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Max Force: Rattler

A complete write-up (Barrel mods + Integration)

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#1 frost vectron

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Posted 29 April 2007 - 05:40 AM

Greets. This mod is rather complicated, so I'll split it up into 3 Parts:

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The overview of the gun open. It's already modded, but it is similar to the original specs.

PART A:

This will be the most general of the mods. First of all, we need to take off the original 4-barrel assembly, open the gun up. The tip of the air chamber has a hole in the side (for use with the auto-rotating and 4-barrel assembly). I apologize for the lack of pictures, since my Rattler was already modded in this fashion before photos could be taken. So:

Step 1) Drill a hole in the center of the tip of the air chamber. This will allow the air to come straight forward since I'm abandoning the 4-barrel assembly. The side hole should be plugged for optimal preformance. Your center hole should not be extremely large--or else it will eventually crack under the force of the plunger being slammed into it continuously (which is what happened on my Rattler). My rattler, then, has to use steel wires as a plunger stopper.

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Image of the inside of my air chamber... note the metal wires for a plunger stopper.

Step 2) Remove rotating advancer. Since this mod abandons the 4-barrel assembly, there is no need for the air chamber to rotate 90 degrees every shot. Take the white piece that advances the rotating mechanism and file off of tip.

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Step 3) The plunger will need repairing. This is an extremely old gun, and in addition to that, the older plunger head designs made for some poor seals. The new suckers all have these nifty o-ring stuff. Back then they were big rubber things. As used in my homemade plunger guns, I will be adding a disc of lubricated leather to the original plunger head--as well as some 3/8" FBR for impact-padding. So get yourself to goodwill and pick up a cheap leather purse or handbag.

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So first cut a disc of leather slightly larger than the size of the plunger tube inside diameter. If your disc is too small, it will not seal correctly. If the disc is too large, the leather will fold and you will lose seal. Now cut a small slit in the center of the leather by folding it and taking the scissors to it. The Rattler's plunger has a small nub that we will put into this hole. Hot glue the disc on as well. Then hot glue a small piece of 3/8" FBR (optional.. I only did this because I have metal wires as a plunger-stop). Now all you have to do is lubricate it up with your favorite lube. I personally use motor oil (it seems to work for me), but I'm sure silicone lube would work just as well.

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Step 4 -Optional-) I decided to replace the spring on this gun. I had a broken razorbeast that I never had the heart to fix (the firing mechanism is simply retarded once the chain-advancing assembly breaks on you). I slapped that spring in the gun. It wasn't a huge power boost, but it was helpful.

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The rattler spring is off the plunger (bottom) while the razorbeast is already on the plunger rod (top).

Step 5 -Almost there!-) Okay, at this time you can assemble the gun now. Put all the greeblies back in place. Now you'll have a small 3/4" piece of the air chamber sticking out from the front of the gun (the same as you saw when you first removed the 4-barrel assembly. You want to take a 1/2" PVC Coupler and glue it onto there. You can use whatever: hot glue, plumbers goop... whatever you're comfortable with.

Congrats, you've finished Part A. You can stop now and enjoy your single-barreled Rattler or man-up and move forward...

PART B:

Okay, so the general stuff is taken care of. Now what will set your Rattler apart from the rest? Well... in part B we will be adding a manual-rotating assembly. I had first developed the system on one of my homemade plunger guns. Some gentlemen at Foam Corner at the time had contacted me and improved on my design (Cadmond, Taberubaron) and made it much more compact.

I apologize for the lack of in-progress photos as always. I'll try my best to explain, but either the concept clicks or it doesn't... I had a hard time figuring it out in the first place. There is a lack of steps because... there's just so damn many! Instead, I'll walk you through the assembly of several necessary parts to continue.

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This is the original concept drawing by Cadmond. The Rattler uses a similar system.

