I've also read a few comments by members saying that the Disk Shot is "basically the old (dark blue and orange) Nite Finder" yet, in Renegade's mod, he shows pics of the spring for the Disk Shot compared with the 'new' NF and they look nothing alike. Given that the old and new NF supposedly look similar, then (via the transitive property) obviously the Disk Shot and old NF springs should look pretty different too.
I can only conclude that the comments regarding Disk Shot = old NF are referring to performance (despite apparently different springs) but just judging from the tension felt when cocking and firing both blasters, I got the impression that the old NF still packs more punch. As such, I decided to transplant the apparently more powerful guts of the old NF into the shell of the Disk Shot, which I like more than the old NF.
Regardless, for the sake of others who might be curious, I decided to post some pics comparing the assembly of my old (modded) NF and a recently acquired (stock) DS. As it turns out, the whole cocking handle (plus spring) can be swapped, with only a few differences (outlined below). The successful transplant of the old NF cocking handle and spring into the Disk Shot (and vice versa) corroborates Renegade's earlier assertion that the plunger assembly is nearly identical.
Here are pics of:
them side by side
the plunger tubes are practically the same length and ID (judging from the success of the transplant); old NF above, DS below.
the springs (old NF above, DS below). Like Renegade said, the cocking handle is a little longer in the DS
Note that the catch/trigger mechanisms are slightly different leading to some minor incompatibilities; my upgraded Disk Shot (with NF cocking handle) takes a bit of a longer trigger pull to discharge (if you like a hair-trigger, this is less than ideal) - notice the gap between catch and trigger:
Conversely, the old NF (with DS guts) is a bit easier to pull
Just for starters, I did a basic barrel mod (17/32" brass) but will be looking into some integration ideas in the future. Oh yeah, I also added a second O-ring to the plunger head (of the Disk Shot only).
Some other basic differences I noticed: the quality of screws has really slipped in the newer blaster (Disk Shot). The screws are smaller and strip alot easier than the ones for the old NF. Even the plastic tabs that anchor the plunger tube to the shell of the stock DS seem pretty weak - the rear one was already cracking when I opened it up. These factors discouraged me from making a more robust/objective comparison between the two springs; the ideal way to do this would be to compare the ranges of the DS (modded or otherwise) with the stock cocking handle/spring versus with the NF assembly--but I was worried that the tabs would snap off (or I'd strip the screws) after repeated fooling. Also, if you noticed in the pics of the trigger/catch mechanism, the Disk Shot's trigger is much flimsier looking than the old NF's.
Anyhoo, there it is - now if anyone had all three (old NF, new NF and the DS), it would be great to see the differences and, ideally, see some actual quantification of these differences that people often claim.
___EDIT: interpretation for those still unclear (e.g. Sixfivetwo) -> clearly, the springs of the old NF and the DS don't look alike. Whether they perform the same remains to be tested - but I'm betting that the old NF still beats the DS. Unfortunately, I don't have a new NF so I can't comment on performance here, but Renegade's write-up (in the mod directory and referenced in earlier in the text) suggests that the DS is better than the new NF. So in my mind:
oldNF > DS > newNF
BUT it would be best if someone who has ALL THREE actually tested this by measuring ranges using each spring placed in the same stock blaster (or at least with the same barrel mod)
Edited by ambushbug, 26 September 2007 - 06:00 PM.
