ammo holders, an extra barrel cluster holder, and a Triple Torch integration onto this baby.

1) First of all, we need to build a stock! Yes, a stock made from 3 pieces of 1/2" PVC, and two 90 degree 1/2" PVC elbows. Cut them out to whatever you like. The only thing I must say, though, is the hollow area between the end of the Rattler and the end of the stock should be about 4 inches long. Additionally, the "height" of the stock (the gap between the two 90 degree elbows) should be approximately 2". No need to be superly precise, just kind of eye-ball it and go for it. Mine looks like this:



Read through the rest of Part C because the stock is the central tuning point of these additional mods! Make sure you know what the stock is for prior to cutting it out, then finding your stock is too small/short, etc.

2) Now I'm going to build a holder for the extra cluster of barrels. Remember the dimensions of the hollow area of the stock? This is what that is for. A convienent place to store an extra cluster of 5 barrels is inside the stock itself.

Start with a 90 degree 1/2" PVC Elbow. Looking at one of the elbow's circular ends, cut straight down it so you have a semi-circle. Now dremel some junk out so you can snap it onto the PVC. For the other elbow circular end, do the same--but you can take off a little more material. Glue a small length (approximately 2 inches long) of the 7/8" Dowel onto this Elbow. This is all kind of a mouthful, but this image will explain everything:




Snap it onto this area of the stock facing this direction.


Slide the extra cluster of five barrels over the dowel.


Flip the elbow down so your extra cluster is secure in the stock.

Now you can easily switch clusters once you're out of ammo.

3) More?! Yes. More. This is where things get crazy. I'm going to integrate a Mega Blitz: Triple Torch onto this baby. Originally my Rattler was single-barreled, so the Triple Torch fit right underneath the barrel. With the rotating assembly, there's no space for the Triple Torch! So first we need to mod the Triple Torch.

First of all, remove the ammo holder mechanism. In the arrow holder part, glue a 1/2" PVC Coupling in there. Put a 3.5" length of 1/2" PVC in the front of it, and 1.75" length of 1/2" PVC onto the rear of it. It should look like this:



Alright. Now for some ammo holders. Carve a slot into the PVC you put into the ammo holders like so:



Then take that small rectangle of white cardboard and glue it over the slot (so you have a flat surface).
Put four small lengths of 1/2" CPVC inside of this little area we created for ammo holders.


Now we want power. This is pretty basic. All we need to do is remove some air restrictors and slap 1/2" CPVC onto there. You can do it any way you want. My method was overly complicated, but it works. First I sawed off the barrel at the point where it transitions from having weird grooves to where it has 3 "fins" running lengthwise. There is an air restrictor and a post in the barrel. You need to remove them. It was very annoying to get out because the air restictor was very deep, the gun was glued shut, and the air restrictor bracket could spin freely. So...



I put the flathead screwdriver on one of the supports for the air restrictor post (it looks like an X if you look down the barrel) and hammered it until the plastic snapped. I repeated it for all 4 "legs" of the air restrictor post. Then the thing just flopped out.


This is what it should like. Clean.

Now I did some dremeling and slapped a 1/2" PVC Coupler on the outside of the red part, then fit a 1/2" CPVC and 1/2" CPVC coupler into the 1/2" PVC coupler. Whatever... a complicated barrel replacement. Whatever works for you guys.



Now how do we put this sucker on there? The tip of your stock is the answer. Get two 90 degree elbows (I used a 90 degree and a T-connector because I ran out of elbows to use). Put the first 90 degree elbow on the front end of your stock. Then put the second elbow on the end of that one like this:



Now put your ammo holder piece onto here. I had to cut off the part of the ammo holder that held 1 Mega Dart to make it fit. By the way, I mounted it in such a way where the triple torch is on the right side of the gun. You can put it the other way as well--it's just that I'm left handed and I want to keep the microdart ammo holders in a use-able position.



Now slide your Triple Torch into the spot and enjoy...










