How To Clean An Airsoft Gun
What will happen if you don’t regularly clean your airsoft gun? There is a likely possibility that it won’t function properly.
There are many things that could happen if you don’t maintain your airsoft gun regularly. According to Answers Yahoo.com, you have to clean it after 8 uses.
What Are The Parts That You Need To Clean In An Airsoft Gun?
Everything. You need to clean every part of your airsoft gun since they all play a part in the proper functioning of the gun.
It is a mistake to disregard the cleaning of what you think is an unimportant element of the gun.
The design of your particular gun requires that its every part should play their roles efficiently.
If a certain ‘unimportant part’ will not fulfill its function, the whole assembly will not be able to perform efficiently.
A gun is the perfect example of the proverb that says “the whole is just the sum of its parts.”
Is Cleaning Your Airsoft Gun Really That Important?
Yes, it is. Just consider the following reasons for cleaning your airsoft gun.
1. It will increase your accuracy and performance
If you will clean your gun regularly, it will function efficiently and will do what you want it to do. As a result, your accuracy and performance in a field match will improve.
2. It will not easily break down
If your gun is cleaned regularly, the strength of all its parts will be maintained. There will be no chance for dirt and grime to do their dirty work.
3. Its firepower will improve
If you maintain the FPS parts of your gun regularly, its firepower will improve. With enhanced FPS, you will be hitting your targets more often and thus improve your accuracy and performance.
4. It will look nice and clean
Cleaning your airsoft gun regularly will make it look like the way it appeared when you first bought it. It’s nice to be seen using a gun that is nice and clean.
Safety Should Be Your First Concern
Before starting the first step in cleaning your airsoft gun, be sure that everything is safe.
According to Airsoft Reports Blogspot, safety should be your first concern. You need to ensure that your airsoft gun is truly unloaded, de-cocked, de-gassed or de-charged.
These Are Things That You Need To Prepare
You will need the following materials in cleaning your airsoft gun:
- Cleaning rod – this comes with your gun when you first bought it
- A Small piece of microfiber cloth or paper towel
- Rubbing alcohol or silicone spray (rubbing alcohol is better since it really cleans out the grime and dirt better than silicone spray)
- Silicone Oil for moving rubber parts
- WD 40 for moving metal parts
According to Airsoft Guns Gas Electric Spring, petroleum lubricants, strong cleansers, and strong solvents should not be used in cleaning your airsoft gun.
If there’s just one thing that you need to use, it should be a soft and clean damp cloth.
Follow These Steps In Cleaning Your Airsoft Gun
After making sure that everything is safe, you can now start the cleaning process. Here are the steps that you need to follow.
Step One:
You will start by cleaning the barrel of the gun. Turn off the hop up by turning the setting in the NO back spin position on the BBs. If this is not done, the cleaning rod is liable to break the hop up bucking.
Step Two:
Use a piece of paper towel or the microfiber cloth and form it into a small triangle. Slip a corner of this triangle through the slit or eye at the tip of the cleaning rod.
Step Three:
Put a few drops of silicone oil on the cleaning patch.
Step Four:
Push the rod with the cleaning patch through the barrel by using steady pressure.
Do this starting from the barrel tip to the gun’s feed port. Turn the gun on its back to see if the end of the rod is already in the feed tube.
Don’t apply excessive pressure. If something is obstructing the rod, try to get it out gently.
If you feel an obstruction but you can’t see the rod via the feed tube, you might be pushing too hard and may have hooked the hop up bucking. You could damage it.
Step Five:
As soon as you have pushed the cleaning rod down to the bottom of the barrel, pull back the cleaning rod and examine it for dirt and grime.
If the cleaning patch is dirty, replace it with a fresh one, put in some drops of silicone oil and repeat the whole process.
Do this until the cleaning patch returns clean and clear of grime and dirt.
What Other Parts Of The Airsoft Gun Do You Need To Clean?
The above cleaning process is good for the hop up and the barrel of your airsoft gun. There are other parts of the gun that you need to clean regularly. They are the following:
- Magazine – dirt in the magazine will cause the BBs not to shoot straight. So you need to clean them out.
- Inner parts of the gun – your gun has several inside parts. They include the spring (if your gun is spring-based), spring guide and the piston.
- Outer parts of the gun – the gun casing holds all the components of the gun. It is also composed of several parts. You need to clean these parts to make your gun pleasant to look at.
How Often Do You Need To Clean Your Gun?
There are some people who practice cleaning their guns after playing a game.
However, there are some who believe that this is unnecessary. Here are the recommendations of most airsoft gun owners and users:
1. Clean the inner part of the barrel after every other game.
2. Clean the internals of the gun after every 10,000 shots. This computes to about once a year if you are an average player.
3. Clean the outer parts of the gun as often as you want. Every person has his own way of looking at cleanliness.
If you need more information about the proper way of cleaning your airsoft gun, please watch this short YouTube video.
