I got a new Nerf gun!

I've got some really exciting news to share! I just got my hands on my long-time favorite nerf gun ever! So now that I finally have one, I can give you a review of the... (drum-roll please)

N-Strike VULCAN!!!!!!!!!!

N-Strike Vulcan EBF-25

I know, it's really old. And I know, it's almost as bad as the notorious Deploy. (I shudder to even say that name.) But look at this thing! It's a monstrous piece of tacticool glory! I mean, can you get much better than a belt-fed, tripod-mounted machine gun designed to look like a freakin' TURRET?

Good: 

• Sheer intimidation factor. If you run this at a nerf war, no one will ever so much as dream of approaching your base. Or you. Or if you're lucky, they'll just surrender. Hey, it could happen. 
• Three tac rails. Count them- one, two, three. Great for putting on that old Recon light, or maybe a Longstrike flip-up sight. 
• Fully automatic. Step 1: pull trigger. No step two.  
• Single-action. If you don't have batteries, or just don't like to spray-and-pray, then you can use the priming bar to fire off a single shot
• Bandolier loops. Yes, you finally have a legitimate application for your old orange and black  N-Strike bandolier.
• Belt box. It comes with a removable box to feed your ammo belt more compactly.
• Cosmetic possibilities.You could repaint this to look realistic, or you could chop it up into a tiny dual-wieldable HMG, or you could stick gears on it for a steampunk look,  or you could beef it up for a cosplay weapon. Your choice.



Belt box

• Did I mention that it looks awesome?

  Bad: (In short, everything else.) 

• Weight. Four feet of plastic ain't too easy to lift.  
• Belt system.The belt, though it looks sweet, is extremely impractical to reload quickly unless you have several. And since they're proprietary, good luck getting more than one.  
• Capacity. Twenty-five darts sounds like a lot until you're shooting them out at full auto. And like I said, that's all you'll have, period. 
• Ranges. For N-Strike, it's not especially sub-par. But it doesn't stack up to modern Nerf guns. 
• Tripod. It's not a simple tac rail attachment- no, that would be too intuitive. It ONLY fits on the Vulcan and its spiritual successor, the Rhinofire. (Which for the price is also crap. Beautiful, beastly crap.) 
• Jams. The biggest issue with the Vulcan is that it jams like nobody's business. I usually jam about three times per reload. 3:25 is a REALLY bad ratio for that.

Basically, the Vulcan EBF-25 is no longer at all practical. But who cares? It's tacticool as all get out! Who wouldn't want to throw foam with a heavy machine gun?

I even drool over the picture, and I own this thing.

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Nerf Longshot CS-12

Zombie Strike Longshot CS-12

The repaint isn't the only thing updated in this re-release of the Longshot, originally seen in 2006 as the yellow N-Strike Longshot CS-6. Hasbro originally touted it as their longest gun yet, a sniper-rifle of sorts. They discontinued it soon after, since $35.00 - $40.00 was apparently more than most people were willing to spend at that time on an "oversized" toy. But when modders discovered that it actually had monstrous firepower capability, demand spiked for the somewhat hard-to-find Longshot. It became a sought-after status symbol, an HvZ staple. In late 2014, Hasbro noticed that supplies were running low among the Nerf Nation, so they re-released it under the Zombie Strike Z.E.D. Squad sub-series.

The hopes:
When the Nerfing community heard that the Longshot was coming back, the forums and YouTube channels exploded with speculation and glee. Since the N-Strike Elite line had repainted and improved previous N-Strike guns and Zombie Strike was, loosely speaking, a sub-series of Elite, many assumed that the internals would be significantly upgraded. Some speculated that it would come with a new, different barrel extension. A few even thought Hasbro might remove the AR for us. A far-out hope, but still a pretty cool thought.

The reality:

Ummm… Yeah.
Ugly.

Sorry, folks. Hasbro clearly acknowledged that modders are capable of modding the Longshot on their own. They left it exactly the same inside, and on the outside they just repainted it. And removed the frontgun. :( At least they gave us a more capacious clip. But they took away the bipod, leaving an ugly and uncomfortable… thing. What would you call that exactly?


Now for the pros/cons.
Good:

• Performance. Hasbro chose not to upgrade it for a reason- they probably couldn't have done so without breaking some sort of regulation. When shooting Elite or Zombie Strike darts, even the original Longshot can outshoot most Elite guns.
• Scope. If you look up "Nerf" on Ebay, half of the items that come up are Longshot scopes. They're popular- after all, they look sweet. And very tacticool…
• Clip storage. Don't see it? That's because this gun is designed with functionality and realism in mind. The stock securely holds an extra clip (not included). And when it's not holding a spare clip, no-one will even see that it can…
• Handle.   The. Best. Nerf handle. Ever.  It's universally comfortable; I can almost guarantee that you will feel like your hand just wants to hug that handle.

  

  It's like a Shrinky-Dink!

