17 replies to this topic

[deaddumpster]

The Recon is one of the newer additions to the N-Strike line. Not as good as it's predecessor, the Longshot, but still half-assed for indoor wars. I decided to try my hand at my buddy's Recon, and it turned out like this.

You will need:
- A Recon
- A screwdriver
- Brass or PETG
- Glue of choice
- E-Tape
- Teflon tape
- A straw from a fast food restaurant or a pen body
- Hot glue gun and sticks
- Stock barrel from a Titan or PVC or whatever you use to hold the extra spring in the back of the gun
- Dremel
- Knife

Step One- Open the damned thing:



Now, pull out the plunger tube and wrap E-Tape or whatever around the end to compress the spring more:



Step Two- Take out the plunger, breech and push out the pin holding the two pieces together:



Cut off about 2" of the end of the breech so there's a larger half pipe:



Dremel out the inside so you can fit your new barrel in:



Take our your glue of choice (I used Goop) and glue that barrel in. Wipe away excess glue and clamp it together, leave it to dry:





Once it's dried, cut the new barrel to the shape of the stock breech:



Step Three- Dead space, there's a lot of it. This is what helps kill the range in the Recon. I got this idea from Dragonteuthis's Maverick Mod, take a straw, pen body or any other cylindrical item of the type. I used a pen body:



Wrap the end in E-Tape so it fits in the space in the plunger:



Put a bit of Goop on it and put it into the dead space, a bit should stick out the top:



Fill the space in with hot glue and cut it flush with the plunger head:



Wait for post #2 before posting, damn picture limit.


Step Four- Improving the seal and Re-Assembly. I removed the O-Ring and wrapped teflon tape under it before putting it back on and spraying some lube on it. This teflon tape is actually pink, but the silicon spray turns it red:



Here's a pic of the modded plunger:



Place everything back in the gun:



Screw it together and gather your remaining materials.

Step Five- Extra spring. While test firing, I found that the pen body caused a smaller air output and the weak spring wasn't helping at all, neither was the friction from the O-Ring. First, I cut the back off of the end cap type piece to accomodate for the new spring (compressed it's about an inch long):



I then screwed it back into the gun and E-Taped it so that the Titan barrel (Or PVC if you use that) fits snugly:



Cut 3.25" off of the Titan barrel, including the front AR:



Place the spring in the back, I used an RF20 spring (extremely powerful):



Glue the Titan barrel or PVC on to the back of the spring and let it dry, maybe add some epoxy-putty to hold it all together:



You're done, just wait for the glue to dry before taking test shots. Choose the barrel that fits your darts best, I just don't think CPVC will work.

Ranges: waiting for glue to dry but it seemed to have a lot of power behind it when I held the Titan barrel to it and fired.

This seems to be a nice way to squeeze a lot of range out of your Recon, at least until I finish the Angel Breech in it.

I'm off to lurk...

[mystefansdontflystraight]

WOW. That's all I can say. Hey deaddumpster. I live near you. Any chance you would sell that monster to me?
Anyway sick, I love it. I never thought the recon would amount to anything.

[deaddumpster]

It's for a friend, so I don't think he'll approve of selling it. It's unfortunate, I think I could mod mine to make it worth something.

[Zatoichi]

Very nice mod, I can't wait to see the ranges. I do have some questions though, in order of cogency:

1) Did you drill out you AR or use some other means (I am assuming it's gone, I think I can see the remains but the picture is a little fuzzy)? Perhaps I am not following the write up properly but unless the diameter of the pen and the diameter of hole left from the AR are the same, don't you run the risk of creating turbulence and losing some of the benefit?

2) Is the E-tape the only seal between the pen and the AR hole?

3) Is there a particular reason for the 2" half pipe? If the new barrel is snuggly sitting in the bolt, do I need to cut the half-pipe back?

4) It looks like all the force of that RF20 spring is going to be tugging on the glue attaching the Titan barrel to the rear end cap, are you concerned about wear and tear on that joint?

5) Can you still attach the stock?

6) Is the Angel breech going to require ripping any of this out? (I am still attempting to figure out exactly how the Angel breech works, if this is a silly question, disregard it.)

7) I am assuming that the internal barrel replacement is to accommodate your personal darts; supposing I am using stock streamlines (simply for the sake of a constant), how much tighter is the grip of the replacement barrel and over what length? I appears that you're running it all the way back to the AR (which makes sense), but as it's transparent I am having trouble seeing.

Apologies if some of the answers seem obvious, I've only recently graduated to barrel replacements and am very much a newbie on this forum.
Ichi

[ompa]

Zatoichi, I can answer a few of the questions, just based on prior knowledge/experience....

2.) "Fill the space in with hot glue and cut it flush with the plunger head:" So not really, there seems to be some hot glue at the other end, and plumber's goop "Put a bit of Goop on it and put it into the dead space" on the part with the tape.

3.) If the new barrel can fit snugly into the bolt, there is no real reason to cut the half-pipe out.

5.) From the looks of it, the Titan barrel is slightly larger than the place where the stock attaches to. The stock fits fairly snugly at that joint, so anything large would hinder the placement of the stock. In short, I don't think so.

6.) Yes. The Angel breech (if you want the brass version) will require the removal of the petg for starters. Secondly, unless you're using a very small size of brass, you'll need to chop off almost the entire stock bolt anyways, which wasn't done in this mod. Alternatively you could do a good amount of sanding on the inside of the bolt until the brass fits, but that will be rather difficult to do without the proper tools.

