So back to no mags: I'm here to change that right back. In a way. Sort of.
You see, the commandfire's whole premise of "high-cap no mags" is true, but dumping 40 darts into a hopper in any meaningful way while also playing isn't easy. This has led insightful youtube-nerfers to relegate it to a secondary role - keep it on you (it's not overly large) and use it as suppression, a room-broom, or CIWS when needed, switch back to your more traditional primary when not.
Now, I'm going to do this two ways, one is experimental-but-exciting so we'll start with that:
I'll call it the "Crudely tape a box to the top" method. I didn't keep it this way, because I want a primarily mobile blaster, but even this jankenstien was effective:
That's about 97 darts that it fired if I counted right.
The Commandfire needs a follower to keep the darts oriented the right way, for this, I used a chunk of 2x4 (apologies for sideways; apparently NH's auto-uploader prefers landscape which I did not shoot these in):
I then tested the blaster to see whether my labors had born fruit.
As you've already seen, yeah, it fired about 97 shots - an increase in capacity of about 57.
But it also jammed horribly, a result of my hasty modification and no real measuring to speak of:
So that option is on the table for those who want a super-high capacity and also giant blaster. That doesn't describe me, so I ripped the box off and moved to option 2: Bringing mags back.
To do this, you'll need a few things: At least one standard tape roll (duct tape, masking tape, packing tape, etc size), a flat surface (table, chair, floor, etc.), a box (smaller for fewer darts, larger for more), #64 rubber bands (got mine at walmart for $1.25 or so; #33, 34, 63, and 80-something would probably also work. #64 is a 1/4" wide size, so it holds a little more securely. Really any size would probably also work), and of course, darts.
After getting the stuff you need, dump a bunch of darts into your box and shake it:
If you didn't notice, what happens is that, once you have a certain critical mass of darts in the box relative to the box size, shaking the box will cause the majority of the darts to align head-down (my box has inside corners, I think those are tripping up the rest of my darts). This makes them easy to grab and dump by the handful into your tape roll:
Keep doing this until full (~25+ darts), then slap a rubber band around the whole thing:
This bundle will now easily slide free of the tape roll, yielding a pack of darts I am hereby naming a "Meaker Mag". You may wish to pack a few extra darts in to make a tighter pack, but most of mine were fine.
To load, simply open your Commandfire and drop the Meaker Mag in:
Then grasp the rubber band and rip it off the back of the darts:
With practice (and maybe both hands) this should result in a freshly loaded Commandfire:
It's also worth noting that bascially any tape roll works, it'll just mean putting the rubber band in a different spot and/or adjusting it later:
The more the merrier.
Now, once you've made yourself a pile of Meaker Mags, you may think to yourself "these fit great in my hand and seem like they'd throw really well". Go ahead, try it. It's not like you're throwing a hard-shelled plastic mag at someone, you're throwing a soft springy Meaker Mag at them. I recommend lobbing it as hard as you can at a solid surface near the unsuspecting target:
It'll get a decent spread, and the higher up/harder it hits the better the spread will be.
In conclusion, not only have I enabled you to completely replace your entire supply of expensive magazines for mere pocket change, and not only in a way that is easy to load, but I have also given you a get-out-of-trouble card by providing a magazine that can, itself (pending your rules allowing thrown darts/rubber band grenades), be used as a formidable anti-crowd foam-thrower.
Testing the load in my unusually rigged load-bearing-gear, I fit 6 such MM's in a dump pouch (~150 darts) and another 4 in the large pocket of my utility pouches (~100 darts). I've also got a large drop-leg pouch that I didn't get out to test, but will probably hold 3-6 more such packs, bringing my total ready-to-load dart capacity up to an easy-to-carry 390 darts (with 40 in the blaster starting out). I'll investigate even easier loading options (backpack, dispenser, bandolier-like setup) in the future, but for now, this'll do. I really only have a little over 1,000 darts anyway, carrying most of that on my person feels sufficient for the kinds of backyard wars I engage in.
Edited by Meaker VI, 19 September 2018 - 06:04 PM.
