In this guide
Your AEG has stopped mid-game. The gearbox is open on the bench, the tappet plate has a hairline crack in it, and the cheapest replacement you can find online is four quid plus three quid postage, arriving Thursday. Meanwhile the part you actually need is sitting in a tray in Rochester for a pound.
That tray is the airsoft boneyard. If you have never used one, it is the cheapest way in the sport to keep an AEG running, and the single best place to learn what is going on inside your gearbox. Here is what a boneyard actually is, what is worth pulling out of it, and what you should still buy new.
What is an airsoft boneyard?
A boneyard is a parts bin. Guns come in for repair, upgrade or trade-in, and the ones that are past saving get stripped. The good components come out, get sorted, and go back on the shelf at a fraction of new money. Nothing gets thrown away that still works.
The term travels: American retailers use it for clearance and used kit, so a search will throw up plenty of US results. In the UK it usually means what it means here, which is salvaged internals and spares priced to move. Most of our boneyard sits between 50p and eight pounds.
It exists because we run a workshop. We service and repair airsoft guns of every brand from the Rochester showroom, so there is a steady supply of donor parts coming through the door. If you have ever wondered where a stripped gun ends up, this is it.
A grade and B grade: what the labels mean
You will see two labels in the range. A grade parts are unused or as-new. Our best-selling boneyard item is a ten pack of female T-plug connectors, and those are A grade: brand new, just sold cheap because they came in bulk.
B grade is the salvaged side. These are used components that came out of a working gun, checked over, and priced accordingly. They are not perfect and they are not pretending to be. A B grade pistol grip may have a scuff. A B grade cylinder head has done a season already.
The honest framing is this: B grade is a gamble you make with your eyes open, at a price where losing the gamble costs you a pound. That maths works for a lot of parts. It does not work for all of them, which is the next section.
Which boneyard parts are worth buying
The rule of thumb: buy B grade where the part is simple, where failure is obvious and harmless, and where you can inspect it before it goes in. Avoid it where a part wears in a way you cannot see, or where failure takes something more expensive with it.
Good candidates. External furniture is the safest buy of all: pistol grips, stocks, sling plates, charging handles, buffer tubes, selector plates. If it looks fine, it is fine. Simple internals are next: tappet plates, spring guides, air nozzles, cylinders, cylinder heads. These either work or they visibly do not.
Buy with a look first. Gears, pistons and hop units are worth it at boneyard prices, but check them properly. Run a fingernail over the piston teeth and look at the last two, which is where stripping starts. On gears, look for chipped or rounded teeth. On a hop unit, check the nub seat is not deformed.
Buy new instead. Springs are cheap new and are the one part where used condition genuinely matters, because a tired spring quietly costs you consistency. Bearings and bushings are the same story. Anything sealing under pressure, such as O-rings and piston heads, is worth buying fresh. So is anything you cannot easily swap again if it fails.
The finds worth knowing about
Most people assume a boneyard is a tub of loose springs. Ours has a few things in it that surprise people, and they tend to go quickly.
Motors
A dead motor is one of the most common reasons a gun stops firing, and a new one is rarely cheap. A tested salvage motor gets you back on the field for the price of a coffee. Worth keeping a spare in the box even if nothing is currently wrong.
If your gun is clicking but not cycling, the motor is one of the first things to rule out.
T-plug connectors, ten at a time
Our best-selling boneyard item, and A grade rather than salvage. If you have ever rewired a gun or swapped a battery connector, you know you always need one more than you have. Ten of them costs about the same as a single connector elsewhere.
Pair it with the right battery for your gun and you have a rewire sorted for pocket change.
Gas magazines from the good brands
The part of the boneyard people miss entirely. Genuine Tokyo Marui, WE and KSC gas magazines turn up here, often in pairs, at well under new prices. Gas mags are the single biggest running cost for a GBB shooter, so this is where the real money is saved.
Stock moves fast and is genuinely one-off, so what is listed is what exists.
