All airsoft guns need a bit of maintenance to keep them working as intended. While some need more care and attention – such as GBBR, all require the absolute basics mentioned here.

If you want to learn more than the basics, look at our guides in maintenance and upgrades.

Cleaning your inner barrel

One of the most important things you are going to need to do on a regular basis, is clean your inner barrel. Not only will this mean that any bits of dirt and debris don’t affect the accuracy, but it’s also possible that mucky barrels can cause jams, and that can cause potentially expensive damage.

At the absolute least, regular players should be cleaning their barrels monthly, but we recommend giving them a clean after every match.

To clean the barrel you will need:

• Guide rod – that long thin plastic rod that came with the RIF you were wondering about. Yep that’s what its for (well that and unblocking the barrel)
• Microfiber cleaning cloth – we cut thin strips of glasses cleaning cloths to use for this, but any small pieces of cloth that are NOT going to leave any lint or debris behind is fine.
• A cleaning agent – Isopropyl Alcohol / Rubbing Alcohol is best. Do NOT use oil or water or any other strange chemical the interwebs tells you to use. You want something that will evaporate without leaving residue. Please don’t use soap or grease or wax.

Before you begin, it’s advisable that you turn your Hopup off / to it’s minimum setting. This will help prevent damage to the bucking.

Apply the cleaning agent to a thin strip of the cloth, then feed the cloth through the hole in the guide rod as shown below.

Once you’ve done that, gently insert the rod into the inner barrel and slowly turn the rod as you insert further. You want to be careful not to scrape up against the bucking / nub. Go gently and if you start to feel the slightest resistance, stop.

Depending on how mucky the barrel is, you might need to repeat these steps a few times with new pieces of cloth, essentially until you see no more dirt.