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Basically all of this stuff is obselete now that you can buy darts for $.05 each at places like lightake and nfstrike.
I'm keeping these here in case there are any curious nerf historians.
These are a newest method of making the rubber dome darts, which requires less precise tooling. They are the dart most-recommended by MHA, and the type of dart that we sell. With a bit of cornstarch for lubricating the tips, they feed very well in conventional 45 PVC wye hoppers, and fly farther with less muzzle velocity than flat tipped darts like PANS, AMIORS, and Slug darts. This property and the use of all-soft materials give this dart the best trade-off between range and safety.
Without cornstarch lubrication they will still work fine in blasters without hopper mechanisms and some blasters with nonstandard hoppers.
Got some tacky weatherstripping stuff from mcmaster, $10 bucks for the shown roll (Haven't worked out price/gram). It's pretty dense, and the first few darts I made ended up close to 2 grams. These fly well enough to be viable despite me cutting them with scissors and doing a crappy job in a variety of other ways. A super helpful trick with making these is to twist the foam, making a ring to wrap in clay/silly putty/more tape/wire more easily than just using tape tension to squeeze the foam. Hopperability is marginal at the shown length, accuracy suffers at shorter lengths. These are a good replacement for stock darts in modified or homemade blasters intended for stock-length darts.
Thread: http://nerfhaven.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=21517
These darts are most accurate and aerodynamic darts made today, but they require precise tooling beyond the reach of the average nerf hobbyist. They are safer than any of the popular homemade nerf dart designs used today as they have no rigid components, but the rubber dome tip is significantly more painful than the felt pad on a slug dart. Furthermore, they do not normally feed reliably through a conventional wye hopper, although as mentioned at the top of this page, cornstarch can be used to fix that.
These are functionally the same as the other rubber domes listed at the top, but the method for making them is drastically different.
Old and busted dart designs:
The rest of the entries here are old designs that we don't recommend for one reason or another, but we leave the instructions up here for a reference on things that almost, but don't quite work.
This dart design is nearly identical to the now-obselete PANS, but is VASTLY easier to produce and also works more consistently in hoppered spring-powered blasters. Instead of using silicone or polyurethane rubber, a non-hardening adhesive putty is stuffed into the hole and covered with a felt disc. These do odd things when loaded into a hoppered HAMP, for reasons beyond me, however this isn't a concern to most nerfers. While these are easy to make, they are easy to destroy as well, and nerfers have reported the putty getting too gooey in hot weather and making a mess. Use these at your own risk, preferably in cool or cold weather, and preferably without hoppers.
PANS Are Not Slugs
Thread: http://nerfhaven.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=22245
These are a metal-free version of slug darts. The intent is to have the soft initial felt padding without the potential danger posed by the hard metal and plastic innards and edges present in slug darts. The felt padding also provides a slippery front surface, which allows them to feed through conventional wye hoppers. They succeed in these things, but have other bizarre behaviors (In particular with multipart barrels and warm weather) which make them insufficiently reliable to compete with conventional slug darts in most cases.
Slug Darts
Thread: http://nerfhaven.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=21347&st=0&p=301251&fromsearch=1&#entry301251
Slug darts an easy to make and reliable dart design with a felt disc for padding. We do not endorse the use of these darts as they contain a steel washer and hot glue (which compared to flesh might as well be steel), as well as frequently sharp, unpadded edges. However they remain the most popular homemade dart design at the time of writing, and are safer than the next most popular style, the completely unpadded "stefan". Ryan's instructions help to minimize, but not eliminate, the hazards associated with using slugs.
Hoppers/Feed Mechanisms:
Guide to the standard wye Hopper: http://nerfhaven.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=19569&st=0&p=275816&fromsearch=1&#entry275816
Hopper Clip for Taggers: http://nerfhaven.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=20636&st=0&p=291258&fromsearch=1&#entry291258
Shotgun Hopper: http://nerfhaven.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=19622&st=0&p=276618&fromsearch=1&#entry276618
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