12 replies to this topic

[SG Pilot]

This mod aims to replace the original Mad Hornet barrels with 1/2 inch CPVC pipes. The write-up has been updated below with resized pictures and an additional instruction for improving the use of the gun.

Edited by SG Pilot, 24 October 2009 - 12:28 PM.

[SgtSniper]

Nice. How do you expect us to pump it continually while we are under fire, running around and thinking about trying to survive? I wouldnt care if the range was 40'. I would just unload into my enemies.

[Forsaken angel24]

SG you need to resize your pics. Not a bad write up but I think longer brass barrels/stefans will improve distance/accuracy alot. I dont know if you should plug the pump because from what I hear plugging pumps on the semi-auto's is usually the fastest way to break it. For an indoor war that would be cool.

[nerfer34]

Glad you turned it into something nice! Ya it is fun unloading on people with that. If you ue stefans with FBR on the tip you should increase ranges by 10 feet atleast. YOu should also consider in making a 6 sided ramrod for that thing! Nice job!

[SG Pilot]

Thanks for the feed back. Though I did not seem to find brass barrels at my home depot nor at my Lowes. Plus, stock darts are the only thing I got.

Oh and Sgt.Sniyper, you don't have to continue pumping it. What I like to do is pump it up then fire off three and then pump it up a little more so that its range stays up then fire the rest off. Though you can fire off all six at once with no pumping in the middle. The last 2 darts will only shoot 14 feet about. But it's only an old gun and is the first attempt for a semi-auto nerf gun.

Forsaken, I'm curious, what would brass do as opposed to CPVC? The gun's power is pretty weak to which is why I made the barrels short.

[Forsaken angel24]

If you are using stock darts then don't worry about using brass.
If you make stefans your stefans better be really thin because cpvc is known for keeping darts snug.
And snug barrels arent good for air pressured guns.
I was just saying with some longer barrells with brass and a loose fitting stefan would make it fire alot further thats all.

[SG Pilot]

I did that testing w/ snug and loose fits in cpvc. I sanded the inside of one cpvc barrel then used an unsanded one, but it turns out that the darts fire further if they fit snugly. I think it's because the gun's firing mechanism isn't like the ordinary air pressue gun where you have the air tank and the trigger pulls that valve which lets all the air out, pushing the dart out of the barrel. Look closely at the first pick on my first post, unfortunately, I had taking out the trigger when I opened it up. It'd show better how it works

[Gyrvalcon]

Golly-Darn, those are some fine close-ups you have there. The focus on my camera won't get anything less than 9". Any tips on how to get 'em so good, or is it just the camera?
Nice mod too, but why do you stick with stock darts?

[SG Pilot]

Gyrvalcon, on Jun 11 2006, 05:54 PM, said:

Golly-Darn, those are some fine close-ups you have there. The focus on my camera won't get anything less than 9". Any tips on how to get 'em so good, or is it just the camera?
Nice mod too, but why do you stick with stock darts?

I actually used my video camera. It had the ability to take still pictures. I geuss it takes good ones.

As for the darts, I only had stock darts with me, but I oughta make some stefans

Me and my frined nerf indoors and plus, they have younger brothers that play with us too and I don't want them getting hurt with a hard hot glue tip. I got shot square in the chest with a stock micro 30 feet away by a PVC modded Switch Shots Super and even that stung a little bit and left a red mark from where it hit me. Though I didn't cry, I'm not a panzee. But I probably would cry if I got shot by Starbuck's Artemis Arm's Mountain Rifle EEK! Don't SHOOT ME!

[duce]

Nice write up. You can also squeeze another few feet out of it by increasing the seal on the junction between the tank and the barrel mechanism with some e-tape. You have to experiment becuase too good of a seal will cause a loss of distance or complete malfunction.

[KirbySaysHi]

Hey, this is quality, good job! I popped it into the directory, but could you resize the pictures? They're very nice, but on a screen like mine (1024x768), it's pretty hard to tell what's going on!

By the way, you have the honor of the first Mad Hornet mod to be added to the directory. Gawrsh!

Copy!

[SG Pilot]

UPDATE! - Resized images and also added an additional cutting you can do.

A while ago, I obtained a Mad Hornet from Nerfer34. I've herd from others about this first air pressure gun also the first and only one out of three TRUELY semi-auto dart guns and how others like Falcon would prefer this one over a Hornet in terms of modding difficulty. When I first got the gun, I loved its rate of fire since it was actually semi-automatic. The huge problem with it, however, was its RANGE which sucked. I could only get 20-12 feet out of it which disappointed me.

