Hop up? Check
Important note though – do not fast charge
new batteries as this will reduce their game
time to around 10 minutes rather than several
hours.
Okay, so you fit the battery and test how
it sounds by flicking the selector between
single and full-auto and all is good. Time to go
shooting!
So here we go. Your first target comes into
view at a skirmish, you line up the sights,
squeeze the trigger and… the BB hits the
ground 10ft from you. What went wrong?
This is usually because the ‘hop’ has not
been adjusted. Almost all AEGs have a hop,
which simply stands for Higher Operating
Power. They were introduced in the early
1990s to give airsoft guns more range than
previous models. They are all designed to
put backspin on the BB, which generates lift
and therefore greater range. To adjust the
range of your AEG just turn the wheel or
slide the lever on the hop unit, which adjusts
the lift. (The technical name for this is the
Bernoulli principle, but we’ll leave that for
the specialists.)
With the hop adjusted and good-quality
BBs loaded you should now be hitting
targets out to 50m.
BBs? Check
Gun? Check
Your new AEG may have come with a
small bag of BBs and they probably ran out
long before you got to the skirmish site
(embedded in a cardboard box at the bottom
of the garden), so you need to get some
more.
Some new shooters go searching for
‘good’ BB deals online or from the local
market and, picking up 10,000 BBs for £5
they think they’ve got a bargain. However,
this is a big mistake!
Most cheap BBs are cheap for a reason;
they are simply not suitable for good quality
AEGs. Standard BBs are the same regular
size, 6mm. Airsoft guns that take 4.5mm
BBs, 8mm BBs, and even rare 10mm BBs
do exist, but for now we will deal with the
standard 6mm size.
The industry standard weight is 0.2g, the
recommended weight for use in most AEGs.
Lower weight BBs are to be avoided for
the following reasons: many are two-piece
castings and often the two halves do not
match, leaving a raised seam line. On a more
obvious note they are very light (around
0.11g) and therefore very inaccurate.
These BBs leave a lot of residue in
the barrel due to the inferior plastics
used and, as a result, they can
cause your new gun to jam.
Most lightweight BBs are
easy to recognise. They are
brightly coloured, usually
yellow, orange or bright
blue, while regular airsoft
BBs are usually white.
Great skirmish guys! Time to drop the gun
back in the box and forget about it until next
month.
Be honest: we’ve all done this, even some
of the hardcore veterans out there. But it is
good practice to clean your gun barrel fairly
regularly to maintain good accuracy and
to prevent BB jams during games. This is
especially true with a new AEG. The gearbox
inside your pride and joy is usually liberally
coated in grease which has to exit the gun
somewhere, more often than not straight
down the barrel.
A simple run through with a cleaning
patch lightly coated in silicone spray,
inserted into the eye of that cleaning rod
in the bottom of your gun box, is usually
enough to clean a barrel. Do not use oilbased lubricants or solvent-based silicone
sprays such as WD40 as they will slowly eat
away any rubber seals inside your hop unit.
Make sure that the patch you use is not
so big it will become jammed in the barrel
during cleaning (this is especially important
if you eventually upgrade to a tight-bore
bar rel). Twist the rod in one direction as
you pass it through the barrel to allow the
cleaning patch to do its job and
also stay attached to the
eye of the rod.
Important
note: When
cleaning any
barrel please
make sure not
to ram the rod
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Xmas 2011
into the hop unit, as this will damage the
rubber. The best way to prevent this is to
measure the distance from the hop well (the
hole inside the magazine slot) to the muzzle
and tape the cleaning rod about an inch
shorter than that point so that you do not
overextend the rod.
So there you have it: some basic
maintenance tips that will help get you
on your way and keep your gun running
smoothly. Hopefully your first AEG will be
a source of fond memories in 20 or more
years, rather than being remembered as
‘that bloody gun!’ ■
Gunmunki can be
found at The Grange,
Balsall Common, where
he works his magic and
keeps the site guns in
tip-top condition.
If you have a question, or would like
more information, contact the Gunmunki
via email to:
[email protected]
The Grange: 01676 532384,
www.suspensionofdisbelief.co.uk