Knowing how to keep your gun up and running improves the general wellbeing of your airsoft gun. This is easily taken care off by making sure how you do your maitenance for your guns.
General knowledge about guns, safety and maitenance:
Safety and user manual (PDF / in Finnish)
General knowledge about paintball guns, safety and maitenance:
Paintball safety and user manual (PDF in Finnish)
You can print from here a paper if you're under 18 years old and have a permission from adult to buy a gun. This paper only applies in Tampere and Helsinki stores:
Permission paper for under 18 year olds (PDF in Finnish)
Spring Action Airsoft Gun Problem Solving Chart
Gas Airsoft Gun Problem Solving Chart
AEG Airsoft Gun Problem Solving Chart
Maitenance
Action Air
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Spring Action Airsoft Gun Problem Solving Chart
|
Problem |
Cause |
Possible Sollution |
|
The gun does not load while cocking / charging it. |
Most likely there is a BB stuck somewhere in the gun or there is something broken. |
Remove magazine, pull the slide/bolt back and try to shake if the BB comes out. If there is a safety switch, make sure it's not applied. If the BB does not come out or there is no BB and the problem continues, deliver the gun to the shop for immediate repairs. |
|
The gun cocks / charges but does not go off / shoot. |
Safety function is on or there is a BB between the the frame and slide? |
Remove magazine and safety function, pull the slide/bolt back and try to shake if the BB comes out. If there is a safety switch, make sure it's not applied. If the BB does not come out or there is no BB and if the problem continues, deliver the gun to the shop for immediate repairs. |
|
The gun cocks and goes off / shoots but no BB comes out. |
Magazine is not inserted or well inside. There is not enough BBs in magazine. Barrel is clogged or there is something other broken in the gun. |
Put the magazine in with BBs. Make sure the barrel is not clogged and is clean and re-adjust the hop-up. If the problem continues, deliver the gun to the shop for immediate repairs. |
|
BB does not fly/glide out of the barrel straight / direct |
There is dirt in the barrel. The weight of the BB is too heavy or light. Hop up is off. |
Clean the barrel and re-adjust the hop-up. Try different weight of BB and do not use already shot BBs. If the problem continues, deliver the gun to the shop for immediate repairs. |
Gas Airsoft Gun Problem Solving Chart
|
Problem |
Cause |
Possible Sollution |
|
Gun does not go off (and there is BBs and Gas in the magazine). |
The gun is not cocked/charged. The safety function is on. There might be a BB stuck between the slide/bolt and frame. There is something broken inside the gun. There is dirt in the gun / gun has no oil in it. |
Cock the gun and make sure the safety is off. If you can field strip the gun, do so and make sure there is nothing visible broken, there is no dirt and all parts are lubricated. If the problem continues, deliver the gun to the shop for immediate repairs. |
|
Gun goes off (Green gas) but does not work properly. |
There is not enough pressure in the magazine. Operating temperature is below +15 celcius. There is dirt in the gun and/or in the barrel. The gun has not been lubricated enough. The gun has been shot too much really fast and the magazine / gun is cold from the gas. |
Add more gas into your magazine and make sure the magazine does not feel freezing into your hand. When the temperature drops under +15 celcius, the gas operated guns loose their power because the gas does not have enough "room" to expand, hence the gun may work indoors but not outdoors at the same time. Make sure the gun is clean and lubricated. If the gun and magazine has cooled / freezed over due the large ammount of shooting, let them warm up before trying next time. If the problem continues, deliver the gun to the shop for immediate repairs. |
|
Gun goes off (CO2) but does not work properly. |
There is not enough pressure in the magazine. There is dirt in the gun and/or in the barrel. The gun has not been lubricated enough. |
Change a new CO2 capsule in to the magazine and clean/lubricate the gun properly. Use CO2 capsules that contain silicone oil time to time to improve the general wellbeing of the gun. If the problem continues, deliver the gun to the shop for immediate repairs. |
|
The gun goes off but the BB does not have a good range. |
There is not enough pressure in the magazine. Hop-up is not adjusted properly or the BB is too heavy. There is silicone oil in the hop-up after maitenance. |
Change the co2 capsule or add more gas into your magazine. Make sure the hop-up is adjusted for the proper weight of BB. If there happens to be silicone oil in the Hop-up, this may cause the hop-up to not give the back spin for awhile. You can just simply shoot the extra oil away. If the problem continues, deliver the gun to the shop for immediate repairs. |
AEG Airsoft Gun Problem Solving Chart
|
Problem |
