SIG Sauer P226 X Five Field Strip , Clean, and Lube

Like all KWC blow back pistols, they are designed to be as realistic as possible and that means field stripping amongst other things. The good thing about field stripping is that they can be cleaned and lubed so they work a little smoother, and of course it will prolong their life a tad longer. They're not designed to last a long time as they are quite cheap to begin with and generally made out of pot metal, but as most things wear or break they can be replaced, and with the slide removed this is possible for many parts.

Besides a box of cheap steel BB's, this is what you get out of the box.

Many people have wondered if with a bit of tinkering they could improve the power output, though most likely you would just end up with a stronger kickback and a slight drop in power which can only lead to the pistol wearing out and breaking sooner. Believe me, a lot better minds than mine have looked into this and I am quite happy to defer to their judgement for now, so i'm happy just to get a smoother running pistol that can happily decimate empty energy drink cans at a rapid rate.

So, down to business and the joys of field stripping your lovely SIG X Five, which has to be one of the major attractions in the purchasing of this fine Taiwanese replica. 

The X Five is a fairly large pistol

First thing to do is drop the mag out of the pistol as nothing is moving anywhere until it's out of the way. It's also a good idea to rack the slide and check for any BB's in the barrel. 

Checking to see if the air pistol is clear.

The top slide, which is made from Zinc alloy I believe, has to be racked back until the semi circular cutout on the bottom left side of the slide lines up with the take down lever. 

The semi-circular cut away in the slide allows the take down lever to turn 90 degrees.

Once here, the lever will be allowed to turn 90 degrees within the ark of the cut out in the slide, so when the lever is pointing downwards you are able to pull the slide all the way forward and further till it slides off the front of the pistol frame.

The slide moves freely to this point where it meets a little resistance,

but give it a little jiggle and it moves on and off the pistol frame.

Cool, the gun's in three bits now; the magazine, which could do with a spot of lubrication, the pistol body which only needs a wipe and some lube, and the slide which will dismantle further for cleaning and lubrication and is the part we're concentrating on mainly for now.

Flip the slide upside down to start removing the recoil spring, guide and barrel.

Note which way up the recoil spring guide sits where it sits against the breech block.

Push the guide forward and lift, then remove by pulling it back. 

The spring and guide are easily removed with one hand, the square lug on the end of the guide sits inside the slide.

Note which way around the square block at the end of the guide goes for when you put it back again.

Well it's a start, but there's more.

The barrel housing, inner barrel and breech lift out easily in one unit, 

Inner, outer barrel, and breech assembly

Outer barrel lifts off lug on the breech.

.177 smoothbore  brass inner barrel with rubber O ring to hold it in place inside outer barrel.

and once out, the inner barrel removes quite easily from the outer barrel.

Pistol fully field stripped, you want to strip it any further and you will need a tool kit and lots of photos for putting it back together correctly.

Now it's in bits, it is a good time to clean all the parts before applying grease and oil; these pistols are always dry and a bit dirty out of the box by all accounts.

For something so new I was surprised how much crap came off of it.

Just wiping a piece of kitchen towel over any parts that will come into contact when the slide moves is a good start, in fact a good wipe on all the internal surfaces won't do it any harm at all.

Kitchen towel removes nearly all the grime, but a dab of white spirits will do a better job.

Once any grime was removed, I started by removing the recoil springs and washer and applying a thin smear of silicone grease to the guide and springs, making sure I remembered which way around they were originally fitted.

This pistol has two recoil springs and a washer, whereas most others have just the one spring. The collapsed ends of the springs go on the outside.

I made a mix of silicone grease and silicone oil which I smeared over the outer barrel with kitchen towel, 

All it needs is the thinnest of coatings, and it looks oh so shiny.

and all the touching parts of the slide had a smear of silicone oil as well as the parts they touched on the pistol frame.

Smear the oil along with a finger.

A little silicone oil is all you need, though a little fine graphite powder mixed in would be even better.

Now that all parts were evenly lubricated, it was a simple matter to reverse the disassembly guide to put it back together, and it is pretty straight forward and simple as these pistols go.

The magazine just needed a little silicone oil along the BB tension spring and follower, 

just to help it along I worked the follower up and down the mag with my thumb.

Once the spring and follower are oiled it will not need doing again for quite a while.

Another drop of oil to the lip of the BB feed at the top of the mag and where the follower connects with and pushes the slide stop into position for good measure. 

Just the tiniest drop here, and wipe any excess that goes near the square Co2 transfer port seal behind it.

By using silicone oil you are using an oil that does not damage rubber and plastic seals, but it's still best to wipe away any excess as you only need a little to do the job properly.

As this pistol is pretty easy to field strip it should be no problem to clean and lubricate at any time, and for me this is one of the main attractions in owning a replica like this.

TTFN

Best wishes, Wing Commander Sir Nigel Tetlington-Smythe