paintballgun bolts

[josephlys]

I dont get how firing a 3x heavier projectile can be bad for the paintballgun. I asked around and they say its bad for the bolt.- DO they mean the front bolt. ( I understand it may be bad for the front bolt when firing a heavy projectile that is ball shaped and hard because i think its bad for the front bolt to keep smacking a heavy & hard projectile into the barrel for firing.) If this is the case then Whats so bad about loading a heavy naildart that has a -long cone- at the back of the barrel, where the front bolt doesn't have to push the dart into the barrel. +Plus the front bolt will have no contact with the nail, it will just act as a seal and the pressurized gas will do rest.

They also say its bad  for the spring.- DO they mean the spring that is compressed by the rear bolt.

[Forum Admin]

I honestly wouldnt worry about it, most people in the sport probably are taking more offence to you turning a paintball gun into a thing that is potentially lethal. Bad for their image, legally speaking. Hence the discouraging comment, some of which might be true, but I'll bet they've never tested it. Not all have a bolt in two parts like the one you posted yesterday. Many of the cheaper ones have a one piece bolt. I would recommend finding a older one and locking up the bolt. You'll have to cock the hammer by hand, but that shouldnt be too hard to manage with a drill and a bolt.
Here's a marker along the lines I'm talking about: http://cgi.ebay.com/VL-Lancer-Paintball-Gun-/230503977813?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item35ab1b9355. Notice the black plug in the back. This is the tube in which the hammer and valve are. The tube above is where the bolt is. There is a pin that connects the bolt to the hammer for cocking. Remove that pin. Slide the bolt to the forward position and drill & tap a couple of holes. Screw in a couple set screws and your bolt is now secure. Remove the black plug and drill a hole through it that is small enough to still retain the hammer spring. You might be able to drill and tap the rear of the hammer to accept a long screw thin enough to pass through the center of the spring and the black plug. If so, this will be the cocking handle. You can bend the screw at the head to make it easier to cock. If not, you might be able to epoxy a piece of baling wire into the base of the hammer. Once the gun is reassembled, make a loop in the end of the wire to make cocking easier. While you're there, see if you cant find a heavier spring to replace the original with. This should work perfectly for shooting darts. Muzzle load and carry a short ramrod to seat the dart.

[josephlys]

Thanks again man you are a real life saver. Btw by normally tuning up the velocity of the gun how much power more will you get, will tuning alone be enough for increasing power. Its just that the air chamber looks pretty small and i dont know if 300-350psi of pressure will push a (140grain) nail out of the barrel at satisfactory speeds and retain a good trajectory. Yeah I know the 3'' naildart turned out pretty heavy, and i am currently a bit worried about the speed and trajectory. I am hopeful that the velocity will be able to reach around (230-250fps) with the heavy 140-150gr naildart. What do you think Hopeful

[Forum Admin]

The type of paintball gun I showed there uses full pressure CO2. The strength of the hammer spring determines how long the poppet valve stays open. The mass of the hammer affects it too. By increasing the strength of the spring and the mass of the hammer by adding a cocking handle will dump more CO2, giving more power. A longer barrel will be a good thing as well, if you get snow or a cloud when you shoot, you're wasting gas. I really think with some simple mods you can get 300+ fps with a 140 grain dart. The porting is there, I modfied a crosman 2240 to shoot 180 grain lead balls one time. It had much smaller porting and could push those balls to around 300 fps on CO2. You will probably get better results with the paintball gun if you can adapt a longer barrel to it.

[boar]

heavier projectiles will increase the pressure in the barrel but that should be figured into the specs oof the barrel and shouldnt be a problem as it should be engineered for worst case and then some

Boar

[josephlys]

Guys if I want to take out feral pigeons and crows do you think a light dart will be accurate enough. A 40 grain naildart is quite light and I think the cone will be a major wind drag factor. A 150 grain dart is more resistant to drag right, but a lighter dart will have less pronounced trajectory and more range. The only problem is will a 40grain dart be badly affected by drag. What is the weight of projectile you recommend, have you fired lighter naildarts from your airguns and how were their accuracy + trajctory. Thanks 

[Forum Admin]

I highly recommend getting rid of the cone and substituting fins. You'll have less drag and by using just enough fin to stabilize, you can buck the wind nicely as well. To get the air tight seal needed, you'll want to use discarding sabots. Boyntonstu gave me the secret to success on these when he used his nail darts head first.