Cause |
Possible Sollution |
|
Gun does not go off (Battery is connected and there are BBs in the magazine) |
Battery is empty. Fuse has broken. Gun is otherwise broken. |
Make sure the battery has a charge on it. Try with another battery. Switch the fuse and try another fuse. If the problem continues, deliver the gun to the shop for immediate repairs. |
|
Gun goes off but BBs are not coming out (magazine inserted and contains BBs) |
Magazine is not attached properly. Hi-cap magazine is not rolled / cocked enough. There is a clog in the barrel. Faulty/poor quality BBs are stuck in the barrel. There is something else wrong with the gun. |
Make sure the magazine is cocked and properly attached into the gun. You must roll the hi-cap magazine at least 30 sec to get it working properly. Get rid of the faulty/poor BBs and get proper ones (do not use already shot BBs either). Use the tool supplied with your gun. If the problem continues, deliver the gun to the shop for immediate repairs. |
|
Gun goes off but the BB's come out poorly. |
Hop-up is not adjusted properly. Wrong weight BBs. Poor quality BB's (also already used BB's). Dirt in the barrel. |
Check the hop-up. Make sure the weight of the BB is proper for your gun. Do not use faulty / poor quality BBs or pre-used BBs. Clean the barrel. |
|
Gun jams while using semi/single fire. |
The battery is poorly charged, empty or faulty. |
While using semi-automatic fire, the motor demands more power for each shot with semi than using full auto. Hence it's very important to keep the battery charged fully if you plan to shoot much in semi-mode. If the gun jams, you can remove the jam by switching to full-auto, shoot and then back to semi. Do not try to shoot with empty / poorly charged battery. |
Maintenance
Regular proper maitenance of the gun extends the lifespan and prevents any faults occuring. Due the reason the BB gun tech is quite simple is the maitenance simple as well. You do not really need any special tools to do the basic maitenance and cleaning. You must keep the guns externals clean from dirt and dust. For those extra hard stains you may use diluated soap water but do not use too much water.
There is a cleaning rod provided with your gun that is required to keep your inner barels clean. Lubricating the gun is done ONLY with silicone oil. Unlike real firearms you should not use too much of oil in order to prevent extra stains, dust and dirt cathering into your gun.
Cleaning the Barrel
To make sure the barrel is clean, you need a cleaning rod, which usually comes with your gun. Remove the magazine before cleaning the barrel. There is a plunt head in the other side of the cleaning rod that you can use to remove jammed up BBs from the barrel. Make sure that you do not damage the hop-up while doing this. The other end of the rod is meant for the actual cleaning. There is a tiny slit which is meant to be used with a tiny piece of cloth or paper. If you use other than cloth, make sure that there is no extra pieces of paper left into barrel while cleaning.
Before cleaning, take the hop-up off and if possible, make sure there is no BBs int he barrel. Slide the cleaning rod with the piece of paper / cloth. Some of the rods have tiny marks how long you can push the rod in before it's too long in to damage the hop-up. If there is no mark, carefully insert it as long at it goes. Draw the rod out and change the paper/cloth. Repeat this as long as there is no dirt anymore on the cloth / paper. You can enhance the cleaning by adding little ammount of silicone oil to the first paper / cloth.
Lubricating your Airsoft Guns
The oil that is used to lubricate airsoft guns is a silicone oil in a spray bottle. There are separate brands and quality of silicone oil out in the market so it is important to make sure that the oil does not contain any alcohol or anything that would be corrosive. If you use corrosive lubricant such as CRC / WD40 in your airsoft gun, the plastic surfaces and rubbery seals start to crumple and break.
In AEGs the use of silicone oil is quite minimal. The external parts can be lightly lubricated but nothing too extreme to prevent the extra dust / dirt cathering. The internals of the gun has been lubricated at the factory and hence the end user does need to take care of this at all. The only part in the AEG that the end user needs to take care in a form of lubricating is the hop up. Hop up should be kept lubricated time to time in order to prevent it drying out and hence causing faults and problems with your gun.
You do not need to constaly lubricate your hop up however. When you clean the barrel is a good time to do this as well. Either by spraying to the cloth / paper that goes into the barrel or a tiny amount to the first BB in your magazine and shoot them through. The same procedure works also for spring action guns and gas operated guns.
Spring action guns do not require besides the hop up any lubrication because they have been lubricated at the factory already.
