WORKSHOP BASIC MAINTENANCE - PART TWO
LOCKDOWN AIRSOFT MAINTENANCE FRENCHIE HAS BEEN MAINTAINING KIT FOR LONGER THEN WE DARE MENTION AND CONTINUES HIS NEW SERIES WITH A LOOK AT GBB MAINTENANCE.
A
s promised, this month I’ll turn my attention to Gas Blowback (GBB) maintenance. Now, there is a real danger that I’m teaching my granny to suck eggs here, as people with GBBs who don’t perform regular maintenance are called “players without guns”! Some GBBs are pretty tolerant of careless use but the majority aren’t, so ignore this at your peril. I will also confess that I am no wizard when it comes to GBBs - I’ve always been far more comfortable with AEGs and spring guns, however, I have worked on gas guns for decades and it’s always a delight when they respond as I hoped they would! In part this is because I prefer either electric pistols or a shotgun as a secondary – and from that statement you may fairly deduce I prize function over the “boom factor”! I know AEPs (Automatic Electric Pistols) are rightly the butt of many jokes and scathing remarks but they work, and if you invest in a Marui, they work really well. That, however, is a subject for another day. Back to gas guns. Personally, the greatest appeal of GBBs for me has always been their proximity to the workings of real guns - only the motive power, compressed gas rather than a chemical explosion, really differentiates them. It follows that maintaining them is far closer to maintaining a real firearm than say, an AEG. Fundamentally that comes down to cleaning and lubrication, with a few extra annoyances in the form of
seals and nozzles thrown in for good measure.
KEEP IT CLEAN!
First and foremost therefore, keep your GBB clean. Like real firearms there is a potential for dirt or other foreign bodies to enter the action and stop them working. Bolts and slides have to move and in doing so, they expose the inner workings in a way that electric guns seldom do. Fortunately, most gas guns disassemble in a manner that closely replicates the firearm they are based on, so if you’re unsure, refer either to the user manual or check YouTube - someone has almost certainly posted a video of how to take your particular gun apart. Let’s be clear what I mean by “disassembly”; in the real world it would be referred to as “field stripping”, the level of disassembly required to perform basic maintenance. On a typical pistol that will involve removing the magazine and the slide
“THE ONE ABSOLUTE RULE IS NEVER USE MINERAL-BASED LUBRICANTS. SO NO “THREE-IN-ONE” OIL, NO “WD40”. THAT APPLIES TO ALL AIRSOFT GUNS AS MINERALBASED LUBRICANTS CAN (AND OFTEN WILL) DAMAGE THE SEALS ALL GUNS REQUIRE FOR EFFICIENT OPERATION.” 56
JUNE 2020
