R-Spec Firestrike, Ultra Match 16 Kg Firing Test.

Each Square is 20 feet, these were all flat shots, I have darts that shoot farther, but they weren't on me at the time, but honestly, this gives you an honest idea of what this gun can do.

....So what can't it do, well It can't quickly reload, it can't be used by kids, hell a kid can't draw this thing, it can't rapid fire.  But if your just in the mood to make em hurt.... 

.....who cares

See You In Disneyland

--Cartaya

The Centurion, A Closer Look...

Quite possibly the last, mighty, spring-loaded gun Nerf will make, up there with the Longshot.  Does it have that potential? Most def.  First off look how it comes in the box....

The...Front Barrel, not completly assembled with the rest of the gun, is OFF!!!  I was hoping for this, it looks to me that you can keep this off and only have the breach to make this a compact rifle or "Carbine".  I don't know if the dart loading post is in the barrel atachment, or it it comes off like a Retaliator and the dart post is in the rest of the gun, but it might be better without the barrel.

Or maybe not....

You see I use a Barrel assembily on my Retaliator's to stabilize the darts as they go out. Here just see.

You see I use a 2 inch Velcro strip, the hard side of it and trim it with a box cutter so that there is no play on the barrel, but only on the barrel.  If you look closely, there are 2 tabs cut out that make it so the barrel does not move side to side as well as 5/8th's of an inch of barrel filed off to remove excess air so that the dart flies freely.  The result...sniperland!!!  Without this, at 185 Feet per second, the dart Fires wildly all over the place.  These are great also for Rayven and Stryfes, especially Stryfes.

Yes folk's the barrel can make or break this,  without the barrel, no bipod.  But honestly, who ever stays put on a bipod on their gun in a serious Nerf battle?...But then again look at the darts...

Noooo....not the blue one smart ass, the pink looking red ones...  I really hope they are not pink, but anyways notice the whistler ends on em.  Remember the the Sonic Darts were the most accurate, but slowest before we all standardized to Streamlines (me being one of the first).  It could be just accurate out the breach without a barrel to begin with.

Overall however, I am excited about this one, serious potential just when all those styfers thought it was safe.....

I am gonna love modding this thing.

I'll see you in Disneyland....

--Cartaya

And don't forget, I have a few models of modded Nerf Guns for sale made new out of the box.  Not cheap, but victory never is....  

A Flywheel Future? Really Man, Really?

Now we all know about the new rapid-strike coming out soon, they say August, I hope they are all wrong.  However it is a flywheel gun.  Man, what happened to the Stampede?  Mainspring powered, everyone seems to like it, why change the formula of success?

We are seeing much more of this everyday, in battle, on the shelfs, more people picking up flywheel blasters and less Rampages, Retaliators and Triads, but I wonder why?  Sure I had my share of flywheel guns, didn't care for em much, hated the idea on needing to spin up the motors, be noisy, and on top of that, the first shot is always the best, all others preceeding, less range.

Is it just a preference, I say yes, me i like Retaliator/recon type guns with Firestrikes that can make a Titan Stephan shooter run for cover because he can't aim or reload as fast as me.  That's just me.  But lately the formula is definitely changing.

The Fads, it's a gas man!

I was the first on my block to have a arrowstorm, that and a sharpshooter, unstoppable! I remember back at BYU some hallmate had the full auto nerf gun, all the way back when Nerf bought out super soaker.  Then I remember a few years later in 2004, what a great year that was, the vulcan cannon, the longstrike and of course, the magstrike.  I really thought things were going to become all air powered soon...

but no : (

Then Buzz Bee released the Tommy 20, i heard about nothing but jamming on this gun, the darts had to be different and they were hard to come by.   Then Nerf made the barricade and the Rayven, and then people heard about 14500 lithium-ion cells.   Yes folks that changed everything.

Noisy Noisy.

First thing you will notice firing one of these is that you will not be able to hide.  These things are louder that a white stripes concert.   One of the first rules in combat I use is stealth, not nessisarily camo, but if someone is busy attacking someone else, has tunnel vision or just forgets your around, you can bag em!  That is where if you have a mainspring powered gun, cocked and locked, you have the advantage, you're quiet.

But if you mostly ambush, are out in the field or just wanna warn the enemy you are packin heat and you don't mind noise, they do work.

Batteries, whatta drain man!

Another problem is the batteries die low.  My favorite batteries are the non-protected 14500 trustfires that are rechargable.  The nice thing about them is that you can just keep recharging them and they do last awhile.    Need to stay stock voltage, Energizer lithiums are the way, hell I couldn't drain them before I got my trustfires, i ended up giving them to my folks for T.V. remote batteries.