First we have a wooden dowel with diameter 7/8". Then we get five 1/2" CPVC barrels, approximately 3 inches long and we glue them together like so:

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So the wooden dowel will be fixed on the gun while the cluster of five CPVC barrels can swivel around it.
I also got some thin white cardboard and cut a nifty covering over the cluster of barrels, then glued it on. It adds a nice touch.

Now, the front of your Rattler has a 1/2" PVC coupler on the front. Cut a 1.5" length of 1/2" Sch. 40 PVC. Now you want to dremel out the inside so it will fit a length of 1/2" CPVC. Once it fits, PVC cement them together. The length of 1/2" CPVC should also be approximately 1.5". Now cement (or hot glue if you might feel the need to rip it off later) this to the 1/2" PVC Coupler in the front of your gun.

Next we will need some random ass size of tubing that will fit inside of 1/2" CPVC. I used a length of 1/2" O.D. clear tubing sample from Petro Packaging. Even then I had to dremel it down to fit. Another option are Wide Body pens from BIC.

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Anyways, long story short, you need a tube to fit inside the CPVC. This piece, I will call the bridge. It bridges the gap between the 1/2" CPVC glued onto the front of the gun and the five 1/2" CPVC cluster of barrels.

Now we will need to do a little more demeling. The wooden dowel should sit flush onto the 1/2" CPVC that is glued onto the front of the gun so the 5-barrel cluster (which is swiveling on this wooden dowel, remember) will align with the air source. However, there is a 1/2" PVC piece on top, so dremel a groove into the 1/2" PVC until you hit the 1/2" CPVC. The dowel should fit right in. Hot glue the dowel in and clamp it for support. The dowel length should be approximately 4".


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Congrats! You've passed through Part B of the mod--which is probably the worst part of this write-up. It's smooth sailing from here on out! You can stop here and enjoy your Rattler with faster-than-single-barrel rate of fire, or you can move on to really make your opponents afraid!

PART C

Here I went balls-out with the Rattler. I took the "Part B" Rattler into a Nerf war and I wasn't doing well at all! So I'm pulling all the stops now.

Here I'm going to slap ammo holders, an extra barrel cluster holder, and a Triple Torch integration onto this baby.

1) First of all, we need to build a stock! Yes, a stock made from 3 pieces of 1/2" PVC, and two 90 degree 1/2" PVC elbows. Cut them out to whatever you like. The only thing I must say, though, is the hollow area between the end of the Rattler and the end of the stock should be about 4 inches long. Additionally, the "height" of the stock (the gap between the two 90 degree elbows) should be approximately 2". No need to be superly precise, just kind of eye-ball it and go for it. Mine looks like this:

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Read through the rest of Part C because the stock is the central tuning point of these additional mods! Make sure you know what the stock is for prior to cutting it out, then finding your stock is too small/short, etc.

2) Now I'm going to build a holder for the extra cluster of barrels. Remember the dimensions of the hollow area of the stock? This is what that is for. A convienent place to store an extra cluster of 5 barrels is inside the stock itself.

Start with a 90 degree 1/2" PVC Elbow. Looking at one of the elbow's circular ends, cut straight down it so you have a semi-circle. Now dremel some junk out so you can snap it onto the PVC. For the other elbow circular end, do the same--but you can take off a little more material. Glue a small length (approximately 2 inches long) of the 7/8" Dowel onto this Elbow. This is all kind of a mouthful, but this image will explain everything:

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Snap it onto this area of the stock facing this direction.

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Slide the extra cluster of five barrels over the dowel.

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Flip the elbow down so your extra cluster is secure in the stock.

Now you can easily switch clusters once you're out of ammo.

3) More?! Yes. More. This is where things get crazy. I'm going to integrate a Mega Blitz: Triple Torch onto this baby. Originally my Rattler was single-barreled, so the Triple Torch fit right underneath the barrel. With the rotating assembly, there's no space for the Triple Torch! So first we need to mod the Triple Torch.

