Slagr

I had some old ping pong ball shooting guns from back in the day and noticed that they had great potential for nerf. So, I built a mini dart adapter insert ot of CPVC and film canisters that luckily fit snuggly in the original barrel.



Next I sanded down the back handle so that the reverse plunger could slide easily through it and added a few rubber band chains to it. I then made a simple clothes pin trigger and glued it in place on the handle. I added the metal eraser-holder thing to the spot on the plunger tube where the trigger slides and melted it into the plastic to reduce wear.



Simply pull the handle back,



and pull the trigger to release the plunger tube.



Complete:



The rate of fire is quite good, as long as the darts fit loosely enough to slide back into the barrel as the plunger is pulled back. Otherwise, a ramrod is required. I have no real ranges because it is soaking wet outside due to melting snow, but it punches holes in cereal boxes from twenty feet consistently.

My darts and an original ping pong ball.

Myself and an associate of mine have been looking into constructing a Nerf-type gun using a falling weight as opposed to elastic tension, and please trust that we have a "good" reason.

Basically, we will be dropping a 4.5 kg weight onto a plunger apparatus that will fire a racquetball from a length of PVC, probably with foam stuffing behind it to catch the air better. We're not looking for stellar performance, just as long as it fires at all, really. I'd like to use a ~10 in diameter plastic barrel for the plunger tube and construct a plunger from plastic and foam on which to attach the weight. My main concern is of course the effectiveness of the weight in forcing air through the gun at an adequate velocity.

Is this a plausible proposal?

It's worth noting that this is not my, nor my associate's first homemade nor will it remain weight-powered after the concept is proven.