So I decided I'd do a mod to the gun to give it a better and more reasonable amount of range.

PART 1 - Barrel Replacement, turret mod.

LET'S BEGIN! Open up the gun, Voici les guts!



The interesting thing about this gun is that it has no air restrictors. Then again, it's a weak gun. Now we shall remove the barrels.
Take a dremel and sand down those stubs on the sides of the barrels; you do this so that you can simply yank the barrel parts out of the turret assembly. Be sure to push the front turret support away from the stubs to avoid hurting it as my index finger is showing below.

Sanding down a stub in progress.

Now simply pull the barrels out with your hands. I also found pushing through the back of the turret with a screwdriver helps get the barrels out if you have a harder time pulling them out. I've shown it below with the barrel stubs grinded off.



Throw this crap away now! Can you recycle it? Sorry, I'm green...

Now time to make the CPVC barrels. Cut 6 3-2 1/2 inch segments of barrels. I had originally used 3 1/2 inched ones, but I found that my stock micros shoot farther when I cut them shorter.


BEHOLD! The CPVC barrels fit perfectly in the front turret support!


OH NO! It won't fit in the back part of the turret!

Edited by SG Pilot, 17 June 2006 - 09:55 PM.

[SG Pilot]

Grr. Please get rid of the picture posting limit. It's just a hassle to repost and wait for that flood control thing to go by.

Okay, continuing on...

My dad introduced me to this thing:


This thing grinds down stuff like wood and PVC pipe real well. I used the grinder to shave the outsides of the barrel ends so that the ends were smaller.

Grinding.

Now apply hot glue around the holes of the back turret part where the barrels shall go.


Yay! They fit now! Push the barrels into the assembly. They should fit really tightly as this tight fit will add to the sturdiness of the gun and barrels


Once you get all ends glued and the new barrels jammed in, you're turret and gun should look like this:


The turret, as in the back part where you glued the barrels and the front part that supports them need to stay in place.
Push the front turret support forward and the rear turret part back against their ends and hot glue the barrels with the front one.
Watch below where I have my index finger against the front part and my thumb against the back part so they stay.



Once the glue dries, you have completed part 1 of barrel modding. Please hold as I post part two, making the turret assembly fit inside the whole gun's shell.


PART 2 - Making the whole assembly fit inside the gun's shell

This part was tricky since I had to do a lot of testing to make sure the turret rotates fine within the gun, but I managed to get it to work.

To start, use a dremel or sand paper (I prefer dremel since sanding would take a while) and sand that part that holds the turret up all the way down.

Here, I compare the unsanded then sanded. The sanded part may be hard to see because I was a bit clumsy with the dremel when I sanded it down since I was hitting the other black part behind it a lot.



Don't forget to do this with both shell halves!


Sanded a little for smoothing the bottom out.

Next I found another black part in the shell on both halves that I had to saw/cut/dremel ( ) off. My finger is pointing at what I cut off in the shells, cut them, they will give your barrels and turret some more room to rotate in.


Apply lubricant to the shell insides as necessary.


Next, make sure that the turret assembly's orange turret edges have no hot glue on them. Sand off any excess hot glue on the turret edges to ensure they are smooth. I actually used that grinder to use this


The cleaned up turret with no hot glue on the edges.

Place the whole assembly back in the shell and the trigger with the spring hooked where it should be and close up the gun.



ALL DONE!

I was happy to see the gun's range double. The ranges vary from 10-38 feet with stock micros, depending on how much you pump it and depending on how many times you fired the gun after pumping it. With stefans, expect better range. Darts fitting tightly work best in the gun.
However, the main problem with the gun is that it's a work-out to pump it up because you have to pump at least 30 times. Pumping it allows me to adapt better to other pump guns. Now I can pump my PC up so much faster But this would be a big disadvantage if you're in the middle of a war.

What if I put a motorized pump into it? That'd definitely help!

Overall, this is a fun gun. If you have one, I strongly recommend doing this mod to obviously make it more voluble. Although it still doesn't fire very far, its rate of fire makes up for much of it. This gun is perfect for indoor wars and at close ranges. It has good accuracy, but not deadly accuracy. I'm proud of the gun's results and later, I'll explain how to plug the over pressure release valve which I'm currently trying to figure out. It's a lot different than the normal kind as the front part of the pump tube does not unscrew. I shall see and doing so will definitely help with the gun's range. But for now, this is it. Thank you.

~SG Pilot


Here also another thing you can do to the Mad Hornet's shell. It'll make reloading the gun much easier. Just be sure not to get too close to the front support for the barrels