There she is dressed up like the Nerf battle rifle she's meant to be... full ammo and everything.

RANGE TESTS:

I get approximately 44 feet, straight shot, shoulder-level with the Rattler unit.
I get approximately 45 feet, straight shot, shoulder-level with the Triple Torch unit.

The video of it firing.

Here I go through 1 cluster of barrels, fire the triple shot, then switch clusters and the video ends.



It may be still "processing" because I JUST uploaded it. Hope you all enjoyed the mod!

Haha... it's only messy when I come home for the weekends. I usually keep it clean when I leave for college again.

Anyhow, the triple torch is stationary, it doesn't move. It is very stable because all the PVC joints are glued onto each other.

The extra barrel-cluster holder is kind of half-arsed, but it works. Not fragile, but not tough either. If it breaks, I'm sure I can build a better one using sheet metal and thumbscrews.

When you flip out the extra barrel holder, only the cut-up 90 degree elbow moves. It just slides around the PVC, so nothing else is moving along with it.

My rattler didn't make a tight enough fit with the darts, though, so they'd all fall out when you fired it once. I've since misplaced it. Wish I hadn't.

Yeah dude, I feel ya. When I bought this gun as a kid, I had expected a fast 4-shot deal for indoor wars... it kept lobbing out all the darts at once though--this is due to poor barrels and a poor seal with the turret. I never gave up on it, though. Kept using it and using it. Pop out of a corner and fire, and then watch all 3 of my other darts fall to the floor, leaving me empty.

Thanks for all the kind words guys.

Yeah.. it's bad news about the range. I thought the Rattler would be able to push 50' but I stand corrected. It's plenty reinforced as it is now for an industrial spring, whenever I can find/get a few. The razorbeast spring has more coils and is generally longer than the Rattler spring, but it's very spongy. The wire feels softer than the Rattler's. I compared the ranges with both springs--the Rattler only gets 3-4 feet less range. Not an incredible improvement as far as the Razorbeast spring goes.

Anybody know anything about heat treating springs? I'm taking a Materials Science course right now, and in lab we heat treat steels and test the hardness using an impact tester. Think I can pull off flaming the spring then quenching it in cold water?--or is this idea as ridiculous as it sounds... hehe.

As for a long barrel, I'm not really sure. It doesn't seem like there's a lot of air volume. The diameter of the air chamber is quite small. I just hope that I'm getting good seal with it though. I stuck with short barrels for the compact feel myself.

As far as rotation, the Triple Torch definitely gets in the way compared to not having it there. It's going to take some getting-used to, but it's far from impossible. It's awkward, but managable.

As far as competitive playing with this gun... I think it's possible. It's going to be hard work to get close enough to dish it out, but it would be fun. I plan to use it soon... I'm sure it can dominate some mavericks. It will probably get torn up by a properly modded Firefly or Longshot though.

The firing handle never touches the Triple Torch, even when folded up. Remember the Triple Torch sits off to the right side of the gun, so the firing handle has just enough clearance to not touch it.

As far as the sudden Rattler shopping spree...

This kind of mod can really go on any gun. I just liked it especially on the Rattler because of the quick firing mechanism. It is possible to put such a rotating barrel thing on a nitefinder or whatever. Hehehe, I guess the manual rotating barrels aren't as cool nowadays due to breakthroughs in breach-loading magazine mods.

The main problem is the locking mechanism. Sure you can fit a large air chamber in there, but the cocking mechanism is so far forward from the plunger handle that you'll have to find a way to move all the trigger mechanism stuff back more.

Sure the plunger shaft is really long, but the actual travel distance from the plunger head to the cocking mechanism is quite short.

Being able to increase the length of the air chamber while keeping the trigger intact is going to be the main obstacle to any kind of power mods.

NNOOOOooo!!

Not that link!


[/embarassment]

As seen in the Rattler write-up thread. I just couldn't resist putting her up here too.



Old NB-1 CPVC mod (before I had a real digital camera).



Old Ramrod barrel mod.