To make a discarding sabot, you'll want to take a wooden rod and sand it until it fits the barrel nicely. You then cut 3/4" long pieces of rod from it. Drill a hole through the center of them that is just big enough for a nail to go through. Then using a sharp knife, split it in half. That is your discarding sabot.

These load beautifully from the muzzle. Simply place the two halfs around the nail dart and push down the barrel. The head will guide the sabot down the barrel. Upon firing, the head prevents the sabot from blowing past the dart and it all accelerates as a unit. Once it leaves the barrel, the high drag of the sabot causes it to break away from the dart, allowing you to have a fast dart with minimal drag.

If you paint your sabots a bright color, you can sometimes recover and reuse them. 

[josephlys]

Wow amazing idea, thanks. How accurate is it compared to a coned naildart. Ive shot a coned naildart (120 grains) from a 100psi homemade A.G at a playing card at 25 feet in a control environment. I put the gun on a rest, and shot the dart in an environment that had little to no wind. I was quite happy with the results, almost every shot hit the card. But the gun was long, heavy, and cumbersome . Luckily the paintballgun is compact, lighter, much faster to load, and puts out more power. I'll post some pics of one of the ol AG's I still have left, (p.s the one that didn't leak at the ballvalve ) but is the one with the lowest power because of it small chamber 1 foot long with 3/4'' diameter. Anyways thanks for all the tips

[Forum Admin]

Accuracy was greater for the power, a paper cone dart would be destroyed by the air blast of my airgun. Most darts and guns I have constructed are fully capable of shooting soup cans at 20 yards from an offhand position without sights. That is why I suggest you look into something stronger for your darts, I'm not sure they can withstand the blast of CO2 the paintball gun will put out.

[josephlys]

Yeah i guess the Co2 pressure is quite powerful, since half of its gas has to blow the relatively heavy hammer and spring back into position. Maybe this seems like a pretty silly question but is there any chance that the hammer may not be blown back, and the full pressure from the tank is accidently released. Thus, a disastrous outcome. In terms of a paintball marker without a pressure regulator...etc.?? Btw what is the highest pressure attained in your airguns

[Forum Admin]

The only time I ever saw a paintball gun valve not close completely is when the poppet seal wore and no longer sealed. CO2 would slowly leak, no real danger there. Like boar mentioned in a earlier post, the forces required to knock a valve momentarily open are quite enormous. Those forces quickly overcome the diminishing force of the hammer (which tends to bounce, finding a way to "debounce" the hammer will give the same power with less gas usage), thus shutting the valve. In the setup I mentioned earlier in this thread, the gas will not recock the hammer, you will have to manually pull the hammer back. This will result in more power for your ammo. 
The highest pressure I have used thus far with my airguns is CO2, which is between 800 and 1200 psi, depending on temperature. On a normal basis, I've limited my airguns to 400 psi. You can get quite a bit of power from that with the right valve, chamber, and barrel setup.

[josephlys]

About the discarding sabot, will a hot glue sabot work too? Well ,as far as I know cone darts dont do well at long ranges and they can't take the pressure Co2 puts out. But the problem is they are so easy to make with so little work.

So, I was wondering if I was shooting  close range <10yards would it be fine if I just made the cone thicker so that it can withstand the pressure. Discarding sabotdarts will be great for long-range targets but cone darts will still be the easy way out.

[mouz]

iv'e fire aper cone darts at up to 50 yards and they're fine. high pressure cone dart: roll paper into cone, wrap in a HUGE amount of duct tape. stick nail in end. wrap nail in duct tape to hold it on. dart done. 

[Forum Admin]

@mouz The problem with paper cones isnt so much distance shooting, it is that they blow apart from higher pressures. With a fast valve and more than 200 psi, paper cones will deform at the least, or turn into confetti at worst. I havent tried duct tape around them, so that just might be the ticket.

@josephlys Hot glue sabots work too, in fact they seal better than wood, but they weigh a ton, robbing energy from your dart. Paper mache might be something else to try as well. I've tried using very thick paper cones on darts, they just didnt work. I even reinforced them by saturating them with superglue, still not much better. Check out some of the threads on darts that FighterAce, Boyntonstu, and I have posted, there's a lot of research already done that you can start your own perfect darts from.

[mouz]

iv'e shot paper and duct tape darts at 350 psi. if you don't put on enough duct tape you get a super sonic unstableized ricocheting nail