How to Make Slug Darts

By popular request (1 person), I have put together a dart-making guide! This guide is dedicated to making one specific style of dart, commonly referred to as a slug dart, or slug. Slugs are the most common type of homemade dart, since they are cheap, easy to make, quick to make, and relatively durable. This is the perfect dart for those who are just starting to make their own homemade darts. Let's do this!

Materials required:
Adhesive-back Bumper, Round, Felt, 1/2" Wide, 1/8" High, Green

Zinc-plated Steel Type A Sae Flat Washer, No. 6 Screw Size, 3/8" Od, .03"-.07" Thick

1/2'' diameter foam backer rod -- FBR can be found at any hardware store, but the quality is often terrible. I did a foam review recently, so check it out here for information on different kinds of FBR.

Hot glue gun + glue sticks

Dart cutting sleeve -- I use a 1.25'' length stub of 9/16'' brass tubing for wider foam and a 1.25'' stub of polyethylene tubing for thinner FBR.

Procedure:
Start by cutting out pieces of foam in your desired length. I used to use 1.5'' Stefans, but sometimes they had trouble feeding around the bend in a hopper clip so I have since switched to 1.25'' darts.

Once you have enough pieces of foam, throw them into a pillowcase and tie it up with a rubber band. Toss the pillowcase into the dryer and run it on medium heat for 15-20 minutes. This will straighten out the foam, since it came in a roll and is naturally curled up a bit.

Start heating up the glue gun and bust out your washers and felt pads. You will want to peel off the felt pads and stick a washer onto the exact center of the pad. Do this for however many darts you are making.

Now you will take your straightened blanks and use the glue gun to burn a cone-shaped depression into one side of the blank. Burn too shallow and you won't have enough space for glue and the adhesion will suck. Burn too deep and the top part of the dart will collapse, warp, and become unstable

Fill it to the top with hot glue. It will take practice to get the right amount; not enough will result in a crappy bond, while too much results in glue spilling out from under the washer and ruining the dart/barrel seal.

Cap it quickly with a washer and felt pad. MAKE SURE THAT THE WASHER IS PERFECTLY CENTERED! I cannot stress this enough--you accuracy will evaporate if you don't heed this advice.

That's it! Just repeat that a few hundred times and you should be golden. Don't be discouraged if your first batch of darts doesn't turn out well--it takes many darts to get it right! Also, it is harder to make quality Stefans with shitty foam--do yourself a favor and get some decent foam. You accuracy, range, and dart life depends on it!

P.S. Believe it or not, this is my 50th post! Wow--time really flies when you're having fun, eh? Thanks for staying with me and supporting me so far guys--I'm starting to get pretty damn good at this modding business!

Cheers,
~T da B