Most of nerf's barrels are beveled, as we all know. When experimenting with the turret, I noticed the back half of the barrels had a part that curved in and held darts with the same tightness and seal as 17/32's brass did. They made a perfect seal with the turret plate, when in turn makes a great seal with the plunger, so I didn't feel a need to remove the whole barrel. Here's where the fun part comes in, only about half of each barrel is brassed. Before I completely did up the turret, I checked the range difference between a fully brassed barrel, and one that only had brass in the front. After multiple tests, with the same tagger darts, the ranges where identical. Thus, I present, the hybrid turret.
Start out by doing this mod: link
Once the pegs are removed and sanded (as shown in above link), take out a cone sanding bit and snap it onto your dremel. Lightly, sand the front part of the stock barrel, until you can ram a peice of 17/32's brass into it. The first few are touch and go, just a little bit of sanding, and then check the barrel fit, but after about 5 barrels, you get a sense for how much should be sanded. The barrels should fit VERY tightly, but should still be able to be pushed into the plastic.
(yes, I did a bit of the turret before I started taking pictures, just so I knew it would work correctly. So sue me)
Push the brass into the turret as far as it can go (till it hits the part of the barrel that matches it's size) and draw a line with a sharpie.
My barrels were each about 1.25 inches long. Then, cut the barrel with a metal cutting disc or pipe cutter. If using a pipe cutter, make sure to then widen the barrel again so it remains the same size the full way through. Then, sand down the edges of the brass, and the inside, making sure there are no sharp edges or metal files still attached. I did this by starting off with a belt sander, and then moving to fine gritt sand paper.
Take your nice, shiny piece of brass and push it into the sanded barrel. Make sure it goes all the way in and meets the point of the barrel which is ment to remain plastic. As assistance in pushing in all the way, I placed the turret rounded side up on my work table and pushed down on the brass with the end of a screwdriver. It's important to simply push and not hammer, as to not dent or warp the brass.
Before pushing in
After pushing in
And that's it! Now repeat that. 19 times. Enjoy
And then your left with a shiny new turret
Here's the one I had going the full way through.
(it wasn't cut in that picture yet)
Install that back in your swarmfire, and enjoy. I saw about a 10 foot range increase, bumping my ranges up to 55-60 feet flat. Keep in mind, I still haven't found a good spring for it, and when I do, Im hoping it goes around 70. I haven't had any problems with the rotation mech handling the extra weight, it takes it quite well. While this mod is repetitive, it's actually alot of fun. Hope you found this useful.
Edited by ice, 31 March 2011 - 02:23 PM.