• Modability. This gun is perfect for any skill level. You can literally do almost anything to this gun, and tons of companies make mod kits for any level of modification, making it even easier for you. Not to mention that it can figuratively "shoot lasers" when heavily modded.
• Simple. Forget modding. Some Nerfers can't even figure out slam-fire. For those of you, the Longshot will be your dream. It's simple and intuitive; a baby could probably shoot it.
• Collapsibility. It can shrink quite a bit without the clip or scope. And when you collapse the stock, it gets even smaller.
• Bipod. Oh wait, they took that off. Never mind.
• Z.E.D. Squad darts. They look like they've got built-in syringe with cc measurements! How cool is that?

That's a lot of good stuff, am I right?  But unfortunately there's also a couple cons.

Bad:

• NO bipod. I'm a little put off by this. It's actually not the lack of a bipod that bugs me, per say. It's what's left over. Seriously, what is that?
• Only one tac rail. Of course, the design was from back before tac rails were even a thing, but I still wish it had another rail. Maybe where the bipod used to be?  cough*redesign*cough...
• Paint scheme. Teal and pale orange just doesn't jive with me. It's just not tactical or cool. Certainly not tacticool.

Well that's it. This powerhouse was hard to beat when it first came out, and it's still high up on the totem pole. It's well worth the price, especially if you want a good platform for a great mod. But Hasbro, if you're listening, please, please, put the bipod back on. Or just redesign it slightly with a tactical rail there instead. Please.


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MOD: Demolisher missile launcher

Unfortunately, as previously stated, this gun was not very well-designed for power-boosting. Yet at the same time, it does have a nice little wiring-clip so that you can completely split the two halves apart. Hmm. Didn't think that one through, did you, Hasbro?

I found that it will be more trouble than it's worth to me to improve the performance of the main gun. But the good news is that you can double the performance of the missile launcher!

Difficulty: Easy (but not for a gun that will be used by younger nerfers
What you'll need: A narrow phillipshead screwdriver and electrical tape (or plumbers tape). And, of course, a good arm with which to operate the launcher…
Optional: Drill with a half-inch bit, or a dremel tool with a utility bit.

There are two ways to do this. If you want to increase airflow, you'll need to drill out the grating in the front of the tube. To do this, I would suggest taking the whole gun apart. But if you just want to increase the seal, which provides almost all of the improvement, you hardly have to take anything apart.

Seal Upgrade 

1. Unscrew
You'll only have to take off the grey handle of the missile launcher to get to the little part we care about. I also like to take out the batteries just to prevent the possibility of any electrical accidents, but you don't have to if you don't want.

2. Remove Plunger
Pretty easy and fool-proof. Just pull it straight out.

This is actually what it looks like after the
mod, but it's enough to go by.

3. Seal Improvement
Pull the O-ring off the plunger head and wipe the lubricant off the head. This is so that the electrical tape will stick better, and you won't have to wrangle it around for ten minutes just to get it on there. Anyway, after you wipe it off, you should wrap the head with 1-3 full wraps of electrical tape. After that, pull the O-ring back onto the plunger over the electrical tape .Note: The number of wraps you use will proportionately increase the force of launch, but it will also make it much more difficult to use. It will be much harder to pull the handle out, and slightly harder to push it back in. I put two wraps on, but I'm a strong teenage boy. Mod wisely.

From here on out, you pretty much just reverse what you did in steps 1 and 2. The extra long screw goes on the top right of the handle.

Airflow Improvement

1. Unscrew and Clamshell

Take out all the screws. Short ones go in the topmost sections, and the super-long one goes just to the left of the stock attachment point. The rest are all the same size. And, while not at all necessary, I like to remove the batteries for safety.

Then just pull it apart carefully. There are some wires attaching the two halves at the tip of the handle.

2. Remove launcher

Here all you have to do is pull out the tube and apparatus that actually launches the missile.

3. Drill out grate

Get out your drill/dremel and make the tip look like one large hole instead of looking like a jail window. I won't tell you how best to do this, because it all depends on you and your tool. If you aren't familiar enough with it to know what to do here, you shouldn't be trying this. The final result should look like the hole has never had bars across it, or you might risk damaging your missiles. So yes, you should sand it down.

Put it all back together, screw it tight, and you will have better airflow.

Note: After removing the grate, it is possible to modify it to fire elite darts as well with a coupler system. However, you would slightly restrict the airflow again, and you'd run the risk of completely ruining the launcher if a dart got sucked back inside it. For moderately advanced modders only.


Congratulations! Now your missile launcher will dominate anybody on the field! (Unless of course they've performed this mod too…)

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Nerf Sharpfire

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's a Nerf gun. The real question is this: is it a pistol? or a rifle? maybe a carbine? I think Hasbro got a little carried away when they designed this gun. I suppose they wanted to make another gun that had the same marketing ploy that the Recon CS-6 had -- many configurations. It's "modular". But why not just buy a Retaliator?

