Air-Powered Nerf Rifle

Made partially for fun and partially for a game I was playing with friends, this is an improved nerf rifle. Its powered by a simple bike pump, and air is released via a sprinkler valve.  With a sliding bolt on the barrel, it takes 1-2 seconds to load a nerf dart, then after 3-10 seconds after that to pump the chamber up. At 5 pumps, a nerf dart will fly faster and straighter than many commercial nerf guns, at 12 pumps, the rifle has a usable range of 160 ft, with an accuracy of 5 in. at 30 ft.

See below for construction details!



The working parts of the rifle laid out: the design is fairly straightforward: the bike pump is connected to a one way valve, which leads to a pvc pressure chamber, which is connected to the barrel by a sprinkler valve which can be operated electronically. I used 1/2 inch pvc pipe for everything to maximize airflow to the barrel, and 1/2 inch pvc was the perfect diameter for a nerf dart!

 The assembled rifle, or the working parts of it, at least.  I encountered several problems, including the general unwieldiness, the clumsiness of a manual trigger on the sprinkler valve, and small leaks that prevented holding pressure for large amounts of time.









So i went to the drawing board to design the rest of the rifle. I decided to make it a body out of a solid piece of wood, with plywood for a stock, and grips.  On the right is the original design for the pneumatics. Another problem i found was that it took long amounts of time to take off the barrel and load a nerf dart in, so i decided to add a bolt so reloading could go faster.





The body attached to the piping.  The rifle feels nice to hold, and more importantly, pump; I added an electrical trigger, and fixed some of the leaks.

 Here is a closeup of the barrel after adding an aiming reticule and a view of the bolt.  I added straps to allow the bolt to slide easier, which cut reload time greatly!