Gas opereated guns require bit more lubricating than the others due their nature. The lubrication process can be roughly divided into two categories: The one that the slide / bolt moves and the other where they do not move. If the slide does not move or come off, the lubrication happens mainly by using CO2 capsules that have silicone oil in them. If the gun is operated by green gas, usually the gas contains the silicone and there is no need to add it more. In either these cases, the hop up can and should be lubricated with same procedure as before mentioned.
The guns that have a mooving slide or bolt (GBB) demand bit more thorough lubrication. First you need to field strip and take your gun into parts as much as possible with out any tools. Then remove old oil and excess dirt. After this, lubricate all the surfaces that are in contact with the frame, slide and bolt. Everything that moves some how needs to be lubricated. Once again do not put too much oil in order to prevent extra dust / dirt cathering. Assemble the gun and in order to make sure the oil spreads around, cock / rack the gun few times to make sure it is evenly spread out.
Gas gun magazines should also be lubricated. The most critical parts are the output valve and inlet valve. In CO2 magazines a good lubrication of the base where the capsule is put is needed as well.
BBs Stuck in the Barrel?
If there is a BB stuck in your barrel or you even suspect it, STOP imideatly using your gun. If the gun is AEG or gas gun, remove the magazine and battery or the source for the gas/co2. Then located your barrel cleaning rod. The other end of the cleaning rod has a blunt end which is meant for these situations.
Before you push the rod in, make sure the hop-up is off (and of course magazine / battery / Gas/CO2 source is off). This makes it safe and easy to remove the clogged BB and keeps your hop up safe. Insert the rod carefully into the barrel and try push it slowly towards the way to the magazinewell. When you finally reach to the clogg try pushing it gently forward. If the BB moves, push it all the way out and after clean the barrel. If the BB does not come out gently, deliver the gun to the maitenance to your nearest shop. You may try to enhance this procedure by spraying silicone oil to the barrel.
Changing the Fuse for your Airsoft Guns
AEG may suddenly stop shooting / working and usually the problem can be located in either the battery or the fuse. The task of the fuse is to protect the mechanical part of the gun and prevent possible accidents. You can locate the fuse around where the battery is connected in a separate compartment. After opening the compartment you can find a 15 - 25A glass fuse. You can easily see if this fuse is broken or not by looking at it. There is a metal wire going through the glass tube. If the metal wire is broken, that means the fuse does not work anymore and should be replaced. If the replacing the fuse still continues to cause problems and burn it out again, contact your shop for repairs.
Action Air
Action Air or otherwise known as AIPSC is a competitive shooting sport done by gas operated pistols (gbb). Like in the real steel / full bore IPSC also in Action Air the competitor shoots points against time. This sport is quite new in Finland but it is already acknowledged by the Finnish Shooting Sport Federation (SAL). Around the world this sport is more common, specially in the Asia.
Compared to the real steel / full bore IPSC Action Air has much faster pace and speed because the recoil of the gun is minimal compared to the real fire arms. Due the lack of the power of the guns also the distances are much shorter but the targets are also smaller. This creates the proper effect for competitive shooting. The shooting distances in Action Air vary from few meters to roughly 12 meters.
What do I need to get started?
To get started, you don't need to spend thousands. The easiest way is to buy a simple Gas Blow Back pistol. Besides this you will need a belt, two or three pouches for your magazines and a proper holster. Do not forget eye protection. The belt, pouches and holsters combination is called a rig. The rig must be firm enough to support all the equipment you're carrying with you. Only requirement for the holster is that it prevents the access to the trigger guard all the time. Some of who come from Airsoft to Action Air most likely have a holster of some kind. Also those who are shooting real steel / full bore, have most likely compatible equipment for the airsoft guns.
While getting your gun and accessories, it is important to buy maitenance suplies. Most likely the most important two are the silicone oil and barrel cleaning rod. The rod is usually supplied with the pistols. The silicone oil is used on the guns instead of the real gun oil because the air seals, rubber, and plastic parts tend to get weaker and break because the oil might corrode them. From spare part section, magazine bases and magazine feeding lips are mandotory too to get.
General info about the guns used in Action Air
What gun to get then? Well the best choice for the first gun is to pick it so that it feels good to your hand, it easy to grip and operate. Something that looks good in pictures might not feel that good. The one mandotory thing that each gun must have regardless of the division you are going to chose is the safety function. Like mentioned before, the gun must have a proper GBB-function because the Range Officer must be able to check your gun the properly. This means you will have to be able to show that the breach of the gun is clear/empty, just like in the real steel / full bore IPSC. Marui GBB are known for their outstanding performance and hence those are the number one choice for any AIPSC shooter out there.
