13 replies to this topic

[VelveetaAvenger]

Been a long time since I've done any modding, but I came across a few tricks after opening up my SledgeFire that might come in handy for other people.



If you're not replacing the spring (I don't have any extras around) you don't have to open up the white part, just push in on the bottom edge of the plunger tube that faces away from you and push up. It will slide right out.



Here's the rear of the A/R assembly. Unfortunately, the front of the plunger tube is glued together, which is always a pain. Instead of messing with that you want to drill out the triangular area in the middle, and then take your screwdriver and push hard through each hole in the front.



Since everything is orange it's a little tough to see here, but when you do it correctly those back plates should snap off cleanly. It worked on the top two, but I think the bottom one was drilled a bit too close to the side of the plunger tube. Once you get the springs and other air restrictor garbage out of there it's easy to widen the front holes and clean up the rest with your dremal.



The downside is that you're left with a lot of deadspace in the front of the plunger tube. I eyeballed it wrong, and this piece of foam doesn't even come close to the end of the plunger tube. I put a slightly bigger piece in there for now, but I'll have to hit up Ax-Man again for some more.

I don't use a tape measure for ranges, but our house is about 50 feet long. Before the mod most shots were falling short, after the mod they all went past it (all stock darts). I'd guess there's about a ten foot improvement, mostly it seems to help the shots stay consistent.

I didn't see any shell refill packs, I'd like to get one before I mess around with the barrels too much. I got this mostly to have fun at an all Defend the Core war, but I bet a singled rear-loading shell would be an easy and effective mod for swapping in and out.

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Update with some HammerShot info. I didn't think it was really big enough to make another thread.

Like the SledgeFire you're also left with some dead space at the front of the plunger tube. I did the same thing with a smaller piece of foam on the plunger rod and took out the posts in the barrels. It's pretty nice compared to dealing with the barrel A/R's on a Maverick.

Unfortunately there wasn't much if any range increase with streamlines (although they still hit a good 60 feet), and slugs only go about 45' or so. It probably needs to be rebarreled to make it worthwhile.

Edited by VelveetaAvenger, 09 August 2013 - 05:43 PM.

[proplus]

Nice,

Do you have a rough estimate or compairason on how big the plunger tube is?

[xXhunter47Xx]

very nice!

I don't know if you have a triad or not but I heard that the sledgefire has the same smart AR as the triad.
Does this have the same problem as the triad when removing the AR?

[VelveetaAvenger]

Nice,

Do you have a rough estimate or compairason on how big the plunger tube is?

I forgot to do that, but those weaves on the coffee table are about one inch wide, so I think it's about 2" x 4".

very nice!

I don't know if you have a triad or not but I heard that the sledgefire has the same smart AR as the triad.
Does this have the same problem as the triad when removing the AR?

I don't have a Triad, but the SledgeFire is a shotgun, it just fires all 3 darts at once. I doubt it's the same.

[Defender 7]

Nice! I practically did the same stuff, but for the PH, you should fill it up with hot glue and then put on a few layers of craft foam just to fill in deadspace.

[VelveetaAvenger]

Nice! I practically did the same stuff, but for the PH, you should fill it up with hot glue and then put on a few layers of craft foam just to fill in deadspace.

Thanks, I saw your post in the mods/paint thread after I made mine. I'm definitely going to go back and add some more padding.

[xXhunter47Xx]

I don't have a Triad, but the SledgeFire is a shotgun, it just fires all 3 darts at once. I doubt it's the same.

Oh, my mistake. Would you recommend removing the shell ejection system and just glue the shell permenantly into the blaster to remove the necessity of the shell?
Or better yet create a brass "shell" barrel for a tighter fit?

[VelveetaAvenger]

Oh, my mistake. Would you recommend removing the shell ejection system and just glue the shell permenantly into the blaster to remove the necessity of the shell?
Or better yet create a brass "shell" barrel for a tighter fit?

