Clean Your Paintball Gun! It's Dirty...

From Marty May

10 Steps to a Clean Gun

One of the most important things you can do to protect your paintball gun investment is to keep it clean and lubricated. I know it’s boring to do, but once after cleaning your gun a few times, it rarely takes more than a few minutes. Often a well-maintained gun is the difference between playing all day or sitting out a few games to clear up barrel breaks or jammed triggers.

So, in 10 easy steps, I’m going to teach the basics on cleaning and lubing your gun. A couple of ground rules should be mentioned here. First, since there are many different brands of paintguns available, these are general guidelines only. If the manufacturer’s instructions tell you to do something different than this article—FOLLOW THEIR ADVICE! Also, before you get started make sure you have a parts kits on-hand and all the other cleaning essentials.

So, read this entire article and have all the supplies needed before starting to clean your gun. Finally, place old newspaper or a flattened trash bag on your worktable to make cleanup easy.

1. The absolute first thing to do is remove the air source for your gun. NEVER, EVER work on, clean, or inspect your marker with air source connected.

2. Now lay your paintgun schematic in front of you. This is usually somewhere in the instruction manual or it may be on a separate page included with your box. If you can’t locate the schematic, check the manufacturer’s website. They can often be found online. Do this before you disassemble your gun—trust me, it’ll make reassemble much easier. If you still can’t find the schematics, then sketch the internals of the gun that look like they might be difficult to replace. Next, remove the hopper, barrel, bolt, hammer/striker, and grip frame. Put everything neatly aside.

3. We’ll start with the barrel. Run a pull-through squeegee through the inside of the barrel. Wipe down the barrel with a paper towel and warm water (inside and out). Run a clean squeegee through the barrel again to dry it and then a dry paper towel. Make sure the barrel is dry.

4. Now that the insides of the gun are removed, clean the inside of your gun's body. Some guns allow you to run a squeegee through the body. If you own such a gun, do it. Next, use Q- Tips, old toothbrushes, and paper towels to clean those hard to reach places.

5. Take your grip-frame and clean out the broken paint and other debris with a small brush. CAUTION: do not remove the trigger assembly. It is not fun trying to reassemble or fix it.

6. Clean your bolt and hammer/striker with a paper towel and warm water. Make sure to dry these pieces thoroughly. Inspect the o-rings on both components carefully. This is where most air leaks are caused. So, do a good job here.

7. Replace any o-rings that that are cracking, dry, or otherwise look funky. (Throw a couple of extra o-rings in your gun bag for a quick fix at the field.) Check the other internals for repair or replacement. (For example, are all the springs still straight? Are there any broken screws? Etc.)

8. Once you’ve determined that your internals are in good shape and are clean, lightly lubricate them with paintgun oil (pay special attention to the parts that move). Do not use any other type of oil, as there is a good chance non paintball gun oil will damage your gun. Lube your o-rings with paintgun oil or silicone. To lube the o-rings put some on your fingertip and run it around the o-ring. It should be a very light layer.

9. Following the schematic, reassemble your marker and chronograph it before using it.

10. Put on your goggles and go play paintball!

There you go. Ten easy steps and you’re ready to play. Better than that though, your gun and all the stuff inside it will last much longer with your new maintenance regimen!