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Posted (edited)

Actually, it's not too hard to get a vacuum seal on a recon that way, two of my nearly stock ones do that too, after removing the restrictors.

I hope they get more kits in stock soon, I would love to replace the parts from the first recon I modded, which became rather leaky.

Edit: Actually looks like they have a few recon stage 2 kits in stock again, just ordered both for the recon, and the stage 1 AT kit. I can't wait to see what they do with the longstrike and longshot.

Edited by Chronocidal
Posted (edited)

If anyone's interested the Gear-up series of N-strike guns seem to be on clearance at Walmart. The Gear Up Maverick for example which usually goes for $11.47 (everything's more expensive here) rang up at only $7.00, the Barricades which are $19.41 are going for $13.00. Didn't have time to check out the other Gear Up guns but i'm sure the trend is the same. The White-Out guns are still going for full price.

Edited by Veritas
Posted

Sadly, clearance sales at Walmart are regional. And at the whim of the Regional managers. They are not company wide. Same thing happened with MP Prime. some found him for $25 and less!!!

Posted

Picked up a Vortex Praxis. Some impressions:

No longer a plunger gun. It's now feels to be a spring gun.

Also, Praxis is NOT slamfire. Single shot, cock and shoot.

Ammo is 2-part, small (just slightly more than 1.5" in diameter), and rather impressive in range... but not in accuracy. Very susceptible to wind, even indoor -- a trial shot at around 20+ ft had a 1' drop in height (respectable) and a 1' lateral drift. Good range, lousy precision. No slamfire means not much suppressive use.

Gun itself is choked full of safety features. Hard to AD one. But also means behaviour is very restrictive. Speculation: might not be too hard to mod to slamfire capabilities.

Mag design is mixed. Size is acceptable, 10 round mag is longer than 6-rd clip but still handy. 20 round mag may be a bit of a handful. Given the size, >20 rd clip may be possible, even (slight) banana clip.

But flip side -- mag well is not reliable. Mag feeds ok but mag well has a tendency to release mag for slight twitch of the mag release (or even just general use). Key problem is that you need to seat the mag very firmly, and it's deceptive -- there's a slight catch at first, but you have to firmly address the mag and push in deeper. Failure to address means dropped mag eventually, and given that the lever mag release is near the trigger, it's easy to hit it and drop the mag.

Mag itself have a spring assist to pop it out, so gravity pull can drag the mag clear. The well is also cluttered with structurals, so sometimes loading the mag will result in not going fully in. It's a bit frustrating overall.

Interesting note: You have to insert mag with loaded round -- must be loaded with at least one round -- before you can cycle the action. But you can cock back the action, dump the mag out, and then feed one round into the chamber manually. Which means you can have 10+1 in the pipe, easier to do than with the older clip system.

One interesting aspect is that I'm not sure how to ease spring on an empty chamber. You cannot pull the trigger on an empty chamber, even if you somehow cocked the weapon without a round. Now that I think about it, maybe the trick is to use the round extractor system, but that might not be correct either.

Posted

The vortex guns are a sled system, there's a tension spring which has a little sled on it that sticks into the hollow plastic center of the discs and then launches them forward.

I find the discs to be a lot more accurate and consistent than stock clip system darts, at least stock. Yeah, there is some drift but unmoded darts out of a stock gun like the alpha trooper aren't anything to write home about either.

Posted (edited)

Ok, one more interesting points:

Praxis have a mag-well safety that prevents cocking, and a chamber safety that probably prevents trigger pull on an empty chamber. The mag well safety can be disabled simply by using a rod, so it's a no-brainer mod. I'm not so sure about the chamber safety, might not want to mess with that, but tweaking it might give us the slamfire capability.

EDIT: That mag well safety might also explain why the stupid mag falls out so easily. The safety has a spring under the pressure plate, which pushes down on the magazine. Improper seating means the mag is under stress to unseat, and every time you cock the weapon you are potentially forcing the mag out. So always tap in the mag firmly -- the way it's rigged, looks to be a standard feature on all Vortex guns.

Edited by Lynx7725
Posted

if you want to make sure the mag is fully seated, make sure the pump is either fully forward or fully back. If it is, the mag will make an audible *click* when it it's properly seated. Once it's in, it wont come out unless you hit the mag release.

Posted

for east bay people, the new toy-r-us in fremont is open. They give you a 5$ off 25$ coupon when you walk in the door and the n-strike guns have a "buy-1, get-1 50% off" promotion.

Posted

just got my upgrade kits... holy crap. I see what you mean about the vacuum loading, I think my darts are almost too big for the barrel.

