BB Spread
 

I've got an ICS M4A1 and after playing for a couple of hours over the weekend, I started to notice that I could only reach about 50-75 feet with accuracy. Anything past that range the BB's would fly in all different directions so I'd have to use alot more ammo to try to hit them. Is there any thing I can do to eliminate a bit of the variance in the shots? My hop-up is set and I am using .2g bb's.

What brand of BBs?

Basterds

Heavier BB's, try .25g

You will see an improvment.

What is your FPS? .20g are pretty lightweight and I would call it a 'minimal' round. Because they are lighter they have less kinetic energy and less inertia and can get pushed around by wind and foliage more easily. If your FPS is over 340 with .20g you should consider trying .25g or .28g and see what you get.

Also, one thing we found in testing and anecdotally from customers who are into accuracy, make sure you barrel is clean and if it is a cut down barrel (ie:not a factory crown), check the crown on the barrel and ensure its there and is even and there is no metal impingement into the BB path.

Im just a few months old into Airsoft. What would be the best way to go around cleaning the barrel? We had a game on the weekend and it rained so im thinking that may affect it.

use cleaning rod with a clean piece of cloth threaded through the end of it.

definitely use heavier BB's. minimum outdoors should be .25's.
.28's are great outdoors and .30's are even better with most guns.

I'd even go as far as swapping out the stock hopup rubber or at least wash it in some warm soapy water.

First off, don't use a solvent unless you've completely disassembled the hopup assembly and removed all rubber parts - this is what I do for a top notch cleaning. I then use a fiberless swab (you can get those for gun cleaning from Bass Pro) so nothing is left behind in my barrel and I use rubbing alcohol on a swab, and then dry swab it, and I keep doing that until both swabs come out clean. Rubbing alcohol is a light solvent and will not damage the chrome or brass, but will desolve any deposits that have adhered to the inner barrel surface. I then wash the hopup unit with warm water and a small amount of soap and thoroughly rinse and dry it.

If you're taking the gun out of service for an extended period of time, take one swab and put ONE DROP ONLY of silicon oil on it and swab the reassembled barrel system. Thoroughly swab the entire barrel to the hop up. Next time you go to use it, do a dry swab. The silicon oil is hydrophobic and will create a barrier between the potentially moist air and your inner barrel, keeping it free of any form of oxidation and trapping any dust that will then be removed when you dry swab it when you put the gun back in service.

Before I take the hop-up apart, is it difficult to put it back together? I don't wanna do anything to it if I cant put it all back together after.

I've never found it hard to do, and I am no gundoc (far from it). But, YMMV.

What is involved? Are there screws and stuff or just pressure fit stuff? And how do I take the Hop up unit OFF of the barrel?

take the upper with front end off by removing the front body pin. slide the inner barrel out with the hopup unit and inspect it. there will be a plastic c-clip that you need to remove before the inner barrel with come out of the hopup unit. try not to break it or lose it. ;) once you have the clip off, carefully pull the inner barrel out. there is a little nub that will fall out. try not to lose that unless you have a replacement.

if you watch the video's at mechbox.com, you should be able to get the general jist.

Thanks for the link to the site. Ill check it out later on. And thanks to everyone else with the help!

I tend to remove the gears on the side and the hopup arm before pulling out the inner barrel, preventing losing/damaging the nub. You have to remove them anyway to put back the nub in place anyway. But I guess it's the same thing anyway ;)

to the OP : Just do it slowly, put all the parts in a small plastic cup not to lose anything. If you can't remember how to put it back together, we'll help you. Just don't lose anything and you'll be golden ;)

I've only ever done that once, but that was a brand new hopup unit that I was installing at the time.

it's easy to install with the gears in place. just use a long pair of tweezers or needle nose pliers to drop the nub back into place.