First of all, remove the ammo holder mechanism. In the arrow holder part, glue a 1/2" PVC Coupling in there. Put a 3.5" length of 1/2" PVC in the front of it, and 1.75" length of 1/2" PVC onto the rear of it. It should look like this:

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Alright. Now for some ammo holders. Carve a slot into the PVC you put into the ammo holders like so:

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Then take that small rectangle of white cardboard and glue it over the slot (so you have a flat surface).
Put four small lengths of 1/2" CPVC inside of this little area we created for ammo holders.


Now we want power. This is pretty basic. All we need to do is remove some air restrictors and slap 1/2" CPVC onto there. You can do it any way you want. My method was overly complicated, but it works. First I sawed off the barrel at the point where it transitions from having weird grooves to where it has 3 "fins" running lengthwise. There is an air restrictor and a post in the barrel. You need to remove them. It was very annoying to get out because the air restictor was very deep, the gun was glued shut, and the air restrictor bracket could spin freely. So...

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I put the flathead screwdriver on one of the supports for the air restrictor post (it looks like an X if you look down the barrel) and hammered it until the plastic snapped. I repeated it for all 4 "legs" of the air restrictor post. Then the thing just flopped out.

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This is what it should like. Clean.

Now I did some dremeling and slapped a 1/2" PVC Coupler on the outside of the red part, then fit a 1/2" CPVC and 1/2" CPVC coupler into the 1/2" PVC coupler. Whatever... a complicated barrel replacement. Whatever works for you guys.

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Now how do we put this sucker on there? The tip of your stock is the answer. Get two 90 degree elbows (I used a 90 degree and a T-connector because I ran out of elbows to use). Put the first 90 degree elbow on the front end of your stock. Then put the second elbow on the end of that one like this:

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Now put your ammo holder piece onto here. I had to cut off the part of the ammo holder that held 1 Mega Dart to make it fit. By the way, I mounted it in such a way where the triple torch is on the right side of the gun. You can put it the other way as well--it's just that I'm left handed and I want to keep the microdart ammo holders in a use-able position.

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Now slide your Triple Torch into the spot and enjoy...

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There she is dressed up like the Nerf battle rifle she's meant to be... full ammo and everything.

RANGE TESTS:

I get approximately 44 feet, straight shot, shoulder-level with the Rattler unit.
I get approximately 45 feet, straight shot, shoulder-level with the Triple Torch unit.

The video of it firing.

Here I go through 1 cluster of barrels, fire the triple shot, then switch clusters and the video ends.



It may be still "processing" because I JUST uploaded it. Hope you all enjoyed the mod! ^_^
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#2 neomike88

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Posted 29 April 2007 - 06:00 AM

Cool mod and great pictures. Is the extra barrel holder somewhat fragile? And when it swings open, does it move the triple torch? Cool stuff. Keep it coming.
And clean your room ^_^

Edited by neomike88, 29 April 2007 - 06:01 AM.

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#3 frost vectron

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Posted 29 April 2007 - 06:14 AM

Haha... it's only messy when I come home for the weekends. I usually keep it clean when I leave for college again.

Anyhow, the triple torch is stationary, it doesn't move. It is very stable because all the PVC joints are glued onto each other.

The extra barrel-cluster holder is kind of half-arsed, but it works. Not fragile, but not tough either. If it breaks, I'm sure I can build a better one using sheet metal and thumbscrews.

When you flip out the extra barrel holder, only the cut-up 90 degree elbow moves. It just slides around the PVC, so nothing else is moving along with it.
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#4 One Man Clan

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Posted 29 April 2007 - 06:54 AM

Wow, that's one of the coolest mods I've ever seen. Too bad the rattler is a only step up from the pulsator in terms of "shittiness." Again, awesome work though. Good to see you still got it.
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#5 Rambo

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Posted 29 April 2007 - 11:11 AM

Wow, I kind of actually wish I didn't break all my Rattlers now. That's pretty amazing...
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#6 nerfboi

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Posted 29 April 2007 - 11:15 AM

Dude, That IS amazing. I think your the first one who modded and posted a write(a complicated, hence the title) up about it. It also reminds me of the Maxshot Revolvers.

