Setups: Elite Alpha Trooper

It's been a while since I've posted, and even longer since I did a "setups" post. If you missed the first two, they were the Gear up Recon and the Elite Rampage. So let's dive in to setting up the remake of one of Nerf's most popular blasters, shall we?

Right, first up, the Alpha Trooper is pretty minimalistic in it's stock form, so obviously you can't load the hell out of this thing. There's other blasters for that. The Elite Alpha Trooper's strength is it's slamfire capability and it's compact size. You want to only add to the blaster in areas that will aid you and nothing else, otherwise you'll end up losing the compact size advantages. So bandoliers are out, as you'll want to be on the move all the time anyway. To combat the dart consumption of slamfire and lack or mags available to you, I suggest some "tactical tape". A pair of 12rd mags taped together gives you 24 dart capacity and easy reloading, as well as the option to pick up darts as you go and put them in the bottom mag. This means you don't need a tactical vest or bandolier and this frees you up to move quicker.

Accuracy is also another sore point of Slamfire blasters, so to help remedy this try a sturdy stock, like lightning storm's stock, and a single attachment point sight like a red dot sight, or if you've scoured the earth to almost no end to obtain, an elite pinpoint sight (Thank you Dninja!). Zoom sights are bit pointless on a blaster where you'll be doing most of your engaging at less than 60 feet, so really, any non-zoom sight that can utilise just the single rail will help you lock on to your target in combination with a decent stock.

Internally, go for reliability and ease of prime. An OMW 5kg spring will be just fine in this blaster with locks removed. you could probably go crazy and do a brass breech, but I'm not sure how effective this would be Vs. the gain.

With this setup, you can easily go for capture points in games of capture the flag or similar, since you'll be able to move quicker than anyone else without anything weighing you down, and you have the option of laying out a fair amount of darts in short slamfire bursts, but prolonged situations are probably something to avoid when possible

Firing video: Remedy Metal Longshot

A few of my friends keep asking me to show them a video of my Remedy Metal Longshot, featured in this post so they can see the power of this thing. Well, recently I picked up a handy little mountable camera, so I decided to go ahead and make a firing demo video. I don't do videos often but I might have anothr in the works soon, depending on the free time I have available. Anyway, enjoy!

Remedy Metal Longshot #2

In the last post I did say that this post would be about ignition systems for combustion powered potato cannons, but, I had to scrap that after killing my ignition system. Sometimes the modder in me takes it too far, and things backfire. Making a 12v multi-spark taser out of a 1.5v bbq ignitor was awesome... until it burned out... Oh well, lesson learned. So instead this post will cover my most recent Nerf Longshot build.

Previously, I had been working with a longshot that I'd owned for 3 or 4 years and it has it's fair share of posts here, here and here, but I recently aquired a mint Longshot, never opened up, completely stock. A rarity. I tossed back and forth whether I should just leave it alone as a collector item, but what's the fun in having a cake and only looking at it? It became the frame for a my new Longshot.

Here it is. The paintwork was inspired by a few of Brian Johnson's creations over at Johnson arms, and was my first attempt at masking. Let me tell you, there is a hell of a lot more work that goes in to a 2-tone masking paint job than you think. Ever wondered why a decent paint commissioner charges a lot of money? to do it well takes a ton of time, patience and money. I wouldn't call this a spectacular paint job on mine, but it'll be fine considering it will be used in wars and knocked around anyway.

Internally, there's the full Remedy Metal Power Train kit, and I kept the priming indicator also. The stock and some areas under the trigger bar is reinforced, and the trigger is reinforced with a bicycle spoke on each side of the pusher rod. In future I may upgrade the trigger to an Xplorer version. The spring load consists of a stock longshot spring, 6kg recon spring and 11.5kg cut and closed K26 spring, totalling 20kg all up.

Externally, there's Slydev V.2 Iron Sights and Xplorer shotgun style priming handle, allowing a good combo of rapid fire and accuracy. I prefer 12 dart mags in this as it is a good balance between capacity and free space around the blaster.

The power I get out of this is insane, I still haven't range tested but it's a safe 50m+ with an angle, or 25m+ flat with very little drop. Accuracy beyond the 25m mark starts to get a little bit hazy, but this may be the result of an inner barrel that is too short or darts that are not heavy enough.