Rebuilding a gearbox on a boneyard budget
If you are refreshing a tired AEG rather than chasing performance, the boneyard covers most of a rebuild. A typical wear list looks like this: tappet plate, air nozzle, cylinder head, piston, spring guide, and a set of gears if the old ones are chewed.
Every one of those exists in the boneyard, most of them for a pound or two. Buy the spring and any O-rings new, because those are the parts where used condition actually bites, and you have refreshed the working end of a gearbox for less than the cost of one branded upgrade part.
Two things to keep in mind. First, boneyard stock is genuinely one-off, so build your list around what is actually listed rather than planning a rebuild and hoping. Second, mixing brands inside a gearbox is usually fine but not always: hop units and nozzles in particular want to match the platform, so check fitment before you commit.
If you are not sure what has failed in the first place, our guide to why an airsoft gun stops firing walks through the seven usual causes in order, from the cheapest to the most involved. Work that list first and you will often find the fix costs less than you feared.
Buying boneyard parts without wasting money
Know the version before you buy. V2 is the M4 and MP5 family. V3 is the AK and G36 family. They are not interchangeable, and a V2 tappet plate in a V3 shell is a wasted pound and a wasted evening.
Buy the cheap consumables in twos. At these prices, a spare tappet plate and a spare nozzle in the toolbox will save a game day at some point. This is the one category where over-buying is sensible.
Do not build a whole gun from salvage. A boneyard is for keeping a good gun running, not for assembling a new one part by part. If you are starting out, a reliable complete AEG is a far better use of the money, and our pick of the best airsoft guns for beginners covers what actually holds up on site.
Bring the gun in if you can. If you are anywhere near Medway, the quickest route is to bring the gun to the shop and hold the part against it. Fitment questions vanish in about ten seconds across a counter.
When to stop and let the workshop take over
Boneyard parts are brilliant for external swaps, simple internals and learning. They are less brilliant when the fault is not what you think it is, and you end up replacing four cheap parts to fix a problem that was actually the wiring.
Bring it in if the gearbox is making a grinding noise rather than a click, if it is firing intermittently, if you have already replaced the obvious parts with no change, or if the gun is still under warranty. We service and repair airsoft guns of every brand from Rochester, from a quick diagnosis through to a full rebuild. Regular servicing, covered in our airsoft gun maintenance guide, prevents most of these faults arising at all.
Ready to have a dig through? The full boneyard range is listed online, and because every item is genuinely one-off, what you see there is what is actually in the tray.
Frequently asked questions
What is an airsoft boneyard?
A boneyard is a stock of salvaged and clearance airsoft parts, sold cheaply. Guns that come in for repair, upgrade or trade-in and are beyond saving get stripped, and the working components are graded and resold. It is the cheapest way to source spares for an AEG.
What does B grade mean on airsoft parts?
B grade means the part is used. It came out of a working gun, has been checked, and is priced to reflect that it is second hand rather than new. A grade parts in the same range are unused or as-new stock, just sold cheap. Neither is a fault, but B grade is worth inspecting before it goes into your gearbox.
Are used airsoft parts worth buying?
For external furniture, simple internals and spares, yes. A used pistol grip or tappet plate either works or visibly does not, and at a pound or two the risk is negligible. Buy new for springs, bearings and anything sealing under pressure, where wear is invisible and affects performance.
Can I rebuild a gearbox with boneyard parts?
Most of it, yes. Tappet plates, nozzles, cylinder heads, pistons, spring guides and gears all turn up in the boneyard. Buy the spring and O-rings new. Bear in mind stock is one-off, so plan the rebuild around what is actually listed rather than assuming a part will be there.
What is the difference between a V2 and a V3 gearbox?
V2 gearboxes are used in the M4 and MP5 family, V3 in the AK and G36 family. The shells and several internal parts differ, so tappet plates, triggers and selector plates are not interchangeable between them. Always check which version your gun uses before ordering parts.
Do you sell boneyard parts in the shop as well as online?
Yes. The range is listed online but it lives in the Rochester shop, and if you are local it is worth coming in. You can hold the part against your gun, check fitment on the spot, and our workshop can tell you whether the part you think you need is the part you actually need.