Edited by nerfboi, 29 April 2007 - 11:18 AM.

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#7 Shadow 92

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Posted 29 April 2007 - 11:19 AM

I miss mods like these.
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#8 Forsaken angel24

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Posted 29 April 2007 - 11:25 AM

Excellent modification!
I love all the creativeness used here.
The only thing left to desire is a bit more range.
An industrial spring should take care of that.
Congrats on being the first one to post a write up on the rattler here at the haven.
I'll bet this is going to be the best rattler mod for years.
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#9 Rambo

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Posted 29 April 2007 - 11:28 AM

Maxshot revolvers? Link?
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#10 SPU-Nerf

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Posted 29 April 2007 - 12:30 PM

Wow great work on this mod, too bad it looks awkward to shoot and rotate the barrel.
Would you use this in a war or was this just something fun to mod?
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#11 jwasko

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Posted 29 April 2007 - 12:34 PM

Nice mod. And I'm actually im the process of purchasing a rattler right now...

I wonder if a slightly longer barrel would improve range at all? But, it might not have enough power to push a dart down even a 4"-5" barrel

That original idea for the 7-shot revolver is also very interesting to me; I actually had an idea for a homemade revolver carbine-style gun that had a single stationary "accuracy barrel" (as it's called in that MS paint diagram). Mine was going to use several sizes of brass that interlocked, effectively creating a long, nested brass barrel.
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#12 Groove

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Posted 29 April 2007 - 12:50 PM

Original, and inspiring. Great job.


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#13 Retiate

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Posted 29 April 2007 - 01:05 PM

Wow. Awsome mod you got there. Coolest Rattler I've ever seen, by far. Normally people just pop out the air restrictors and replace the spring. But this one is so much more unique and way higher quality. I really like how you turned it into a gun worthy of being a primary, a turreted gun with an extra single shot on the side. Like Angel said, get an industrial spring in there to get the ranges up more. Then just reinforce it so it lasts. I love seeing modifications that include all these creative ideas and really make the gun seperate from everyone elses.
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#14 WratH

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Posted 29 April 2007 - 01:21 PM

Now that shit is oldschool right there.
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#15 nerfer34

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Posted 29 April 2007 - 01:50 PM

That's amazing.

Nice Work.
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#16 Robonerfer1

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Posted 29 April 2007 - 02:25 PM

Cool mod, just one question: wouldn't the firing handle hit the triple torch when it's up?
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QUOTE(OfAllTheNerf @ Mar 29 2008, 04:11 PM) View Post

Yeah, it also helps if your nuts are made of steel. Or atleast as hard as steel, to ensure that you can shoot far enough.


#17 Rambo

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Posted 29 April 2007 - 02:31 PM

It never needs to be up if memory serves. The dart is fired when you pull it back. You can fold it up, but it is not necessary for functionality.
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#18 Robonerfer1

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Posted 29 April 2007 - 02:58 PM

Ok. I thought you had to push it up and down. :)
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QUOTE(OfAllTheNerf @ Mar 29 2008, 04:11 PM) View Post

Yeah, it also helps if your nuts are made of steel. Or atleast as hard as steel, to ensure that you can shoot far enough.


#19 nerfboi

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Posted 29 April 2007 - 03:32 PM

Link It's Leftys clan website, but it's his mod. Go to the Mods section and click on Maxshot Revolver
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#20 Jangadance

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Posted 29 April 2007 - 04:27 PM

Old school sweetness. Thanks for posting, good tutorial and it was fun seeing one of Cadmond's MS Paintified glories once again.

Did I mention Old School? Damn. The guns, the mod, the user, the feeling of fuzziness it gives me inside? Kudos.
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#21 Belgianwaffle

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Posted 29 April 2007 - 04:38 PM

Very nice job. It makes me want a rattler now.
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#22 Gengar003

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Posted 29 April 2007 - 05:38 PM

Ah, 'tis beautiful... back in the day when the Rattler'd just come out, a friend of mine had it and tore me and my (stock; I was a little bitty kid and didn't know about the internet) crossbow/secret shot up. So I went and bought one.

