Maverick

Process first posted at NerfHaven

Another in the 4-noobs series, this time with the Maverick, which gave me rather a bit more trouble than the DTG. Same idea- simple mod, lots of pics, so pretty much anyone can try it with confidence.


Step 1- pull the top grip off. 3 of the standard nerf screws that you'll need a long thin phillips head for.


The Mav has fewer body screws than some other models, but they are long. Pull out all 8. Be sure not to lose the small spring on the trigger relay or the tiny spring and tab on the top expansion clip.


The pneumatics, exploded. The Mav uses a hollow reverse-piston design. Some advanced mods fill the dead space with foam or another material less compressible than air. This means more of your energy goes into moving the dart.


Ah, the Mav turret. You literally need to go in with a screwdriver and pry at the front end of that metal rod until the cap on the back end breaks off. Don't lose the spring.


3 screws later (from the back of the turret, please), you can open the turret and reveal the ARs.


Each barrel has the usual spring+prongs+spike. At least pull out the spring & prongs. Drill out the spike if you feel like. Don't lose the non-spike portion of the spike pieces, however, unless you want to spend a bunch of time and effort making your own seals / barrel replacements. I tried a mod sandwiching a nicely cut/punched disc of cardboard in between the halves of the turret, removing the spike pieces entirely. It failed miserably.


My usual optional noise-reduction step- stuff a chunk of soft foam between the piston and casing. It cuts your air volume, and thus range, by a little, but should reduce wear on the piston and the noise factor. This one is easier to install than on the DTG. Just shove it right into the casing.
You can also swap out the O-ring if you want, for a tighter seal.

Now, if you've done this much before, you may have found that the resulting gun releases its air much more quickly, and as a result, fails to fire if the turret over or under-spins at all. And the Mav turret is infamously sloppy. The fix?


I'm calling this the Lucky Penny mod. Stuff a penny or three behind the stock spring such that the end of the piston that protrudes to sit against the turret is constantly applying a weak amount of pressure, and thereby friction, to the turret. With my foam pad, I didn't need more than 1 penny. The pressure will create a slightly better seal, and the friction will mostly prevent the turret from over-spinning, even if you pull the trigger quickly. Don't over-do it, however- too much pressure and the turret won't rotate at all. Spring-mods to the Mav may avoid this problem entirely, or may create the too-much-pressure problem, necessitating a thin soft shim of some sort just in front of the piston.

Another personal gripe I have with the Mav is that, regardless of what ammo you use, you have to either jam/store it in the gun to the point where the darts turn into scrunched dense little cones that don't seal worth beans, or else risk the tip of the dart jamming against the front of the gun and locking your turret.


One easy fix is just to evenly slice the last ~5mm off your darts. They'll fit in snug, and still fly perfectly well. Just don't store the cut-offs in any weapon or they'll seal even worse than worn-out normal darts.


All told, the turret fix isn't perfect, so if you rapid-fire willy-nilly, your range may be not much better than stock. At least it won't be worse. A slow/steady trigger pull will give you the full +20% range you'd expect from an AR removal.