Honestly though, the spring they provided is almost scary. I actually wound up putting the original spring back in, and just using the new metal breach. I might put it back later, but the thing was so loud I thought it would shatter. Combined with the modded darts I've been trying out, it was the most accurate I've seen a recon fire. Also, the darts were nearly denting my furniture. :lol:

Anywho, in terms of darts, I've taken to tweaking a few of the massive amounts of clip system darts I've got (the raider came with 100 :p). Biggest reason they tend to be inaccurate is the balance point being too far aft (or just being too light in general), so I've gone through a few methods trying to improve the weight distribution. I know a lot of people make their own darts out of foam stock, but I like not having to mod my guns to use custom ammo. Besides, not using those 200-something clip darts I've accumulated feels like a waste. ^_^

First thing I tried was just wrapping about 2" of electrical tape around the dart head, about 1/4" back from the very tip. I wrapped it tightly enough to squeeze the tip, and it kept the diameter of the dart fairly consistent. Results were good, the darts definitely flew straight, and were pretty consistently accurate over the width of my apartment, which isn't much, but it was a noticeable improvement. The downside is that over time the tape's glue began to slip, and the tension started to let up, which had two effects. First, the tape section got bigger, making the darts stick a little in the barrels. Second.. the area where the tape slipped left a strip of glue residue that made the darts stick to the barrel even more.

Second attempt is probably the most effective, but also the most tedious. I just shoved modeling clay into the dart tips through the little hole in the side. Forget how I did it, but it took a while to get a single dart modified this way. I think I just shoved small bits of clay in with a toothpick until the tip was full. End result was nice, a good balanced dart tip that you could actually shape a little into a bullet point (of course, impacts would just result in a wide flat tip again). Hurt a bit when I got hit by this one too, just from the weight. In fact, it may have been a little too heavy, due to the weight of the clay.

Probably the most practical thing I tried was the last one. I went and got a fine-tipped glue gun, and started filling the tips with hot glue. I tried using the holes on the side at first, but realized I was just melting and warping the tips that way, so in the end I just stuck the tip of the glue gun right in the center of the tip and melted a new hole. This kept the glue a little more centered, and also let the air escape from the side hole. Think I've made about a clip's worth of these, and they tend to work really well. Only problem I think here is just keeping the glue distribution consistent. Get it off center, and the darts will be just as inaccurate as before, just with a little more impact.

Using those glue-tipped ones with the heavy spring was making some fairly loud impacts on my front door. It's metal, I didn't want to dent my walls.

Posted

For the size of the Vigilon, I'm upset how narrow the grip is. The Barricade has a nice manly grip, but the Vigilon's grip is made for 7 year olds?

Posted

Actually, I didn't notice the grip at all. the Praxis was comfortable to hold around. I did have problems with the older Recon line, sometimes the grip just got in the way.

And yeah, given the target market? The grip was probably made for 7 year olds. :lol:

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

There's a new N-Strike blaster out in the U.S. market, and it's slightly smaller than the Secret Strike AS-1. It's the Jolt EX-1.

Nerf Liberator?

M1942_liberator.jpg

Posted

I got the Vigilon, and I think I'm done with the disk system.I already have 100+ darts of various types for the clip system, whistlers, and Dart Tag guns. Do not want to start on a new type of ammo. The disks also make very tasty chew toys for my little dog :(

Picked up the Dart Tag 16 and 6 shot blasters, and besides having to use the specific darts, they are solid and fun to mess around with.

Posted

Picked up the Dart Tag 16 and 6 shot blasters, and besides having to use the specific darts, they are solid and fun to mess around with.

So they use Taggers only? I thought they were able to use Whistler and Suction darts as well.

Posted

Yes, I tried suction and whistlers, but they are about 1/2 inch too long, and get jammed between shots.

Posted

There's a new N-Strike blaster out in the U.S. market, and it's slightly smaller than the Secret Strike AS-1. It's the Jolt EX-1.

I miss Jolt, it was my favorite cola type drink.

Graham

post-11-0-21050800-1318584802_thumb.jpg

Posted

MY EYES! THE GOGGLES DO NOTHING!!!

Also, why is it that on the stampede the only piece of green plastic that isn't clear is the one part where being see-through would serve a practical purpose?

Posted
MY EYES! THE GOGGLES DO NOTHING!!! Also, why is it that on the stampede the only piece of green plastic that isn't clear is the one part where being see-through would serve a practical purpose?

Two I'd say. I prefer to have a see-through mag too. And the shield, if see-through, would become quite popular...

Come to think of it, I hate the idea of having a piece of useless plastic hanging around. think I'll go think of a use for my Stampede shield...

Posted

MY EYES! THE GOGGLES DO NOTHING!!!

Also, why is it that on the stampede the only piece of green plastic that isn't clear is the one part where being see-through would serve a practical purpose?

I'm guessing it's because of the plastic material of the shield. While majority of the blaster is hard plastic, the shield is made of the flexible plastic you'd find on some sports or P.E. equipment. I don't know if it's even possible to make such plastic see-through.

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