247 replies to this topic

[Carrtoon]

I just bought the new longshot and, of course, it sucked out of the box. When dry fired, it sounds like no air is being pushed into the barrel. To fix this, I removed the rear restrictor that's blocking the air from getting through. This is the first mod that I have been nervous about. There is a lot at stake here, but it isn't hard to do. I see no need to take out the peg yet, but may need to in the future.

Ok, take the longshot apart. You'll need to get to the plunger tube, so take it out. Once you have the tube in your hand, unscrew the back of the plunger tube, and take out the plunger. When you look inside, you'll see the restrictor with three prongs jutting out of the center of it. You need to cut out only the center, like you would do with an NF restrictor. Cut out the back until the center of the restrictor is flush with the walls. The way I did it was by using a buzz saw bit on my dremel. You can probably drill it out, but I don't recommend it. Once the back is cut out out, you will see the restrictor spring. Take that out. Next comes the restrictor. It has a + on the back of it like all of the other restrictors. I was able to get ahold of that with a leatherman and pull the restrictor out. This should be very easy if you dremeled right. Here's the finished gutted plunger tube from the back:



And the restrictor:



I also added an NF spring and two o-rings to stabilize the stock spring:



Adding the NF spring will make the gun fire louder because it isn't as long as the plunger rod. It bounces and makes noise.

This is a very simple mod to do and it will greatly increase the range of the gun. I'll have video and ranges tomorrow. I also made stefans that work quite well. All that and more tomorrow at noon!

[Cmdrmack]

I’m REALLY skeptical on the Longshot’s moddability. It’s extremely complex and who knows what one can do to it.

And so it has begun...

I just did this mod and I'm pretty pleased with it. However, I've been having trouble with mine staying cocked. I've already lost three darts because of it just randomly firing. That might be the result of the extra springs I added though.

Ranges are very impressive at this point. Close to 50' flat. When I angled it I lost the dart. So it goes.

[King Of Butt Land]

Carrtoon, when you look down the barrel of the gun without any ammo in it can you see the plunger head? I did this mod to my longshot (before you did it) and i can see all the way back to my plunger head.

-Butt

Edited by King Of Butt Land, 30 July 2006 - 08:25 AM.

[sam]

Sheesh! You modded it already? Sweet. So I take it you didn't have any problem finding the Target? Did they have anything else interesting? Well I know what I'm doing on monday.

[Carrtoon]

King of Butt Land, I can see all the way to the plunger head, but the peg is still in place. Is yours?

Sam, yeah, we found it! The other guys turned around because they thought we'd passed it, but we kept going and found it! The Target also had the titan and the bbb. I picked up a titan (they were one row back from the toy section) and these guns are sweet!

[WratH]

Carrtoon, you make stefans with stock foam, with the hole right? If so do those work in the longshot? They seem like they would work and probably well too.

[Carrtoon]

Yep. I pried the velcro off of some stock dart tag darts and added 3 bbs with some hot glue. They work great. I'm taking out the NF spring right now and am hopefully adding a BBB spring. I'll get back to you on that when I get home from church...

[pat 1st Lt]

Carrtoon, you make stefans with stock foam, with the hole right? If so do those work in the longshot? They seem like they would work and probably well too.

I don't want to Answer for Carrtoon, but I believe he does. And yes, they would work in the longshot perfectly well. They are, after all, stock darts without a collar, with a weight, and with a covering (The hot-glue). These new darts are stock dart foam without a collar, a weight (Well...it's not really a weight, but it is heavier than the foam by enough to give it direction), and a covering (The rubber).

Also, Carrtooon said that he didn't take the post out, so, logically, the only way that he could make 'stefans' for a gun with a post in it, is to use stefans made of stock darts.


Also, this is just my oppinion since I don't have a Longshot in front of me to work with, I belive that this gun will not work well without that post, and with traditional Stefans. I think this because 1) most peoples Stefans aren't as long as stock darts, 2) Without that post, there's not much to keep the dart lined up during feeding, and 3) most people won't bother to get a drill press or something and drill holes in the backs of their Stefans.

So, either we're going to have to settle for using these new 'Sonic Streamline Darts', or all those Traditional Stefan users will have to make a small batch of Converted Dart Tag Darts to use in their Longshots.


EDIT:

I'm taking out the NF spring right now and am hopefully adding a BBB spring.

Let us know how that goes! Could we also possibly get some pictures of the BBB spring in place, so we can get some visual size comparisons? Also, are you going to keep the LS spring in place, and put the BBB spring in also, or are you just going to put the BBB spring in place? If I were you, I'd just put the BBB spring in place and not the LS+BBB, since when I once put a replacement NF spring inside a BBB spring, and put it in my BBB, the performance decreased significantly.

