How to Clean Airsoft Rifles

Often times, players will purchase and/or use an airsoft rifle, and discover that it isn't shooting as accurately or fast as they hoped it would. They then immediately turn to upgrading the barrel or hop up, when in fact, having a thoroughly clean airsoft rifle can make great improvements.

First of all, the easiest part of a clean airsoft rifle is swabbing the barrel. Purchase 100% silicone oil from an online airsoft retailer, or if you are lucky enough to find it, from a local hardware store. The silicone oil must not have any oils or additives, anything other than 100% pure could eat away at your hop up rubber. You should also have cotton swab patches, which you attach through the hole on the end of the cleaning rod which comes with your rifle. Be sure to turn off your hop up all the way before starting, then apply silicon oil to the swab, and begin pushing the rod in and out of the barrel completely. Once the swab is dirty enough, take it off and replace it with a clean patch, add fresh silicon oil, and repeat. This process usually takes at least 4-7 swabs until they begin coming out perfectly clean. After the swabs begin coming out clean, put one last dry patch through to leave a slick film of silicon oil to the inside of the airsoft rifle's barrel. This will insure your clean airsoft rifle with have perfectly oiled barrel for maximum accuracy.

The hop up rubber on an airsoft barrel is a crucial element to accuracy, so it needs to be in pristine condition to have optimum performance in your clean airsoft gun. Disassemble your gun down to the barrel and hop up, and pull the rubber hop up from the end of the barrel. Place the hop up rubber in a bowl of hot, soapy water, and gently clean it and let it soak in the water. After soaking for a half hour, place it out to dry on some paper towel, and after completely dry, reinstall it on the airsoft barrel. The first 100 shots may be inaccurate if there is silicon oil on the hop up of your freshly cleaned airsoft rifle, this is acceptable, and it will wear off after enough shots.

The final part of the clean airsoft rifle is the mechbox. Divide the mechbox into two halves, and remove the gears, piston, and cylinder. Wipe these clean with paper towel, and then clean the gears with a cleaning product of your choice. You can also put all these innards of the mechbox into soapy water once again, and clean them very nicely in there. After drying, use white lithium grease and coat all the gears in the grease. Too much grease and the parts struggle to move. Too little grease, and there is excessive wear on the parts. Find a good medium. Then put a light coat of the grease in the cylinder until the piston moves nicely inside the cylinder, and reinstall all the parts correctly into the mechbox. Be sure to have lithium grease in the holes where the gear axes go in, this is a crucial friction area that needs to be greased on an airsoft AEG.Your clean airsoft rifle will now have a nicely functioning gearbox to go along with it's clean barrel and hop up.

Before putting the barrel back into your clean airsoft rifle, be sure to fire the mechbox several times to expel the left over lithium grease out of the nozzle. If you were to put the barrel back on before doing this, you would get lithium grease on the hop up, which would severely affect the shots of the rifle. Lithium grease lasts longer than silicone oil would on the hop up, so it will affect the hop up for longer than silicone oil would have on your airsoft rifle.

With these cleaning methods, your clean airsoft gun will be in tip top shape for your next airsoft war. Be sure to clean the barrel and possibly the hop up before every major event so that your rifle is ready to give you its best.