Marushin M16 problem solving

Had a Marushin M16 since January which I built from a kit but I could never get it to cycle and fire properly with the hammer installed. Today I purchased some lithium grease from B&Q and greased up the bolt. Also polished the inside of the upper receiver to reduce friction. After doing that I prepared two cartridges (Used the same lithium grease on the caps) and loaded the M16. Set the selector to auto and they both fired when I pulled the trigger. A lot of smoke and I'm now happy that I have finally got this thing to fire. 

I wanted to get silicone grease but they only had it in spray form at the store. Does anyone else use lithium grease to lubricate their model guns? I pretty much caked the bolt in the stuff and I just want to make sure it won't cause any problems. I would like to try and fire 5 cartridges in full auto but even loading and cleaning just two of them was tiring. I want to use model guns in my war film but the prospect of preparing and cleaning these cartridges is kinda putting me off lol.

I see what you mean yeah it really is a burden, coming from someone who only owns a 1911 model gun which is 7 carts per mag. But in your case with alot of rounds for a full auto gun I would go insane especially in a film production with limited time...that's model guns for ya! If you're on the set and you want to re-shoot a scene I wouldn't clean each cartridge right after just to load it again, just clear out the used cap and insert a new one, do a quick reload. Only other alternative I see for an assault rifle other than your gun is the TOP M4 shell ejecting airsoft electric rifle, available on many different websites. I would have one of these a long time ago if the price tag wasnt......around $650 for the gun! But well worth it I bet, just charge your battery, insert cartridges (with no bb's obviously) and get multiple magazines and pre-load them before filming (the carts and mags are very reasonably priced, just the gun costs an arm).

Hi. Thanks for the tip, it makes sense to clean after a film shoot instead of between takes  

I was actually looking at the TOP shell ejecting M4 yesterday for that very reason. Cheapest I could find one for is £500 which is a bit too expensive for one gun in my opinion (maybe in the future when I have more money lol). They do look good though, I've seen videos and they cycle flawlessly. In one video a guy from Japan even built a Vietnam era M16A1 from a TOP M4. I reckon there's a market (for hobbyists and film makers) for electric/gas powered shell ejecting replicas (not necessarily airsoft). If only the manufacturers could make them and sell them for cheaper. The shells would also only have to be simple one piece plastic as well.

Well actually I find the market for shell ejecting replicas to be pretty damn small!!!! The only shell ejecting airsoft handguns in production are all by the same brand actually, Marushin. (all 3 models use virtually the same shells which are pretty damn small so not great for close-ups but good enough when being fired, will save alot of time in editing). 

A Glock 21, black and 2 tone, a CZ75, black and silver, and 2 different 1911's. Keep in mind, almost every website is out of stock of these, the only one still in stock as of this moment is one of the 1911 types, which is a tactical version, black with silver trigger and hammer. The shells look ridiculously small in this for a .45 but I just ordered one from www.redwolfairsoft.com and should be arriving this week. It's really less of a hassle than my 1911 model gun because it's just loading the magazine with gas and shells (this one holds 8, I also don't like the magazine base plate as it sticks out the bottom of the frame more than I'd like it to, but when using 2 hands it doesn't matter). Basically, I'd use my 1911 modelgun for close ups of the character loading the gun and chambering a round, and for firing a few shots, usually not more than 4 simultaneously rapid fire cause i doubt it would fire the whole mag without jamming once, but there is a nice smoke/spark effect which can never be reproduced to look as real in post production, unless you really put time into it. The shell ejecting airsoft will be better in cases where time on the set is very precious. 

There are also a few snipers that are shell ejecting, one of them being the Mauser 98K from WW2 era and another type of standard rifle by a manufacturer I forgot. The Mauser can be easily found in stock on ebay and most airsoft sites I believe.

As far as shotguns, Marushin has the Terminator 2 shotgun which I will immediately buy when my budget allows it, it holds 5 blue shells (should be painted red for more realism) and Maruzen has 2 types of shell ejecting shotguns as well. Again, to my knowledge most of them are out of stock, at least in websites than can deliver to me in the U.S. I wish the market was bigger for this and that the manufacturers would produce more, they make great easy to use props without needing much cleaning or any supervision from a firearms expert while on set.

