Longshot Mod!

Background:
The Longshot really needs no introduction. Many consider it to be one of the best Nerf blasters ever made, and I would wholeheartedly agree. Just pop it open and take a look at the size of the plunger tube--it's massive! When it came out in 2006, the box deemed it the "longest Nerf blaster," at over 3 feet long. This was because you get two blasters in the box. The smaller, pathetic gun attaches to the front of the Longshot as a "barrel extension." The only problem with the front gun is that it only hurts ranges. The faux barrel has a larger diameter than a dart and only serves to slow the dart down with friction. There is a slight gain in accuracy as well, but the innate inaccuracy of the streamline dart negates this almost completely. The blaster comes with a collapsible stock, which I modded to be in-collapsible for reasons explained below.

Mods:

1. Popatachi Breech! This breech is based off the Sodizzle breech, which was one of the first CPVC Longshot breeches. I completely replaced the Longshot's barrel and breech with 1/2'' CPVC that joins together inside a sanded out CPVC coupler. The front of the breech and the rear of the barrel are tapered and coned out, so they meet together perfectly inside the coupler for that perfect air seal. The barrel is 10'' long, which provides dart speeds up to 185 feet per second! As you can see, I took the orange piece off the old breech so I could attach the new one to the bolt sled. The black piece from the rear of the old breech is hot glued to the back of the new CPVC breech and filled with hot glue to reduce deadspace. Popatachi also had the genius idea of using the rear barrel guide as a chamber to guide the dart into the coupler! See his write-up for exact details.
2. K26 spring replacement. Max load comes out to ~14kg (done using my Python program!). The prime is a little difficult with one hand, but not very hard at all with two. If you want to prime the blaster with one hand, then you absolutely need the next mod.
3. Steel sheet metal reinforcement epoxied to the bolt sled. The K26 spring has destroyed many blasters in its lifetime, and yours will be next if you don't take the necessary precautions. I cut two pieces of sheet metal in a L-shape so they conform to the bolt sled. They were epoxied on the inside of the sides of the bolt sled. You can still have some flex in between the two sides of the bolt sled, but at least the bend of the L is never going to break.
4. Reinforced folding stock with 1/2'' PVC. I used three pieces of PVC cut to the perfect length and stacked in a triangle to prevent the stock from being able to fold up. Why is this necessary? When you put a powerful spring in the Longshot you must usually prime it back with two hands. This usually means resting the stock up against your body, so if the spring is very strong the stock can collapse without warning and possibly injure you.
5. Filled in the spaces in the back of the plunger head with epoxy.
6. Reinforced trigger with epoxy. I filled in both sides of the long extension part with J.B. Weld.
7. Removed priming indicator. This was to make extra room for the plunger rod to occupy and allowing the breech to retract slightly further.
8. Teflon tape under the O-ring for an improved plunger seal.
9. 1/4'' craft foam hot glued to plunger head for impact deadening. This prolongs the life of your blaster and assures that your plunger rod doesn't snap in half!

Clip loading failure:
This mod has one major failure--it cannot chamber darts from a clip! I followed Popatachi's write-up to the tee, but for some reason I cannot prime far back enough to chamber even a 1.5'' stefan. I have a couple of theories for this, assuming I measured everything correctly, which I did :). My first theory is my spring. Popatachi powers his Longshot with a K18 nested over a BBB spring. Neither of those springs have as many coils per inch as the K26. This means that they will compress more than the K26, meaning you will be able to prime back further. My other theory is that Popatachi's mess-up in his write-up actually helps him get a little extra room to chamber the dart. His bolt sled is seated closer to the front of the blaster with the breech closed. This gives the bolt sled slightly more travel. This is why I think my clip loading is not functioning.

Summary:
This was a fun and time-consuming mod. It took careful measurement to get the breech measured properly and the coning of the breech and barrel meeting point took a while to get perfect as well. Remember, measure twice and cut once! Even though I got a single-loading Longshot in the end, it still hits hard enough to leave a raised welt with slugs!

To see how I've improved my modding, check out my second Longshot mod.