It's a Nite Finder with a permanently attached six-shot magazine feeding into a CPVC breech. I call it a 'Mauser' because it's reminiscent of the old Broomhandle Mauser with the magazine forward of the trigger guard.
Firstly, credit where credit's due. This is completely and totally inspired by Buffy's Bu-TTG.
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Tools
- Drill with very narrow bit
- Wire snips
- Boltcutter
- Philips screwdriver
- Ratcheting pipe cutters
- Rotary pipe cutters (optional)
- Hacksaw
- File
- Scissors
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Materials
- Hot glue
- 1/2" CPVC
- CPVC coupler
- 1/2" PVC
- 1" PVC
- Paper clip or some sort of wire
- Electrical tape
- DVD clamshell case
- [k26] spring (optional)
- Nite Finder and CS-6 clip (of course)
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Open the Nite Finder
No pics, sorry. Lose the LED assembly.
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Remove the barrel
You can either use ratcheting pipe cutters and follow the first steps in my 30-Minute Nite Finder Overhaul, or you can use rotary pipecutters. These give better control.
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Halve the CPVC coupler and file down if needed
My 30-Minute Tech Target Overhaul details how to cut a CPVC in half neatly. Actually, I just used the leftover half.
Barrel-shaped ones don't fit in the NF PT, so some filing is in order
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Try, try again
It'll take a lot of trial and error to get it right. I'm not doing a draw extension, etc. so I'm shaving it down until the half-coupler in the PT fits in the shell.
Now that I think about it, I didn't even use adhesive on it. It was a very snug fit.
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Stop, dart!
Drill across the coupler, as far back as you can but still across the coupler. I've found that the seam is a good guideline.
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It's a wrap
Clip the excess wire, bend the ends back, and tape them down.
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That's no way to treat a clip!
See the hacksaw? The clip isn't resting on it. Look at the shadow - the hacksaw is partway into sawing the clip in two (but we won't let it complete the job.)
How far do you cut? The magazine follower is chopped back until the slot is under the dart head, if the dart body is pushed against the 'uncut' half of the follower. This will vary with your dart size.
The forward side wall of the clip is cut all the way down, but the bottom need not be cut at all. No big deal if it is.
Remember there's a screw in there.
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Stefanize it
Time to gut the DVD clamshell. I chose to use part of the spine, thoug I'm sure you can use the edge as well. We want a piece of it that's not as wide as the slot in the follower is long, and tall enough to reach the bottom of the circular slot for the bolt to slide through.
The spine is cut into two flaps becaue there's a ridge around the clip and this allows the spine to rest on it.
Not shown: the spine is actually trimed to one-half the width. The full width of the spine is too wide for half the clip's width.
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Widen the slot in the follower
Take the file and make the slot in the follower *wide*. We don't want it binding on the DVD plate.
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All together now
Assemble the clip and hot glue the spine to the side of the clip. This is a case of "do what I say, not what I do." You'll note that the clip has duct tape on it in the initial picture. As this was a prototype, I didn't want to finalize anything until I was sure it was working.
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Now for the shell
Cut the shell against the front of the rearmost support for the dart holder.
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Try, try again (again)
This doesn't show the notches clearly, but I did notch the exposed flanges to accept the clip. You can kind of see it on the bottom of the dart holder support.
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Cap the clip
This is kind of 'by eyeball', sorry for not having measurements. The red part is a chunk of 1/2" PVC, and the two larger arcs are 1" PVC. The 1/2" PVC should be as wide as the gap beween the lips and as long as the length from the head of your dart to the end of the raised lip portion of the clip. My stefans had a nasty habit of jumping for freedom, so I had to cap my clip.
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Everyone's favourite non-structural member structural member
To start with, place the clip on the blaster and secure with the rubber band (see a few photos above). Hot glue the clip to the left side on the outside on the three or so points where there's shell-to-shell contact. Let dry. Note - this is in no way stable enough - we're just using it to keep the clip from moving along that axis while we do the next step.
Open the shell, shove a piece of CPVC into the coupler through the clip. This will keep it from flexing. Between it and the hot glue dots, the clip should be immobile.
On the outside, run a strip of electrical tape over the gap between the clip and the blaster. No pic, sorry.
Flip the blaster over. Make some dams with electrical tape and fill the hollow with hot glue.
This pic is missing one more piece of e-tape - to seal the notch in the clip! Boy, was that fun to clean up.
Again, hot glue isn't a good structural member. I should be using e-putty, but I'm a cheap bastard. It's good enough, which is good enough for me.
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While the blaster is opened, may as well do some performance mods. I added two wraps of e-tape under the o-ring and swapped in a length of [k26] for the stock spring.
Here's another shot of it.
I'm using a 5" barrel. It's a bit longer than what I've heard recommended for NFs, but I need that extra length to clear the clip.
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To load the clip, remove the barrel completely. The darts go in from the front of the clip. After the first one, the other hand's thumb depresses the darts in the clip to make room for the new one.
To load the blaster, pull the barrel out until the dart is able to rise into positon. Actually, it'll rise a bit to far out of position, so the other hand's thumb nudges it down slightly. Slide the barrel back in, prime and let loose.
Thoughts:
- This isn't faster than a speedloader, at least not for for the shots already loaded in the speedloader's barrels.
- It's more of a fun mod, and it's kind of cool looking.
- I used to collect Jon Sable, Freelance and loved the Broomhandle Mauser. Did you know they used one as the base for Han Solo's blaster?
- I'm getting roughly 50' with domes out of it, which is fine - Dayko caps our pistol rounds to 60', and my overhauled TTG blows that way away.
