CLEAN
AND TIDY
O
kay, so you’ve ripped open the
box and are trying to remove the
static cellophane sheet that has
attached itself to your face – and
there it is, your new airsoft gun,
all shiny and ready for war. Or is it?
Today many AEGs (automatic electric
guns) come with everything you need to
start skirmishing, including battery, charger,
shooting glasses, cleaning rod and even
some BBs.
Like all diligent airsofters, you pick up
the instructions booklet and are suddenly
confronted by a mixture of anime-style
images and the wonder of Chinglish text. If
you’re lucky you’ll figure out that you should
not aim your gun at tigers, but probably not
an awful lot else!
So, where do you begin?
Battery? Check
Unfortunately, before you can even see if
your AEG works you have several hours to
wait for your new battery to charge (unless
your local dealer is nice enough to charge
it for you). I have witnessed many new
shooters arriving to skirmish, running
onto the field and… they haven’t
charged their battery.
Most rechargeable batteries
that come with new AEGs are
nickel metal hydride (NiMh for
short) and need to be slowly, or
‘trickle’ charged. Trickle charging
gradually introduces the power
and allows the battery to store
the maximum amount of energy – more
energy means more hours of shooting.
The chargers that come with new AEGs
are usually European two-pin trickle chargers
so you will need a three-pin plug adaptor
before you can begin.
WORKSHOP
Gunmunki explains how to
look after your new AEG
and helps answer that
commonest of questions:
“Why won’t it work?”
But how long do you trickle charge for? The
recognised rule is: battery capacity divided by
charger output multiplied by 1.4 equals your
charging time in hours.
If maths is not your friend this means an
“Do not fast charge new batteries
as this will reduce their game
time to around 10 minutes rather
than several hours”
1100mAh (the battery usually supplied with
a new AEG) will take around six and a half
hours. If you are not sure just ask the
shop owner or a regular airsofter to help
you out – we’re not all that bad to talk to,
but be prepared to listen for several hours.
Eventually your trickle charged battery
will run out of power. This might take four
or five hours of play or less, depending
upon the battery size and how trigger happy
you are. At this stage you can either trickle
charge or fast charge the battery.
Many skirmish sites have fast chargers.
Fast charging is a speedy way of getting your
battery working and takes around 10 to 15
minutes. You generally know your battery is
ready when the charger beeps loudly at you.
www.airsoftactionmagazine.com
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