Maintenance Material
I asked Chris Macdonald from Abbey Supply Ltd, located in the UK, to review several maintenance products and some maintenance gasses. This because of maintenance is very important for the durability of your airsoftgun. And shortly after I requisted some review material there was a box with a lot of products. Here a list with products i will review:
* Predator Gun Gas 134a
* Predator Ultra Gas
* Predator Maintenance Gas 134a
* Silicone Gun Oil 35, aerosol
* Silicon Gun Oil 35, dropper
* Silicone Grease
* Moly G-n Paste
* Universal Sportsman's Cloth
This is a great list of maintenance products, rather impressive if you ask me. Abbey allready produced airgun and shotgun products for some time, so Airsoft products should not be a huge step for them. Let's see how these products perform. I will first let you know what the product exactly is. Next how to use it and what the effect should be for your airsoftgun.
Predator Gun Gas 134a
The Abbey Predator Gun Gas 134a This is the official press release from Abbey themselves:
Abbey Predator Gun Gas 134a will improve power and performance.
Abbey Predator Gun Gas 134 is available from major airsoft dealers throughout the country and on the Internet.
134a is a safe non-flammable gas ideally suited for airsoft gas powered guns. Abbey Supply Company have incorporated a new high specification lubricant UPL to provide maximum lubrication to the seals and the internal mechanisms of the gun. Ensuring the gun is working correctly with the right lubricant essential is for maximum power and performance.
The level of lubricant has been set to make this gas exceptionally good in hop-up guns.
Mr Chris Macdonald, Managing Director of Abbey Supply Company Ltd, says "The economical large sized canister delivers improved performance and accuracy making this the gas best suited to skirmishing or plinking.Abbey press release 19 March, 2003
The Abbey Predator Gun Gas 134a gas can So The Abbey Predator Gun Gas 134a has a new lubricant named UPL, which is esspecially formulated for the seals and internals of your airsoftgun! We will look after this in our tests.
You can use this gas just like any others. Just fill your magazine at the back with this gas. The can itself comes in a nice thick walled can with a good nylon nozzle, and it's certainly more field resistant. The nylon nozzle means that you are able the achieve a good gas filling in your mags. No leaking, spraying etc.
Now we will test this lubricant with several guns. The Beretta M92F Military version from Marui. And also with the KSC Glock 26c.
We will look after the performance of the gas, the leaking of some gas and we will do some targetpractice. But we have to wait for our GBB guns. Because they went down in a skirm.
Predator Ultra Gas
The Abbey Predator Ultra Gas This is what Abbey has to tell about it theirselves:
Abbey Predator Ultra Gas for increased power and performance
Abbey Supply Company Ltd has successfully completed trials of their new airsoft gun gas. Abbey Predator Ultra Gas is being shipped to major airsoft dealers based throughout the country, Europe and on the Internet.
Abbey Predator Ultra Gas is ideally suited for airsoft skirmish sites that permit higher muzzle velocities. The power of Ultra has been set for the airsofter that desires more power than Gun Gas 134a. Users of 134a may prefer Ultra during winter shooting to maintain summer levels of power. Abbey Supply Company have incorporated their new high specification lubricant UPL to provide maximum lubrication to the seals and the internal mechanisms of the gun. Ensuring the gun is working correctly with the right lubricant is essential for maximum power and performance. The level of lubricant has been set to make this gas exceptionally good in blow back guns.
Abbey Predator Ultra Gas is an environmentally friendly, virtually odour-less gun gas. It has been manufactured to give maximum fills and maximum shots per canister.
Mr Chris Macdonald, Managing Director of Abbey Supply Company Ltd, says "This is the ideal gas for maximum power whilst skirmishing or plinking. Press release 14 July, 2003.
The Abbey Predator Ultra Gas canThe Ultra gas is a very nice and powerfull gas. For the rest it's almost identical to the 134a gas. The canister and the filling nozzle are also of a good quality. unfortunately we have to wait for the test till our new guns arrive............
Predator Maintenance Gas 134a
Predator Maintenance Gas 134aYou may use this gas esspecially for new Airsoft GBB hop-up pistols. In the beginning you may experience some performance problems or sticking errors. Just use this gas to get started and the oil your gun from the inside. Predator Maintenance Gas 134a contains an extreme high concentration of UPL, a high performance lubricant, especially formulated for the seals and internals of your gun. The accuracy and performance will be better. Top maintain top performance Abbey advices to use the Maintenance Gas every 10 magazines.
The normal procedure to maintain your pistol is the strip it down totally and to clean all the parts with a silicone spray. The idea of this maintenance gas is to inject it in your magazine and it will clean and lubricate all the internal parts. The method is way easier and it can also reach parts where you normally can't get to. The gas comes in 120g cans and it has a usual red nylon nozzle. Here the official press release of Abbey:
"...Abbey Predator Maintenance Gas 134a cures sticking guns: Abbey Predator Gun Gas 134a will soon be available from major airsoft dealers throughout the country and on the internet.
134a is a safe nonflammable gas ideally suited for airsoft gas powered guns. Many manufacturers specify this gas for their guns. Abbey Supply Company have incorporated a new high specification lubricant UPL to provide maximum lubrication to the seals and internal mechanisms of the gun.