And how are you suposed to practice with non-rechargeables?  I mean i was affraid of always draining them.   Well I guess modded guns wear out too.

But i will stick to my 100 foot+ flat blastas and hit suckas from afar.  I feel sad for the mainspring :....(

See You In Disneyland!

--Cartaya

...That's Not Nerf combat! At Least Not How The Big Boys Play!

The Folks at Nerf are playing the most american of games when it comes to hosting Nerf battles....."Catch Up"!  This is typical of them!

Check out this video and honestly tell me that not every Nerf event you have ever seen or heard of is not...

* Half Massed

* Too concerned with safety and not concerned with fun

* On the Cheap

* LAME!

I mean how much were people paying to play this bullshit.  The arena looks like a vomited version of the Dart Tag arena that was used in Dart Tag Tournaments.  It's that inflatable nonsense that has to get 120 degrees inside in the summer.  Hell that's a worse Hazard right there than more powerful guns!

They were using all Dart tag guns, it's like WHAT!!!!...Dart tag?  Hell we take the "Elite" Nerf guns that shoot like twice as far and throw like tight springs, brass barrels and high voltage batteries and go in big ass parks and shoot each other down!!!  If we get welted, we don't care, at least are guns shoot farther than the distance accross my house.

Just look at the video in my last post, i'll post it again and see if that's the kinda game a real Nerf Franchise should be.   Also, for more action, not just me, Check out Basic Nerf's GoPro battle playlist, Great author, great player, great person.  Now this is How the big boys play, Hasbro!

Nerf is a sport, and the Big Boys take it seriously!  So get off your PS3, Your Computer, Your Smartphone, Whateva!  Pickup A blaster and host some wars.  Somebodies gotta do it right!

Discuss man, discuss.

I'll See You In Disneyland.


--Cartaya

Cartaya In Bank Mode!! (Video)

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Tomorrow, once again I battle, I'll See You In Disneyland.

--Cartaya

You Can't Buy Heaven But....

With this thing, you can try to shoot foam at the angels in it!!!  You can now  buy an R-Spec Firestrike that makes your opponents and your little siblings run from you like you are Rich "The Bitch" Ramerez!!!  It will be a model that can be built as orders come in with currently a 2-3 week lead time as are also the Holy Triads, which are a huge hit as backup guns as seen in this video, their first ever battle used..

Just Imagine the welts you can land on your friends, as seed done to me even here.

Imagine the power of blasting your stupid holiday garnishes and having your friends question your sanity afterwards!!!

But before that, look at it shoot in a park flat, and then imagine how good it would be to own this gun with Stephans rather than Drag limited elite darts!!!  Oh I love this gun!!!! 

So happy fighting over it, AHEM I mean purchasing a nice, prototyped, field tested and belove (or feared of you are on the other end of it) R-Spec Retaliator.

I'll See You In Disneyland....

--Cartaya

The Public And Nerf!

We play, we have fun and sometimes if not careful, we terrorize!

In light of the Napa Valley College banning Nerf blasters at HvZ games, I wanted you to picture their side of things....

No no not that one, which actually was a promo pic of the game taken from the promo video, and no injury actually occured.  But i am sure we are all made to belive this guy got belted that hard durring an HvZ game and how terrible this game just MUST be.

Imagine you are walking though campus, a liberal anti gun man and a fan of butterscotch enemas, scared, shattered, shocked of all the shootings going on in the country and all the sudden, here are a bunch of guys with Orange Tipped, blue and yellow plastic blasters running from zombies that are so scarry, the bandana on their heads look so much like fake blood that you dive right the hell under the bench.

Could it be a zombie invasion?  Never mind this event was posted all over campus for a month or so, flyers all over lampposts, bulliten boards and maybe even over the P.A.  But nonono!  These kids are either nuts and think they are really shooting the dead down with foam blasters, or this is really happening OR "YOU" really just need something to bitch about today!

We will always run into these types, and pretty soon, we will be reduced to socks without proper precautions and public handling to stay out of their scrutiny.

1.  Where to fight.   As in any battle, where to fight means everything.  However Nerf is different, the people you fight are not your enemies, in most cases, it's the public and at the same time they might also be interested too in your battle and you don't wanna shun them either.  For example, me and some friends played a HvZ game at an urban park with a 10 minute time limit.  In the middle of the game, 4 members of a well established street gang show up, sit on the bench and watch the craziness of the last 2 minutes of the match.  One human left, 30 seconds to go, where does he bolt?  Right to the G's where 3 or 4 of us accidentally mow them down.  How did they take this? Like they were at a lakers game and Kobe sometimes just accidentally goes outta bounds, totally cool, I knew that, but still it was a problem, proximity to public.