My rattler didn't make a tight enough fit with the darts, though, so they'd all fall out when you fired it once. I've since misplaced it. Wish I hadn't. :)
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#23 frost vectron

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Posted 29 April 2007 - 08:54 PM

My rattler didn't make a tight enough fit with the darts, though, so they'd all fall out when you fired it once. I've since misplaced it. Wish I hadn't. :(


Yeah dude, I feel ya. When I bought this gun as a kid, I had expected a fast 4-shot deal for indoor wars... it kept lobbing out all the darts at once though--this is due to poor barrels and a poor seal with the turret. I never gave up on it, though. Kept using it and using it. Pop out of a corner and fire, and then watch all 3 of my other darts fall to the floor, leaving me empty.

Thanks for all the kind words guys.

Yeah.. it's bad news about the range. I thought the Rattler would be able to push 50' but I stand corrected. It's plenty reinforced as it is now for an industrial spring, whenever I can find/get a few. The razorbeast spring has more coils and is generally longer than the Rattler spring, but it's very spongy. The wire feels softer than the Rattler's. I compared the ranges with both springs--the Rattler only gets 3-4 feet less range. Not an incredible improvement as far as the Razorbeast spring goes. -_-

Anybody know anything about heat treating springs? I'm taking a Materials Science course right now, and in lab we heat treat steels and test the hardness using an impact tester. Think I can pull off flaming the spring then quenching it in cold water?--or is this idea as ridiculous as it sounds... hehe.

As for a long barrel, I'm not really sure. It doesn't seem like there's a lot of air volume. The diameter of the air chamber is quite small. I just hope that I'm getting good seal with it though. I stuck with short barrels for the compact feel myself.

As far as rotation, the Triple Torch definitely gets in the way compared to not having it there. It's going to take some getting-used to, but it's far from impossible. It's awkward, but managable.

As far as competitive playing with this gun... I think it's possible. It's going to be hard work to get close enough to dish it out, but it would be fun. I plan to use it soon... I'm sure it can dominate some mavericks. It will probably get torn up by a properly modded Firefly or Longshot though.

The firing handle never touches the Triple Torch, even when folded up. Remember the Triple Torch sits off to the right side of the gun, so the firing handle has just enough clearance to not touch it.

As far as the sudden Rattler shopping spree...

This kind of mod can really go on any gun. I just liked it especially on the Rattler because of the quick firing mechanism. It is possible to put such a rotating barrel thing on a nitefinder or whatever. Hehehe, I guess the manual rotating barrels aren't as cool nowadays due to breakthroughs in breach-loading magazine mods.

Edited by frost vectron, 29 April 2007 - 08:56 PM.

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#24 Robonerfer1

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Posted 30 April 2007 - 09:00 PM

The firing handle never touches the Triple Torch, even when folded up. Remember the Triple Torch sits off to the right side of the gun, so the firing handle has just enough clearance to not touch it.



Hehehe, I guess the manual rotating barrels aren't as cool nowadays due to breakthroughs in breach-loading magazine mods.

1. Ok, I forgot that.
2. Not true, I have the front piece off a mav turret turned backwards on my NF and it rules, even though it's manual rotate. :P

Edited by Robonerfer1, 30 April 2007 - 09:02 PM.

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QUOTE(OfAllTheNerf @ Mar 29 2008, 04:11 PM) View Post

Yeah, it also helps if your nuts are made of steel. Or atleast as hard as steel, to ensure that you can shoot far enough.


#25 Retiate

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Posted 28 May 2007 - 12:40 AM

I just obtained a Rattler and I am going to do this mod, but I have a couple questions.
1) How large was the hole you drilled in the front of the plunger tube that caused it to crack?
2) Do you know the size of your clamp you used to hold the dowel to the PVC?
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