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A Guide to Essential
Airsoft Cleaning & Maintenance
Airsoft gun maintenance is important for keeping your kit in prime condition; here’s a quick guide to some basic maintenance and cleaning.
Airsoft guns can take a battering during a skirmish; this is something which is fairly unavoidable. Crawling through muddy forests can take its toll on your beloved rifles, so giving them some TLC is important.
Knowing how to keep your airsoft gun clean, which ammo is best to use and how to unblock them are all key to keeping your guns in good condition.
With this in mind, here is a quick guide to airsoft gun maintenance, which should help you to keep your kit in prime condition.
When it comes to cleaning your airsoft gun, it is important that you steer clear of strong cleaning products. These can damage the exterior of the weapon, stripping it of its paintwork and potentially damaging the delicate mechanisms that keep it firing. To keep it clean, you should only need to use a soft, damp cloth and a bit of elbow grease!
The exterior of airsoft guns will only require minimal cleaning, but the barrel is one of the most important parts of the gun and will need fairly regular attention and lubricating.
To properly clean the barrel, spray a small amount of 100% silicone spray onto a cleaning patch on a cleaning rod and insert into the barrel AFTER you have turned off the hop up. If the hop up is on, you can damage it, and the cleaning rod can become stuck.
In fact, it is better for the barrel if you completely remove it from the AEG and hop rubber. However, this can damage the hop rubber if done improperly or too often; it is not recommended to do this every time or if you are not completely confident in what you are doing.
When it comes to cleaning the barrel, use a back and forth motion, and then remove the cleaning rod. Once you are satisfied it is clean, attach a new, dry cleaning patch to remove any excess residue. Once the patch comes out clean, test fire the gun and re-set your hop.
Note - If you wish to perform maintenance on the interior of the gun’s gearbox, it is strongly recommended that you use a professional, as doing it yourself could result in damage to the gun or the risk of voiding the warranty.
Only use high-quality BBs, as poor-quality brands can damage both your gun and the barrel. High-quality airsoft guns are designed to use 0.2-gram BB’s or heavier. Any BBs lighter than this can jam or break in the gun, and cause over hopping and inaccuracy.
It is also important that you NEVER reuse your BBs, as they become deformed once fired which can contribute towards breaking your airsoft gun.
Taking Care of Magazines
Before you load your magazine, you should always check the user manual of your gun and follow their advice, even if you are the most seasoned of airsofter. However, there are a couple of general rules worth remembering:
• Keep your magazines and BBs away from dirt and debris. This will help to ensure no foreign bodies get stuck in/on them.
• Only use new, clean BBs. Dirty BBs or ones which have been fired before and are now deformed can harm the mechanisms of your gun, causing magazines to jam and potentially causing severe damage to your gun.
What to Do in Case of a Jam
Unfortunately, no matter how well you look after it, your gun will jam. When this happens, it is important that you know what to do. If a BB jams in your gun, you need to stop firing immediately. If you continue firing, it could lead to a broken gear or piston, which is a much bigger (and more expensive!) problem to fix.
Next, you should completely turn off your hop up and insert the reverse end of your cleaning rod (which should be angled) into the barrel with the angle facing the feed tube in the magazine well.
Turn the gun upside down, look inside the magazine well and gently move the rod inside the barrel. By doing this, you should see the BB pop out of the feed tube and then see the end of the cleaning rod. Test fire the gun, and if it sounds good, crack on! If not, or if there is more than one BB stuck inside the barrel which you can’t remove, cease firing again and get in contact with a professional.
Although frustrating, it is sometimes important that you leave it to the professionals, as you could cause irreversible damage by poking around inside the gun.
Hopefully this guide has given you plenty of information to go on and use in the future!
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