Airsoft Expo 2008

Good to Go! If you have not yet visited the Wisconsin airsoft expo website to vote on the location for this years airsoft festivities then do so now. The WI locations available this year are Milwaukee WI, Green Bay WI, Wausau WI and Madison WI. The voting ends on Jan 31st 08 and the promoters have scheduled the official location and date public release for February 4Th 2008. I attended last years 2007 WAE and met a ton of new players, got acquainted with several airsoft teams, watched everyone else win door prize after door prizes...None for armsdealer nope I gotta be one of those do gooder types who volunteers for stuff, so since I am on the committee that runs this event...I Can't Win...That's a dumb rule who made that up.

Anyway, back at the topic...
Last years airsoft expo was a great resource to pick up handy tips and DIY airsoft repair and tactical tricks from some of Wisconsin, Illinois and Minnesota local airsoft repair specialists. One day is hardly enough time to soak in all the information available at this event and did I mention Airsoft Shopping! We are talking about airsoft super center prices for 1 day a year only. Discounts on airsoft parts, aeg's game gear and more. Airsoft Freebies! Yes lots of door prizes and hourly prize drawings from the US Marines and US Army, Airsoft Extreme, Airsoft Guns USA, and more. Last years expo was also featured on page 14 of the U.S. Tactical Airsoft Milsim Magazine. Kudos to these guys for giving us a full page pictorial by Wisconsin Photographer Aaron Slusarek. I also renewed my Wisconsin Airsoft Association membership at their informational booth as well, and got to chat with some of the safety reps and officers of the organization, face to face instead of my usual member participation by online forum chat. So if you are a Air Soft geardo or enthusiast who will be in Wisconsin this July, Come on down and see why Wisconsin's Airsoft Expo is... Good to Go!

Airsoft AEG Upgrades Defined

Building custom, upgraded airsoft AEG's is a favorite pastime of mine. Many of these custom builds originate on the repair bench as airsoft g*n emergencies. Normally an old team loaner or some players ancient passed down, hand me down, aeg that needs reviving. Just like some people like to restore old vehicle's, I like to restore and upgrade old airsoft G*ns. On the AGR website I have added pictures of many of these custom airsoft restoration's and upgrades like the one above as well as some World War Two styles right up to present day M4 models with M203. At first look this appears to be nice, but nothing real special, just some sweet add ons. But Lets Take A Closer Look at the internals of this beast. This is what defines the upgrade and makes it a complete custom AEG.

The after market parts installed will improve the rate of fire and overall durability of this aeg mechbox. The steel aftermarket gears assure reliability and the solid transfer of extra torque that will be produced by the newly upgraded spring. The steel spring guide will handle increased shock on one end of the mechbox while the full metal cylinder and metal air nozzle will help dampen the extra piston vibration created at the front end. The trigger switch and wiring have been replaced with a low resistance replacement harness for maximum power delivery. This version two custom mechbox, installed in the full metal m4 above, add a metal hop up chamber and tightbore barrel and you have one clear definition of an airsoft upgrade. The Cost: priceless or maybe we should just say pricey!

Airsoft Gas Pistol Repairing

Yes we repair gas blow back airsoft pistols, I get calls from our airsoftgunrepair.com customers asking me this all the time. Well my son you see...well it broke and he thought maybe...well ya uh that he could fix it and well, can we just pack up all the pieces and send that to you and maybe you can put it back together and find out whats wrong? Sure no problem, Just secure all the tiny pieces in a ziplock or other secure envelope or bag, pack the frame and envelope of pieces in a box and ship it to us.

I guess my whole point of this is you should know your airsoft gun well before you ever attempt to repair it yourself. There are hundreds of springs and small levers and gears all just waiting to jump out of the little confined spaces they normally live in. Above is a M190 full metal gas blowback shown fully disassembled. Below is a numbered parts diagram that normally is included with airsoft handguns. Notice how they show the parts in great detail but this offers little guidance with assembly. I encourage airsoft owners to learn there weapons, clean them, Yes the barrels of airsoft guns need to be cleaned. Take off slides, clean and oil the rails and valves on both the gun and the magazine.

Just keep in mind the deeper you go into your airsoft guns internals the more technical the parts become. I have done mechanical work my whole life as well as holding a journeyman electrical license and I would rate airsoft gas gun repairing as a 8 on a hardness scale of 1 to 10. Repairing an airsoft gas blowback pistol is not a task a novice should try. Typically it will lead to much frustration, possibly more broken or lost parts, and usually ends with a phone call that will sound very much like the one I described at the beginning of this blog.

Should you try these repairs at home yourself I have begun posting pictures and tutorials for AEG repairs as well as Airsoft gas pistol repairs for customers to use as home guides. The tutorials are beginning to fill up but we still have many models of airsoft guns to add and the process is extremely time consuming. If you find yourself stuck with a airsoft pistol in parts and pieces check out the airsoft gun repair tutorials and pictures today.