stoicclown

Thanks azrael. I'll give that new spring a try. My replacement spring is one of the 6+ kg upgrade springs I ordered through Orangemodworks. Also, taking to heart the advice you and snakerbot gave on using better batteries than Trustfires, I went ahead and ordered a new battery holder, one that will hold 10 "AA"s instead of 8 (and has the 9v battery clip connector so I can just change it out with the 8 battery holder while using the same wires I've already attached to the battery tray). Unfortunately my Radioshack doesn't carry anything with a greater holding capacity than 8 batteries, so I had to go shopping on Google. I figure using all standard "AA"s will be safer in the long run (and I've got tons of them lying around), and 10 "AA"s should give me around 15v instead of the 12v I can get from 8 of them, which isn't that far below the roughly 17v I was getting from 6 regular "AA"s + 2 Trustfires. We'll see.

Thanks to all you guys who weighed in. I'm a self-taught tinkerer, which means I know a little bitty bit about a lot of things. But I am by no means an expert, especially when it comes to the inner workings of electronics. I'm learning as I go. snakerbot, I found myself particularly educated in the ways of batteries by your post. Thanks for that. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, so I'm just that much more dangerous now.

azrael, though I do have an upgraded replacement spring (for the plunger), I haven't put that in the gun yet.

snakerbot, Mully, and Xenomorph1320-D: Thanks much for pointing out the bit about the pushrod switch that works with the trigger. To your question Mully, I was trying a maximum of 2-3 Trustfires with all the other slots filled with standard "AA"s. So I wasn't going crazy with those.

Xenomorph1320-D, I tried your suggestion of replacing the spring that operates the pushrod switch. Unfortunately, none of the ballpoint pens I have around here were big enough in diameter to fit around the pushrod. BUT, out of curiosity, I scrounged around and came across a spare tactical rail lock button from a section of tac rail that I removed from the stampede as part of an exterior mod to the shell. That button spring was just about the same diameter and length of the spring that came off of the pushrod, but had a stiffer tension than the original pushrod spring. Soooo... with a little finagling I managed to put that button spring on the pushrod and get the little locking clamp back on to the rod. And what do ya know... it friggin' works. I can use 2 Trustfires in the battery configuration and it stops firing the way it should. 3 Trustfires are still too much, making it run too fast for the new switch spring to shut it off. But the ROF from 2 Trustfires + 6 standard ""AA"s is pretty sweet.

Maybe I'll get my grubby hands on a NiMh battery eventually that I can use to improve and clean up the battery configuration, but for now, the Trustfires are doing the trick.

Thanks again everybody.

Not sure if anybody has specifically done this yet, but I can't recall seeing anything so here it is. Easy mod converting a standard 6-shot quick clip into an 8-shot clip. The hardest part was getting my clip to open up. Once I did that, I took out the dart slide and cut it in half (from about 1" deep to about 1/2" deep) which easily makes enough room for 2 extra darts. Also enlarged and extended the view slit on the one side of the clip and cut another to match on the other side to improve the view of how many darts are in the clip. Just thought I'd share.

Success! Following up on my previous post where I shared pics of my modded Sledgefire, or my "Sledge-maritan", I finally worked out a mod to allow the Sledge-maritan to fire the new Mega darts, but the mod is reversible, allowing me to switch back and forth to shooting either standard elites or megas from the same gun. I was able to accomplish this using the #2044t45 plastic tubing others have recommended, and a "slugfire" 3D printed shell made by Laser Gnomes. If you haven't gotten one of these for your Sledgfire, I highly recommend it (please consider that an unsolicited endorsement from a very satisfied customer). I simply bored out the hole in one of their slugfire shells with a 3/4" drill bit and nested in a 4.5" piece of the #2044t45 tubing.





This allows me to insert the new modded mega-slugfire shell instead of one of the standard orange tri-dart Sledgefire shells, then all I have to do is breech-load a Mega dart directly into the shell and barrel and fire it.





Of course, in order for the larger plastic tubing to fit in the barrel, I had to cut off the tips of the lower points of the clover-shaped cutout midway into the barrel and also remove the shell ejector lever.



This makes it possible for my Sledge-maritan to become my... SLEDGE-MARITAN MONKEY WRENCH.



Having no shell ejector trying to throw out my shells every time I break open the barrel to cock and load the gun is not a bad thing. With the shell ejector removed and the shells staying solidly in the barrel, I can now either insert a judiciously dremeled orange tri-dart shell and straight breech-load and fire 3 elite darts for that triple-dart shotgun blast, OR I can insert my unmodded slugfire shell and straight breech-load and fire a single elite dart with alot more range and power than the 3-dart blast gets, OR I can insert my Mega-modded slugfire shell and straight breech-load and fire a larger caliber Mega dart (which is more satisfying coming from a mondo-sized pistol).



I'm a very happy camper.

Some of my modded guns:

THE TITAN MONKEY WRENCH: Just the tool for most any job. Barrel has been modded to allow standard darts to be muzzle-loaded and fired straight from the barrel, while still allowing the big honkin' missile that the Titan came with to be loaded onto the barrel and fired.



Also has a scatter shot attachment that slides over the barrel for a 7-shot spread.





As well as a barrel extension for those handy-dandy long-distance shots.






THE OLD WEST COLLECTION: My pair of modded Mavericks, AKA my REV-6 Peacemakers. Standard air restrictor removals and Russian roulette mods. And the companion sidearm to the REV-6 Peacemakers... the REV-5 Peacemaker's Revenge (Sweet Revenge with a Western facelift, no internal mods.)




THE TACTICAL RAIDER: Raider modded to feel more like a tactical shotgun, with pump shotgun style fore grip/slide, extended muzzle, and Barrel Break tactical dart holder. Standard air restrictor removal and 5kg spring upgrade.




THE MIDNIGHT RECON: Barrel extension has been shortened for a stubbier look. Internals completely upgraded with an Orange Modworks steel Unleashed Kit.






And finally, my most recent project, my modded Sledgfire, which I have dubbed the SLEDGE-MARITAN. I wanted to remodel the feel of the Sledgefire to be more like a really big pistol instead of a shotgun. And since this would make a massive handgun with break-open action, I decided to use Hellboy's big friggin' revolver, the Samaritan...



... as my aesthetic inspiration.







So far no internal mods have been done, except for plugging up the air release holes on the plunger. But with a slugfire shell from Lasergnomes inserted into the barrel, it can blast out single elite darts with some pretty impressive power and ranges without the need to do alot of modding to the internals. Next I'm going to see if I can mod a slugfire shell to accommodate mega darts. A big hand cannon needs to fire equally big darts, if you ask me.