BB-Gun Maintenance

Because BB-Guns don't make any smoke, fire, or residue, it would be natural to think that you don't have to do any maintenance on them, other than to wipe the outside down to prevent rust.

That is exactly what I had thought.

One of my Rangers' Parents purchased a Daisy Champion for him for Christmas. He was a pretty-top shooter in the group, and that BB-Gun would shoot every bit as well as he was capable of.

He kept the gun in his bedroom at home, and a couple of years later, he complained that it was not shooting accurately. I was a bit doubtful. He hadn't shot it enough to fatigue the spring. The seals are supposed to be self-lubricating, so what else could there be to go wrong?

I took it to my place, benched the gun, and instead of shooting 9's and 10's, it was shooting 7's, 8's, & 9's -- all over the place. There was no sight adjustment that could tighten that group.

I was going to disassemble the gun, to look at the spring, but I thought that I would run a patch down the barrel, first. When I did so, the patch came out BROWN with rust. Good Grief. 2 more oily patches went down the barrel, and it cleaned up, quickly.

I put the gun back on the bench, and it immediately resumed to shooting all 9's and 10's.

So here is my evaluation:

The barrels on these BB-Guns must be made of fairly raw steel. If there was any rust inhibitor in the barrel, it probably got shot out in the hundreds of BB's that this boy put through it.

He didn't misuse the gun, but I had been to his house. It didn't have central air conditioning. Mississippi is just up from the Gulf of Mexico, and humidity ranging from 70% to 98% is near-constant. Being in his bedroom closet, the BB-Gun was in a non-airconditioned area in the state, and over a couple of years, rust formed.

Now rust will not be concentric or constant in the barrel. So that means that there will be more friction on one side or another, as the BB runs down the barrel; probably imparting a slight uncontrolled spin in an unknown direction. This will cause the BB's to strike all-over the target. When the rust was removed, made smooth, and the inside of the barrels received a fresh light coat of oil, the BB's went back to flying True.

Just goes to show you: The Obvious isn't always Obvious.

Well, I'll be! I don't know why I've never thought of gun maintenance with my BB guns. I will go out there and do that right now! I might be able to get that bumblebee now. Thanks!

Great.

To RangerJeff and anyone else:

If you check this out on your own guns, please tell us what your results were.

I cleaned my newer and older BB guns today. Neither showed rust but the patches were black from grime and maybe some oil. I didn't oil them or treat them at all. They still seem to be pretty accurate. However, I did notice my copper BBs were starting to corrode and get crusty. I guess I'll have to spring for a new batch.

I have seen rust problems with the copper plated BB's.

Daisy BB's are Zinc Plated.  I have seen some of them darken a bit, but I've never had them rust on me.

Interesting, we have a bb gun that is not very accurate, I will have to try that out

great tip Claymore

I have a couple bb guns haven’t used much. One lever action sits on rifle bench and ofher AR style is hung up on the wall. No a/c in the room no central air but not confined to a closet. Since bb’s are usually.177 I suppose a .17Hmr boresnake would slide through?