The only photo I have left of the original Triple-barrel Secret Shot 1.

As I began to actually play Nerf again, I realized just how badass multi-dart shooters are.

It's helluvalot easier to hit someone when you've got a wall of darts instead of just one. I forgot how easy it is to dodge darts. The Lightning Blitz (this one especially) can probably rack up a kill for every salvo it unloads.

The ranges on this baby is amazing. That's a clean-looking barrel mod, Angel. I'm beginning to warm-up to the idea of using some sort of "shotgun" along with a reliable secondary.

Unfortunately I don't own a Lightning Blitz--I actually bought the Triple Strike instead.

Are the air tanks sensitive to overpressure? I heard somewhere that the Triple Strike tanks/valves are ridiculously sensitive, so I'm afraid to plug the pump (or even open up the gun for that matter).

Hm. I can't believe there isn't a "thumbs up" emoticon, but you can be sure as hell I'd give you one if it were there to click on.

The gun is quite old. It released in 1999. I am not sure if they are still available or not (but I can probably guess they are discontinued by now).

Slightly off-topic: Thanks for the info Z80, I'll have to take a look at my TS next time I get a chance.

Back on-topic: I forgot to include this with my other post, but is it feasible to double load each barrel in the Lightning Blitz for a 10-dart blast? Not sure how much power that sucker has... judging from the ranges, I think it might be possible (a little overkill).

I'm only 5' 7"

I think it's funny how everybody over 6' posted a reply, and hardly any any people under 6' posted a reply, but looking at the poll, more people categorized themselves under 6'.

Nothing to be ashamed of, people!

Those are some nice guns, nerfturtle. The NF's look so tiny..

Cmdrmack, you needed a Firefly writeup?

Dang it... I modded mine a couple months ago, but I opted to not take pics because I saw several great firefly writeups already (in the mods section). There was one that handled removal of the AR's and there was another writeup that went into how to CPVC it. If you have questions or anything, feel free to PM me about it. I pretty much followed Sqiggs mod (though looking at Renegade's pics also helped).

I am also puzzled why everybody seems to hate the Firefly. After I modded mine, I had to say that it felt pretty bad-ass... I was pretty untouchable when I used it in a war (but then again, I'm always untouchable ).

Speaking of which, I noticed you have the blue/yellow firefly. I have a yellow/black one--are there any major differences between the two? I know the wiring attaches to both halves of the blue/yellow shell making it difficult to fully assemble... but did they downgrade anything when the yellow/black came out?

I think I speak for all of us when I say you should slap your camera on a longshot or some other incredibly high powered weapon of yours, Angel, and eat shit that kablammie from a billion miles away.

I would love to see that.

The camera mount is pretty bad-ass... I recently bought a lens that I wire to my camcorder to use as an in-car mounted camera during race events.

I figure in the off season I could mount it to a gun or something as well..

EDIT: I just remembered the lens needs a power source--in a car, the cigarette lighter is available. Blah.

What kind of camera did you use, Angel? My digital camcorder is pretty huge/heavy because it's a DV-AVI camera. I don't think it's the most mount-able thing in the world...

Bah, better luck next time...

I am waiting for you to mow somebody down.

Good measurements,

my friend and I both will be performing Angel's BBB mod this summer. Should make us a slick pair on the field (by slick, I mean unstoppable).

I suggest getting a pipe cutter--it'll probably save you $$ on how many discs you're going to break.

I broke a lot of discs getting started with the dremel, but now it's pretty easy for me to not break a disc until it's almost completely worn down to nothing. A good clamp and dremeling posture is necessary.

Classic.

Have you tried JB-Weld?

Make sure to completely clean the surface off before moving on to trying a new adhesive. Residue hot glue could significantly weaken the bonding strength. You can also try to make grooves in the Brass to increase the surface area for bonding.

I myself would prefer a mechanical bond over a chemical (adhesive) bond, but it would require modifying the outer PVC significantly so you can fit a hose clamp or something on top of the sliding brass.

