Gas Mask Guy

I don't think it should be getting the range you say it gets. The stock valve is meant for a slow leak of air to power a continuous piston, not a rapid release of air.
-iMod

From the looks of it, I don't believe he removed the piston. That black part appears to be the part right between the barrels and the piston. Since RF20s and the like have lots of air loss due to the rotating barrels without proper seals, he could be right. 50' does sound more reasonable though.

Nice mod though. Consider finding a way to band the piston like some people do in Magstrikes to get even more air from each shot. This is a good example of what I'm talking about. Not sure if there's a good place to do it in the RF20 or not.

Thanks for the compliments everyone! After using this all day at the UMD war yesterday, I can safely say it works beautifully. There were a few jams, but that's more a symptom of the Recon than the mod. The only downside was the somewhat sharp angles of my Lexan bars, which could be solved either by wearing gloves (like I did), sanding down and smoothing out the corners, or possibly by wrapping grip tape or the like around the bars.

This really isn't very related to the topic, (the actual shotgun grip) but does the recon have any mods done to
it?

I also second the fact that the only dislike I have to this mod is the fact that you have to salvage another recon
to complete it.

That particular Recon has its AR removed as well as the wierd little mechanism that prevents clip release. I'm not the kind of modder that needs high performance out of their blaster. My main concerns when modding are "is it easier to use," "does it look cool," and "does it make more noise than before."

As for killing the second Recon, I don't blame you guys. The reason I did this mod was because I had (through a series of interesting events) 2 functional Recons and one broken one (failed attempt at a new breech). I put the spring from the dead Recon in my Longshot. If it helps, look at it as $5 for the clip and darts, and $15 for the spare Recon.

Now that we are done cutting and drilling on the attachment, I want to show you what you have to do to your good, functional Recon. You only need to drill three holes, marked in this picture:


The shadows are blocking the other half of the slide, but it's in the same place as the hole on the other slide. These holes are drilled through the smaller of the two protrusions on the inside of the slide (note, this is NOT where we drilled the holes on the front slide). These holes are for the 1/2" screw, and you need to make sure it's a snug fit, because you want those screws to dig into the slide. All the other holes in this modification can afford to be a little bigger than they need to be, but it's imperative that these be just the right size.

The third hole, the one on the body of the Recon, needs to fit the 2" screw. Remember the three holes I talked about earlier? The 2" screw is designed to keep the forward assembly from slipping around, so it goes through the third hole on the blaster and the hole in the back corner of the forward assembly. So in order to line these up, you're going to assemble what you have so far, and then drill through both at the same time. So, attach the extended barrel to the Recon, then slide the assembly onto the underside of the extended barrel. This next picture is a closeup of the fully assembled... assembly. See that screw that's right where the assembly and the Recon meet (and the two pointless holes right beside it)? This is your 2" screw, that goes through the corner holes on the assembly and the hole on the body of the Recon.


Go ahead and put that 2" screw in there, and keep everything together. Now it's time to make the Lexan bars that connect the two slides. You want to cut the bars long enough to reach from hole on the slide on the assembly to the hole on the slide of the Recon with at least 1/4" room to spare. I suggest having both slides as far back as they can go for this measurement, because it is imperative that you be able to move things far back enough to have the plunger catch. Now that you know that the bars encompass those two holes, drill the same sized holes in the appropriate places on the bars. See where the two screws are on the bar in the above picture? That's where you're drilling your holes, 'cause that's where the screws go! The 2.5" screw goes all the way through the front (through one bar, through the slide, through the assembly, back out the other side of the assembly, through the other side of the slide, then through the other bar). The 1/2" screws go through the bar and into the slide, but they don't go all the way through ('cause the internals of the functional Recon are in the way), so there's one on either side.

Now here's a pic of the other side. I happened to do most of my work looking at the left side of the gun, but there's no rhyme or reason to which side your nuts are on. So the 2.5" screw gets an acorn nut (because your hands are going to be in that area, and you'd like things to be as smooth as possible there), and the 2" screw gets a normal nut (because anything larger would get in the way of the bar during actual use).


Now the last thing to note are the washers: they are mostly there for spacing, but you want to make sure you have at least one between the bars and the slides so that you can move them around when attaching/detaching the assembly from the blaster. The 2" screw is simple: one between the head and the assembly, one between the assembly and the nut. The 2.5" screw is up to you, and depends on exactly how thick your bars are, but mine goes like this: head, washer, bar, washer, assembly, washer, bar, washer, washer, nut.

And you're done! If you want to take the assembly off, but not completely apart, just take out the 1/2" screws and the 2" screw, then slide the assembly off the rail. Your Recon will still have a couple of holes in it, but it will still function normally without the assembly.

Now it needs a name. The current runnings are: Franken-con, Re-Recon, Re-Recon-con, Shot-con, Decept-Recon, or PaRPARM

Hope I'm not being an ass by posting this, since the original topic is here, but these are pics from my autopsy of a Magstrike firing mech.

Very nicely done. I have a powerclip I've never gotten around to modding, so I'll have to keep this in mind.

Hmm... did you do a before/after range test? I've always thought of controlled-release guns like the magstrike/powerclip/rf20 as spring guns because the bladder simply moves the piston back and compresses the spring. Maybe I'm wrong though. If you say it increased the range by 15', I'll believe it. The clarity of your write up gives you credibility in my book.

Nice work.

See this link for more information on how the magstrike/powerclip/rf20 work. Short version: yes, there's a spring in it, but it's air that sends the dart flying.