21 replies to this topic

[Matt31]

I have done two things to my Recon that I really like and wish to share. . .

First is making that annoying, flimsy stock much stronger. This is fairly obvious, but all you do is, measure out some 3/4" or 1/2" PVC to the same length as those gray rods holding the stock together and cut it length-wise as well. Glue the pieces in place like this:



Next is some banding. First screw a bolt or screw into the hole in the back of the "Armed Post". Then another through the little extension on the back of the handle. You may want to put tape around any exposed threading on the screws so that they don't cut through your bands. Now you'll have something like this:



Band it up, with shorter bands going between the two screws and longer ones around the whole gun.





The only problem with the banding set up is, you can't use the stock with it. But it does improve the range by about 10 feet.

Edited by Matt31, 02 January 2008 - 05:41 PM.

[General Cole]

Am I the only that has removed the ARs yet? Because I figure someone else must have. Good idea on the banding, but I think a stronger spring would help more.

EDIT- Saw the other topic.

Edited by General Cole, 02 January 2008 - 05:57 PM.

[Matt31]

I'm struggling to remove the AR's on another Recon.(I have nothing long and thin enough) The main point of the stronger stock was to do the external spring mod, unfortunately I have no good springs at the moment, so I just banded it.

EDIT: Does anyone know why the barrel extension makes for such worse ranges?

Edited by Matt31, 02 January 2008 - 08:41 PM.

[MrDelish]

Am I the only that has removed the ARs yet? Because I figure someone else must have. Good idea on the banding, but I think a stronger spring would help more.

EDIT- Saw the other topic.

Maybe you spotted it, but I gutted mine. I tried it out right now and while it does work, it needs to be manually clicked back like a millimeter. I'll be buying some PVC to fix that up soon, though.

[analogkid]

Just got one today at the local Target, as they were unpacking the boxes. The AR removal was a real pain but it gets much better ranges. Anyone know of where to get more clips?

[Kid Flash]

Just got one today at the local Target, as they were unpacking the boxes. The AR removal was a real pain but it gets much better ranges. Anyone know of where to get more clips?

nerf.com has then along with refil... although they are yellow unless they added orange.

[sn1per]

Just got one today at the local Target, as they were unpacking the boxes. The AR removal was a real pain but it gets much better ranges. Anyone know of where to get more clips?

nerf.com has then along with refil... although they are yellow unless they added orange.

No...i checked earlier today.

[Cmdrmack]

They should still fit if they are interchangeable with the Longshot magazine.

This thing seems to be a mix of the Longshot and the crossfire. Combining mods from those two guns should give us adequate results.

[CaptainSlug]

Anyone know of where to get more clips?

http://www.hasbrotoy...SBR=99&ID=19201

[M30]

EDIT: Does anyone know why the barrel extension makes for such worse ranges?

This is a really good question. The stock answer I've heard around is, "it acts as an air restrictor."
But why?! It has something to do less with the length, and more with the diameter. The extension doesn't 'hug' the darts to the optimum degree; as in it's not tight enough.

I figure this must essentially boil down to an issue of the dart bouncing around inside the barrel extension. The energy that is lost through the small transfer of momentum must be greater than the small amount lost from the frictional force of pushing the same dart at the same speed through a tighter barrel.

At least that's my best guess.

Anyone who knows more about this, please correct me if I'm wrong. Actually, especially if I'm wrong. I'd really love to know why this is true as well. Right now I can only guess.

[hard rockr]

I just want to know where everyone is getting all of these recons. Does anyone know if they are being sold in sonoma county?

[precisionnerfer]

This is a really good question. The stock answer I've heard around is, "it acts as an air restrictor."
But why?! It has something to do less with the length, and more with the diameter. The extension doesn't 'hug' the darts to the optimum degree; as in it's not tight enough.

I figure this must essentially boil down to an issue of the dart bouncing around inside the barrel extension. The energy that is lost through the small transfer of momentum must be greater than the small amount lost from the frictional force of pushing the same dart at the same speed through a tighter barrel.

At least that's my best guess.

Anyone who knows more about this, please correct me if I'm wrong. Actually, especially if I'm wrong. I'd really love to know why this is true as well. Right now I can only guess.

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.

[Matt31]

I like the barrel extension for clipping guns and flashlights on the bottom of it. But I needed a way for it to not reduce range so much, so I replaced with 1/2 PVC and it works like charm! No significant range reduction at all!

EDIT: After doing some testing, I've also found that the Recon's performance is also fairly dependent on the darts you're using.

Edited by Matt31, 03 January 2008 - 08:45 PM.

[sourskttles772]

This is a really good question. The stock answer I've heard around is, "it acts as an air restrictor."
But why?! It has something to do less with the length, and more with the diameter. The extension doesn't 'hug' the darts to the optimum degree; as in it's not tight enough.

I figure this must essentially boil down to an issue of the dart bouncing around inside the barrel extension. The energy that is lost through the small transfer of momentum must be greater than the small amount lost from the frictional force of pushing the same dart at the same speed through a tighter barrel.

At least that's my best guess.

Anyone who knows more about this, please correct me if I'm wrong. Actually, especially if I'm wrong. I'd really love to know why this is true as well. Right now I can only guess.

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.

[boisie]

I just bought one today. I then proceeded to find out that it sucked with the extension, but I like the extension. And the stock. Its very comfortable. But the barrel extension sucks because it rattles, and the grooves cause friction, at least I think. to remedie this, I made an aluminum insertand wrapped it with ducttape, to stop it from sliding, and I got it back to about 15'. And I got around the "No Modification" rule put on it by my mother. Now on to the NF I got. What to do without "Modding" it.

[watkins]

Now on to the NF I got. What to do without "Modding" it.

Stick with internal mods and she'll never know the difference. Even AR removal and an extra O ring can make a huge difference, without being too obvious.

[precisionnerfer]

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.

[M30]

Precisionnerfer-

I think this is finally starting to make sense to me, that they would balance it all out that way between the rifle-type weapon and the pistol-type weapon. It explains why barrel extensions work, as well as the slightly more intuitive spring replacements.

Thanks for explaining this.
(Someone should sticky your post.)

[Crom Strom]

Remedies are:

Upgrade the spring/power in plunger.
Glue the barrels seamlessly together or make an angled breech.

wouldn't it also be possible to just, say, tighten the barrel on BOTH barrels (the extension and the main, durr) and have a gasket of some sort between the extension and the main body of the gun. i think it'd keep the aesthetics of the gun intact while also making the barrel extension(s) removable ( and, you know, useful for something other than gluing to the body).

...but that's just what i think.

[ultra920]

If you make it tight on the dart with stock power, it wont shoot. You first need a stronger spring.

[ejrasmussen]

Hey, even though this topic is fairly new for this year, it is more than a month old. you might wanna be carefull while surfing the forums 'cause you might not notice that the post was x number of days ago.

[Bonzipon]

I like the reinforcing of the stock, but I'm questioning the banding. Does it really do anything to your range? Anyways props on making a mod for the recon.

Thanks, BonziPon