Board Thread:Questions and answers/@comment-27306930-20160403191009

A lot of nerfers have been asking me about stefans lately, so I took a few pics and shot a little video of stefans I've made at the Proving Grounds. I used to think that aerodynamics played a part in making accurate darts. But it turns out at the speeds we're shooting, weight, balance and drag are the major factors. Shape ... not so much. My favorite stefans are made from old or damaged Nerf Elites (pictured in middle). I just cut the head down to about an 1/8th of an inch, then cut the whole thing to 1-1/2 inches. I bought a piece of 1/2" CPVC pipe and cut a 1-1/2" section to act as a jig for cutting them nice and straight. Personally, I like 1-1/2" length. But try some different lengths on your own. You might find a longer or shorter darts works better in your blaster. Someone suggested taking cheap FVJs and doing the same thing. You can see that the FVJs tips are solid vinyl, hence their name (far right). These darts are much more difficult to cut straight. I've found that rotating the darts and making a number of smaller cuts around the circumference works better.

For quick and cheap homemade stefans (far left), you can use 1/2" foam caulk and adhesive felt dots . Just that simple. Some people take a hot glue gun and melt a little dimple in the head then throw a couple BBs in there for weight before you stick the felt on. Yes, there is a slight improvement, but you cant use them on live targets, because every once in a while a BB comes out, and they're moving fast. But they're great for target practice.

While I don't condone using stefans for Nerf wars, they're awesome for plinking. Because of reduced mass, the speed is significantly higher. But because of the reduced weight, they are more susceptible to drag, so they tend to have reduced range. What's really happening is they leave the barrel twice as fast, but slow down twice as quick (actually the math is more complicated than that, but hey, these are toys, right). 