Coning off or sectioning is everything, Reserving park space, buildings and staying away from kids playing or G's Vaping.  Common sense man!

2.  Avoid Stigma like the plauge.  Bullhorns, darts you fail to pick up, roudy guests, shooting civilians all are annoying to others, and annoyance leads to new rules, new rules lead to you don't play ne more.  All they have to prove is safety hazards and lack of responsibility.

3. Solve conflicts safely, effectively, and without a huge stink to others.  Everyone hates that stupid kid who dry-fires you guns, breaks them and says "not my fault" or the guy who picks up your longshot with 120 man hours and $300 invested in it and drops it.   But if the drama spreads outside of the game, the public looks down on you, and doesn't want you around.  Have good policy to deal with bad hits, breakage of guns by others, theft and an all dominating ban policy needs to be in place.  Ban trouble at meets or the public will ban you.

4. Have a good Dart pickup sweep policy, remember, losing darts are not only expensive, it can be considered littering by the Ralph Naider types or those hippie chicks with braided armpit hair that might say "Birdies are gonna eat them OH NOO"

I'll See You In Disneyland


--Cartaya

R-Spec Retaliator Retooling Pictures.

I figure since The R-Spec Retaliator is being brought back up in certian circles lately, I should show you some pics of me doing a rebuild.  R-Spec is the designation given to the most developed model an N-Strike Elite gun can be taken, the limit. That doesn't mean that there isn't an airgun that can shoot farther, or a stephan dart gun that can do better or that somewhere there isn't someone with a better mod.   Lets gather that concept a bit, "better mod" The R-Spec Retaliator Is likened to owning an Enzo Ferarri, Sure it's the best, but it constantly needs upkeep and is a pain in the ass, For example I Just bought an Xplorer Direct Plunger Replacement Kit, Because the Stock plunger made of ABS plastic cannot hold up to the stress of 11 Kg and was deteriorating quickly, as was the guns velocity, 185 FPS to 170 a few weeks later 165, and as you see after shipping and waiting 3 weeks for it, it is about the cost of a stock Retaliator.  When you got a gun that can best the Xplorer Xpower Retaliator with stock elite darts instead of stephans, you just gotta keep it workin man! (Hint hint, This mod needs the R-Spec power mod kit)

In all defense to Xplorer, their kit looks like an excellent one, my Version of the Xplorer Xpower one day will have this powerplant in it as the current R-Spec and i'm sure with stephans it will beat the R-Spec Retaliator I have now, probably 150+ feet flat.

So it was time to Retool the mosnster, The gun where every Performance mod, new type of dart, park and player claiming to have a better gun than me, gets tried on first.  As you can see The piston has a fatter Front lip and a nicer o-ring slot that responds better to teflon tape.

Next I tried a new idea, since this is the gun that always gets it first,  I broke outs some gunsmithing tools and countersunk a Retaliator dart bolt so that the load finger no longer drags on the dart on the way out, Shown Here on an aluminum bolt sled assembily

The result was wonderful, I did need to buffer the piston with a piece of felt and glue it i n there because it wasn't latching correctly at first, and I also filed some rough points off the piston (seam marks) and put in several layers of teflon tape. Worth the work however, this stuff is tough ass composite, most likely a strong thermoset casting resin like epoxy. Still working out some kinks, but it fires great.  Here Are some other pics.

In foam we trust, I'll see you in Disneyland.

--Cartaya

Guess The Mod Contest, It's On!

3-4 times the accuracy and more range, Something nobody has ever thought of, a big deal.  I need to do more tests before I publish, but it's serious, try to guess what it is, winner who guesses it wins a new Super Veloce Retaliator shipped to em, and this invention with it.


In Foam We Trust!

--Cartaya

YES YES YES OH HAPPY DAY!!!!

My last dart Posted Pictures of the new Elite Alpha Trooper and guess what!!!  IT USES THE SAME SPRING AS A RETALIATOR!!! YES!!!!

However, I don't think this will do 100 Flat, Main reasons.

A. The orange trigger catch I believe might be inferior to the white plastic one on the Retaliator.

B.  The wire used to connect the pump handle to the bolt sled probably would bend past 5 Kg's of spring just like a Raider, Rampage, ect.

Just look...

The other thing is, that the First batch had hairline cracks on the back of the stock holder.  Honestly, I think you are fine, I also noticed the finger joints are backwards.  That can cause it, because remember, this part is not perfectly square, it has a little taper, and therefor if you put it on backwards, it will probably crack.

5 Kg's should be fine, be sure to use a stronger trigger catch spring and mod at your own risk.

See you in disneyland.





--Cartaya