Whatever Nerf was planning when they made this, didn't involve much tacticool. :(
Ah well. After all, it shoots like a thunder-bolt.

Here's the scoop:

Good:

• Simple. The Sharpfire is very simple and intuitive in both operation and build.
• Collapsable. If you don't have much storage space, this gun is for you. It can shrink down to less than 12 x 6 x 1.5 inches.
• Surprisingly accurate. For some reason, this gun is much less susceptible to wind and other environmental features (like gravity) that decrease accuracy. And you'll get even better accuracy with the barrel-silencer-thing attached. I guess it's pretty well-named.
• Stock/Holster. That's right, the stock doubles as a holster, complete with a belt clip on the side.
• Ranges. 65-70 feet with Elite Darts or Zombie Darts. And considering they didn't even make any range claims, and that it's a pistol, these are gooooood ranges.

Bad:

• No tactical rails. This one really disappoints me.
• Incompatible. In addition to being unable to accept Nerf tactical rail accessories, it is useless with any other accessories. And its accessories won't work on other guns. So much for being modular.
• The stock. To be frank, it looks pretty silly and it's not in a very good position. Kinda useless.
• Dart storage. The stock holds exactly 6 darts. Which I find interesting considering that the Sharpfire comes with ten Elites…
• Holster system. It's a pain to put the main gun in its holster, because you're actually putting it on the holster. The pin that sticks in the back of the handle to attach the stock is also the pin the you stick into the front of the handle to "holster" it.
• Uncomfortable handle. I honestly have no idea why Nerf designed the handle like they did. I find it rather non-ergonomic. Hopefully you won't...

BUT I LOVE IT! The reason is that this gun can easily be modified to be a far better sniper's-choice than any other gun I've used. It can be made to reach much more than a hundred feet, and still be weirdly accurate. And you get all that performance in a nice, compact, simple package.

At $15, this gun is sooooo worth the buy! Head over to your nearest Target right now, and buy one. Now. Do it.

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Nerf Demolisher 2-in-1

Have you ever wished you could take a Stryfe and make it bigger? No!?!?  Well, apparently Hasbro thought you did. Seriously, this is basically just a re-shelled Stryfe with a pump missile-launcher on the bottom. Actually, it's pretty awesome; it's just not extremely original. After all, it's basically what modders have been doing for years.

Alright, enough opinion; let's get to the good stuff:

Good:

• Tacticool. It has a stock-attachment point, a barrel extension point, two tacrails, and an AWESOME banana clip. Clip size comparison below.
• Good for warring. Provided your war officials allow grenade-like splash damage, the missile launcher on the bottom will come in handy as a grenade launcher.
• Orange. It will be very hard to mistake this for a real gun. Very hard.
• Stock. The stock holds an extra missile (which comes with the gun). It also apparently holds disc ammo from the Vortex line. Not relevant, but I thought I'd stick that in there.
• Stock (again). The stock is very comfortable and solid. It's my new favorite, even beating out the Raider/Rampage stock.
• Missiles. This is the first Nerf Elite gun to fire missiles, and I have good reason to believe there will be more coming. Plus, if you happen to have a thing against the launcher, you can just throw the missiles like a football.
• Bandolier points. The attachment points on this are really useful.
• Semi-auto. Who would want to cock such a big blaster?

Bad:

• Heavy/bulky. It's definitely not a pistol, even though it basically is...
• Missile launcher. There are a lot of ways this could have been made better. The way they made it, you just pull the handle forward, then slam it back. The harder you slam, the closer to far it will go. However, the harder you slam, the more likely the gun is to wobble around, destroying accuracy. It would have been much better with an air tank system.
• Banana clip. While it looks really cool, I'll be honest: the cool isn't functional. The darts only go down to the point where it starts to curve, so there's a lot of wasted space.
• Difficult to mod. This doesn't apply to the missile launcher, but the whole gun is a bunch of electronics. And some of the wires are hidden away inaccessibly behind an integrated plate.

Ranges:

Using the primary clip-fed gun at full rev and an angle for best possible range, I maxed out at 97 feet. Parallel to the ground at full rev, the darts reached about 60-ish feet. Firing as fast as I could pull the trigger (thus slightly decreasing rev), I got around 55 feet.

With the missiles, I couldn't break 50 feet, and that's with a good angle. Level to the ground, you'd be lucky to get 25 feet. The good news is that the launcher can easily be modded to get nearly hundred foot ranges.

Pictures:

It's a big gun even without the stock attached.

It's an even bigger gun with the stock and a barrel attached.

Clip size comparison: Left- 6 dart standard.
Middle- 10 dart banana.
Right- 18 dart extended.

The length of the draw for the missile launcher.

Mod guide: http://tacticoolnerfer.blogspot.com/2015/11/mod-demolisher-missile-launcher.html


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