Well, let all us not fortuante to have a LongShot know how this turns out.



Sincereley,
Pat

Edited by {SF3G}pat 2nd Lt., 30 July 2006 - 09:44 AM.

[AODL]

50 just by removing air restricters and adding a NF spring, This is pure Sweetness! And there is still so much that can be done... This is pretty damn awesome! I've got to see if there is one in my Target! Carrtoon, if you can get a BBB spring in there, this thing might just turn out to be a cannon! A clip-fed CANNON!

Edited by AODL, 30 July 2006 - 11:28 AM.

[pat 1st Lt]

50 just by removing air restricters and adding a NF spring, This is pure Sweetness! And there is still so much that can be done... This is pretty damn awesome! I've got to see if there is one in my Target! Carrtoon, if you can get a BBB spring in there, this thing might just turn out to be a cannon! A clip-fed CANNON!

Just a note to you: don't go and put a NF spring in your LongShot, if you get one.

When Carrtoon says "Nite Finder spring" he doesn't mean a spring from a Nite Finder. He is referring to a heavy-gauge industrial spring that is the size of a Nite Finder spring. He has used these springs in many things: His DTG, his super-Nite Finders, and I believe in his Cross Finder.

These are NOT the wimpy little springs found in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th generation Nite Finders. They are not even the 'strong' spring in the 1st generation Nite Finder. So, when you see Carrtoon refer to his NF springs, don't think you can take apart your Nite Finder and get fantastic results.

That was just a word of advice: I wasn't trying to bash Cartoon, in case it comes off that way.

Also, when he said he used a Nite Finder spring, that was the stock LS spring AND a super-heavy NF spring.


But, you are correct that a BBB spring (Or even stronger, perhaps) could get some very very acceptable results.



Yet another sentance that I wanted to start with 'also': How is the seal in the breech? Is it fairly air-tight and secure? If not, is there any way to maybe get o-rings in there, or add E-tape as a spacer, or something?

This has really got me excited, Cartoon! Keep thinking up some new mods, man. We can't wait to see what else can be done to this thing.




Sincereley,
Pat

[Ryan201821]

Well guys I guess Carrtoon beat me to it. I just removed the air restrictors last night. It was a little tedious but I finally got that little bitch. It makes a huge difference in range. I also added a spring I used to have in one of my old homemade SNAP's that I made. I don't want to say it because everyone might yell at me, but I am thinking 100' here.



I took out the pegs and pretty much anything that got in the way from total air flow. Let me tell you that is a wicked AR. But anyway, did you fill that little hole by the bolt, Carrtoon? If you don't know what I am talking about here is a picture courtesy of al0324.



I plugged it up with hot glue but I don't know if that did anything. I have not tried stefans either.

[pat 1st Lt]

Ryan: you said you took out the peg? How does that affect loading? Do the darts go in smoothley? Is there more of a chance of a jam now the peg's gone?

How much does the peg itself restrict airflow (It would seem to me like the Nite Finder: the AR restricts a lot of air, and the peg itself doesn't do much. Is that true for the LS)?

Could you try loading it with some Stefans, since the peg is gone now?

I'm just curious if the peg is as essential as I'm making it out to be in my mind.

Any info would be appreciated. Thanks in advance, Ryan.




Sincereley,
Pat

[Carrtoon]

Range test

Very, very awesome! 99' was the highest distance. There was a light, swirling wind that could have either helped or hurt the distances. I held the gun parallel to the ground and was using the stock darts. As you can see, the stock darts are extremely inaccurate due to the hole in the hollow rubber tip. The wind throws the dart for a loop literally. Sometimes this helps ranges, sometimes it hurts it. I haven't tried stefans yet, but will soon.

Here is the internal pic of the plunger. A BBB spring plus the Longshot spring is a deadly mix.



{SF3G}pat 2nd Lt., the only reason adding a spring would decrease range would be because the seal wasn't tight enough. Get a tight seal with a strong spring and you'll have one heck of a gun. I think the seal is really good. When you pull back the bolt, a small nub comes up and the next dart drops in. The nub stops the dart from moving forward when you push the bolt forward to get thedart into the barrel. The barrel is only a little bit longer than a dart, so we need to increase that! If you want to see some video of the nub working, say so.

Ryan, thanks for reminding me about that hole. I plugged it and I think it will help. I thought you needed the restrictor to advance the next dart. Am I wrong? You are correct in thinking that this gets at least 100'. I got 99' with stock darts. Add a barrel and some stefans and we may be in buisness!

One last pic of the insides:



All in all, this is the best nerf gun I've ever seen! It's more comfortable, has a better rof, and possibly a better range than the xbow. A must get for anyone going to a nerf war!

