Chronicles of Narnia Prince Caspian Gauntlet Crossbow (With tag dart, for scale)
While the box made no claims of range, (not a good sign, I admit) it was only $10, and I was delighted by the idea of a wrist-blaster mounted on top of the wrist, rather than below. (As such a location would prevent the problem I have with a SMDTB.)
It indeed has "action" which one could (poorly) describe as "blasting." Stock range was < 1 meter. I foolishly still held hope, as the spring seemed surprisingly strong for its size, and the stock barrel was very loose. So I of course opened her up.
I saw the size of the plunger tube
and cursed quietly to myself.
Even after replacing the barrel, (I tried cpvc, a crayola marker barrel, and finally PETG) ranges were entirely unacceptable. Though twisting out the peg did result in a massive, 100% increase in range.
I darts which came with the hunk of plastic were rather interesting.
The gold dome, unlike a streamlined dart, is not hollow. While not exactly hard, the plastic dome is solid. I fired the 3 shiny darts out of my Recon (my Longshot lays ignored and disassembled, like C-3PO in Episode I) hoping the dense dart head would allow them to fly better than streamlined darts. Again I was disappointed. While they do not fishtail in the bizarre manner typical of streamlined darts, the range was decreased by what I estimate to be 1.5 meters.
So, why bother to even post anything about this device? 2 reasons:
1: Warn others to stay away. This thing is worthless. If I get really bored, I'll try and squeeze a Nitefinder plunger assembly in there.
2: It inspired me to build this;
I decided I would gain at least some shred of benefit from this toy, and inspiration for a much larger gauntlet Crossbow seemed fitting enough.
To make your own Gauntlet Crossbow that has ranges in excess of 2 meters, here's what you'll need:
Air Zone Crossbow
hot glue/suitable applicator
string
metal loop
thin, flexible tubing.
drilling implement
This is such a simple project, I doubt many words are needed to supplement the pictures here.
I used an archery bracer (more commonly known as an arm guard; can be found at most sporting goods stores) as the method of attaching the blaster to my forearm. While removing the crossbow limbs takes away from the aesthetics/coolness of having a wrist-mounted crossbow, it keeps the blaster from being troublesome in combat. Ranges are typical for an Air Zone crossbow, since this modification did nothing to the internals.
I plan on using the same trigger idea to make my SMDTB usable when mounted to the top of my wrist.
Thanks for your time.