Future mods might include a switch to a picatinny rail on top and a pair on the side of the barrel so that I can mount a scope and a laser module, increasing the ease of aiming. I don't think I will increase the spring load any further as it will start to seriously reduce the rate of priming the blaster. Enjoy, comment, leave some ideas!

Remedy Metal Power Train kit: First impressions

The Nerf Longshot, for almost 8 years now has been the ultimate blaster for modders wanting huge power from a CS blaster, due to it's large plunger tube and fairly rugged "battle rifle" good looks. It's popularity among modders is pretty hard to miss, there's literally hundreds of different mods, from integration mods, to power mods, lighting, steampunk and paintworks are hard to miss, and in recent times, as modders start to push the boundaries of power, reinforcements have been popular. Everything from epoxy putty reinforcing, steel plates on the boltsled, and brass breech systems, to plunger tubes made from metal and spring plate supports. All these things have allowed higher and higher spring loads (16+kg seemed to be the norm for a while) but eventually, something usually broke or at the very least there was a huge amount of uncertainty about whether your Longshot would last another war. I myself have broken 2 boltsleds, 2 bolts, 2 back plates, and a plunger over a few years.

Let me show you, what I think, is the ultimate in power and reliability for a spring powered Longshot:

Forgot to take a photo of the kit before it's assembled - pic from Remedy Metal

This is the Remedy Metal Power Train full mod kit for the Nerf Longshot. It's a full stainless steel replacement kit which does away with the standard plunger, catch, plunger tube, back plate, bolt, bolt sled and breech system from the Longshot and replaces it with all stainless steel and delrin goodies.

Full kit installed

The plunger is all stainless, with a bigger o-ring and the screw holding it together has been moved from the plunger head to inside the catch tail, taking a weak point away from the impact area. The back plate and catch have also been redesigned and made from stainless steel, with a delrin support for the catch and an upgraded catch spring. There is also a k-26 main spring upgrade included with the kit. the plunger tube is also stainless steel and includes a vacuum hole in the design to stop it trying to suck darts in to the bolt. The bolt is also precision cut stainless steel and is a 2-part assembly with the front end sealing head (opposite plunger, as I've also heard it called) attached with a snap ring on either side (tool included for that!). The bolt is supported by a full stainless steel bolt sled and feeds in to a delrin coupler as the sealed breech, which also does away with the need for a dart tooth. At the end of the coupler is the precision cut stainless steel barrel which nests inside the existing plastic barrel, allowing it to be painted. The whole kit installed looks very nice and probably leads many people to remove their jam door to show it off.

Reinforced trigger

So it looks stunning, but how does it perform? Well, since I don't have a spare Longshot to build up, I used my old longshot that I wrote about a while ago as the test bed. I started off with just the k-26 spring as my load, but quickly realised that the stock trigger wouldn't handle pushing the catch under such load. I decided to reinforce the trigger with a pair of 14g bicycle spokes cut down to fit the groove in each side of the trigger, and filling the gap directly below the trigger tail with hot glue to support it. The first shot I fired from the assembled blaster impressed me, a lot! modified darts were already puncturing cardboard.

The spring load I'm using - 20kg. Green felt used for padding.

But I couldn't stop there, right? I had no hesitations about upping the ante with the spring load. The blaster now feels so solid and reliable, and really, there's nothing that can break in this kit with a mere k-26. So I loaded in 2 more springs, a 6kg Recon spring which fits nicely over the top of the k-26, and coils in the opposite direction, and then the original longshot spring over that, which coils back the same way as the k-26, so there was no worries about springs getting tangled when primed. All up this is about 20kg. funnily enough, I had answered a question on the Oznerf forum a week ago about 20kg in a longshot, warning that it'd be a pretty tough prime. Well, it is a pretty stiff prime and does slow down rate of fire, even with the Xplorer priming grip. But, to no surprise, the Remedy Metal kit takes it with ease. Firing this blaster is incredible. I do not have any other blaster in my load out that comes close to half the power of this thing, and thinking back to brass breeched Longshots I've seen, it'll probably out range those too.

