13 replies to this topic

[tyrant bb]

I would have posted this in the "Dartsmithing Tips" thread but since I wouldn't be contributing any actual tips, I made this new thread.

I'm just wondering who does this and if anyone knows if they work better than having them undrilled. I've tried so many times to make a stefan that will outshoot a stock micro dart (the ones that come with the Longshot) but I haven't got it to work. My homemade can shoot stefans about 150 feet, but it can still shoot the stock darts 250 feet. My stefans are made out of Caulksav'r brand 1/2" FBR, 2" long, and the weight is a BB. I put a lot of hot glue on the tip of the stefan. I might get the 3/0 fishing weights, but I think those would just be heavier.

Also, if drilling did help this, I can see problems. When I have to shove these down my 1/2" CPVC barrel, the foam would just bend more and be really hard to get in the barrel.

[Dayko]

I have done this before. It is really hard to center the drill bit in the middle ( at least for me, anyway ), but if you do drill exactly in the middle they seem to go a little straighter. In my opinion it is not worth doing it. I just put my hot glue guns nose in both ends and drop in 2 BBs and a dome of glue. If you put too much glue on the dart then it will lose range.

Hope this helps.

[tyrant bb]

I think you could use a drill press, but I don't own a drill press. When you did this, did it increase the range at all?

[NerfMonkey]

BBs are a complete waste of time and money. Just use slingshot ammo, it's $4 for 250 and it's much easier to center a single relatively large sphere than two or three small ones.

BBs might be okay for pistols but a Longshot or a powerful homemade definitely requires heavier darts.

I've tried putting holes in my darts and never noticed a difference. Even if it does increase the range, I think it would be negligible and not worth the time. I've only tried it a few times and my darts were pretty shitty anyway, so I might not be the best person to ask.

[tyrant bb]

See I've tried using more than 1 BB. It makes it way too heavy, and decreases the range a lot. Argh the weight...

[Retiate]

BBs are a complete waste of time and money. Just use slingshot ammo, it's $4 for 250 and it's much easier to center a single relatively large sphere than two or three small ones.

Actually, I have used BBs, slingshot weights, and 3/0 fishing weights. The BBs worked pretty well (2 in each dart) but they were too hard to center. The slingshot weights were too heavy for all my guns. They were more accurate, but I lost around 20' of range from my old Pump Shotgun, which was pretty powerful. I think slingshot weights work well for LBBs or Titans. The 3/0 fishing weights are what I currently use and what I will continue using. They're easy to center, cheap, and they aren't too heavy or too light. I got a 1 pound container (approx. 650) of the wingless ones at Cabelas. I think it was like $11 or so with shipping costs.

I always burn holes in the backs of my darts. I haven't tested whether I got an increase or not, but I know they did shoot further and/or straighter than the darts from other people in my group. Now, almost everyone burns holes in the backs of their darts too. It could be that I just make better darts since I used to make Stefans for everyone so I have much more experience.

[penguin807]

In my experience putting a hole of the back of a stefan is only usefull if you're too lazy to take out the restrictor pegs (if you are, this probably is not the right hobby for you), but if you're really set on doing it, just use a straw, they're really easy to control and you probably have hundreds around your house.

Making sure your weight is centered is a great way to ensure it's going to be an accurate shot.

[Dayko]

I think you could use a drill press, but I don't own a drill press. When you did this, did it increase the range at all?

I saw no difference in range. They just fly a little straighter.

[Ubermensch]

I've drilled holes, but the foam was still tight, so I simply bored the hole wider with a pencil and the darts worked like a charm.

[frost vectron]

I find that having holes at the back of my darts makes loading easier, especially when using a tight barrel material such as 1/2" CPVC. It allows you to squish the dart when you twist it into the barrel.

I use stefans with only 1 BB and they seem to work fine (even with guns like an supermaxx 5000).

[Ubermensch]

what metal BB type are yours? I use copper BB's and only put one into each Stefan.

[tyrant bb]

Well I don't know how to do quote things so I'll just type this without that quote box.

penguin807- I've tried using a straw to take out part of the foam. It doesn't work for me because when I try it the foam just twists and gets bent.

Ubermensch- I don't know they're steel of some sort I think. They're the color of steel, a light shiny gray.

[Springer]

Okay about the stefan drilling, this is how I drill mine. I take a regular drinking straw (just get one from mcdonalds) and mark 3/4 in. up the straw. Than, center the straw on the stefan and twist it back and forth. Go down to the mark you just made and take the straw out. get some tweezers or needle nose pliers and rip out the excess foam, and you're done!

I find that this greatly improvers the range and accuracy in my guns because it seems to blow the dart up like a balloon so it has the perfect tightness in the barrel. This is also good because even when the stefans get squished down, they will still blow up like a balloon in the barrel and have perfect seal. Hope this helped.