flyingchicken

Last year's APOC (and that whole weekend) was one of the best experiences of my life, so it's hard to compare it to last time. Nonetheless, I thought this war ran even better than last year's. 

This war wouldn't have been possible for me without the help of joedimarco and his family; he hosted me, drove me places, and bought me food. The real MVP of this experience; thank you so much Joe.

 

And now, my thoughts:

 

+ Seeing all my Northeast friends again: Joe, Gears, Jlego, DX, Miguel, Groove, Zach, Dan, Sam, Nick, Lucian, Koree, Aeromech, Randomshadow, Craftsman. 

+ Meeting awesome people: One Man Clan, Captain Slug, sublimedom, Ice Nine, Clownie, Griever, Shade, PBZ 

+ Fanboying slightly over Slug

+ Getting to represent the South yet again with my comrades Zaxbys, Drac, and EOC

+ Using some of the finest slugs in existence, courtesy of Red. Dart recovery was great as well. 

+ Took a few rounds to get going but I'm pretty happy with how I played throughout the day. 

+ First war using a fanny pack to hold ammo; it's great, would highly recommend. 

+ Somehow being intimidating with an Arrowstorm

+ Using the Grove instead of the main field most of the day

+ Lots of really good rounds; 3:15, speed rounds, and Freeze Tag, among others
+ Lots of good exchanges, especially with Gears, Dan, DX, and Jlego

+ Finally getting to do pistols at APOC! We had some really small but awesome Gunslingers rounds.

+ Filming an Effeminate Gunslingers showdown between TED and Jlego.

+ Team JaxcksonStorm?

+ Was a little nervous about meeting One Man Clan, but turns out he's super cool and fun to play with

+ Blasters worked pretty well; my Arrowstorm's reinforcements held up all day, though there were some rotation issues. The neoprene washer in my Crossbow's plunger head actually tore, which I wasn't expecting. Fortunately, I had a wonderful spare plunger rod made by Nerfomania that worked flawlessly for the rest of the day. 

+ Finally having my own GoPro and wearing it for a few rounds.

+ Snoop Doggy doge challenging me to a 1v1; it was enjoyable, and he put up a respectable fight, but I won 3-2. Keep up the good work, kid.

+ "Wipe the ravioli off your face and do something useful." 

+ Being clumped with Team Valor as a non-player and getting rekt

+ Seeing all the northerners getting beat by the heat and humidity, y'all would've died at NoMNE

+ Rained lightly during the day, and packing up just in time to avoid the heavier showers

+ My reputation preceded me; within the first hour I was handed a BBB.

+ Sam asking me if I danced (I do), and giving me a really lovely compliment about how it shows in my movement. Thank you man.

+ Buying air blasters from Dom

+ Being hit in the safety goggles a few times; as much of a pain as they are, I'm glad I wear them over my prescription glasses.

+ Losing my blue bandanna, but Langley very awesomely gifted me a replacement. 

+ Seeing a bunch of cameras, knowing there will be lots of great footage and pictures from this war.

+ First time flying with blasters and having no issues

 

+/- Screams for Harambe disrupting our lovely Gunslingers rounds

 

- None of Joe's stuff worked so he didn't play for half of the day, but he did eventually get a loaner

- Not getting a lot of personal pictures or video

- Hibachi place charged for refills

 

 

Huge thanks and props to Langley for once again running a great war.

 

10/10 would travel hundreds of miles to play with children's toys again

I've had a long love affair with Big Bad Bows. I've used one at almost every war for nearly 6 years, and have become known in the Southeast for my passion for this classic but outdated blaster (as of this write-up, I own 18 of them).

In this write-up, I will be showing you how to extend the draw of your BBB by one inch. The stock draw length is 3.5", so we're shooting for 4.5".

I've never seen this mod done before, so I'm claiming credit for it. Yay egotism!

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This is my primary Big Bad Bow that I've used for years: Chickenbow Rev. 2.5. It broke (again) a few wars ago, but I'm hoping this mod will breathe some life back into it.

For your reference, here are the other mods that have been performed on this blaster:
- External CPVC coupler with deadspace removed
- Seal improval
- Many reinforcements
- Spring replacement (I'll address this later in the thread)
- External poultry (adds 15' of range)



Open up your BBB and put the front half of the blaster to the side. We're going to be focusing on the back half of the shell for this mod.



Open the back half and put all the internals away in a safe place.

See this ramp?



That's the ramp that the two side catch plates (with the annoying little springs) slide over. Those little pieces are the only things that keep your BBB primed.
The basis of this mod is moving the ramp forward.

Take a ruler and draw a line one inch in front of the ramp. This is where we're going to cut into the shell.



Put that aside for now and find some 1-1/2" PVC.



Cut a small ring from it.



Take that ring and cut it in half.



Then take one of those halves and cut it in half.



These are the two piece we will be using for this mod.

Back to the shell! Dremel out a slot in the shell along the line you drew earlier.





The goal is to cut the slots so that the PVC can rest in them, but without being flush with the shell.



Looking at it horizontally, try to get the PVC to protrude at the same height as the original ramp. I think you can see where we're going with this...



Take the PVC out and flip the shell over. See the center line?



We need to extend it so that the side plates have room to slide into place.

Dremel it out a bit, but not all the way to the inside wall.



Should look like this:



Now that we've cut the slots and dry fit the PVC, it's time to glue the pieces in. I like to use a thin, quick-setting super glue.



In front of a light, you can see that the ramp and the PVC pieces are the same height. This is what you want.



Now break out the epoxy putty! You'll need less than you think.



Form the epoxy putty into little ramps leading up to the PVC:



Once the epoxy has cured and your new ramp is stable, dremel out the middle of the PVC so the catch plates can slide through it, like the original ramps.



With our new ramps complete, we now have to get rid of the original ramps, so that the back half of the shell is able to slide in and out of the front half.

Take your dremel and slowly start grinding down the original ramps:



DO NOT DREMEL THEM DOWN FLUSH WITH THE SHELL. If you do, you will break through the shell. Dremel and round them out just enough for them to easily slide through the front part of the blaster.



You want to shave down/get rid of the top guide rail as well:



And with that, you should be done! Last pic of the internals:



Back in action!



Look at that draw!



Comparison with a normal BBB. Regular draw on top, extended draw on bottom:





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Regarding springs: Before this mod, I was using half of a [k26]. Unfortunately, that spring can't be compressed far enough. The most ideal spring for this modification is half of a [k25].


Performance:

Well, we added a whole inch of draw! With the right dart/barrel fit, it'll break 100' flat with slugs.


Also, if you replaced the stock plunger head with a washer plunger head, that should give you .5" more draw. That's a total of 5 inches of draw! I'm not a fan of washer plunger heads, but there is still more potential to be had.


All in all, I'm just happy it works.


Thanks for reading!