So the verdict? Well, this isn't a final verdict. This is my first impressions after a week of messing around with it in my longshot. There's still battle testing and range testing to come. But for now, this kit is a stunning piece of Nerfing genius. It is worth every penny I paid for it and then some. The attention to detail, overall quality, reliability and power produced is nothing short of mind blowing. I have no doubt that this is a fantastic step in the right direction for aftermarket foam dart blaster parts. Look out for future posts on this kit, I hope to do a full build video using the Remedy Metal kit, if I can source an in-box Longshot from somewhere.

If you are interested in this kit, visit the Remedy Metal facebook page for updates, or http://www.remedymetal.com/ to order a the full kit or other parts.

Orange Mod Works working on sealed breaches?

I saw a few pictures pop up in my facebook news feed last night by Orange Mod Works which seem to not-so-subtly hint that they are working on a sealed breach system for the Nerf Retaliator. I'm not sure what to make of this, as there is no pre-order up on their website yet, but they are calling it "the second stage", obviously referring to the stage 2 "solid" kit for the Nerf Retaliator.

From what the picture shows, it's a kit with revamped internals, adding on from kit #1. Bolt sled, metal trigger, bolt, plunger and receiver are all included by the looks, but it also features a barrel extension that is supposed to allow the dart to accelerate more as it leaves the barrel, using the full potential of the direct plunger volume of the Retaliator.

If this kit is indeed going in to production soon, I'll be pretty happy. I like my Retaliator, but at the moment it has no extra power over my rampage, so it's kind of an inferior candidate for the same role. giving it some extra power would bring it in to it's own field, it certainly couldn't out range a longshot, but it could out range a rampage with the two Orange Mod Works kits, and it's more compact than a Longshot. This kit and the stage 1 kit would make the Retaliator one hell of a pistol or short rifle.

Good work Orange Mod Works, I do hope this makes production soon!

Setups: Elite Rampage

Alright, second installment of setups is covering what I usually work with when I'm using my Rampage for speed foam warfare type Nerf wars. This setup is geared towards being able to collect ammo on the fly, high capacity and fast, accurate, rushing.

Starting at the front, there is no shield or other attachment on the side rail I have mounted. There is little point of a shield unless you want to bunker down and defend, where you can hide your body behind cover and have your face protected by the shield, but that's not for this type of strategy. This means the front end is easy to point and keeps a nice field of vision. On the top rail is a Slydev high drop iron sight kit. This serves the purpose of lining up longer range shots quickly if you need to, but retains the open field of vision that you would lose with a scope.

Moving back, and it's all about capacity. A 25 round drum gives a decent capacity to work with the slamfire capability of the Rampage, allowing you to move up and storm opposing player's positions. The clear back lets you see a rough idea of how much ammo you have without taking your eyes away from the action also. But, nothing is unlimited, so the use of the bandolier with a couple of spare 6-mags lets you quickly swap in some ammo when you need to reload the drum, and that's where the stock comes in.

The Stockade stock is light and sturdy, assists in aiming with the iron sights, and best of all has storage for 10 darts. I use this to grab and store darts quickly while behind cover before I move up again. and when the drum runs out and you swap to the 6-mags, you can pull darts from the stock and the bandolier and almost fill the 25 dart drum straight up.

Finally, the internals have been tweaked with AR removal, all moving parts greased and a slightly stronger spring, which pushes the maximum range to about 85 feet. I have had thoughts of doing a brass breech, however, I'm not sure how much gain there would be. So that wraps it up, this my personal setup for a Rampage that allows for high capacity slamfire rushing!

Setups: Gear Up Recon

Before I get back in to the action here on this blog, I'll need to do an announcement. The reason why I've been away from this blog lately is a very special reason; on the 7th of November 2012, my long time partner and I became first time parents to a beautiful baby girl. I know that most of my readership probably aren't parents, but those who are will definitely understand that Nerfing becomes a back seat project when you become a parent, but you do learn to balance all aspects of your life eventually. Perhaps one day we'll share the same interests (my dad and I are both motor racing fans and well in to bicycles) but for now, her priorities are firmly set on eating, sleeping and burping (tough life much?).

But don't fear! For I am still here. Today I bring a setup to the floor, my personal Gear Up Recon. Over time, this has seen a few different changes but with Slydev 3D products starting to gather steam, the options are ever expanding and it's now possible to have enough accessories on a Recon to sink a ship.