You can never go wrong with barrel replacements, but I don't think it's necessary to glue it down. The ejection system only pops up like half an inch, so it doesn't add any time to push it back down if you're rearloading. The way it's set up stock the shell sticks out a tiny bit and is held against the plunger with the ejection spring, so it should be getting a really nice seal already.


Another trick I discovered this morning is you can hold the trigger down while you open it up. This lets you remove the last shell without having to dry-fire it.

[Spud Spudoni]

Well, in a way the Triad and the SledgeFire do have similar AR tech. For the SledgeFire (stock), you are able to fire 1 dart from the shell if only 1 dart is loaded. Same with 2. The ARs allow air to go through the "barrel" only when foam is present.

So the question still stands, can you do this after the mod or does taking out the ARs remove this feature?

[VelveetaAvenger]

Some HammerShot info added to the OP.

Well, in a way the Triad and the SledgeFire do have similar AR tech. For the SledgeFire (stock), you are able to fire 1 dart from the shell if only 1 dart is loaded. Same with 2. The ARs allow air to go through the "barrel" only when foam is present.

So the question still stands, can you do this after the mod or does taking out the ARs remove this feature?

No. I double checked to be sure, but the air just goes out the open barrels.

[MavericK96]

I haven't removed the AR yet on my Sledgefire, but one interesting (and kind of lame) thing I noticed is that after I removed the posts from one of the shells, the darts don't fire evenly out of that shell anymore. Which makes very little sense, since the posts don't hold down the AR pegs or anything, the dart itself does that. Basically what will happen, though, is that one dart will fire really far and the others will kind of just flop out about 5-10 feet in front of the gun. My only guess is that maybe removing the pegs somehow made the darts fire out less evenly, causing most of the air to go through one slot and not the others. However, this doesn't really make sense because I cut out each peg evenly and the darts are identical.

I assume doing an AR removal would solve this, but I'd kinda hate to lose the ability to fire less than 3 darts at once.

[VelveetaAvenger]

Sounds pretty strange, are you using stock darts or slugs? It's possible that without the pegs the darts are deforming a bit and not fully engaging the A/R's. One thing I've noticed about both these new blasters is that the barrel only has a springer fit for a 1/4" or 1/2" at the very bottom, so my other guess is that without the pegs the darts don't grip well enough for pressure to build up.

I'd try slugs first, or maybe just rebarrel the shells.

[MavericK96]

Using stock darts...Will try slugs to see what happens, but it really is strange because the pegs don't actually contact the inside of the dart, so the friction should not be any different.

EDIT: White foam slugs work fine, but you really have to jam them down in there...lots of friction. I'll probably just have to remove the ARs I guess, which is fine.

Edited by MavericK96, 12 August 2013 - 06:30 PM.

[MavericK96]

Okay, so, as an update, I removed the ARs and it works fine now with the peg-less shells. Fires really well and has a nice "THUMP", even with normal (non-slug) darts.

I still don't really know for sure what was causing the issue, but after some testing I think I might have an idea.

I noticed that only the bottom (center) one would fire a good distance, EVEN IF there were no other darts in any other barrels. So, for example, I put a dart in one of the upper side-by-side slots, and they would fire like crap. Put one dart in the single bottom slot, and they would fire great. I tried rotating the shell, and still only the bottom single slot would fire correctly.

My theory is that after cutting the pegs out you end up with a bit of space where the AR can accidentally slide inside the rear of the dart, instead of being opened by the edge of the dart as it should. For whatever reason, even though the dead space is the same on each shell slot, the bottom AR has less "give" or something (less wiggle room for the AR peg to become misaligned) and that is why that one works. I did fiddle with pushing down the ARs a bit and it did seem that the top two had more "wiggle" than the bottom.

So with this theory it's entirely possible that, depending on your blaster, it may or may not work properly depending on the tolerance of the ARs.

If it's not that, then I seriously have no clue. It shouldn't actually matter either way if the ARs were designed properly to not wiggle around, but the center piece of the dart peg apparently keeps them stable whereas without that part, they can slip and not fire properly.