Kids, teens, and even adults are super into the fun of nerfing and there’s no surprise in why the craze is so prominent. In fact, the hype is getting bigger each day. But have you ever wondered about the main hero of this game, the nerf gun, and asked how that fabulous thing works?
Well, if not then finding out how do nerf guns work and make games this fun will be an interesting discussion for sure. And that’s exactly what we plan to do for today. From the engineering principles, and design elaboration to the main functionality, let’s get the whole body of a typical-looking nerfs gun for a fun discussion to feed your love for this amazing piece of a toy gun.
Understanding How Do Nerf Guns Work Needs Some Basic Breakdown First!
Now some of you are just starting new and hardly know what the gun looks like and what it is. If you are someone from that early beginner phase, here’s what exactly a nerf gun is.
Well, it’s a gun-shaped toy that shoots foams. The colour concept is usually pretty neon or at least bright. And also, you’ll find super thrilling shapes with these toy guns. Apart from guns, there are laser tags too that you pretty much should be able to picture as a cousin game.
With nerf guns, you can play in teams as well as solo. A set of rules are there with each match and some even take it as far as playing in the absolute dark. In short, the gun shoot fights you see in movies get real with safe-to-use bullets instead and a fighting scene that’s not actually true.
But you and your friends get to enjoy the fun through it and play snippers, fighters, shooters, and cool gun-occupying roles for hours. Now about the gun’s working mechanism and components…
Visuals of a Typical Nerf Gun
A typical nerf gun should look like a one-foot-long regular weapon design of a real gun. You can hold these usually two at one time in a portable size. And as toy weapons, nerf guns are the most advanced ones. You can try shooting foam darts with those that are three-inch-long. And some come with the distance of shooting up to 30 feet.
It comes with a fabulous aesthetic appeal of a real-life revolver look. The manufacturing team usually spends a good amount of time including bulges as well as texture to the toy piece. So that it can give you the best mimic of reality.
Once you pull the trigger, the barrel gets the dart to slide inside. There should be spinning drums inside that grabs it and two batteries are in charge for power. The revolving chamber keeps on spinning thanks to the trigger. And this makes the next dart ready for firing. That’s what the basic mechanism looks like. Now if you want to get a bit deeper, then the next segment will help.
In Depth-Mechanism of Nerf Gun
There are many breakdown explanations and resources available that tell one about the components in detail of a nerf gun. It surely comes with a wide range of design elements that can vary from one model to another. But typically, the major parts are quite the same.
Starting with the principles of its engineering, there are a few variables to understand. And these are basically what we consider the components of a typical nerf gun. There are the spring, valves, and plungers.
The main function depends on these three lead role players for the overall execution. Sucking the air and using pressure to load gun barrels are duties of the plunger in a nerf gun. When you pull the trigger, this part gets into action.
And it starts to send the dart with the help of pressurized air. The dart enters a trajectory due to it. Now the dart’s shooting speed and also distance would depend on the total amount of pressure.
The higher it is the better those factors will be. The pressurize air gets force from the spring. As you push the trigger, the spring’s kinetic energy turns into a potent force that drives the pressurized air to work. And the whole thing allows dart momentum.
“One Dart Each Time” VS “Multiple Darts at Once” Guns
Valve’s actuation takes place on the barrel with mazes of air pathways. Once a dart is loaded inside a specific valve, the dart’s airway is the only way that the pressurized air can penetrate into. And that is how it fires out.
After one firing session, the related valve will block the airway. And so, the pressurized air needs to move through another valve. This keeps on going from one valve to another. Until the whole cycle is complete with all darts out from the gun.
With the idea of these compressed air mechanics, one can further develop a design that gets to fire multiple darts at once. And this is possible with half-open valves that allow the dart to partway loading. So that the compressed air can leak through the top valve easily.
And that way more than one dart are out at once as there’s now access to all valves. However, this will impact the dart’s performance and weaken its pressure to only be compatible at close range. As the air, this way slips to three payloads. And this results in trajectory power being diluted.
That’s pretty much all the complicating parts about the nerf gun that you don’t really have to get about if not there’s a specific intention. As these are pretty perplexing matters that nerfs designers, makers, and manufacturers are continuously discussing and modernizing to bring better models in the market of nerf guns or blasters.
Wrap Up
Trying to make a homemade nerf gun or simply being curious about the overall mechanism could be what you’re after. Hopefully, in both cases, this guide on how do nerf guns work will come into use for you.
Also, if you are a parent who has concerns about your kid’s safety and so wanted to check the mechanism, then rest assured. Because nerf games are super popular among kids and teens all over the world. And so, these are made with children in mind to ensure proper safety so that even six years old will be able to enjoy the game. See You Soon in Some Other Nerf Talk!
More Resources:
- Learn How to Make Nerf Darts All by Yourself
- Discussing How to Fix a Nerf Gun That Won’t Shoot or Fire
- Learn How to Make a Home-Made Nerf Gun the Right Way
- Learn How to Win a Nerf War by Improving Your Strategies
- 9 Different Types of Nerf Dart Explained for Nerf-Noobs
- The Awe-inspiring History of Nerf Guns You Need to Know