If I recall correctly, Angel's clips are at a slight angle and are not directly vertical.

I have a Wildfire, so I know what you mean...

but I use my Wildifre as a primary (yes, a primary.. I have too many damned guns) and make sure I'm damn good at using a pistol.

Another idea that is warming up to me is having a Triple Strike with a pistol (again, emphasis on being damn adept with the pistol) and using the TS for a 1-shot-at-lest-one-kill deal.

Will there be selling and buying of sexual services on this site?



Kidding, of course. Sounds like a Craigslist (where you actually can buy sexual services) for college students. Good stuff. Any nerf guns listed yet?

Hmm. I have a question, I've been fooling with my BBB and I took that thing out but I have been having problems with the cocking of the gun and ranges, would any one know how to fix these problems?

By putting the piece back in?

Also if you guys actually read Angel's BBB mod (in the modifications directory thread stickied in the mod forum), he specifically says to leave this piece in because "the gun feels like it will break without it."

Yes, shipping costs are a no-no for poor college students...

I stopped by Ace Hardware by the UC Berkeley campus the other day...

I found a pretty nice collection of springs. I simply eye-balled what looked right to me since I didn't have a spring or gun on-hand.

I picked out some .062 and .080 wire gauge springs... I believe the .080 is a bit thick for nerf use, but the .062 doesn't seem much thicker than the original nerf springs either. We'll see how it goes.

The length for the .062 spring is 3.5" and has a 13/16" outer diameter. Should theoretically fit most guns/plungers.

That's great that it's working for you! In my experience, I found soldering wires to have a poor mechanical toughness--mainly because it's so brittle.

If it ever breaks on you, I'd suggest you look into something called Safety Wire.

It's used on motorcycles when you race on tracks. What you have to do is drill holes in certain bolts and then use safety wire to attach it to a hardpoint (so the bolt can't come loose). This is so motorcycles don't leak fluids (which can cause accidents and fatalities on a race course).

To use safety wire on a plunger head, you'd probably drill two holes, string the wire through, then use a special twisting tool to twist the wire tight. It is mechanically tough because it is a ductile material (it's not going to shatter like solder might do). Afterwards, I guess you could slap JB-Weld on there for support.

But it seems like your fix is working just fine the way it is. Good job! I've always hated plunger repair... usually pretty hard to work with (in terms of keeping the catch points clean and holding all that force with minimal surface area). Just one of those things that simple old glue can't fix...

EDIT: I hate my habit of interchanging "strength" for "toughness"...

the .08 (#52) are good for nitefires. They are a tad to powerful for longshots, and have to be clipped for dartags.

the 49s are pretty weak though.

That's strange.... my #52 spring is a .062 wire gauge, 3.5" length, 13/16" O.D.

The #47 is a .080 wire gauge, 3 1/8" length, and 11/16" O.D.

The .080 wire gauge seems rather thick--it's pretty difficult to compress using my hands. I'm not sure if a nitefinder can withstand that kind of pressure.

EDIT: Also, my #52 spring does seem a tad powerful as an additive spring to the Longshot. My roomate "borrowed" one and his longshot's trigger plate has been slipping like crazy. Seems like a trimming is in order.

Yeah, I think it was a horrible trade!!

Nitefinders are a whopping $5.76 right now.



I'm always a sucker for "classic" guns.

The question is... can you still call it a "flat shot" when you range test it? Hehehe...

Let me get this straight.

You bought a $6 NF and a $20 FireFly.

You removed the spring and o-ring from the firefly, and put them into your nitefinder. The consequences follow:

Your Firefly is non-firable.
After 50 shots, your nitefinder case will explode and also become non-firable.



Here's a mod for you. Take your Firefly spring and o-ring out of the Nitefinder, put it back into your firefly. Go to a hardware store, buy a new spring for $2 and a new o-ring for a fraction of a dollar, put those into your Nitefinder and enjoy TWO nerfguns at the same time.

