Taking Care of Your Airsoft Gun

Don't know how often yous demand to clean your airsoft gun, or even if yous need to make clean it?

Sure, it may not be a real steel gun, but your airsoft gun does require a piffling scrap of upkeep. Depending on how ofttimes y'all shoot, you may even find out you don't need to make clean it every bit oftentimes as you clean your room.

… You do make clean your room, correct?

Anyways, cleaning and maintaining your airsoft gun isn't actually as difficult as it would seem reading forum responses on the topic. While the more than technically inclined among us may feel like tackling the more complex parts of cleaning, but for the residuum of united states, it's pretty simple to clean your gun in between trips to the tech.

So, let's get to information technology!

How Oftentimes Do I Demand to Clean My Airsoft Gun?

Estimates vary… widely. If you search for advice, you lot're going to find a multifariousness of answers, each based on a player'southward own experience.

specna-arms-8kiKzs-b5tc-unsplash — Airsofters

Clean besides oft, and you lot risk damaging your gun or forcing yourself to lubricate it more than often than you'd need to, thus spending more yous need to on maintenance. Clean not often enough, and y'all're faced with buildup, loss of accuracy, and potential harm. Manifestly, you want to make clean when you need to.

So, how often is that?

We've found the magic number to exist somewhere effectually 2000 rounds. Whether you lot go through this is an event or it takes you lot months, it takes most 2000 rounds for enough buildup to occur to make information technology worth cleaning your gun.

As you fire BBs, they volition leave backside microscopic traces of plastic, which will accumulate over time. Obviously, your gun's unique quirks, the quality of ammo you use, and other factors volition affect buildup, so pay attention to how your gun'southward accuracy diminishes with utilize and maintain as necessary.

Plainly, you'll want to make clean your gun more than often if yous play in bad weather condition, like pelting or sandy windstorms, or if you dump your gun in the clay.

Haboob — Non skilful playing conditions.

Honestly, it'southward still better to overclean than to under-clean your gun.

To Tech or Not to Tech: When Cleaning Needs to Go Pro

Okay, nosotros're pretty big fans of DIYing stuff, only we also know that in that location are times to talk to a professional airsoft tech, too.

If you know your fashion effectually your gun and have a robust toolset, you lot probably could clean and lubricate the gearbox and internals of your gun simply fine on your own. We're not going to walk yous through that since, well… it actually depends on your private gun and we simply don't accept the space to practice that.

If you're a new airsofter, though, and desire to gain some critical information for keeping your shiny new gun happy, listen up! We're writing this for you.

Anyways, getting back to the original point, nosotros wanted to talk a trivial bit about when to take your gun to a tech, and when to do it yourself.

Even the newest airsofter can clean their own barrel with the correct tools–tools which ofttimes come with the freakin' gun. This is probably the cleaning task you'll demand to worry most the almost oftentimes, so it's not bad to learn to exercise information technology on your ain.

We'd say that, if you aren't comfortable with a certain cleaning task–similar opening upward your gearbox and taking it apart–don't do information technology. These things can be super tricky to put dorsum together, and lost parts volition ruin the whole affair.

You can, of course, learn to do it. Nosotros encourage this. But also, we're non going to give you a hard time for opting to go to a tech and having them practice it correct the get-go fourth dimension.

Pro tip: if you desire to go a experience for working on internals, ask around or expect for a beater of a gun. Yous can mess around with it, and it won't be too sorry if you end up breaking it.

How to Make clean Your Airsoft Gun: The Nuts

Again, we can't get into the nitty-gritty of cleaning every blazon of gun, merely because we don't have the space or the attention span to do that. And I don't want to. So there.

Only at that place are some basics that are pretty universal, so we'll go over those. For the details, we suggest consulting your specific user manual. If your gun didn't come with 1 (used guns, yo), there's a pretty good take chances you can plug in the brand and model of your gun and "user manual" into Google and get a PDF version of information technology.

And now, the basics of cleaning your ain airsoft gun!

