You are, according to my personal research, on the right track. Allow me to add a little bit more on if I may:
Both the Recon and the LS have barrel extensions... no duh. Both the recon and the LS have very weak stock springs.... no duh... I mean, these are even weaker then the weakest NF spring I think. So anyway, in order to make the Nerf blasters actually hit around 30" Hasbro had to improvise by sticking on a longer barrel, as well as a small bolt for the dart to enter before firing.
The point of that is that when the gun is fired, the weak spring pushes a lot of air through the big plunger tube. The small bolt hugs the dart significantly tighter then other gun barrels, so the plunger head is pushed forward until the air pressure in the tube forces a "popgun" effect on the dart, making it pop out from the bolt with a decent amount of force. Then, the dart has a nice few inches of barrel to glide through that has a reasonably good seal with the bolt. This keeps most of the popgun effect in tacked by giving the dart more time to accelerate, and makes the crappy little streamline get about 30" or so.
Of course, when you add on the barrel extension, it starts getting worse and fast. The barrel extension has a horrific seal with the other barrel, so most of the air surrounding the dart escapes rapidly, and at the same time, the air pressure cuts off from the plunger as the plunger head has ceased moving. This causes the dart to begin to wobble a little as it has just been cut off from its force, before starting to make a straight path. As it wobbles, it bounces against the sides of the barrel extension and exceeds all levels of crappyness we ever had before.
Remedies are:
Upgrade the spring/power in plunger.
Glue the barrels seamlessly together or make an angled breech.
I think you kind of in a way contradicted yourself on that one. Saying that the Ls has a weak stock spring. And they add a long barrel to it. Yet it still maintains high stock ranges. That makes no sense. It would make sense if the gun was made with a short barrel. Like the nf has a smaller spring and a short barrel. And it still goes less than a stock longshot.
I implied that
because the LS has a weak stock spring they added a longer barrel and the popgun thingy. I know I rambled on a bit, so it might be hard to read and understand, but my feel on it overall is that:
A. Hasbro likes to keep the ranges at 25-35.
B. They wanted to make a type of large, sn1per-like rifle.
C. They would need a big plunger for that.
D. They would need a long barrel for that.
E. They couldn't put a spring with NF power in the plunger and keep the ranges down.
Therefore, they put in a weak spring, and made the bolt's ID smaller then most barrels, making a pop-gun effect. When the gun is fired, the velocity of the dart starts out stronger then it would if the bolt had a larger ID. This is to make up for the weak spring. They put a wide barrel on their to slightly increase and maintain the dart's velocity, giving you an aprox. 35" range.
I don't get what you said on the last part. Yes a NF has a smaller spring and a smaller barrel. Yes it's range is less then that of a longshot. That sort of makes sense, don't you think?
The NF has a smaller barrel because it is meant to be a pistol.
A. Hasbro likes to keep the ranges at 25-35.
B. They wanted to make a type of small, pistol-like blaster.
C. They would need a small plunger for that.
D. They would need a short barrel for that.
E. They couldn't put a short barrel on it and have a spring as weak as the LS spring while maintaining at least 25" range.
Therefore, they put a stronger spring in it.
Anyways, ask anyone. Putting a longer barrel on something that doesn't hug the dart too tight will almost always increase the range. In the LS, the barrel is freakin' wide in its ID, but it gives the air coming from the plunger more time to push the dart out before it leaves the gun, thus giving it more ranges to make up for the weak spring.
"Good character is something you cannot fake. And it always comes full circle at the end."
-Piney-
"It is amazing what a bit of conversation can do, as apposed to just *^$(*#*^ about it."
-AJAQ-