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Nerf SuperMaxx 5000

 

The SuperMaXX series is one of the best Nerf lines to ever come out. It seemed as though Larami took a step ahead when it introduced the SuperMaXX series. Gone were plunger guns and such, and onto pump guns. The SuperMaXX 5000 is the last of the series. It is also the most fearsome and powerful in my opinion. In this write-up, I will try my best to explain and teach you how to successfully modify your little baby, the SM5000. You will be relocating the air tank, and nesting a copper barrel into the shell.

If you screw up this modification in any way, shape or form, and you are unable to use your gun, it is not my fault. Although my gun works perfectly, you need to have a certain skill set to pull this off properly. If you do not believe that you can do this, turn back while your gun is still in one piece.

This modification is irreversible, and I suggest you think about this. The gun is great once modded, and to me, is the best gun in my arsenal.

The Materials you will need to do this modification:

- Phillips head screw driver
- Pliers / Needle Nose pliers
- Side Cutters (used for wires)
- Hacksaw
- Wood file preferably rectangular
- Dremel (I used different tools)
- Drill, and a 1/8" bit (may differ on your gun)
- Hot glue gun/ glue sticks
- Plumbers Goop (optional)
- Electrical tape
- Duct Tape
- Utility knife
- Exacto knife (optional)
- 12-14" of 9/16th Brass
- ¾" of ½" PVC

Now, gather your materials. It will take you about a day to do this mod if you are careful, think it out, and try your best. Good luck to you. Now to the modification itself.

Start by opening the gun up. There are screws all around the shell of the gun. Start with the pump handle. There are three screws on it. After taking the pump handle off, you can then start on the tip of the barrel, where your extensions went on. There is a purple cap on it. Pry it off, I used a flat head screwdriver. After that, you can take out the six screws that are on that part of the gun. If, when you put together your gun, you put the ammo holders and such in place, now is the time to pull them out.

Next, remove the screws from the handle, there are two. Underneath the handle shell, there is yet another hidden screw. Now that that is done, find the rest of the screws and remove them. The gun has another plastic ring on the front, where the pump handle is. It is your last obstacle in your journey to open this gun. Pry it off. You can finally take the shell off. Remember that you take the shell off on the side with the screw holes.

Behold, the innards of your SM5000. Beautiful, huh? Well, you are going to be messing it up pretty bad later on. The tank is at the front of the gun, and it won't be there for long. Start by removing the stock trigger assembly completely. That little green thing is of no use to you, and neither is that thing with the spring on it. Once that is taken off, take out the trigger (slides off pump tube). It is just going to be in your way.

NOTE: My SM5k has been breach modified, so the shell and innards appear very complicated and messy. Your guns will not look like this. Check back for a write-up for the breach modification which can be done after this modification is completed.

You can see that the tank has an excessively long firing pin. You will be cutting this down soon. Since you are doing a tank relocation, take the tank out, and be careful not to touch the firing pin too much. The tubing that leads to the tank will also need to be cut down. You see how the tank is round, right? Well, in order to make the mod work, you will need to file it down ever so slightly. Be careful, but do a good job for this. I used a file, and didn't do too much to it.

After sanding the tank down a bit, you are probably thinking this is easy stuff. Well, it is, but now we need to work on the trigger. Take a look at the bad boy. Now, grab a hacksaw, and cut straight down where the wheel on the back is. It looks like a square. Now, stop just before you get to the flat part. Do the same on the other side, cutting just before the wheel. Now, grab some pliers and bend your rectangular piece of plastic off. It should snap off without a problem. Take a file and smooth the rest of your opening down.

There is yet more work to be done on the trigger, time for the drill. My drill bit that I used was a 1/8" bit. What you can do is take your bit, and put it beside your firing pin. Pick the bit that is closest in size to it, but you want the hole to be a little bit bigger than the pin. Now, you are going to drill a hole into the square part of the trigger, where that wheel is. Make the hole on an angle; refer to the picture for help. After this, test to see if the pin fits the hole perfectly. This is important for trigger response.

After all of this, you need to take a timeout, and fix up the shell of the gun, before the next step is possible. See that metal rod that sticks out of the shell, where that green thing for the trigger used to be? Get rid of it. In anyway that you see possible. I used lock cutters (big fucking sharp side cutters) but a dremel would get the job done a lot faster. After it is removed, get rid of the plastic on both sides of the gun, in the same manner. ONLY remove this stuff, the rest of the plastic can stay for now, and I'll tell you what to remove, and what to keep.

Now that your trigger is done, and the shell is cleaned up, move onto the air tank. This part is the most difficult, and took me a long time to get it right… now that you have my guidance, it shouldn't be too hard for you. Take your side cutters, and cut the firing pin down to a length of about two inches. Put your air tank into your gun, right where that open space is. Put the pin in it's designated notch in the plastic, and put a mark on the pin just where it starts on the other side of the notch. Make sure you have a 16th of an inch or so of error room, or more. Basically, don't make the mark RIGHT where it comes out, but more a little farther out.

