Airsoft Spring Powered Sniper Rifle Repair

The new low priced high velocity sniper rifles are becoming a popular load out for airsoft gamers in the USA. As such more and more players are asking how to maintain or upgrade a spring powered sniper rifle. One of the more popular versions showing up at fields are type 96 styles. These high velocity 450 FPS spring airsoft guns are incredibly accurate. Most of these sniper rifles are easy to maintain and repair if you know how to field strip your model.

One of the most important things to remember with airsoft sniper rifles is "you must use high quality BB's". If a bb jams and you fire the gun a second time you will shower the internal piston and other cylinder parts with fragments of broken airsoft BB. If the bb is not cleared and you fire again, damage to the piston or o-rings is certain to occur.

Prevent this from happening to you, by learning how to field strip your sniper rifle quickly and effectively in the field. Become familiar with the field breakdown of your particular model airsoft sniper and you will be a better and happier airsoft player. You will need to have hand tools with you and a small amount of silicone grease to lubricate your airsoft sniper rifle once field repairs are completed. The sear assembly of the L96 uses two oddly bent springs that should be kept on hand in case they break. Be sure the sear pin is positioned correctly or the spring will be unable to be cocked. Many veteran airsoft snipers like the smooth sliding bolt action and easy cocking of the model 96 sniper. With proper care and lubrication a 96 model airsoft sniper can consistently deliver Bb's down range at upgraded velocities of 550FPS and be effective out to 250 feet or more.

Getting repair parts for the L96 is also easy as they are being used on airsoft game fields across the country. This will be an important consideration for any airsoft gun purchase, but an upgraded sniper rifle will need periodic repairs due to the forces being applied. When the barrel and the cylinder are separated for maintenance or repairs you must make sure all parts are installed correctly and properly aligned or you risk breaking several components on the first shot. If you are not sure how something goes back together Ask someone, search google or find an airsoft sniper gun repair pictures to check and make sure you are right. After several repetitions of stripping down and re assembling and maintaining your airsoft spring powered sniper rifle you will be ready for any airsoft war. One thing most snipers must consider in any airsoft skirmish is a small backup airsoft machine gun for those times you are not so stealthy and are under attack. A sniper rifle in this scenario does not provide enough cover fire to retreat. I suggest you visit Wisconsin's airsoft headquarters and pick up one of the low priced guaranteed quality checked airsoft guns available here.

Airsoft Gun Repair Tools

If your looking to work on airsoft guns then you may need to take a closer look at what you have and do not have for Airsoft Gun Repair tools in your toolbox. "I know" you already have a #1 and #2 slotted head screwdriver and wire cutters and several styles and sizes of pliers. But there are some specialty items you will need to add to your toolbox if you are going to be maintaining and repairing airsoft guns. Most AEG styles on the market today will have removable Tamiya battery connectors and the pin extractor tool shown in the picture is a must have. There are two sizes one for large airsoft gun batteries and one for small batteries with tamiya connector. These little pin extractors will save you mega time. Along with that comes the battery pin crimp tool that you will need to repair a broken plug or connection on your project gun. You can also buy the hardware needed should your airsoft battery connections become loose or break while you are at a game. These three tools alone have been game savers for my customers many times over and can be used to perform a repair right at the airsoft field.

Rebuilding airsoft guns is fun if you are not plagued by the lack of required parts and tools. If your airsoft gun motor needs work you will need a motor pinion gear remover and press. This tool will take off and put on pinion gears in about 1 minute versus other methods that can take hours and only result in damaging the shaft or gear itself. Due to the small size of most airsoft parts caution must be taken so you do not damage your airsoft gun further in an attempt to repair it.

Some tools and hardware can be expensive but trips to repair shops cost more. The players and airsoft teams at our Wisconsin Airsoft Gun Headquarters just pitch in together and buy a full airsoft tool kit for everyone on the team to use. When you split the cost of tools with a group of people and practice tool sharing among yourselves the price for each person ends up being pretty low and the savings of doing your own airsoft repairs is tremendous.