For this set up I have here, I've used a Slydev triple Nerf rail adapter on the lower rail of the Longstrike barrel to be able to mount both a light and a foregrip, as well as anything else I want on the other side (Jolt connector perhaps?). Top side I've got a Slydev phone mount on the slide rail. This piece can be bought with an Iphone 4 case already glued on, or bought separately to glue your own phone case on. You can then record footage from your phone as a gun mounted camera, or if you're really keen, use it for communication between team mates (send a photo of the opponent's base back to your team?). Moving back, You'll notice the duct tape mag pouch, an adaptation of HDingo's YouTube tutorial. Top all that off with an N-Strike bandolier and a 12 dart elite mag in the blaster, and that is how you load the Nerf Recon like a pack-horse. hope you enjoy! -Rolley

Iron sights and more by SlyDev

Not too long ago I reviewed a 3D printed part from SlyDev that allowed you to attach your Nerf Jolt to any Nerf tactical rail, and I thought it was pretty good, so when Joey announced that the iron sights that he'd been working on for a while were now available in the SlyDev store, I went straight on over and ordered a set. Joey also threw in some other parts to review with my order, so I'll cover those in this post as well.

In the package, I received a full iron sight kit, which includes one back piece and three front pieces for different ranges, a glue on 4cm Nerf style rail, a glue on double dart holder, a glue on an 8cm picatinny rail and a second back piece for my iron sights (I liked the idea of a black rear sight and orange front sight). All of these parts of of great quality, especially for the low price you can get them for on the store, but I'll start with the glue on rails.

Both rails can be attached to any flat surface (or rounded, if you've got some skill in glueing things) and have fantastic tolerances. The 4cm Nerf rail is ideal for tight places and holds attachments very well. I stuck mine on to the side of my rampage at an angle that the supersoaker shield would sit nicely. I tried shaking the blaster as hard as I could and neither the shield nor tactical light would fall off, so I'd say that it actually holds on to attachments better than a lot of Nerf rails. The 4cm Nerf is available for $3 +$2 shipping and an 8cm version is available for $6 +$2 postage. I haven't mounted the picatinny rail to anything yet but I did mount my red dot sight to it and it fits on there perfectly. In the past, I've played around with designing BMX parts and I know that getting tolerances right requires lots of careful measurements, and seeing this rail fit picatinny parts so well impresses me. Perhaps it might look good on my Xplorer grip Longshot... These sell for $5 +$2 postage, or a 4cm version is $3 +$2postage.

Wish the Rampage had a shield? Problem solved.

Next, the double dart holder. I think this would go right at home on any manually loaded pistol type blaster or perhaps a double barrel shotgun blaster. As with the rails, the quality is great and darts hold firmly without being crushed. This can be glued to any flt surface, just like the rails and is available for $2 +$2 postage.

Top: Rear sights.
Bottom: Front sights.

Finally, one of the sweetest aftermarket attachments available is the iron sights. Available separately or as a set, there are 3 front pieces and one back piece to chose from currently. Each of the pieces attach to a Nerf rail via a side screw. The front pieces are all a different height, no drop for high powered air blasters, medium drop for modified blasters, and high drop for stock and lightly modded blasters. The different drops mean that you automatically angle your blaster up to compensate for the fall of the dart as it travels, but you can also mount the pieces closer together to get more angle or further apart to get less, depending on what you prefer. Mine found their home on my Rampage and they look pretty mean. Individual iron sight pieces are $3 +$1 postage, or $10 for the set with $2 postage.

I can't lie, I love these sights!

These little parts are starting to shape up as some of the most innovative small parts that the scene has been needing for some time, and at prices that won't destroy your wallet too. Good news is, SlyDev now ships to the U.S for a flat rate of $13 too, so our northern buddies can get a hold of these as well. I'll bet that a few HvZ players will snap up iron sight sets and at $10 + postage, I can't see why not. For more info or to purchase any of these products and others, head to the SlyDev Store. Thanks again to Joey and SlyDev for sending my these parts for review!

Nerf Longshot: Xplorer grip overhaul

This is my revamped Nerf Longshot. I've actually had it for a couple of years, with just the paint job, custom barrel and AR removal. Since the paintjob is not suitable for public wars, and it's ranges weren't spectacular, I only ever used it for private wars. I decided to give this battle-worn a bit of an overhaul for a party that I was told to bring a Nerf gun to because the host decided it'd be a fun idea to tell everyone to bring a Nerf gun, and see what unfolds.

