Lubing for a cleaner barrel
I have been searching the forum about lubing pellets for the Cricket. I think that the consensus is just go dry. I think that’s fair, the gun shoots so well with pellets right out of the tin, but my barrel get’s so dirty so fast I thought I’d try an experiment. I thoroughly cleaned the barrel then pulled two Krytech wet patches followed by three dry patches down the barrel. Then I lubed about 100 pellets with Krytech and shot 24 over the Prochrono to season the barrel and check speeds. I went ahead and set the velocity to 910. Twenty-four shots and the Extreme Spread was 16 and the standard Deviation was something like 3…very very good.
Then I shot 6 targets with 5-shot groups each and got very tight groups. But when I went in and pulled a patch it came out very clean…like a quarter of the crud than without lube. Barely anything on it, and certainly no lead flakes. I’m hoping that this isn’t a fluke, which is how a lot of things are when testing air rifles, at least for me…so will shoot some more and recheck the patches. Hoping this will help keep the barrel clean until i send it to Ernest at the end of the season.
Wondering if anyone else has tried this?
KPinNC
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I think if you have the right pellets for your barrel and you have added just a few drops of light oil to the tin, that a high quality barrel would be self cleaning effectively and needing nothing. I think that some people might be ramming over sized pellets in their barrels in the quest for that last foot pound and perhaps they need a bit more intervention on the barrel cleaning front, but for the most part I nicely fitting pellet, pre-cleaned, with a little lube from the tin, then what more do you need.
I roll test back in my early days of shooting in 70’s we called it the ratio test and later with the internet Harry Yrrah called it the roll test.
Found it to work with some fussy barrels back then, now that I’m older time is all I can think about and have little of.
For the ones who haven’t try it yet or plan to compete, I’d give it a go it’s the best way to weed out fliers.
I don’t hear to much about it in the forums to much anymore, but I do know some that compete that do but won’t admit that they do, competitive edge I’m guessing.
~ ATVB ~ GKU
Now that’s a lot of shooting! I thought I shot a lot….I used to roll test my pellets also but not anymore. After several tins of rolling I never found any that were out of round, now it’s straight from the tin.
Can’t beat the Patch Worm…
Thanks Ville…..
Thanks Jan !
Hi Zonk !
I never lap or polished my barrels and no crown work done, just a lot of shooting about 1-2k a week.
It’s just gets cleaned very well when it does loose accuracy with the PatchWorm cleaning system, there is no other that’s better IMO.
I do not lube my pellets, no roll testing or sorting, just straight out of the tins.
BUT, when buying pellets we keep track of the lots that shoots well in our guns.
We then trade or sell the tins to each other that shoots subpar in one gun to the other that shoot them more accurately.
This all seems to us to be the easiest, quickest and cheapest solution for frustration when it comes to matching up a pellet with a barrel.
We are not forced into eating what we don’t like ………. 😉
~ ATB ~ GKU
I just sold all mine like that. They are identical to the AirArms
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I just recently discovered that my .25 JSB’s with the deep hole in the back skirt, fly like crap in my gun. At 60 yards that I shoot all the time, I’m getting really bad flyers. I can’t get any groups at all. The center of the targets the only place they won’t hit. Since I have shot about 11,000 of the the flat back pellets that just make surprizing groups. It was easy to spot, once I tried to shoot a few groups.
So there’s another thing to add into the mix.
Anyone want to trade some tins of pellets. 😀
Not to get too off topic, but we clean, lube and weigh for better accuracy right? I wanted to add this about new Kings, QC. I started weighing the other day to see if my shooting was the result of weight variations, and immediately noticed that there were almost as many just under 25.4gn pellets as there were 25.4. And a few way under 25.4 like 25.0-25.2.I remember weighing some about 2 years ago and the majority were right on the money with only a few above or below the claimed weight. Now maybe a ratio of 150:130:70, these are from recently purchased tins.
That’s pretty much what I experience. 3 pretty tight shots then one or 2 sobs go off into another direction. Don’t matter what speed you throw them at.
Eelect,
When i was starting this test I cleaned the barrel after shooting non-lubed then I pulled a Krytech soaked patch down the barrel followed by two or three dry patches. My thinking was that this might accelerate the “seasoning” process. I think I have read other post from years past where guys who switched to lubed started off with bad groups and they gradually tighten up after 15-20 shots.
In any case it was just an informal non-scientific test but I think one can see the difference in the Condor. With the Cricket, clean barrel, lube bore and I think that the target I posted had about 70 shots on it.
Also its really interesting seeing the groups from your one good tin of Kings. That might (hopefully) explain my abysmal shooting from the target I posted above. When I shoot I get at least three in a tight one hole group then one or two flies almost every time. So many really good 1/4″ groups only to see one fly way off. :angrymob: Could be quality control issues back in the “Republic?”Is that a general consensus amongst the seasoned vets here? I was hoping someone would have left a comment on the target…no worries about slamming my shooting skills 😉 I’m new to this (and having a ball :8: )…and willing to learn from anything you guys want to throw out.
One Shot is on the way…will be trying that out as well…I’ve got several tins of Benjy Domed that might be worth looking at. If I get flyers with them maybe it IS my shooting :3:
Greg, that’s a lot of shooting between cleanings. I probably run 3 to 4 tins myself between cleanings. I don’t know if it’s because the barrels been lapped and pellets lubed or a combination of both. But I like it!! Less cleaning more shooting.
I always lube with Corrosion X. You will never have to clean your barrel again. Just spray a folded paper towel and lay it on top of a couple layers of pellets in an old tin and rub it around for a few seconds. It seeps to a micro thin coating without filling up the skirts or changing the weight.
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http://www.corrosionx.com/
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Greg Interesting knowledge !!
NOt to get to far off topic but.
Leading:
My friends and I notice when we clean our barrel with Ballistol.
If it takes only 3 shots or less to get the accuracy back the chance of it losing accuracy sooner is more likely.
My Cricket 22 cal starts out @ .5″ ctc @ 50 yards on the first mag and tappers down to .27″ ctc near the 3rd mag.
After which it can just do about 3 – 500 count tins without the group opening or producing fliers.
~ GKU
Another thing about lubed pellets is it takes a while to see the true results. Switching from lubed to unlubed in same session without cleaning barrel will give you inconsistent results. You almost have to run unlubed test for a lengthy period then clean barrel good and hard. Then shoot about 50 rounds minimum to see the real difference
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Greg, have you tried pellet sizing? I’ve been tossing it around found one on E-bay for $21.00 came in two sizes.