How often do you clean your Condor/Talon barrels?

I have shot powderburners in competition for years. Someone earlier spoke of keeping the cleaning rod straight when in the bore. For powderburners, they make delrin tubes that are placed in the action after the bolt is removed from the bolt gun, (I even had one for my AR-15) that is bored so that the cleaning rod fits through and keeps it straight as it passes into the chamber.

From what I have seen of the way these condor barrels are cut, take a peice of delrin ( at least 5 inches long) and bore it out to fit the O.D. at the breech end of the barrel( 1.5 – 2.0 inches deep) ( can fit snug) and drill it large enough for the cleaning rod to pass through. Slide it on and clean away.
It may not sound like much, but believe me, it will make it alot easier.

Sorry about not getting back to y’all sooner on this…Been really busy the last few days before school starts back for me…lots of honey-do’s to get accomplished 😉 Knifemaker said was I was gonna say…faster than about 650-700fps then leading becomes more of a problem, as you have seen. Feinwerkbau,anschutz, styer etc high $$$$$$$$$$$ competetion 10meter rifles won’t lead up anywhere near what the AF rifles and other Air Rifles do that shoot faster than 700fps…

I have a friend down the street, Jim Myers, who is a past bench rest champion. He is a full time custom rifle builder. Exotic Stuff. As odd as it may seem I have never tought of talking to him about any of

Perhaps I’ll give hi a call!

While I’m thinking of it, Beeman use to include a bore protector-guide with their cleaning rods. May still do it. I wonder why they never come with regular commercial grade cleaning rods. It is a slightly undersized bore diameter funnel to keep the cleaning rod off of the muzzle or the breach. Works very well. I have one in .20. wish I had one in .22.

Mike

I would clean my barrel when I notice a POI shift. As a matter of fact, I had just cleaned it before typing this post. Since the last cleaning, I fired off about 350 pellets. I haven’t been lubing my pellets for a while now. I didn’t like the grease that would be all over my rifle when I used to lube them. Though I will try to lube them again because it’s getting old cleaning my barrel too often.

Anyway, when I clean my barrel, I use a Boresnake in combination with Breakfree CLP. The Boresnake has brass bristles. There will be people who will say that it is not recommended to use brass and such on airgun barrels, especially match-grade Anschutz or Lothar Walther barrels. I personally just think these people don’t know what they’re saying. I’ve been using the Boresnake for a very long time now, and it has served me well until this day. Nylon bristles are fine, however, to really clean an airgun’s barrel lands and grooves very well, I need something a bit more stiffer. The Boresnake, with its firm bronze bristles, are the best to me.

Anyway, the Breakfree CLP lube was what I used as a pellet lubricant. I’m going to try the FP-10 that some airgunners have been using and getting good results.

Your friend was correct. An Olympic type comp. gun doesn’t need the type of heavier cleaning for lead, nor does it need the lube. However our guns don’t operate at the 5oo to 600 fps that an Olympic gun does. Our guns operate at a much higher velocity. This leaves lead deposits in the bore. There are several products that will polish our barrels to help prevent a lot of the leading.

The first thing I use for cleaning a new bbl., is Alki, or goo be gone. Next, I will polish the bore with a patch coated with Flitz or Semi Chrome. Followed by another full cleaning with the Alki. This is followed with a patch coated with FP-10. Fp-10 is being used by our military for both actions of full auto arms in the desert, as well as the bores. It actually penetrates the pores of the metal. This helps in our case, to stave off leading for a little longer. While I don’t necessarily recommend using a brass cleaning brush in a match grade bbl., there is no reason what so ever that you can not use a nylon tipped cleaning button on your cleaning rod, along with a soft patch.

On a side note, and for what it is worth, the WL bbl’s, tend to be a little harder in the Rockwell hardness than a typical US made fire arm bbl. I learned this in working with different finishes for the surface,(Outside) of bbl’s, before bluing. This is contrary to popular belief. I feel that this way of thinking may very well come from many years of lower quality Air Guns being owned by shooters. Things have come a long way my friends. The LW Bbl’s are a far cry from what we shot in this country for so long. For this reason, a typical brass brush wont do damage to a w/l Bbl. when used sparingly on ocasion. What you do have to looll out for is the steel rod winding in the midle of the brash brush. If it is of too large a diameter, it will hit the lands of the rifeling when being pushed thrugh the chocked part of the bbl. This scares me. While bras is soft, the steel winding isn’t. Try to find a brush with the brass center. At times a brass brush is what is needed to get the job done! But with a well polished bore, and the use of the FP-10, such cleanings will be fewer, and far between. And thats a good Thing!!! 😀

I might also add that we hunt in many different conditions. At times wet, or damp conditions. It doesn’t hurt to have a little lube burnished into the bore for protection. Especially when one goes out on a damp hunt without firing a shot. The competitor doesn’t normaly see these conditions.

Mike

The weed wacker line works well, i’ve used a small wood dowel as well to push the patch through, from brech end to muzzle. Either way do the patch thing till a patch comes through clean. I run a lightly oiled patch through after.

Never tried the cleaning pellets, i feel the patches are a 100% guarante you have a clean barrel.

Airgunner, did you ask your guy about the lube issue and why he said it wasn’t necessary? Does he lube his pellets prior to shooting?