Now that you have your mark, be prepared for some hard times. You are going to have to bend this sucker at the same angle as your drilled hole in the trigger. Be VERY BLOODY CAREFUL with this part, if you mess this up, the tank is broken. I'm not trying to scare you, but do this part right. Don't pull too hard, put you will need to pull hard enough to bend this thing. Use pliers at first, to start your bend, and then used needle nose pliers afterwards to curl the bend inwards. After it is curled, then pull it out from the bottom side, making the bend remain at the top on the pin, but straightening the bottom part. Refer to the picture a hell of a lot.

Continuously check to make sure that your pin still fits in the notch of the gun. If not, you have to start over again… I did this once, but not too horribly. I finally got it right, and that's what matters. Now that you have your pin bent, you can now cut it down to size. This will differ on how deep your hole is on your trigger, you have to do this for yourself. Just make sure it looks like it does in the picture. After you've finished this part, you can move onto your barrel.

Time to clean up the shell again. This time, it's in the green part of the gun, where your barrel will end up being. This part was difficult for me, because I didn't have a dremel, so I had to use a wood file. It is very small and tight in there, and I couldn't maneuver the file very well, so it took a long time. A long time. When I did this mod, I actually did the clean up of the shell first, so maybe you should too, saves time where your innards are outside of the gun, waiting to be toyed with.

Look at the picture for help, but the best way to do this is to remove all the plastic ridges and pop-ups within the barrel. It will help a lot in the long run. The only thing your need to keep is the part at the very tip of the barrel, where there are two plastic pieces that stick up. These will keep your barrel steady. They are exactly the width of my brass with tape wrapped around it 7 times apart from eachother, and they help greatly in keeping your barrel in place. Okay, finally, some real work. Take your air tank and study it. You will have seen it's little stub where the air comes out. This is where you will attach your barrel. Take some time with this, and it would help if you put the tank in vice clamp to keep it upright. Don't put it in too tight though, you might break it. Remove the air restrictor with a hobby knife and needle nose pliers until it is all gone. The brass will fit perfectly inside the stub. Put a hot glue bead around the barrel, and then electrical and duct tape to seal it well.

Now that your barrel is secure, it will feel quite strong, but just try not to bang it up. With all of this work, why screw it up now? If you want to, you could be a perfectionist like me and put some plumbers goop around the base of the tank, where the electrical tape meets the tank. It is always a good idea to seal this up.

Finally, time to put this all back together. You have one thing left to do however. You have to fix the tubing. It is very long, and it is unnecessary. You can cut this using your exacto knife, or a utility knife. Make sure the cut is clean. Cut it to a length that you think is good for you. Look at the picture for help. Now, take your newly cut hose, and stretch it over the peg on the tank. Then, take the little white piece and screw it down over the hose. Before I did this, and before you do this, put some plumber's goop on the hose, this is necessary for a good seal. You need this seal, if you couldn't tell.

After all of that, you are now ready to put this thing together. Put the tank in, and then put the firing pin into the trigger, which you have already placed back into the gun, over the pump tube, right? Yes, so after that, you can fit the pump tube into it's little cut out. I glued mine in there, because I like my gun to be solid. You don't need to.

After that, take your plunger out of the tube and plug the over release valve. It is merely a little hole on the front of the plunger, and it can be plugged with hot glue. Make sure the glue is level with the front of the plunger, so that it's flat. Done.

Now, lay the barrel into the green part of the gun. It should all fall into place perfectly. If it doesn't you missed something. Now, you will notice that if you pull the trigger, it pulls the tank back a little, pulling the barrel back a little, we will fix this. Before I put my gun together, I put some Foam Back Rod into the shell in some places to make everything more ridged, and strong. I put some in the back of the gun, because my stock snaps on there (Will be taught how to make in the next chapter), and it would've broken the plastic if I didn't re-enforce it.

I wrapped my barrel in foam to provide support. I also put ¾" of ½" PVC around the barrel and glued it there, see circled. This is on the outside of the shell, giving support, and keeping the barrel from moving with trigger pulls.

Now, close up your gun, and you are nearly done. Now, to fix that little barrel pulling back problem, which affects trigger response, we are going to tape it. I tried hot gluing, but it kept breaking. Now, just use duct tape, and then wrap over it with electrical tape. Get ready, this gun is now a bloody sniper rifle. Amazing accuracy, and devastating power and range.

Accuracy:

With the same dart, I can constantly hit a pizza box, dead center, from 25 feet away. I can also do it from 35 feet, but it is less accurate.

Ranges: Level Shot

With the same dart, I can hit 119' with 5 pumps. Seven pumps gets the dart around 130' or more, I don't have anything long enough to measure it with. The gun remains accurate up to 90' feet, and has some dart skip of 3-4'.

Overall:

This gun now owns all. The range and power are amazing. The accuracy is all that and more for a sniper rifle gun. This mod is the best decision I ever made for this gun, I hope you can say the same. With some good darts, this gun is the best on the field.

I got my inspiration from Cxwq of NerfHaven for part of this modification, and I thank him.

 

-Sylent_Blade

 

All images and content © Cam Morrison 2004