Before I get to what unfolded, I'll explain the blaster first. For the internals, I cleaned up the AR removal from the dodgy drilling I did when I was just getting in to modding, improved the plunger seal, re-greased the plunger tube, added plunger padding and also lubricated any moving parts within the internals. Originally, I left the stock spring in because I wanted to keep the priming as light as possible for fast firing, but in the end I opened it back up and put a 6kg OMW recon spring in, which still primes pretty easily anyway.

On the outside, I installed the Xplorer shotgun grip and lubricated it's running track, and I have to say, I am absolutely stunned at how well made the grip is. It fits comfortably in the hand, feels incredibly durable and functions flawlessly. I also did something nifty with the mags. I used duct tape to create something similar to a Magpul, which aids in quick removal, speeding up my frequent reloads.

Duct tape magpul

So, I started out with an under-powered bolt action blaster and managed to create a blaster that can fire off darts almost as fast as a slam-fire blaster with more punch and slightly quickened reload times. Even though I didn't repaint the now quite dirty and worn paint, this is now one of my more favoured blasters. Though it's still not all that powerful when compared to a brass breeched LS with a monster pair of springs, I still feel that for the role overpowering of mid range (50ft or so), it does the job well and could compete with any slamfire blaster in that area.

Aaand it's over the fence... Whoops...

The first battle test was in fact, the party that I attended. I turned up with this blaster, a bandolier, 6 mags and around 50 darts, and was immediately greeted with the comment "Holy hell, you definitely came prepared!". The night started quietly with a few people asking questions about the blaster and a couple of other people with Nerf blasters talking about the new elite blasters. After everyone had a couple of drinks (this is an 18+ event, by the way), someone started popping a few shots of and a few brief shootouts were exchanged. An hour later, everyone had arrived, and about half had Nerf blasters for themselves and a couple to lend out. Soon after, all hell had broken loose and there was foam going EVERYWHERE, and I know I heard one person exclaim, "THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU TELL PEOPLE TO BRING NERF GUNS!!!!". This was around the point that the host and I had set up a bunker in the living room while I blasted away at anything I saw. I guess it escalated pretty quickly, but after putting hundreds of darts through the blaster and holding back the most ridiculous onslaught of crazy young adults with Nerf guns without  single jam, I came to the conclusion that this blaster passed the test. I spoke to the host the next day and he tells me that he found foam darts in places you couldn't have ever thought of, but overall, he decided it was a pretty damn good night.

So there you have it. My latest addition (or rather, re-addition) to my arsenal. Future mods might include the Orange Mod Works Immortal kit for the Longshot, but that kit has been quite a long time in the making so it's probably more likely to be an Xplorer composite bolt sled, plunger tube support and an 8 or 10kg spring. Time will tell I guess, but in the mean time, I'll have fun with this as it is!

For Xplorer kits and mods, go to: www.xplorersg.com

Slydev now shipping to the U.S

Last post, I mentioned Slydev making small parts for Nerf, including the Jolt rail connector that I featured, but unfortunately for my American readers, shipping to the U.S was not available at that time.

Well, now Slydev is. I have also noted that soon to come are Quadshot barrel spacers and after that, Nerf rail iron sights and something for the iphone/ipod (possibly a blaster mount???).

Most parts are avilable in multiple colours so those of you that live in the U.S will probably want to head over to the Slydev Store and check out the parts available.

Slydev: Rail adapter for Nerf Jolt

Slydev is run by Oznerf forum member Joey and has recently started developing small parts for foam dart blasters, from rail accessories to additional glue-on rails. The other day, I saw that he had posted about some Jolt related products, and a Jolt to Nerf rail adapter exactly what I needed so I ordered one through the online store.

It cost me a tiny $3 including postage and I must say, it is pretty sturdy.  The 2 part mechanism attaches to any Nerf rail via a small screw which pulls the 2 parts together to clamp on the the rail and your Jolt just clips in to the holder. I used mine to add my Jolt as an under barrel foregrip blaster for my Gear Up Recon. Unfortunately, shipping is only available Australia-wide at the moment, however international shipping may be available in the future. If you have a buddy in Australia but you live overseas, it's probably worth asking them if they can have it sent to them and then ship it to you.

