{"id":52,"date":"2013-10-26T03:59:00","date_gmt":"2013-10-26T03:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tacticalparts.com\/blog\/?p=52"},"modified":"2016-12-02T23:26:33","modified_gmt":"2016-12-02T23:26:33","slug":"maintaining-your-gas-blowback-magazines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tacticalparts.com\/blog\/maintaining-your-gas-blowback-magazines\/","title":{"rendered":"Maintaining Your Gas Blowback Magazines"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>This is a really common question from just about every airsofter out there. What is the best way to maintain my GBB magazines?<\/p>\n

#1 is to mind what you feed it. The best method is to use green gas
\nthat already has a silicone lube mixture inside it. The more popular
\nalternative is a propane bottle with a fill adapter because this is much
\n cheaper. Care must be taken with this
\nlatter step, however. It is highly advisable that you apply several
\ndrops of fine silicone lube to the top of the propane bottle before
\nscrewing on the adapter. I recommend doing this for at least every 3rd
\nmagazine fill. <\/p>\n

The number one killer of GBB magazines is worn,
\n cracked, or dried out o-rings. An o-ring leak will obviously bleed off
\nwhatever gas you have stored in the fill chamber slowly, or quickly,
\ndepending on how bad your leak is. The best measures are preventative
\nmeasures. Keep your o-rings hydrated and they will last a long time. Raw
\n propane gas has a tendency to dry things out. This can be exacerbated
\nby temperature extremes too. Freezing, or shooting extremely fast (if
\nyour gas allows it) in cold temperatures can adversely affect the
\nperformance of the o-rings. <\/p>\n

There are lubes out there designed
\n to “breathe new life into” dry o-rings. They are usually marketed under
\n the name of “Gas Blowback Magazine Saver” or the like. I have used
\nthese with good success – most of them do work well. Generally you
\ndepress the valve on the back of the magazine, place a few drops of the
\nlube into the top of the gas chamber opening, and then fill your
\nmagazine with gas. Typically you leave the mag sitting upright for a
\nperiod of time up to 24 hours or so. I prefer to vent the contents of
\nthe magazine afterwards, rather than fire it through the weapon as the
\nlube can tend to find its way down your barrel otherwise. <\/p>\n

#2,
\n after o-rings, valves are the weakest link in the GBB magazine. These
\nare usually made of brass, plated brass, or in some cases, aluminum, or
\nsteel. 90% of the time, they will be brass due to brass having good
\nself-lubricity properties. Potential for brass to be damaged, especially
\n when screwing it into harder metals, such as aluminum or steel are
\nthere. It can be easy to damage the threads or chew out the slot for
\nyour screwdriver, or even bend valve if you monkey too hard with it. The
\n valve usually contains two or more o-rings depending on design. These
\no-rings are usually the ones that die over time. Finding and replacing
\nthese o-rings can be a real pain, to impossible in some cases. 90% of
\nthe time, you’re simply better off saving yourself the time, grief, and
\nagony by just biting the bullet and replacing the valve altogether.
\nAdditionally, some valves are rather complicated affairs of engineering,
\n and don’t lend themselves easily to being dissembled without completely
\n compromising the structure to the point of making it impossible to
\nreassemble. If your valve is bad, try to rehydrate the o-ring first. If
\nthis doesn’t work, take it apart, replace what o-rings you can access or
\n can determine to be bad. If that still doesn’t work, replace the valve.
\n Valves can be expensive, so once again, preventative maintenance is the
\n key here to ensuring long life. <\/p>\n

I have read of some folks
\nusing automotive gasket sealer to seal the valve to the magazine body. I
\n really don’t recommend this because it can be near impossible to remove
\n a bad valve due to this stuff. Remember: most valves are brass. It
\ndoesn’t take much effort or a bad slip to chew up the slot and
\ncompletely trash your ability to remove a valve. <\/p>\n

Another
\ncommon issue with valves is the valve plunger fails to depress
\nconsistently or drags. This is usually the result of gunk, debris, or
\nbad manufacturing process (a machining burr) preventing it from working
\nproperly. Blow it out if you can. If it doesn’t work after this, then it
\n is likely a defect and should be replaced. Plungers are another item
\nthat is difficult and time consuming to fix. <\/p>\n

#3 is relatively
\nsimple. On GBB pistol mags, it pays to keep your feedway for your BB’s
\nclean. Lube and debris tends to collect in this channel during firing.
\nIf you observe closely, it is not uncommon for this to severely
\ncontaminate the cleanliness of your BB’s. This translates itself
\ndirectly to your barrel, which translates to decreased accuracy. The
\nfeeble pipe cleaner is your friend here. Lock your spring back, double
\nup the pipe cleaner in half, and clean that channel out. Your BB’s will
\nthank you and your barrel will thank you. <\/p>\n

#4, I have never
\npersonally seen or heard of a case where the gas chamber of a magazine
\nwas cracked or compromised in such a fashion as it leaked like a sieve.
\nTypically these are milled or case from a solid block of steel or
\naluminum. It would be very hard to destroy one. Your o-rings and valves
\nwill go out first before you ever destroy the main gas chamber.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is a really common question from just about every airsofter out there. What is the best way to maintain my GBB magazines? #1 is to mind what you feed it. The best method is to use green gas that already has a silicone lube mixture inside it. The more popular alternative is a propane … Continue reading “Maintaining Your Gas Blowback Magazines”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tacticalparts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tacticalparts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tacticalparts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tacticalparts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tacticalparts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tacticalparts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":356,"href":"https:\/\/tacticalparts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52\/revisions\/356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tacticalparts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tacticalparts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tacticalparts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}