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August 22nd was witness to a day of Showdowns. In Chicago. Hence, CHICAGO SHOWDOWN hath come! Seriously, some familiar faces and some new ones showed to once again take shots and kick ass in Oak Lawn, IL. Already, I knew the day was off to a good start when I was in the parking lot unloading my gear. I had my BBBB (featured in "Blaster of the Moment" slung over my shoulder, when a police car rode up. The officer inside was cool guy, and simply asked "So where are you paintballing?"
I showed him my blaster. "Foam! Nerf, definitely not painball, sir." He only wanted to know what was going on, and he went on his way. A sigh of relief later, I made my way to the field. I had already dropped off barricades and obstacles, so what was left was getting locked and loaded.
It was most of the usual suspects from the Nerf Internet Community but there were a whole bunch of fresh faces, too. Not to take anything away from any of them these kids brought their game. It's made me start to think though about ways to get people to be better informed about events so they know what to expect. In any event, the games of the day were Team Deathmatch, Team CTF, Defend the Core (IN A PLAYGROUND, terrain = ftw), and even a bit of Team Powerball. Team Powerball was new to me, but it essentially followed in the spirit of Powerball from American Gladiators, only with nerf blasters.
Defend the Core took place on a playground, which was a lot of fun to watch. I videotaped and the footage will follow, but I'm a big fan of terrain that changes levels. High ground, cover, it's all a factor and it was just cool to see. Eventually though a lot of younger kids with their parents came by so a good half hour later we were done and had to relocated back to the field.
Our events now have street cred too! A cop actually came by to watch. It was in fact, the same officer from earlier. He was just interested and according to some of the other nerfer parents there, said we could be doing worse things. Hear, hear.
Probably the coolest thing I can think of was the new people from NHQ and the people who just jumped in with us near the end of the day. This is what I dig, playing a pickup game of sorts, and drawing people in to play. I think we all had a decent time, even though there was an imbalance of modded vs. stock blasters. But running and gunning all day with random strangers brought together to have fun? I dig it. Big props to the Des Plaines kids and those new kids we played against for jumping in with us.
Now for the PSA portion of our presentation:
1) If you're going to test fire a blaster, by all rights MAKE SURE THE AREA YOU ARE FIRING INTO IS CLEAR. This avoids shooting someone in the face when they're not expecting it. It's one thing to pop someone in the heat of battle, it's another when you're standing around talking and get whapped out of nowhere.
2) Shooting someone from behind when they're clearly not paying attention to anything and watching the flag go is considered UNSPORTING. Especially when it's from 10' away with a modded 2k.
3) This goes without saying, but definitely take care of taking shots in a playground. On at least one occasion a parent came over a little concerned their kid was going to get pegged. We're good about taking our shots, but all it takes is one accident.
4) I hate to say it, but if you're playing out in the open you're going to lose ammo. That's why a lot of the NIC makes their own darts, it's cheaper that way in the long run than buying even BuzzBee stock ammo. Not to mention even removing an AR means you can load other ammo down the barrel of your blaster and it makes an easier time of reloading.
LiterSize
Member Since 05 Jul 2005Offline Last Active Apr 15 2011 06:35 PM
Topics I've Started
My Disk Shot Mod
24 March 2009 - 11:09 PM
Sorry about the lack of internal shots, she was a bitch to close the first time. And the numerous other times. Maybe I'll update her later, but hey for now I'm happy with 'er and wanted to share.
(taken from my nerf blog, pics are there)
Most extensive one to date-
What you see above there is my most extensive mod to a nerf gun to date. It started with the disk shot blaster that comes with the whole target game skeet shooting set.
# seen here
I've already closed her up, but I managed to double the spring intertwining the stock spring with a spring from an old busted up sharpshooter II I had. It managed to fit just fine, thankfully. It didn't require me to cut anything shorter.
However, this also meant that I needed to find a stronger small spring for the trigger catch, as I found the stock spring just didn't... well... catch. It would go off regardless of whether I pulled the trigger or not. A spring I had from an dried up pen fit the bill just nicely. In fact, I doubled those up too in order to make it stay in place.
The barrel is a stripped marker, and I was lucky enough to have a Rose Art marker which didn't have the same stubs on the inside you would find with a crayola marker. Stubs = friction which makes for a sad, slow firing panda. I used some super glue and electrical tape to attach the barrel directly to the plunger.
The plunger head I wrapped in electrical tape, and then put the o-ring over the e-tape in the hopes it creates a better seal. I can only hope. A little silicon lube on the plunger head then made things right as rain.
You'll see from the front of the gun I had to remove the orange muzzle when I replaced the barrel, the hole in the muzzle just did not accomodate the marker. After I took the above pics, I used a little mighty putty to reinforce the barrel in the gaps. So far, so good. Leaving out the muzzle piece also meant the barrel assembly inside would shift with each pull of the priming handle, and over time that could be a problem.
I haven't performed a full on range test, but there's definitely an improvement over the stock blaster. The satisfying slam of an AR-free gun, the darts move faster, and there's a little kick, which is nice. Even a little more lift on the dart when it exits the barrel, so you know it's good. Either way, all in a day's work. Now to get started on that longshot that I've been putting off for a while...
(taken from my nerf blog, pics are there)
Most extensive one to date-
What you see above there is my most extensive mod to a nerf gun to date. It started with the disk shot blaster that comes with the whole target game skeet shooting set.
# seen here
I've already closed her up, but I managed to double the spring intertwining the stock spring with a spring from an old busted up sharpshooter II I had. It managed to fit just fine, thankfully. It didn't require me to cut anything shorter.
However, this also meant that I needed to find a stronger small spring for the trigger catch, as I found the stock spring just didn't... well... catch. It would go off regardless of whether I pulled the trigger or not. A spring I had from an dried up pen fit the bill just nicely. In fact, I doubled those up too in order to make it stay in place.
The barrel is a stripped marker, and I was lucky enough to have a Rose Art marker which didn't have the same stubs on the inside you would find with a crayola marker. Stubs = friction which makes for a sad, slow firing panda. I used some super glue and electrical tape to attach the barrel directly to the plunger.
The plunger head I wrapped in electrical tape, and then put the o-ring over the e-tape in the hopes it creates a better seal. I can only hope. A little silicon lube on the plunger head then made things right as rain.
You'll see from the front of the gun I had to remove the orange muzzle when I replaced the barrel, the hole in the muzzle just did not accomodate the marker. After I took the above pics, I used a little mighty putty to reinforce the barrel in the gaps. So far, so good. Leaving out the muzzle piece also meant the barrel assembly inside would shift with each pull of the priming handle, and over time that could be a problem.
I haven't performed a full on range test, but there's definitely an improvement over the stock blaster. The satisfying slam of an AR-free gun, the darts move faster, and there's a little kick, which is nice. Even a little more lift on the dart when it exits the barrel, so you know it's good. Either way, all in a day's work. Now to get started on that longshot that I've been putting off for a while...