In the beginning usually one gun is enough but more experienced shooter usually buys two of the same kind. The other one is mainly for spare or training, while the other is purely for competition. Also while buying two guns at once, you get two magazines at once. Magazines should be bought depending on the division 2-4 (classic 5-7) pcs. You are required to have multiple magazines to pass the more demanding stages.
The ammunition used in Action Air is 6mm plastic or bio BB powered by with a green gas or CO2. The best weight for the BB in Action Air is either 0.25g or 0.28 grams. If the BB is too light, it might not make a hole to a paper target from longer distance or knock down a metallic target. While chosing your gas, you need to make sure about your pistols abilities. If the gun has a plastic slide, then the gas cannot be too strong. Otherway is that if you have metal slide in your gun, you must have enough power in your gas to make it cycle properly. Co2 works nicely with metallic slides and better in colder climates such as outdoors. Keep in mind, the power output of the gun cannot exceed over 2 Joules.
The maintenance of the guns is roughly the same as their real counter parts, but cleaning materials etc. must be more suitable for Airsoft usage. Silicone oil works either way, lubricating and cleaning.
You can check more about the requirements about the divisions from the rulebook, but below you can find the main differences betweeen the divisions. The rulebook you can find from here: http://www.ipsc.org/pdf/RulesAir.pdf
Production Division
Production division is the most simple to get into. This is also the most popular division in Finland in the real steel / full bore IPSC. First you need to check the list of apporved production guns from the list you can find from here: http://www.ipsc.org/rules/proddiv.php .
The gun must resemble in Action Air it's real counter part externally. Like in real steel / full bore IPSC, the gun cannot be modified anyway. Only changes that the competitior can do is changing the regular sights and adding some grip tape to improve the griptexture of the pistols grip. The magazine can only hold 15 shots per magazine in the start in production division.
If the gun used by the competitor is double action, meaning the gun will cock and go off each time the trigger is being pulled, must the first shot be done in double action mode. This means that before the competitior will start, they need to lower the hammer down as safely as possible. In some Airsoft guns there are decockers that must be used but safest way is to remove the magazine while doing this.
The most popular guns in this division are Glock 17/22, Beretta M92, Sig 226, CZ sp01 shadow, HK USP and Springfield XDM.
Classic Division
Classic division is restriced to only for 1911-style pistols. This means hi-capa and other 2011 style pistols are not allowed. This division is based to the original IPSC, where it all started, hence the name. Although modern day classic has bit changed from the begining of the IPSC.
The best guns for Classic division are MEU or Kimber style 1911-series. The magazines need to slim, single stack and you can only put 10 BBs per magazine in the start. This means that the competitor should get at least 5 to 6 magazines among the one that comes with the gun for this division.
What comes to tuning, you can pretty much tune and adjust the gun as you wish as long as it still resembles the 1911 style gun. You cannot how ever fit red dot sight into the gun but you can change the regular sights. The gun must fit to the IPSC standard box with out the magazine inserted. Also the Magwell cannot exeed over 35mm in wideness.
Standard Division
When it comes to poularity, standard division is the most popular in Action Air. Unlike in production division, here you can tune, adjust and modify the gun as much as you want, as long as it fits into the IPSC standard box. The measurements for this box are: 150 x 225 x 45 (-0 +1)mm. The only real limitation is that you cannot mount a red dot sight into your gun, but sights can be changed. The most typical modification is putting on a magwell which makes the magazine changes much easier. Magazines can hold 18 BBs at once in the start.
The most popular guns that competitiors use are Tokyo Marui Hi-capas 5.1 and 4.3 but there are shooters who prefer tuned glocks and CZ as well.
Open Division
Open division means open division. Like in real steel / full bore IPSC, open is the F1 of IPSC. Like the name of the division states, you can tune absolutely as you want your gun to match your skills and need. The most common mod is to put red dot sigth in your gun as well as magwell. Also adding weights into the gun, reloading devices and thumb rests are allowed. The only real limitation is that there needs to be a working safety function and the magazine cannot be longer than 16cm. Magazines can contain 28 BB's per magazine.
This division is controlled mainly hi-capa based guns.
How to get started?
If you are interested, you can get into this sport easilly by just getting these equipment mentioned above and head to the range. Unlike real steel / full bore IPSC, the range can be simple as in your carage or attic. If you want to compete you need to take in Finland safetycourse meant for real steel / full bore IPSC or separate Action Air course. When passing the course, you still need to get a competition license and be a part of a shooting club in Finland and you're ready to go!
For additional information about courses, the sport itself and competitions you can find from Action Air Finlands facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/ActionAirFinland/
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