[NerfMonkey]

I love you.

...No, seriously.

99'?! I was expecting maybe 80' even with a new spring. I even have a spare 3B spring lying around! Thank you so much for testing this.

One last question from me: does the 3B spring make the gun hard to cock at all? I imagine it would be about like an NF and 3B put together but maybe the side handles will make it easier.

Thanks again for posting proof of the ranges, that's amazing, really amazing.

[Carrtoon]

Haha. No problem. The extra spring does make it hard to cock, but not too hard to cock with one hand. I love this gun!

[nerfer34]

WOW! IS there any gun that carrtoon can't make shoot 100 feet? WOW! Great job carrtoon!

[AssassinNF]

Holy Shit Thank You Carrtoon!!! This is everything I hoped for from the Longshot doubled!

The Longshot outperforms all of my primarys with amazing ranges and Rof, My birthday is in less than a month so I'll have the cash, I know where there's a target near me, I have a store that sells O-rings/springs within five minutes of my house, and I just pissed myself.

Now nothing will stand in my way of getting a Longshot and modding it. Thank you so much Carrtoon!

[pat 1st Lt]

Very nice. Very nice indeed.

Thanks for those pics and the video. I'd love to get a video of that little piece, but my computer is so crappy I can't watch any videos (Real Player, WMP, Quicktime, nothing works). Maybe a sequence of pictures? That'd be really inconvenient for you though.


So, how stiff was this wind? You said that the hole in the tip of the darts make the go haywire? When you say 'stock darts', do you mean the collarless darts that come with the Longshot or the converted dart tag stefans? If they were CDTS's, what kind of weights did you use?

Sorry for all the questions: just insatiably curious.

Get a tight seal with a strong spring and you'll have one heck of a gun.

I can see you've done so. What kind of o-rings did you put on? What stock number?



Also, on a relativley unrelated note: Do you see any way of possibly making more magazines? Or maybe taking the two and somehow combing them to make 1 12-shot magazine rather than 2 6-shot magazines?



As you always do, very clean and well-documented mod, Carrtoon.



Sincereley,
Pat

[King Of Butt Land]

I filled the little hole on the bolt with some loctite glue (sp?). I can't notice any defference but it may help. Also props to Carrtoon for an awesome mod.

-Butt

Edited by King Of Butt Land, 30 July 2006 - 05:45 PM.

[AODL]

Carrtoon, you have just have just single-handedly convinced me to go buy a Longshot. You are AWESOME!!!

[Dragonteuthis]

I just got my Longshot today, and ripped out the air restrictors. Sadly, performance hasn't changed, so it seems that the addition of springs is a must. That, and the O-rings.

Carrtoon, inspiring work, indeed. I bow to the master, and humbly request instruction on the kind of O-rings to purchase. The springs I think I can manage...

[Carrtoon]

Thanks guys. {SF3G}pat 2nd Lt., no problem. Questions are welcome. The wind was probably about 5-7 mph. It sounded like a lot more on the video, but the microphone is really touchy. I'll see what I can do about pics instead of video. It may take me a while, but if I get to it, I'll send it by pm.

The darts I used were the stock streamline darts, not the ones with the tagger heads taken off and weighted. 99' with stock nerf darts. Not bad. Not bad at all.

As to o-rings, most anything will work. The o-rings aren't increasing the seal at all, just stabilizing the stock o-ring. I used Danco Perfect Match #9 repair o-rings that were 5/8" O.D. x 7/16" I.D. x 3/32". They are small and it took some doing to get them on, but they work well.

I've been thinking about making a new magazine or slapping the two together, but I'd have to have access to more clips before I tried that. I may try using some wood or aluminum. It'd be a tough job, and my nerf time is running out, so no promises. When college roams around the 22nd, I'm done modding for a while. I need to study and nothing can get in my way of it. Sorry for the sidetrack...

[AssassinNF]

Almost 100' with stock darts would mean 120'+ with a brass barrel and converted Tagger darts...

I have one question:

Did removing the restrictor increase the range significantly or is that awesome range all thanks to the spring and the o-ring?

[Carrtoon]

I guess I can't really answer that question. I did them all at once, so I'm not sure about the individual pieces. I think just taking out the rear restrictor would increase it a lot because it blocks tons of air. Make sure to plug the hole in the barrel also...

[Forsaken angel24]

Damn you carrtoon.
This thing beats my Angel bow on many levels.
The only thing my Angel bow has on this thing is accuracy. But a longer barrel and stefans will solve that.
Good job.

Edited by Forsaken_angel24, 31 July 2006 - 12:43 AM.