6 minute read
FEATURE: LOCKDOWN MAINTENANCE
LOCKDOWN AIRSOFT MAINTENANCE
FRENCHIE HAS BEEN MAINTAINING KIT FOR LONGER THEN WE DARE MENTION, AND STARTS THIS NEW SERIES WITH SOME SIMPLE, BASIC MAINTENANCE TIPS.
Stuck at home and nothing to do? Time to look after your kit – assuming you don’t already! With Covid-19 rampant and many of us finding out that we aren’t actually essential workers, you may be wondering what to do with all this time – given that you can’t go outside…
Well, if nothing else, this is a perfect opportunity to do some basic maintenance on your airsoft guns and gear, so this month I’ll run down the genuinely basic stuff, jobs that require few if any tools yet which will prolong the life of your guns and improve their performance. Forgive me if I’m teaching my Granny to suck eggs but we all have differing levels of experience when it comes to these things.
IN THE BEGINNING… I’ll start with a couple of statements…
Airsoft guns, electric guns especially, need only simple maintenance to keep going, often for many years. There is no need to go deep-diving inside their guts on a regular basis unless it gives you pleasure and I have always warned people off doing so unless necessary. The old rule of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” is one I have really come to appreciate with age and experience! I encourage you to think of the gearbox inside your gun as a sealed system – it isn’t – but it can be treated as such, especially
these days. Overall reliability has improved over the years, as has performance, which used to be the greatest reason for opening gearboxes. With most sites happy with 350 fps, or maybe a bit more, the old Marui standard of around 280 fps looks well out of place. Fortunately, the likes of G&G, Krytac etc. are producing guns which are performing far closer to player’s expectations these days. Secondly, they do not need “servicing”. Most techs will do it if you insist because why wouldn’t they? Most of the ones I know will tell you that it’s not necessary.
So, what does need to be done? First and foremost: cleaning. Good old fashioned getting rid of the muck. Although functionally very different from firearms (I’ll come to gas blowbacks in a later issue) airsoft guns work better when they are clean and free from obstructions. Therefore, if you are one of those players who treats his guns very much as a tool – if it gets wet and muddy so be it – then this is especially applicable to you. If your guns are mucky, clean them, whether that’s a quick wipe down with a damp sponge or something more convoluted. There is seldom any need to disassemble an airsoft gun to clean it, unless you have dropped it into a ditch filled with liquid mud. In that case, yes, you are going to have to strip it and if you aren’t confident with that, I suggest you wipe the worst off, then take it to a tech. I have rebuilt a few guns over the years following the presentation of a bag of
bits and “I was just cleaning it”. I’ll clean a gearbox when I’m working on it but even I don’t strip them to polish the piston….
Other things you don’t need to do….
Spray half a can of Abbey silicon oil into every single orifice in your gun. There are a couple of places it should go and many it shouldn’t! You can spray some onto a rag and use it to give your gun a once over once it’s clean and dry. It won’t harm plastic and it will protect metal from corrosion. Marui used to recommend a squirt of silicon oil into the hop chamber after use and, being a hapless newbie, I got into the habit of doing that years ago. It certainly won’t hurt but the first several rounds through the gun will not benefit from the hop up until that oil has been removed by the passage of BBs.
Sliding stocks are worth removing to clean around the buffer tube, likewise hinged stocks – make sure there is no debris caught in the hinge that could cause jams or breakages. Most of us are reasonably careful to ensure that we don’t fill the muzzle with muck but it does happen. Worth checking.
BARREL CLEANING Cleaning the barrel is one of the single most useful things you can do and it’s easy to do.
The best material I have ever found to do this is “J-Cloths” or the supermarket’s no-name equivalent. I do recognise that any mention of supermarkets may strike fear at present but we all still need to eat and, in fairness, I can’t think of anyone wanting to wipe their bums with these! They’re the good old blue and white stripy clothes used for a myriad of cleaning tasks. They have a couple of advantages – they tear easily and consistently, and they are largely lint free. Assuming you have a cleaning rod and some silicon oil you’re all set. Tear of a strip about 10mm wide. Manuals always seem to suggest 50mm long, I tend to go a bit longer. Thread it through the slotted end of the rod, wind it round the head of the rod, give it a squirt of silicon oil and carefully run it the full length of your barrel.
Important word that: “CAREFULLY”! If you have used too much cloth you can pull the hop rubber out of the chamber. So, if it’s really tight going down the barrel, stop, pull back and remove a bit of the J cloth. I have seen this done, so it’s not just a piece of Internet nonsense! Unless you’re a consistent barrel cleaner don’t be surprised if the cloth comes out filthy. Many manufacturers send their guns out with greasy barrels – G&G were amongst the most egregious offenders and you just have to work away at it until the cloth comes out clean. Once it is, I tend to run a dry cloth down the barrel once but remember what I said about my habit of squirting a little silicon oil into the hop chamber to maintain the rubber.
Other than a visual check of your gun for bared wires, loose connectors and other physical problems, that’s about it. I’ll cover gas blow backs next issue but I will touch on springers here, although I appreciate that they are in the minority on sites these days.
Most spring guns - and I include sniper rifles here - just need to be kept functionally clean and their barrels thoroughly swabbed out. I am reasonably adept at stripping Marui triple-barreled shotguns, and if you have too much time on your hands, you can learn too! However, it’s generally unnecessary – clean the barrels and fire a little silicon spray into the loading chamber, straight into the channel the BBs pass through on their way up to the barrels. That should do it. Most airsoft snipers are fairly obsessive anyway and I wouldn’t deign to tell them how to look after their pride and joy!!
None of this is rocket science and I suspect most of you do it anyway. You’ve made an investment in your guns and it takes little effort and time to keep them running sweetly. Since time is something most of have at present, go on, show them some love!
Until the next time and the delight that is gas blowback guns – stay safe. AA