I'm hoping to see a ton more parts from the Slydev Store, as I feel like the quality will improve even further as time goes on. So if you're Australian, head to Slydev store and have a look.

OMW Black Friday sales

The Orange Mod Works sales for Black Friday are now live, and offer one deal a day for 7 days. about now is a great time to pick up an OMW mod kit. Dates and sales are as follows, going live by 2am CST (Houston, Texas):


November 25th: Recon Metal Madness
November 26th: Stage One Stockpile
November 27th: Spring Fling
November 28th: Orange Bucks and Trigger Raffle
November 29th: Cyber Monday Mystery Gift
November 30th: Massacre Medley
December 1st: Longshot Bonus


I'll probably be picking up a kit for myself at some stage during these sales, they do look pretty interesting. for more information, see the link below:
Orange Mod Works Black Friday Sales!.

Quick mod: shortened Spectre stock

For myself and many others I've spoken to, the folding stock that comes with the Nerf Spectre feels a little too long to be comfortable, so I've come up with a way of making it much shorter that just requires a bit of cutting, filing down, and glueing. A Dremel tool would be pretty handy, but you can get by with a small hacksaw and sandpaper or a round file, but you will definitely need either a hot glue gun or epoxy if you're following my method. By all means, I'm sure there is someone that will or already has come up with a better way for doing this mod but this is designed as a starting point for ideas.

Anyway, step one take the back half of the stock apart. once the yellow parts are off, you may screw them back together straight away, it's just to take them off their mounting point.

 Cut the stock where shown either with a Dremel and cutting wheel, or your small hacksaw. I guess you could use a large chainsaw if you really wanted, but that's probably overkill and I definitely wouldn't suggest using an instrument meant for cutting down trees to mod your Nerf gun.

You need this piece that was originally forming part of the mount for the yellow pieces at the back to fit the section where the middle brace was, as the flat piece sticking out gives you some more area to glue to later on. to make it fit, though, you will need to file or Dremel down the two little tubes circled, as they're too big for the sockets in the stock. You can also use sand paper but that will take a while, but it can be done. Grind them down until they are gone, and also get rid of the little peg that the red arrow is pointing at.

Screw back together with the original back piece from the middle brace and your stock should look like the picture above (take note that the T piece sits on the inside). Glueing the yellow parts to the new shortened setup is fairly easy, just add some hot glue or epoxy to the spots pictured below (a bit messy, but you get the idea) and align the yellow stock pieces to fit.

Wait for it to dry and you're done! you now have a much shorter Spectre stock, which is probably a bit more practical for a "stealth" blaster. Hope you liked the guide, leave a comment or email pictures of your own ideas to cfb_rolley@hotmail.com if you've come up with a better way!

"NiteSniper" - Modified Nerf Nitefinder

Alright so this is basically a total reworking of my very first Nerf mod, which I posted up here a fair while ago. Unfortunately after I mad that post, the plunger on it broke so I had to throw in new internals, and while I was at it I added a new light and battery terminals. It sat around for a while until today, when I had the time to repaint it and add the faux barrel back on.

This time, I went for a different camo look, using a technique that I will do a guide on how to do at a later date. This turned out really nice, and it's probably my most powerful Nerf gun I have at the moment, hitting 100 feet or more. It's because of this that I added the faux barrel back on, because it slows down reload time to make it a little more fair and challenging to use in a Nerf war, and also because the wide aperture barrel helps reduce the flailing that streamline darts do sometimes without having much impact on range.

Loading is done by sliding the port tube forward, pushing a dart in and closing the port again. Of course, you don't have to close the port tube, but for night games it covers the bright orange tip of the dart, and makes the whole blaster almost invisible until you activate the light. Personally I'm eager to get in the action with this blaster to see shots I can make from a decent range.

Vortex Praxis Mod guide

This mod is essentially the same mod you can do on the three spring powered Vortex blasters, and simply involves reconfiguring the spring to have more pre-load tension. Though, there are already guides on how to do this, this guide is more about how to access the spring in the Praxis easily.

