20 replies to this topic

[BlastFreak]

Hello, world!

Long time watcher, first time poster.

Anyway, in preparation for a massive (150+ participant), month-long Nerf war I'm organizing at my high school, I've been working at a fever pitch on my NF, trying to juice every ounce of performance out of it possible. In doing so, I've noticed that my stock micro-darts (I haven't been able to make it to the nearest Home Depot, 50 miles away), have been wearing down. They've been losing their punch, as they allow more air to escape through the sides, and are also fishtailing more noticeably and more often. Hmm.

As usual, inspiration struck randomly, as I was home sick from school today. While sitting at my desk, sipping from a coke from Burger King, I noticed the straw. I noticed a dart, sitting a few inches away on the desk. Hmm.

I decided to try inserting a straw into the dart. To make a long story short, here's what happened:


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The drink, with straw.


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The straw, cut to fit in the micro dart.


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The straw, being inserted into the dart.


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A view of the straw in the dart.


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The dart, once the straw is inserted, shows no sign of any modification.

Now, obviously the diameter of the straw is important: Burger King's are exactly 1/4 in. in diameter, and work fine; other straws may not.

On another note, Nite Finders balance perfectly upon large Burger King cups.
(Note: I am not a shill for Burger King)


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Edit: Changed photo hosts - thanks for the advice, Talio!

Edited by BlastFreak, 13 April 2005 - 08:11 PM.

[Arcanis]

(Note: I am not a shill for Burger King)

Good. BurgerKing and McDonalds suck. SUBWAY.


Anyways, the use of straws in darts has been thought of before, but no one has really considered using them to repair. Good job, mate- excellent first post. Keep going the way you're going.

[Talio]

You guys taking notes...This is how to make a first post.

Zero I believe was the first to introduce the idea of using a straw for darts. I've tried it, but wasn't a big fan of the extra weight.

In the meantime, you're links to your pictures don't work. Geocities prevents you from using them on message boards. May I suggest an excellent photo host though.

www.photobucket.com

It doesn't get any easier then that site, and I've never had a problem with it.

Enjoy you're stay,

Talio.

[MattPaintballer]

So that fixed your dart problems? Neato. Well, I found this stick laying around, and I used it to widen the hole in a few of my stock darts, and it increased the range of my Scouts slightly, but improved the velocity noticably. I also had a fishtailing problem where the first 6 inches or so the dart would fishtail, which totally threw off my accuracy. The larger hole fixed this.

By the way, the straw thing, it reminds me of the creator of !Nerftech!'s idea for the Ultimante Stefan (scroll down to see it).

[NinjZ]

The backs of your darts look squiched and crimped. Don't leave your darts in the barrels of your blasters. This will prevent the squishing and crimping and help keep your darts performing great.

[WEASEL]

May I just comment on your high school's 150+ participant nerf war. I have never heard of such a thing and that would be awsome. Could you give me some details of rules and such because I would have no idea how to play with that many people. Also where do you play?

[nerfspecialforces]

I think he means like "Dart Wars" type thing.

[Hunter]

No, Zero's idea was to hollow out Stefans using a small Wendy's (I believe) straw, not to keep it in. Mr. Blast here is suggesting we insert straws into stock darts to increase efficiency. Interesting idea, I might try it out. I still prefer Stefans though.

[xedice]

There was a dart I think called the yoink dart where you left a straw in. This was for stefans, I've tried it with micros once, but the extra weight in the back of the dart made it fishtail. The way I found to solve this was to glue a BB in the straw and insert that in so the tip of the micro had more weight to it. The dart didn't fishtail anymore, but the extra weight made the dart get really crappy ranges. Hope you have better luck.

[LordoftheRing434]

I got sick of busting darts, so I tried this on my stock darts. It didn't really turn out too well. It kept the outer part from tearing, but the weight threw off the flight of the dart. Sometimes it fishtailed, and other times it would just drop as soon as it left the barrel. I used some drinking straws that you can pick up just about anywhere (Wal-Mart, Dollar Store, etc.), but I really don't think that mattered. And when I tried it with Stefans...I'm not even gonna go there. I broke so many trying to get the straw centered, I figured it wasn't worth it anymore.