7.) If you plan on following his mod, all you really have to do is replace the barrel he's using with one that fits your darts. The stock bolt/barrel (while I don't have it in front of me, I'm working from memory here so feel free to correct me if I'm wrong) is somewhat tapered, so the dart fits tighter in the back of the bolt/barrel. A new bolt/barrel (if tighter) will provide more "tightness" over a longer section of the bolt/barrel, unless for some reason you have a tapered piece of brass/petg.

~ompa

[deaddumpster]

Thank you Ompa, I can answer the remaining question:

1.) After cutting the breech I Dremeled the AR and removed whatever was left with a pair of needlenose pliers. The pen is a tiny bit smaller than the space that the AR took up.

2.) Ompa's right, I don't really need to answer this one.

3.) I only had a Dremel and I couldn't figure out a way to sand out most if it without using sandpaper for hours. If you're using 1/2" brass it barely fits, so sandpaper is feasible with 5 minutes of work. Anything bigger requires a better sanding/grinding tool.

4.) I am at the moment, but that's why I mentioned Epoxy Putty. I'm going to snag some of that and reinforce the joint because it holds but I'm not sure if it will after sustained firing.

5.) The Titan Barrel is simply too large, the stock will need to be modded as well (Which may help with holding the Titan Barrel down if I put something in the gap between the end of the barrel and the stock).

6.) You could rip it out, but I can also just cut off most of the breech and pull out the PETG stub to fit the brass. I also have another Recon, which is the one I'm Angel Breeching.

7.) Use the barrel that fits your darts best (CPVC won't work). I forgot to mention I added tightening rings before I glued the PETG in. Ompa answered most of it, I'm just clarifying.

Edited by deaddumpster, 28 May 2008 - 07:02 AM.

[Bomberman]

Great mod, I think this is the best one for the recon yet. I have a question: How strong is the RF20 spring compared to some other springs? Such as the BBB? I do not currently, and have never, owned an RF20, and it's an air gun, so I would not know how strong the spring is.

[psychoswan]

I've found O-rings work just as well as E-tape to compress the spring, and it's easier to just slide one over it.

[Silencer]

Nice mod, like the new barrel. Can't wait to see the ranges.

[Salmon]

Bomberman, on May 28 2008, 01:05 PM, said:

I have a question: How strong is the RF20 spring compared to some other springs? Such as the BBB? I do not currently, and have never, owned an RF20, and it's an air gun, so I would not know how strong the spring is.

Put simply, STRONG. Its fairly small, actually, half an inch across maybe, but has about the strength of a BBB spring, or at least it feels that way. It's about 6, 7 inches long.

[Bomberman]

Salmon, on May 28 2008, 02:20 PM, said:

Bomberman, on May 28 2008, 01:05 PM, said:

I have a question: How strong is the RF20 spring compared to some other springs? Such as the BBB? I do not currently, and have never, owned an RF20, and it's an air gun, so I would not know how strong the spring is.

Put simply, STRONG. Its fairly small, actually, half an inch across maybe, but has about the strength of a BBB spring, or at least it feels that way. It's about 6, 7 inches long.

DAMN! You know, I bet if you put that in a NF, or TTG, cut down.... (reinforced of course) you could get scary results...

[mystefansdontflystraight]

Slightly off topic: deaddumpster, where do you get your recons? I can't find them anywhere near me in TO.

[deaddumpster]

I snagged mine from Wal-Mart, but I've seen them mostly at Zellers.

The RF20 spring is just as powerful as a BBB spring, but it's about 5" long and can fit in pretty much any sidearm. I have a Magstrike as well, but I don't know how good that spring is. I'll have either an RF20 spring or MS spring in my LnL.

Edited by deaddumpster, 26 June 2009 - 12:04 PM.

[PC III]

deaddumpster, on May 28 2008, 07:06 PM, said:

I snagged mine from Wal-Mart, but I've seen them mostly at Zellers.

The RF20 spring is just as powerful as a BBB spring, but it's about 5" long and can fit in prettimuch any sidearm. I have a Magstrike as well, but I don't know how good that spring is. I'll have either an RF20 spring or MS spring in my LnL.

DO nOT TRY TO PUT ONE IN A LNL! I almost killed mine that way.

[Renegademilitia15]

Could you do the same thing to a LS?

I might be interested if so.

By the way, Awesome mod!

[Split]

Not to be pushy, but is the glue dry yet? I really like this mod, and am very anxious to see how effective it is.

[OfAllTheNerf]

Interesting. I'd like to see what the ranges are with the barrel replacement.

That's got to be annoying to cock with the rf20 spring in it.

[deaddumpster]

It dried, but there's quite the setback. Turns out the spring fully compresses before the plunger tube can catch, so it won't prime but it will load a dart into the barrel (which the PETG breech works beautifully). The Titan Barrel setup would work if it was a tad longer.

I then found a piece of 1" thinwall PVC AFTER that in my room and glued it on. I'm going to snag an industrial spring and endcap to redo the final step.

I'd cut down the RF20 spring but it ended up being too short and is now in use for my next mod/writeup (which will have ranges quickly).

Be patient, it will not take long to replace the old spring.

EDIT: It wasn't too bad to pull the slide back. Of course for a skinny little fucker of a teenager I'm still quite strong, so difficulty really depends on strength there.

Edited by deaddumpster, 29 May 2008 - 06:35 PM.