ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO RIFLE CARE
For any air rifle to keep giving of its best, it’s important to properly look after it. While some guns will continue to shoot well with only a moderate amount of maintenance, a rifle’s accuracy and reliability will eventually start to suffer if it remains neglected for too long.
Luckily for us, airgun maintenance is relatively simple and straightforward, and doesn’t require a shed-load of tools. A relatively small amount of time and effort spent keeping your airgun running smoothly will be rewarded when it really counts – when you squeeze the trigger.
“MOST BASIC AIR RIFLE MAINTENANCE CAN BE CARRIED OUT WITH VERY FEW TOOLS”
While giving our rifles a thorough onceover is something we should all be doing at least once a year, there’s no better time than right now, when many of us have either been forced to restrict our shooting to the garden or even to put it on hold completely. We can all use this time wisely to both keep it neat and keep it sweet!
SAFETY AND SUPPORT
Safety always comes first, so before any type of inspection or maintenance work is carried out, it’s vital to confirm the gun is neither cocked, nor loaded. It should also go without saying that the magazine, if the rifle uses one, should already have been removed from the gun and checked to ensure no pellets are present in any of the chambers. If you have a singleshot tray fitted, then that should be removed too, as gunk can sometimes accumulate underneath the tray.
Ensure you have a clear, well-lit area in which to work and a means of supporting the gun while it’s being worked on. There are numerous gun rests on the market, including models from the likes of AirForceOne, Hawke and Tipton, but one I’ve used for many years is the Gunsmith’s Maintenance Centre from American firm MTM. This features two removable plastic forks with moulded-on rubber pads