Some tools for airsoft gun repair are inexpensive and should be a part of any airsoft maintenance kit. The metal bushing installation tool (Use Brass Only) for instance assures you do not damage a brand new set of bushings or bearings as you are installing them. This tool properly seats the bushings/bearings in any gearbox with ease. Steel punches and other tools will damage the finely machined surface of the parts causing premature failure and possibly more costly gear repairs.

Gas blowback pistols have there own set of tools required as well...Things like valve adjustment tools, special wrenches and more. Airsoft guns can require some special hardware as well, things like pin connectors for batteries, springs and other hardware that is hard to find. Then there is the ongoing question about which airsoft gun lubricant is best to use? I think I will save that for another blog.

Airsoft Gun Durability Problem

Have you experienced this problem with your airsoft AEG yet?

Broken plastic spring guides are far to common among all airsoft gun makes and models. TM, E1, JG and the list goes on, all have plastic spring guides, plastic bushings or both. Kudos to the airsoft gun manufacturer's who have started adding these at the airsoft gun engineering point. I will say Classic Army airsoft guns all come with the durablility upgrades installed. A stock CA features both metal spring guide and steel bushings as stock features. BUuuuut, there is that price thing for those of us who would rather take 300 bucks and build our own B.A. custom airsoft gun, so here are two basic durability upgrades that should be performed or installed on most airsoft AEG's or clones with metal gearboxes.

Plastic airsoft gun bushings are little teflon based gear shaft holders in place to act as bearings for your stock airsoft gun gears. Think of them in terms of wheel bearings for your vehicle. These little bearings house gear shafts that revolve at about 850 RPM and pull back a spring under tension that when released exceeds 1 joule of energy which equals "Torque". Without getting all scientific on you, the torque applied at the shaft ends is an unequal force that will expend energy in the form of friction induced heat and since these bushings are plastic based they will melt away...How many shots or full auto bursts before they give out is anyones best guess, but about three to six months depending on the quality of plastic used has been my observation.

SOLUTION: Hard steel bushings are the simple answer. Yes you can buy uber duber ball bearing bushings for a gazillion dollars for 6 or you can just buy plain No Name Airsoft hard steel gun bushings for $12.00 a set. Airsoft ball bearings are still a moving mechanical device and as sand, water and dirt build up inside the bearing raceways, they will begin to mechanically fail. This is hard to detect early and once the bearing completely fails you could be looking at a catastrophic failure that wipes out all the gears, piston and more depending on the timing. This picture shows NNA 6mm airsoft steel bushings installed in a version 2 mechbox. I recommend these to players for upgrades and these are what I use in ABZ airsoft gun repairs I perform at the shop unless the customer request something else.

Airsoft Metal Spring Guides: Take a look at the picture at the top of this page and you will see why I recommend metal spring guides for airsoft gun durability. Again there are many styles and designs available, some serve other purposes as well as being a guide and shock absorber for the recoil of a powerful airsoft spring but this is a spring guides engineered purpose, so why use plastic? A steel No Name Airsoft metal spring guide for $12.00 works just as good as the super roller bearing titanium uberum fiber fantastic airsoft spring guide for 29.99. Again lets remember the forces being applied to the very point the plastic guide shown above broke at.

Durable Airsoft Guns: Well now you know the 2 key things to "check for" and repair to make your airsoft gun more durable. If ordering a new airsoft gun keep in mind that many of the clone airsoft guns are a great buy but will need the above mentioned durability upgrades added.

If you do not have the desire or experience to upgrade your own gun then check out some of Airsoft Battle Zones ready to buy upgraded airsoft gun custom clones. These airsoft guns have the above mentioned airsoft durability upgrades installed already and have been re-shimmed, re-greased and fine tuned to perform flawlessly out of the box. These are covered by a full 30 day airsoft warranty and the ABZ airsoft company is in Wisconsin, U.S.A.