New gun maintenance...

[Albiscuit]

Still learning about this game and have seen comments on stripping cleaning and lubing new guns before use and was wondering what, where and why do you do this?

 

And should I be doing any of this to my new combat raider now or after skirmishes?

 

I want my guns to be maintained well and just wondered what I should be doing?

[jcheeseright]

clean the barrel once when you first buy it, carefully.

 

After that unless you drop it in a puddle or somehow get mud inside the barrel leave it alone and it'll work for years without issue. Start pulling it to bits to 'grease the gears' etc and you'll have problems.

[Albiscuit]

Fair play!! thx

[Igilmour]

Clean the barrel once? It's best to clean it after every time you play. You'll be surprised how much crap gets in there. And I find I need to re-grease the piston around every year or so or the compression starts to drop. You can probably just leave the gears and stuff alone though if you don't intend to upgrade.

[Lozart]

Clean the barrel once? It's best to clean it after every time you play. You'll be surprised how much crap gets in there. And I find I need to re-grease the piston around every year or so or the compression starts to drop. You can probably just leave the gears and stuff alone though if you don't intend to upgrade.

 

 

It depends where you play to great extent. I only play CQB (indoors) so it doesn't have the opportunity to pick up dirt. Having recently cleaned the barrel on a 10+ year old M4 I can vouch for it not being very dirty at all.

 

As for regreasing the piston once a year - I'd suggest getting a better piston head. Sounds like your seals are the issue to me, not the lubrication.

[n1ckh]

I clean all my rifles and pistols after every game i play, my sons clean there own but that's because we play outdoors and yet to do CQB

 

Its all left over from the army cadets and then the army

 

As I say to my sons "look after it and it'll last you when you need it most"

 

What piston head do you suggest lozart ?? as I'd like to change mine

[Lozart]

 

What piston head do you suggest lozart ?? as I'd like to change mine

 

I have this piston head http://www.ak2m4.co.uk/internal-parts/pistons-heads/shs-piston-head-aluminum

This cylinder head http://www.ak2m4.co.uk/internal-parts/cylinders-heads/shs-m4-cylinder-head-pad (although the pad has been replaced with an Airlab sorbo pad).

 

I was mistaken about saying my piston head has 2 o-rings - I was thinking of the cylinder head. Even so, I would suggest that maybe the quality of the seal itself could be better (mine has an Airlab one in it).

[n1ckh]

Good old ak2m4 to the rescue, I'll give him a PM when I can and chat to him about it all

 

Cheers Loz

[Albiscuit]

My combat raider was playing up a lil bit last skirmish, seemed to be missfiring quite a bit. Someone suggested I should pt some oil into the magazine which will then feed into the hop up and barrell and help out this problem, does this sound like good advice?? as another person suggested it was the magazines as there were cheaper ones I bought....

 

I will probably look to getting new magazines anyway now. But should I be lubricating the barrel and hop up at all?

[jcheeseright]

absolutely not, your barrel and hop should be bone dry at all times.

[Undieing_Lust]

Clean your barrel with Silicone Lube ( I use 3 in 1 Silicone lube from halfords.) ( NSF H2 registered making it safe for use in food-related environments. so its not gonna eat your hop up rubber) using lint free cloth with the cleaning rod you should have gotten with the gun. You dont have to be religious about it as its an airsoft gun...Not a real one were your gonna have power and copper fouling down the breach/barrel. You can do it after everygame I used to but I stoped after seeing there was very little if any at all dirt (I play outdoors) so once a month/Depending on weather and stuff like that clean it. Like jcheeseright said your hop up should be dry as it works via friction to put spin on the BB. Untill you get alittle more experience with airsoft and the stuff inside the gearbox and what it does I would suggest to leave it alone...Also things like if its metal dont let water sit on it to form rust and wipe it down. Because norn Iron rains all the damn time I normally end up puting a very very light coat of oil on all my metal parts, and just remember to look at things like your wires for cuts and on the connectors at your batterys for signs of wear.

[Russe11]

Don't use any lube in the barrel, you risk getting it on the hop up. Lube in the barrel will also allow dirt to stick. In most cases just some dry clean rag will be enough to remove any dirt. Worst case use some alcohol (meths etc), small bit of rag with a couple of drops of meths in your cleaning rod and then use a dry rag to finish the job.

[Albiscuit]

Ok thanks guys... Saved me from disaster it seems.

 

I didnt think it sounded right as no one I play with seemed to know what he was suggesting either. Must be the mags then, that will teach me to get some cheap ones GRRR

[Sitting Duck]

try some other mags first:

 

http://www.landwarriorairsoft.com/airsoft-magazines-c3/high-capacity-c51/dytac-300rds-bravo-magazine-for-m4-aeg-black-box-of-10-p3058

 

get a m8 to go halves with ya - but they are good cheap mags

 

cleaning gun/mags - not really coz the hop-up must be clean and dry

some may clean barrel with alcohol wipes, some may use a tiny - and a I mean a tiny bit of silicone oil

in barrel only but if any of this gets in hop-up you will need to strip and clean/wash in warm soapy water

or will need replacing - so in general to avoid f**king it up DON'T

(it "can" help in some cases but to save getting into a row/debate avoid any chemicals especially as it might be mag related)

 

some mags are just pure crap - yup got a few that are pi$$ poor at feeding

pop one of the above Dytac's in - lovely - suffice to say most mags that came with guns are still in their boxes

bought some jumbo 500rnd ones from Hong Kong and they last for ages.....

because f**k all comes out the bastid mags !!!! (pile of crap they are)

OK I could change spring inside mag and pi$$ ball about but Dytac do job great & just over a fiver each

suffice to say we got another box recently

[Albiscuit]

Those mags are cheaper than the ones I bought.. and those were a pile of crap...

 

Wish I had known before. Will order a box before our next skirmish.. thanks Ducky..

[Albiscuit]

Those mags are cheaper than the ones I bought.. and those were a pile of crap...

 

Wish I had known before. Will order a box before our next skirmish.. thanks Ducky..

[Albiscuit]

Grr.. bloody phone. Could a Mod pls delete

[Lozart]

Those mags are cheaper than the ones I bought.. and those were a pile of crap...

 

Wish I had known before. Will order a box before our next skirmish.. thanks Ducky..

 

They also do a box of 5 for roughly half the price: http://www.landwarriorairsoft.com/airsoft-magazines-c3/high-capacity-c51/dytac-300rds-magazine-for-m4-aeg-black-box-of-5-p2896

[Sitting Duck]

shipping is about £6 though

so 5 mags is about £43 shipped

they also do some others for about £47 + shipping for 5

or 10 for about say 56/57 quid

 

These "Bravo" ones are same grey colour but have a star & BCM on the metal case

my first 10 were just plain grey but no worries and probably will spray a few tan maybe

 

10 maybe a bit much for one player so was why I said get a m8 or two to go in with ya

very pleased with first box bought at Easter time, tested a couple of the Bravo/BCM and feed lovely

wouldn't have bought another box if they were crap

[Albiscuit]

For the difference I would probably go for the 10 as I would use 6 and sell the rest to the boys in my group....

 

Thanks though muchos happreshiation!!

[Albiscuit]

Meh.. the mid caps are a lot more than the high caps... Still worth it for a bit of winding..

[Sitting Duck]

Mid caps are great if you get some good ones

 

certainly beats the more "musical" high caps

get a few of ya running around and just sounds like a mexican/latin/spanish maracas quartet

 

yeah put on some samba de amigo and shake it baby:

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/91/SambaDeAmigo.jpg