Introduction: How to Make a Homeade Airsoft Gun From a Nerf Gun

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About: i like to make stuff. the end.

This Instructable will show you all of the necessary steps to convert your average Nerf gun into an amazing Airsoft gun! It will also teach you how to become a basement airsoft player. Includes creation of airsoft gun, armor, and some basic tactics to get you started. What are you waiting for! Start your quest today! By the way, I am not liable for anything you do with this information. This is my first Instructible by the way.
Remember, if you think this instructable is good, you can always vote for it in the laser cutter contest group. I want to cut stuff with lasers. and dont forget to give it a good rating! Thanks, Perjak

Step 1: Gathering the Materials

Here is a list of the materials you will need to create your homeade Airsoft gun.

List
1. Nerf Gun*
2. One pen**
3. Duct tape
4. Pair of pliers
5. Some Airsoft bullets

  • It is usually best to use a Nerf gun that has a single barrel to put Nerf bullets in.

** If you want a longer barrel, you will need more than one pen. Just use some duct tape to attach two together. Just keep in mind, the longer the barrel, usually the more accurate. But, the more barrels you add the more of a chance the bullet will shoot off course because of imperfect taping.

Step 2: Making the Barrel

To make the barrel, take the pliers and pull off the top and the back of the pen. Make sure you get a pen that the bottom and top come off easily. I went to Dollar General and bought 20 pens for $1.50, and they come apart very easily. If the bottom will not come off with blunt force, feel free to cut the bottom off.

You will also need to slighty crush the end of the barrel if the bullet will roll anywhere you don't want it to, like into the gun.

Step 3: Attaching the Barrel to the Gun

It is not necessary to actually tape in the barrel, just wrap the tape around the end of the pen barrel until when you insert the pen into the gun barrel it fits very snuggly, and does not fall out.

Step 4: Adding on Sweet Attachments

Sure, your homeade Airsoft is cool and all, but if you really want to impress your friends, you have to add cool attachments. Check out this real bayonet, straight from the Civil War. It was attached with the same roll of duct tape.

List of possible attachments
1. Bayonet
2. Flashlight
3. Laser pointer
4. Another gun

The possibilities are practically endless, so choose your favorite choice and attach it right now!

Step 5: Supeing Up Your Airsoft Gun

Once you have added all attachments, feel free to customize and super power your gun. Warning, modifying Nerf guns is not recommended, but it is so cool! Back in this gun's prime it had 25 rubber bands on each side and could shoot through half a fingers worth of cardboard. Be careful how hard you make your gun shoot, before long you'll lose all of your friends. Or your eyes. Always wear saftey goggles.

Step 6: Armor

Some love it, and some hate it, but armor has been an important part in Basement Airsoft battles since 2006. It completly stops the bullet from hitting your soft pink flesh and instead deflects it in a random direction, or lodges it in the armor itself.

To make the armor, get a very large piece of medium thick cardboard. You want the cardboard to be thick enough to stop bullets, but not too thick to weigh you down and inhibit movement.
Cut the cardboard into the shape of armor, and make sure your head hole is big enough.

Step 7: Battle Tactic: Movable Fortress

One tactic to use with armor is the movable fortress technique. This involves putting on the armor, and then sitting on the ground. Highly affective, only a small portion of your body will be exposed. Only a crack-shot would be able to hit you.

If you do not even want to risk sticking your hand out of your fortress, you can make a battle hole in the armor. Take a screwdriver or sharp object, and stab a hole on the side you have the gun on. Make a big enough hole to let your barrel out. Your enemies will cry when they see you approach.

Step 8: Testing Out Your Gun

Invite a few friends over, tell them you have something you need to show them. Or if your generous, you can whip up a few if your friends do not have any and you can battle until the day is done. Have fun with these guns, and remember, they are not toys. Always use Saftey goggles. I am not responsible for anything you or your stupid friends do. What was that last one, oh yeah, do not use these if you are under the age of 16, and always make sure that Airsoft guns are legal in your state or providence. Be safe, Perjak.

Step 9: Thoughts and Suggestions

Here is a couple of suggestions sent in by fans.
I take no responsiblilty if a spring pokes out your eyeball.

To add extra power with springs
From invisiblelight386:

first unscrew both guns. take the spring out of one of them. now take the other gun and remove the plunger, toob thing and the barrel that holdes the darts. the plunger should already have a spring on it. remove the trigger lock on the plunger and slide the other spring on put the lock back on (this might take a wile). when the spring and the lock are on insert the plunger back into the toob. reassemble the gun leaving out the dart barrel. now take a bic pen and remove the ink. cut off the top black stopper. spray DW40 or any other silicon lubricant into the pen. pinch one end of the pen and insert in to the ovle thing at the end of the toob. now there are two things you can do: 1. fill the front of the gun with expandable foam. this will hold the pen in place and muffle the sound. cover the front with duck tape. to fire insert the bb then cock it (the first couple times it wont go very far because of the lubricant). you can take a very smal pice of cotton and stick it into the barrel to dry out the lubricant.

also the more springs you put in weakens the trigger lock and can fire unexpectedly. so becarful. i shot myself to test how much it hurts from 5 feet away and it inloged into my hand. THIS IS VERY POWER FULL.

Heres a good idea from KnextGeneration:
To increase accuracy of bullets, enlongate the barrel. This is true for all guns. For pen barrel guns though, it is hard to line up 2 pen barrels right next to each other without one aiming in a different direction then the other.
KnextGeneration's idea was to take a pen grip, the rubbery things you put on pencils or pens to make the grip more confortable, and put half of it on one end of a pen, and half on the other. This way, you know that they are aligned. You may want to tape both ends of the grip on the pens, and maybe add a long knex piece for strength. Before long, Youll be making sniper rifles. If only pen guns and shoot at 1000 fps. sorry, daydreaming. anyway thanks for the tip, and good luck on making these.

There were also some questions about measuring fps. theres basically 2 ways to do by yourself.

1. Get a friend to get a stopwatch. Shoot your gun at a target 20 feet away, to give you friend a chance and starting and stopping the stopwatch at the right time. Take how long it takes, for example .25 seconds. Take 20 feet divided by .25 seconds. 20 divided by .25 is 80. that means the bullet traveles at 80 fps.

2. Get a gun you know the fps of, like a friends airsoft gun. Shoot that at a wall far away and time how long it takes. Then shoot the homeade one. If they are the same, they have the same fps. If it take the real airsoft gun a short time, the homeade one is less. If it takes more, well, you get the picture.
You can also shoot a real airsoft gun at a piece of styrofoam from about a foot away, and then shoot your homeade airsoft gun at it the same distance away. Use and exacto knife to cut the styrofoam down the side and find the bullets.

example: if a 300 fps airsoft gun shoot in 10 inches, and you shoot your gun and it goes 5 inches, your gun probably shoots around 150 fps.

hope this helps. -Perjak