So let's get started! first, disassembly:

First remove the stock and accessories. then have a look at the rear of the blaster and remove the two screws holding the stock adaptor on. Then go ahead and remove the 13 screws in the green part of the shell. You do not need to remove the screws on the barrel or the pump action grip.

You now have access to what you need. Remove the screw from the left side of the plastic plate housing the spring, and also the screw in the picture below, allowing you to pry that plate down. Now lift the cover plate off the pins that hold the firing arm and rubber stopper in place, and slide it left until it is free. The pictures below should help.

Below, you can see the plate is removed and there is clear access to the pins that hold the rubber stopper and firing arm in place. Use a pair of pliers to slide these out and take the firing arm out for now.

Now, all you have to do is unscrew the silver screw and move the spring position around to the left, and screw the silver screw back in there. originally, my Praxis had the spring set in the centre position, and now uses the left-most position to apply more pre-load pressure.

Re-assembly is as simple as reversing the steps to disassemble. you will now have an increase in disc speed and a little more range. Hope this helps!

STW modified Nerf Longshot

I've always liked the Nerf Longshot, they have so much potential as a powerful marksman blaster and the cosmetic mods for these is absolutely endless. Almost every Nerf collector either has a Longshot or has a few of them. I haven't done a review on a Nerf Longshot yet, because there are plenty of reviews already out there, the reviews by SG Nerf, Urban Taggers, and Nerf mods and reviews are all very good reviews. But, I will post the finished (for now) result of modding my Longshot.

So here it is, a moderately modified Nerf Longshot that hits 80+ feet and is fairly accurate, with custom paint. Internally, the mods are actually quite basic. All I have really done for performance is drill the air restrictor out and stretch the stock spring a bit. I did originally add a Nitefinder spring for more power, and ranges were about 100 feet, but it was difficult to cock if you were in a hurry and it wasn't very accurate, not to mention the strain on the internals was enough to damage parts. So for the sake of having a reliable, accurate blaster I sacrificed the extra range and took out the Nitefinder spring. Other than that, I removed the clip lock and trigger lock as I normally do with my other modded blasters. The operation is nice and smooth, and I'm still able to out range almost any other blaster, so I'm quite happy with the internals the way they are.

Externally, I didn't change anything major other than paint and a custom removable barrel. For the paint I used a base of flat black and layered up red and white stripes without a stencil, because I wanted the colours to fade in to each other. The custom barrel can be removed, just like a Nerf barrel. All I did was take the barrel adapter piece from an old Nerf barrel and grind it down until it fit snug in to a spare length of PVC I had, and used PVC plumber's glue to make the bond. Add a few coats of flat black and it was done. The wide aperture of the barrel means it doesn't affect the performance at all, other than sometimes stopping darts from gathering too much tail spin, or "waggle".

Overall, I like this blaster a lot, The ranges are great, and so is the accuracy. But the bolt action type loading means that it is restricted to a marksman or sniper role, and doesn't fair all that well in fast assault situations where a slamfire, semi auto or full auto blasters excel.

Custom Nerf Nitefinder

In between writing for this blog, riding and working, I've also been moving house, so I have been really busy. The upside of this, Is that I've found well over 100 Nerf darts (from places you wouldn't even think of looking), and this, my custom Nitefinder. I did a review on these and also a mod guide a while ago, but I had no idea where this one was to include it in the pictures or write up.

Anyway, This was the very first Nerf gun I owned and modded. It started out as a simple stretched spring, then later I decided to drill the restrictor out, and I got some great ranges out of it. But, me being me, I wanted more power. So, I added an extra spring to work inside the original one. And then I went further, and added a stock fabricated from a piece of L bar and a short piece of box section steel. I cut a small section out of one side of each L bar piece so that it could be screwed flat to the side of the Nitefinder's body. This stock gave me added stability in Nerf wars to be able to hit 80 foot ranges with decent accuracy. A while later, I bought a Longshot and attached the scope to this, and did my first painting attempt .

2 bolts either side secure the stock

This Nitefinder is one Nerf gun that I can say I'll sill keep using for a while, though not one of my best modding jobs, it looks OK in my opinion, I do like the minimalistic stock look. Performance is still quite good, it's short, so very easy to get around with, powerful enough to get good ranges, and pretty accurate for a Nerf gun. The downside is that it is slow to reload and quite loud. But, like I said, I'll still be using this blast from the past.