[BlastFreak]

WEASEL: I've made a fairly self-explanatory website, viewable at http://geocities.com...apassassination. Simply put, it's a game that AP students at my high school have been playing for nearly twenty years - it's been written about in the New York Times a few times, and over the years have gotten progressively bigger and bigger.

Essentially, it's a single-elimination assassination game: you're assigned a target by the coordinator (that's me!), who you have one week to assassinate, using a nerf gun, by whatever means possible. Whoever has eliminated their target, and not been eliminated themself, moves on to the next round: same routine, until only one person is left standing. People get creative: disguising themselves as UPS drivers, hiding in trees and bushes, hiring underclassmen as bodyguards, etc: basically, the entire senior class is paranoid for a week.

LordoftheRing434: Yikes. Sorry to hear about that... what gun were you having those problems with?

[Oddball]

WEASEL: I've made a fairly self-explanatory website, viewable at http://geocities.com...apassassination. Simply put, it's a game that AP students at my high school have been playing for nearly twenty years - it's been written about in the New York Times a few times, and over the years have gotten progressively bigger and bigger.

Essentially, it's a single-elimination assassination game: you're assigned a target by the coordinator (that's me!), who you have one week to assassinate, using a nerf gun, by whatever means possible. Whoever has eliminated their target, and not been eliminated themself, moves on to the next round: same routine, until only one person is left standing. People get creative: disguising themselves as UPS drivers, hiding in trees and bushes, hiring underclassmen as bodyguards, etc: basically, the entire senior class is paranoid for a week.

LordoftheRing434: Yikes. Sorry to hear about that... what gun were you having those problems with?

Ooh, one of those kind of hidden-gun games. I've got to try it.. Oh right, there's tons of them around, for those of you that didn't know. A lot of schools have similiar games running.

Oh right, and great first post. I look forward to seeing you as a productive member.

Edited by Oddball, 20 April 2005 - 04:49 AM.

[LordoftheRing434]

I had problems with my SS1. It was breaking darts (now I have PVC on it, and it's fine) so I tried the straw thing. It's a reliable gun, but when I fired, it could not hit anything over 15'. The straws just didn't work for it. The flight was thrown off. It pissed me off because I fell back on it frequently in a war, and the thing didn't work right, so I was forced into screaming like a little schoolgirl and running for my life. When I PVC-ed it, the thing was fine.
Next, I tried firing these darts with my SM1500. That didn't break darts, but the only darts I had were "strawed". These shots went further, but for an accurate gun, it was still horrible. It fired in unpredictable directions.
These are my bad experiences. If it works for you, More power to ya!

~Ringsy

[Oddball]

Ooh, sounds like you aren't weighting your stefans.

[LordoftheRing434]

Oh yeah, my stefans were weighted....splitshot sinker, BB size...I followed the LGLF write-up almost exactly. This thing that irked me was that the same thing happened with stock darts. Now everything's fine, everything's good. The only beef I have with the SS1 now is that the thing is really inaccurate. I have my NF to make up for that however....

[Arcanum]

I tried the straw idea on my stock darts and the first three shots were really quite impressive. The dart shot much straighter than before with about the same speed. Accuracy increase though.
However, after about three shots the straw just kept falling out and I can't find a safe way to get the straw in without leaving glue residue all over the dart (probably due to hot glue).
I don't have any plumbers goop though, so would epoxy be a good alternative?

[J cobbers]

You probably want to use a glue that won't eat away at the foam and still give a good bond. I wonder if good old fashioned elmer's glue would do well. Gorrilla glue might also be a good choice because it kind of foams up as it sets.

Model glues and the like might actually eat away some of the foam, which you don't want to happen.

Edited by J_cobbers, 28 April 2005 - 07:17 AM.

[Arcanum]

Thanks, I have some gorilla glue so I'll try it out.

[J cobbers]

Thanks, I have some gorilla glue so I'll try it out.

Cool, let us know how well it works.

[futureseal]

i found this works quite well in the little parts of stock darts i cut off.

[SHADOW HUNTER ALPHA]

i found this works quite well in the little parts of stock darts i cut off.

Please refrain from reviving 2-year dead topics with stupid shit like this.