Additionally, some idiot manufacturer by I think the name of 'Bizon' actually found that it would be a good idea to make a SPRING shell ejecting M4, which is obviously totally useless for film production. Too bad, since it's about $80. If they make an electric/gas version even capable of at least semi auto, I'm buying it in a heartbeat! This one is obviously in stock in most websites...

Hope all this helps, don't hesitate to ask any questions!

Thanks for the help guys  I'm still working on the M16 everyday in my attempt to get consistent firing. The actual gun functions fine but the cartridges sometimes cause problems. I'm using the 7mm+5mm cap method but I noticed in the manual and on the forum that people have managed to get a cartridge to cycle properly with just one 7mm cap plus a used 7mm cap. I've ran out of 5mm caps now so I decided to try this method out.

I followed the instructions carefully but when I fired the M16 the bolt only went back halfway. This was far enough to eject the cartridge but it didn't go back enough for it to load the next one from the magazine. I tried this method a few times but I can never get the bolt to go back all the way with one 7mm cap + used 7mm cap. Does anyone have any ideas? The idea of only having to use one live cap per cartridge is appealing and would save me a bit of money hopefully.

Try the ring caps for kids toy cap guns as a 5mm cap, thes are not good enough on their own for 5mm cap firers but they add enough oomph for the likes of the wa shan models to blowback. You should be able to pick up on ebay or amazon pretty cheap to, i am sure cerwyn put more info on these caps on the forum so have a look at the caps section.

As Claymore suggested, I recently bought a pack of toy gun caps (£1.25 for about 96) and tried them out with the M16 cartridges along with the standard 7mm caps. This combination generates enough power to kick the bolt all the way back and I finally managed to get consistent full auto fire. With the Marushin 5mm caps, I had problems because they sometimes didn't detonate first time. The toy gun caps are made from weaker plastic and don't require as much force to set them off. This pretty much guarantees detonation first time. Plus, £1.25 for 96 is a lot better than £8.50 for 100. If you want to try this out, make sure you get the red ring caps with the blue/green safety rings. These are more powerful than the caps without the safety ring. Just cut each cap off the ring and put it a cartridge with a 7mm cap and you're good to go. It took me 10 months but I now have a fully functional kit built Marushin M16 that can fire on full auto.  

Hi Cerwyn, yeah I shall definitely get a video up soon . Currently, I only have the five cartridges that came with the kit but I'm looking to purchase some more in the new year. Also looking to buy an ultrasonic cleaner as well (from what I have seen, they make cleaning cartridges a lot easier and faster).

Thank you very much! I found a single 7 mm cap too weak, despite the fact I was using an empty cap upside down as seal. A 7 and a 5 mm cap combined resulted in dented carts, so I will give this method a try.

What kind of toy gun amorces do you use? I can get these here in Germany.

Did somebody here mentioned using matchheads before as well...? Might be more economical but not too sure about the cleaning afterwards    ...

Been a while now (sorry) but I recently did more tests. After running out of 7mm caps, I decided to try and refill some of spent ones. When you fire caps in Marushin cartridges, they end up with a hole in the centre. Luckily, I have a few spent caps that don't have holes in them which were fired from MGC cartridges.

I used a pair of pliers to (carefully) crush the red ring caps and gather powder onto a piece of paper. I then filled the empty 7mm caps with the powder. It takes about 4 red ring caps to fill a 7mm cap. I then used a matchstick to gently compress the powder in the cap so it didn't fall out. I was then able to load the cap into the cartridge and it seemed to work okay. There's enough power in 4 red ring caps the cycle the bolt back but it's just a pain because it takes longer to prepare your cartridges.

But, look on the bright side. As Cerwyn mentioned, £4.35 for 1000 caps! You can get 250 shots if each cartridge requires the powder from 4 of them. It's just a problem if you haven't got enough empty 7mm caps.

I also tried match head powder but it's not as reliable and it makes your cartridges dirtier. With safety matches, you need to use sandpaper/a file to turn the match heads into powder. You then have to use a knife on the strike pad to get powder from that. You then mix the two different powders together and you should have some shock sensitive compound. Only problem is, if you don't get the mixture right then nothing will happen when you pull the trigger. For this reason, it's probably not worth it to use match heads.