Cleaning the Butt

Chances are, your gun came with a barrel cleaning/unjamming rod. If it didn't, they're a few bucks to option upwardly and are 100% necessary to keep on hand so… get one.

airsoft barrel cleaning — This is a real steel gun simply… aforementioned concept applies.

Cleaning the barrel is incredibly easy. At that place will be a little loop on the terminate of the rod, which will allow you to thread through a scrap of paper towel, a material cleaning patch, or fifty-fifty a fleck of an old tee shirt–whatever you have on hand.

Personally, we similar to apply Teflon gun oil to lubricate and make clean our barrel, considering it dries nicely and won't attract grit. Many people recommend silicone oil for cleaning, and it will certainly go the job washed, just we don't like the residue it tin can get out.

Whatever your choice is, dampen your fabric, towel, whatever, with a drop or two of oil after threading the cloth onto your rod. Thread the rod, textile-first, into your barrel and gently twirl it as you lot move it down the barrel of your gun.

Change out your material and echo equally needed until your swab comes out clean.

Voila! Clean barrel.

Cleaning the Exterior

While cleaning the barrel is probably the most important maintenance step, the exterior of your gun shouldn't be neglected, either.

Brush Set — Utilize the soft i on the right–non the metallic bristled ones!

A soft textile and a soft-bristled brush, similar a toothbrush, will exist your all-time friends in keeping the exterior of your gun make clean. You tin can use them to clean grit and knock dust off your gun. Cotton wool swabs can also be super useful to help you lot clean all the nooks and crannies.

What's important is to avert anything too abrasive, since y'all don't want to scratch the stop of your gun.

Lubricating Your Gun

If you've cleaned your barrel, you lot've already lubricated that function of your gun. Yay! Now permit'south go to the residual of it.

The first footstep is to remove your mag and make certain in that location aren't whatsoever stray Bulletin board system in your gun. So… point it in a safe direction and burn away!

All clear? Crawly. Now flip that gun over, cause nosotros're getting to work.

Now that your gun is upside down, drib or spray a niggling bit of silicone oil into your hop upwardly, and give it a few minutes to soak in.

To lubricate the gearbox, you'll need to remove the motor and locate the small hole on the bottom. You can drop a few drops of silicone oil into the hole and leave the box upside downwards to allow the oil to seep in and lubricate everything.

Y'all might also see white lithium grease recommended for your gearbox, but it'south a scrap hard to utilise the paste without disassembling your gearbox. If you are taking it autonomously, though, it's a great lubricant for gearboxes!

Mag Maintenance

Finally, you lot'll want to have good care of your magazines. These are easier to replace if something goes wrong but who wants to spend more money than they have to?

If y'all use an AEG or a spring gun, you'll desire to completely empty the magazine later you lot're washed playing. This takes tension off the follower and spring inside, and will greatly increase the lifespan of your magazines.

Gas magazines take a petty bit more care. When storing your gas magazine, leave it pressurized. You'll also want to lubricate the internals of your magazine, especially if you're using straight propane or COⁱⁱ instead of dark-green gas. A drib or two of silicone oil in the magazine internals is all it takes to protect your O-ring and continue your magazine useful for a long time.

Another thing to exist careful with when using gas magazines is how you purge your magazine when it's needed. A rapid purge of gas will freeze and ruin the O-ring, which leaves you with a sorry, leaky mag. Don't apply the release valve, since this will crusade this upshot and y'all'll exist bummed you did.

Instead, have a ballpoint pen or a small-scale tool and gently (gently!) press the fill valve to bleed off the gas slowly. Or, y'know… shoot. Dry firing is a perfectly acceptable way to empty out a gas magazine!

Decision

Cleaning and maintaining your airsoft gun shouldn't be some mystical ritual that only happens in the backrooms of airsoft shops. It's not difficult, and yous tin definitely acquire to do it yourself.

In fact, you should, which is why nosotros're here!

Take some fourth dimension to sit down downward with your gun, your cleaning supplies, and our guide, and show your gun some love.

Whatever questions? Any tips? Share with usa and our readers in the comments below! Don't miss out on any of our new posts–give us a like on Facebook !