How Do I Clean My Airsoft Gun?

I receive an e-mail from a new airsoft player every once and a while about how best to clean their airsoft gun. This question could actually apply to several different elements of the airsoft gun, but it seems as if most new airsofters are talking about the barrel of the gun and not the rest of the internals.

Although in many cases, the internals are where the most cleaning needs to be done, this guide is intended to answer questions about the barrel of the airsoft gun only and is geard towards the "newbie" level player.

For those of you hoping to get info on cleaning the guts of the gun (I.e. the mechbox or valve assembly) I would strongly encourage you to take a look at either www.mechbox.com or the newer but promising www.airsoftdna.com. These sites will show you how to disassemble the guns to their individual components and cleaning is then simply a matter of you using your best judgment on how best to wipe the parts clean.

On to the guide!

There are a couple of different ways to clean an airsoft gun barrel but they all do the same thing; clean gunk off the inside of the smooth barrel which is in the airsoft gun. Because airsoft guns (usually) don't have rifled barrels (Barrels with spiral grooves cut into the inside of the barrel) you will not have to worry about getting crud out of these grooves. This means that the cleaning process is pretty simple. Basically, you are going to need to swab out the barrel using some oil and a cleaning patch (small square of fabric or paper). Bear in mind that the barrel of an airsoft gun is quite small (narrow diameter) and therefore, I have found that the best method of pushing the cleaning patch through the barrel is to use an airsoft cleaning rod. Generally, these rods come with the gun and are usually plastic. The plastic construction helps to prevent damaging the barrel and other parts on the and I would advise against using metal coat hangers or similar.



Before you get started, here are a couple of things to keep in mind:

ALWAYS, ALWAYS THINK SAFETY! This means making sure that your airsoft gun is completely unloaded, de-charged, de-gassed, de-cocked etc...

Once you've made sure the airsoft gun is safe begin the cleaing process:


#1 Turn the hop up off. That is, turn the hop up to the setting where the is NO back spin on the bbs. IF you don't do this, you risk damaging the hop up bucking with the cleaning patch/rod.

# 2 tear off a small piece of paper towel (approx. 1"x1") and bend it in half so it looks like a triangle. Thread one corner of the triangle through the eye (the slit) in the tip of the cleaning rod.

#3 Lubricate the cleaning patch with a few drops of silicone oil (DO NOT USE WD40!!!! as it can erode the rubber in the hop up and on the rest of the gun!!!)

#4 Using steady pressure, push the cleaning rod through the barrel from the tip of the barrel to the feed port of the gun. (I usually tip the gun on its back to see if the cleaning rod has reached the feed tube.) DO NOT APPLY TOO MUCH PRESSURE! if you feel an obstruction in the barrel, be VERY careful to make sure that the obstruction is a BB or something else. IF you feel the cleaning rod catch on something and you do not see the cleaning rod through the feed tube, you may have caught the hop up bucking and pushing too hard could ruin the bucking.)

#5 Once you've pushed the rod all the way down the barrel, pull it out and inspect it for dirt or other particulates. If the patch (the small piece of paper towel) is dirty, then remove it and replace it with a fresh cleaning patch, re-lubricate and repeat the cleaning process till the cleaning patches no longer come out of the barrel dirty.

If you follow these steps and use your common sense, you will be able to successfully, clean nearly any airsoft barrel.