Carrtoon

I've always loved my xbow, but the green plunger rod has always worried me. When bungeed, it bends quite a bit. So I decided to extend the life of my baby. Aluminum plunger rod/handle:



All metal plunger head:



Bent aluminum handle with bungee catch:



Compared to the old one:



Installed:



Cocked and ready to kill:



I don't think it needs much more of an explanation than that. All work was done on a mill, drill press, or vice. The solid square rod is milled to the same dimensions as the plastic one. Both ends are tapped and I could replace the rear handle with a different style in the future. This is only the beginning of what I'm going to do to this thing

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. A few pictures that I think defined our day:













Ok, and some clarification. Ryan kicks ass. Give him his xbow, the sexiest one I've ever seen by the way, or the new big blast and you've got your hands full. Seriously, everyone should have a big blast.



Messiah, holy shit. This guy came to the war in full camo and decked out in guns. I had to chuckle to myself a bit upon seeing him. I don't think anyone took him seriously before the war actually started. This guy wasn't going to hit anything today. I couldn't have been more wrong. Call it military tactics, call it what you will. His dual longshots and maverick, both of which may hit 30-40 ft a shot, dominated most of us going up against him. Props to you:









And the games of assassins. Two people defending one person, the girl with a single shot pistol, and 3 attacking to try and "kill" her. One shot and she's out:



And goddamn you Flaming Hilt. That manta ray saved her ass way too many times:



Anyways, a few last words. It wasn't any more obvious to me today that the simple and efficient guns will prevail almost every time. I'm talking about singled xbows. One of our games it must have been 3 on about 6-7. Three of us with xbows against the rest who had any weapon of their choice. Can you guess who won?

Here's to all of the guys today. It felt great to be back into it again, if only for a few days. You guys rock, and I'll say that after every war. The veterans showed their stripes well, and a few noobs stood out today. Great war, and I can't wait for summer.

P.S. - Some of you may be wondering, some may not, why I haven't been posting any ridiculous mods lately. To put it bluntly: complicated, ridiculous mods fail in wars. It's the simple ones, often the ones that seem too simple, that actually work. The mods in the nerfhaven modification section are the ones that will give you the edge, not a nitemav. I've learned a lot about guns and wars in the past 2 years and one phrase sums it up: KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID

Before the war last Saturday, I had started a small pistol, but never really had the motivation to build it. The body and plunger were done, but I lost interest. After the war, after seeing Carbon's amazing SNAPs, I got into build mode again. This works off of the exact same principle as the Tec 9 with the clothespin trigger and shaped pvc. The body is milled PVC and the handle was heated and pressed into shape. So, without further ado, I give you the Minimizer:





Maverick comparison:





That is all...

After seeing so many air homemades here, I thought I should give one a try. I've always had a thing for air guns because of their shear power. This gun is just basically a shelled 2k, so a write up isn't really necessary. Here she is:





Just like the Tec 9, Flaming Hilt was the main inspiration for this project. He showed me his 3k homemade at the last war and it was just awesome. I was going to build the similar long body style with a stock.

I had the 2k guts in the main shell and tried using it with my cpvc breech. I found out that the 2k tank does not have enough power to propel the darts very far when I used the breech. Hence, I made a "pistol" instead. Didn't turn out too bad if I do say so myself.

Here's the trigger:



It's a standard allen wrench trigger that I epoxy puddied to the at2k firing pin. That pvc plate is to insure that it pulls back straight. Without it, the trigger is flimsy and air is lost in the pull.

Picture of the at2k tank:



The large pvc shell didn't sit tightly in the next smaller size pvc so I had to mount the guts in a different way. I screwed the smaller piece of pvc to the larger one by a wood screw underneath the tank. The grey bulge you see is adhesive backed foam that is pressed against the 2k guts with a pretty good force. Makes a perfect seal. All I had left to do was to lathe down the pvc to fit inside of eachother until I got to the coupler.

I know that may be confusing to read, but all I meant to say was the at2k guts are mounted and sealed tightly.

A couple of shots with the barrel:

Have I ever expressed before that I love nitefinders? I prefer the old style because they look better, but new ones are still awesome.

Half of me loves to deal with mechanics. Throwing together some crazy design that actually works is pretty cool (note that this stuff usually fails miserably in wars, but is fun nonetheless). Getting to know one gun extremely well, the nitefinder in this case, and making it perform the best that it possibly could.

The other half of me loves art. Not the abstract crap in art museums, but things like the statue of David. A fresh coat of paint on a Dodge Viper. Architecture that makes you wonder how it can physically stand. Well, this nitefinder fits me perfectly. Form and function:







Chopped off, hot glue filled, and coupler modded. The outer PVC is there to support the industrial spring by dispersing the force to the shell, not the screws that hold the plunger tube.





I love the simplicity, looks, and performance. This will see much war time.