You can try ACE Hardware supply stores and simply go to the spring cabinet. If you doubt your ability to find the correct spring, bring the old NF spring and ASK them for similar-sized springs. As for the o-ring, just measure how big the NF o-ring is and get one out of the o-ring cabinet. Don't forget to pay on your way out.

On the contrary, if you hook a camera up to it and actually videotape you killing a noob in a war, I think it would be hiliarious and humiliating.

I don't think gun-bashing is constructive here.

@butler, is there any chance you could take some photos that show off the mod on this gun? (i.e. show us more of the barrel in there and how it fits rather than the rear of the gun).

What size brass did you use? 17/32 or 9/16? Is it very tight on your foam? Pretty loose?

http://nerfhaven.com...?showtopic=7150

Look under the crossfire section. There are SIX mods listed.

There is also a thread on painting your guns:

http://nerfhaven.com...22&hl=vinyl dye

There are a billion threads about painting...

please use the SEARCH function in the future prior to posting. Thanks.

Problem: He says he already tried to paint it. Both vinyl dye and krylon fusion need a clean surface... so he will have to fully remove the paint first.

And I thought Nerfhaven noobs were bad..

look at those freakin' ebay noobs!

I am going to guess why your ranges with stefans are so short:

Your actual barrel length is way too short.

Your "longshot extension" barrel is the really long thing in electric tape, correct? I'm guessing that makes a partial seal with the head of the tagger dart, making your effective barrel for taggers long.

With stefans, the air passes right past the stefan since there is no "head" that seals (even partially) with the long ass longshot barrel..cosmetic..black..thing.

Possible fix?

Get rid of the cosmetic longshot barrel and replace it with 10" of 9/16 brass. That'll get your stefans moving (but your unconverted taggers won't be shooting as far anymore).

EDIT: the above post only makes sense if i'm visualizing your barrel system correctly. Honestly, i can't see what's going on with all that electric tape, so i'm guessing.

Really? I thought the Firefly was fairly robust.

I always thought of it as a beefier, more efficient maverick.

Yeah, there's nothing wrong with e-tape.. personal preference, I suppose.

The thing about your barrel... it's almost as if you used 1/2" Sch. 40 PVC on your BBB. The head of the micro makes the seal with it, not the foam body. This is why you're getting pretty good ranges with stock darts.

If you used something that sealed around the foam body (of the length of around 10"), you'd get great ranges with stefans.

So if you use stock darts mostly, I think this set-up is just fine (while I'm not a fan of the longshot barrel because of the weird textures on the inside of the pipe, it seems to be working for you! 80-90' seems about right for a BBB). If you're going to be using stefans most of the time, you might want to consider changing it up a bit.

Ace Hardware uses that kind of numbering.

You could probably find any spring using 4 dimensions:

Spring length (uncompressed)
Wire Gauge
Spring Outer-Diameter
Distance between coils

Personally I don't know what these numbers are for the #49 spring though.

I'm usually against violence...

but it will really just take one good hit to send the message.

I've never hit someone with the intention of causing pain, but then again, nobody really wants to be on the receiving end. I'm guessing these "bullies" have never taken a hit before.

Looks like a pretty good arsenal. Some nice classics in there such as the Ratchetblast, Arrowstorm, and Rototrack.

Some of your best bets for new firepower are the Nitefinders, Big Bad Bow (BBB or 3B), and Hornet. The Firefly and Maverick are decent guns as well.

As for your vortex tornados... I've been looking to buy some *whistle*. I don't mind taking them off your hands... heheheh (I plan on using them as Sci-fi props).

Anyhow, you might want to head on over to the Modification forums and take a good look at the stickied "Modifications directory" at the top.
Link: http://nerfhaven.com...?showtopic=7150

As far as looking for serious nerfers, you might want to check out this thread: http://nerfhaven.com...?showtopic=5739

That gun is the SuperMaxx 250 I believe.

Check this out... it was just posted a few days ago:

http://nerfhaven.com...?showtopic=8462