Monday, September 10, 2007

How-To: Mod a Nerf Revolver: Part 1

A long time ago in a blog very nearby, I reviewed the Nerf Maverick revolver and promised to post a how-to on the mods I've made to it. Here, finally, is the first of them:

In stock form, the Maverick's cylinder only swings out about 20 or 30 degrees, just far enough to load a couple of darts at a time. Additionally, the cylinder doesn't spin continuously; its rotation is quantized into increments 360/6 = 60 degrees. These 2 shortcomings make reloading in the heat of a harmless, foam shoot-out time-consuming and frustrating. This post will show how to mod your Maverick's cylinder to swing out about 90 degrees and spin more freely, increasing both the reload speed and the all-important coolness factor.

Place the "weapon" down on its left side. Remove the 3 screws holding the slide together. Remove the slide.


Remove the remaining 8 or so screws holding the right half of the frame to the left.


Lift out the cylinder, along with the gray front and rear arms that support it.


Examine the front support arm, and you will find a nub that prevents the arm from swinging out of the frame.


Use a utility knife to cut off the offending nub.


You are now halfway done. Examine the left frame, just to the rear of where the cylinder would sit. You will find another nub, this one preventing the rear arm from swinging out freely.


Cut that nub off, too.


Now reassemble the gun.


The cylinder will now swing out all the way and spin easily, enabling quick reloading and fun, nontoxic Russian roulette.


Your newly modified Maverick can now be used to rain brightly colored, suction-cup-tipped terror down upon your young nieces and nephews. But not your dog; that's just mean.

The second modification can be found here.

29 comments:

  1. Anonymous4:18 PM

    I got part one to work, and when i did part two, part one didnt work. Do you have any advice??

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  2. Make sure the barrel isn't binding against the frame. When you reassemble the cylinder onto its spindle, if you don't compress the entire assembly enough, the cylinder won't be able to swing out or swing freely.

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  3. If you don't plan on connecting the maverick to the titan you can use a piece of the connection point and the spring underneath it to help with the binding.
    You'll also need a straw(I personally used a McDonald's one but any straw should work with maybe a slightly tighter or looser fit) and either some scissors or an utility knife.
    First follow the steps to open it up, cut the straw so that it can fit into and fill 3/4ths to 4/5ths of the little slot where the front half of the cylinder pin fits into the main frame of the gun.
    Carefully slide the spring into the straw and all the way down to the base of the frame (the half with all the mechanics inside). Now carefully slice of a small wedge of the little connector (mine looked sort of like this [:o:], cut off so you have a piece like this |:]) and insert that into the straw about as far as the frame will allow you and that should fix the majority of the binding when ejecting the cylinder.

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  4. Anonymous7:54 PM

    Arg! I am having a lot of trouble unscrewing the screws the screwdriver and my hands keep slipping. They are in there very tight.

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  5. Yeah Phillips-head screws are Satan's own fastening technology. Make sure you have the correct size screwdriver.

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  6. Anonymous7:20 PM

    Thanks so much, it works perfect, but took a while.

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  7. Anonymous7:10 PM

    I'm having a little trouble getting the nubs off to make the barrel swing out. Any suggestions?

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  8. Anonymous2:21 PM

    i was using a razor blade to saw it off! Then got like half of a mm in and thought of a better idea. Make the cylinder be able to be removed right out of the gun! i simply removed the gray holders and added an extra tiny spring to the side missing a holder. I reattached it and it clips in if you are holding the button =)

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  9. That sounds like a good mod. I hope it works out for you.

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  10. Anonymous1:56 AM

    i have the barrel out but i cant figure out how to get inside?Help!!!!!!

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  11. Anonymous3:43 AM

    Just completed both mods. Difficult work. I advise people doing this to take care when reattaching the revolving barrel because the hex piece that the center of it snaps into is kind of finicky and if you don't put it all back together right than it will occasionally jam when you are trying to push the revolver barrel into place after loading ammo. Also I'm curious what do the springs underneath the plastic restrictors do. And why does it say to remove only 5 of the 6 springs?

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  12. Anonymous1:39 AM

    so, i got the whole barrel mod thing.. but the only problem is the cocking mechanism doesn't go back now when i cock it.. it just says out.

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  13. Anonymous1:39 AM

    any suggestions on what is wrong?

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  14. Sounds like either (a) the slider is not engaging the main spring, or (b) the slider is getting hung up on something at the far end of its travel. I suggest a partial disassembly and examination.

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  15. Anonymous1:37 PM

    alright, that is what i was gonna do if somebody didn't suggest it.


    but thank you. :)

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  16. Great mod tutorial. I used a small power driver from dremel- their small tips are perfect. I then used a dremel tool to shave off the nubs.

    watamala- sounds like the spring from the cocking mechanism slipped off the metal rod that goes between both slide parts. Take it apart and make sure the spring is on.

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  17. Anonymous6:36 PM

    I did this to my Maverick, but i cut too much off of the body, and my gun stopped being able to fire. I havent tried this with the new one i got yet, but if you cut the nubs off the back support arm, it should work just as well, without the risk of breakage. However, i have never heard of the problem happening elsewhere, so my worries may be entirely misplaced.

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  18. @ Whatamala:
    There's a little spring inside that can slip off its peg on the inside of the gun. This spring is near the cocking mechanism. Go to youtube and search for "mod a nerf maverick part two." It's a kid explaining how to put a modded Mav back together, and he talks about this crucial spring.
    Good luck!

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  19. Anonymous2:57 PM

    can anybody say russian roulette drinking game?

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  20. Anonymous3:43 PM

    i have to ask now, what is the downside (if any) to modding the gun? :.

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  21. There is some risk that you could damage the gun if you do not execute the mod correctly.

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  22. Anonymous11:58 PM

    I cut off the wrong offending nubs and now i have to go buy a new maverick. Luckily Meijer has them on sale for $7.

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  23. Anonymous3:10 PM

    I like the idea of the cylinder coming all the way out

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  24. Raiderboy11:20 AM

    Can somebody post a review on modding the cylinder so it completely unattaches from the main part of the gun to reload?

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  25. Raiderboy,

    I don't know how to do that, but I've seen a how-to on it somewhere. Try doing a search. Good luck.

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  26. tgold5:00 PM

    its kind of off topic but how many pennys do you need for the penny mod because im thinking about doing it to my maverick

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  27. There's some discussion of the pennies in the comments of my second post on this topic:

    http://industrialstrengthscience.blogspot.com/2007/09/how-to-mod-nerf-revolver-part-2.html

    One commenter says 2 suffices; Another suggest 4 works well.

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  28. Exceptionally helpful data. Would like to see more posts soon!. Nerf Gun Reviews

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