Barrel cleaning help

[summers]

I'm fairly new to airsoft and have little knowledge on gun maintenance. I have skirmished with my SG 550-1 AEG around 5-6 times and until yesterday when I noticed a significant decrease in my fps and accuracy (my bb's were flying in all different directions, opposed to when I first used it when it was deadly accurate). I figured this was due to me having never cleaned my barrel. So I used a cleaning rod and tissue and cleaned it several times but the problem still occurs and after asking around it's something to do with my barrel having limescale or something? I was told to use silicone spray, I don't have any of this but iv'e also been told to use '3-in-one' (with PTFE) which I do have. Would 3-in-one do the trick? if not where do I get the right silicone oil/spray?

Thanks

 

[ak2m4]

Hi Summers. Your barrel doesn't have limescale so no need to reach for the Cillit bang just yet Like anything mechanical, gearboxes need maintenance as your drop in FPS could be one of many things. However the symptoms you mention sound like issues with the hop rubber and/or airseal compression. You'll very likely need to open her up.

 

[summers]

Thanks for the help the shop will be helping me replace some parts.

 

[Liam Porter]

You don't want to be putting silicone spray down the barrel, I find that dirt and stuff just sticks to it. I use lint free cloth cut into squares, threaded through the barrel cleaner and dipped in rubbing alcohol.

What may have happened is as you've used it, grease and gunk from the gearbox has been expelled out the cylinder and onto the hop rubber/barrel. Take the barrel out and clean as above, and wash the hop rubber in warm soapy water, then leave to dry. When putting it back together, you can put silicone spray on the outside of the hop rubber, but you don't want any on he inside.

You can either keep doing this every few game days, or you can disassemble the gearbox and give it a clean, removing most or all of he factory grease and apply a small amount of proper grease.

 

[RR01]

It could also be that your hop has now bedded in and that it needs adjusting to bring it back to where it was. If you are letting the shop service it then they should check this anyway, although unless they have a long testing range they won't be able to set the hop correctly for you.