The high lubricant content ensures that where seals and the operating mechanism have dried out in transit they can be reactivated again quickly without stripping the gun. A dry seal may mean underperformance or a misfire. Regular use of Abbey Predator Gun Gas 134a means a gun is operating at maximum performance.
Mr Chris Macdonald, Managing Director of Abbey Supply Company Ltd, says 'Many gun spend a long time in transit and storage before purchase, using Abbey Predator Maintenance Gas 134a restores a gun to its original high performance.'..." Abbey press release 19 March, 2003
If you're looking to store your equipment away a quick blow through with maintenance gas will help preserve the seals. Usuge afterevery skirm with maintenance gas will help keep the internals in good condition, and for pieces with dry seals maintenance gas will help get everything lubed again. Abbey's maintenance gas is a very nice idea and also very usefull.
Silicone Gun Oil 35, aerosol and dropper
The Abbey universal sportsmans cloth "Produces a fine high sheen finish on all guns and accessories that protects from moisture and dirt, eliminating rusting and corrosion. Excellent lubricant for leather and plastic air gun washers."- Abby Supply
And indeed, we used this silicone oil on our TM Beretta and the TM Glock, and this silicone gun is perfect for our airsoft replica's. Abbey provides Gun Oil 35 in either an aerosol or in a dropper bottle. The oil can be used either internally (as a lubricant), or externally (as a polish), the aerosol and dropper both allow differing forms of application.
Abbey's aerosol gun oil comes with a short removable nozzle for easy application so you can either direct a jet, or remove the nozzle extension and spray an area. The can contains 120g of aerosol spray.
Abbey's dropper gun oil comes in a little plastic 30ml bottle with a neat nozzle that allows easy direct application to rubber parts such as gas nozzle o-rings, mag seals and other valve/mag seals.
So the Silicone gun oil products are very important to maintain your gun. Esspecially the rubber parts and the heavy used parts should be maintained with the silicone oil. It also gives a nice and smooth feeling to your gun. Really worth trying it!
Silicone Grease
The Abbey universal sportsmans cloth Next up on the list of handy products to help look after your gas driven replicas is Silicone Grease. This isn't quite the same as Gun Oil 35, as the stuff in these little pots is rather like vaseline. So way more creamy than the Gun Oil. You use this on internal parts that need more long term greasing, and where '35 would not stay long enough. Silicon grease will keep plastic surfaces running smoothly against each other, and when used on things such as recoil springs will not only encourage their friction free motion but also help protect them from moisture and therefore rust. When this grease is used with contact surfaces such as the parts where nozzles and mag/valve seals come into play it will also help reduce power loss through gas leakage.
Moly G-n Paste
The Abbey universal sportsmans cloth What is Moly G-n Paste? WellMoly G-n is also known as Molybdenum Disulphate. This stuff is just great! It acts like a dry grease between metal surfaces. There are more and more metal parts in the airsoft world so this really becomes very important to use. You may use it on upgraded metal slides and frames and other metal parts. Don't use to much of this paste and bring it on smotthly. After this wipe the not usefull remainder of with a cloth. You may find more information on this Moly G-n paste here at the International Molybdenum Association
Universal Sportsman's Cloth
The Abbey universal sportsmans cloth This a a unique cloth from Abbey. You can use it for all your sporting equipment, including sporting guns, scopes, rods, reels, golf clubs, bikes, boats and auto accessories to repel moisture and dirt. Also for airsoft it's very usable. The cloth will give your gun an active and protective layer. This will take care of water, dirt, fingerprints etc. It also prevents rusting and corrosicon of some parts of the gun. You have to use this for about 30 seconds and the cloth will deposit a nice invisible film of protective silicone. After you use this cloth your gun looks as new! It gives a really nice and shiny look over your gun. When you put the cloth back into the plastic you can use it several times. But watch it, don't use it for the heavy work and DON'T WASH the cloth.
I tested it on my pistiol for several times and i have to say it really works great. The gun looks nice and is good protected. And the feeling is still the same, you don't feel any lubricant on your gun. The cloth is also very good reuseble, it maintains his working and the cloth is still soft and ready to use. But don't scrub to uch with your cloth, there will come several pieces of fluff on the gun! I think this is the minimum you can do for your equipment.
Conclusion
I have to admit these products are really good. Personally i would never have bought them (guncare, what's that? :P). But after i recieved kindly this package from Abbey Supply i changed my mind. These products really improve your gun and his durability. An airsoft replica's is always a large investment, so from now on i will really good maintain my airsoft equipemnt! And these Abbey products just work great! I didn't have that much experience on maintainance but after i used the Silicone Gun Oil, the Silicone Grease and the Moly Paste the gun feld a lot better. Also the Universal Sportsman's Cloth made look teh exterior of the gun a lot better. Also the protective film was very usefull when playing in the rain. So when you search for maintainence products just grap the Abbey products. Also the gas looks very good and comes in nice bottles, but we still have to test them on our new GBB guns. More inforamtion about that later. Abbey congrats on these products also great that they are made here in Europe!
