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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Long story short the newer 25 cal king pellets are SHIT. End of story.
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Sometime when the barrel breaks in or gets a polish the sweet spot will change/increase, you’ll be able to shoot hotter 😀
~ GKU
I’ve gotten down to 910 just with the HST so I don’t think I’ll have to rotate the barrel. Good to know though.
I thought about lubing increasing the break in time and might have even mentioned that early on in my first post…but my barrel was getting totally filthy after like 60 shots. Perhaps lubing isn’t the best thing with such a new rifle. I am planning at some point getting it to Ernest and in the meantime to lube just to lower the cleaning interval until he has it. I have lapped my Condor and Marauder..but I don’t think I did them correctly so I don’t want to mess this one up, plus what you get for what Ernest charges…. is a lot.
KP
If you run out of HST out you can rotate the barrel to close off the transfer thus lowering the speed to what you want.
A rotation of the barrel by 45 minutes like the face of a clock made my Compact .177 go from 920 to 890 fps.
Once you find the sweet spot you could leave it like that or later do a reg tweak if you prefer, but not lower than 120 bar.
With all Cricket cals the sweet spot will varies from 860-950 fps or so they all differ.
IMO:
I never lubed my pellet since the 1968 to 1975 and in brass barrels only.
On a new barrel unless polished will only delay the breaking in time for it.
Some say you need to polish it and it will take a lifetime to smoothen out.
I had to clean my Cricket 22 standard about every 250 shot, now after some 14,000 shots I don’t clean until if the accuracy falls off around 1,200 shots or more.
~ ATB ~ GKU
KP
I found my .25 sweet spot (where Earnest tuned it) to be 920 fps, but my .22’s sweet spot is 880 fps. and they both shoot about the same curve and poi out to about 75 yards at those settings which for me covers 98% of my shots…
Been reading posts on the Cricket and I really need to get the gun down to 900 and try some groups (hope I can back the HST out enough) …a lot of talk about the sweet spot being at 880-900…. but Zonk, I think you said 920 works for you, right. Wondering if the 880 fps is a .25 thing? So next decent day…more targets.
KP
Looks like lubed wins….
It didn’t rain as promised and winds were calm so I went out and shot some targets at 50 yds, lubed (Krytech) JSB Kings. Thought I’d post. My shooting leaves something to be desired…laid in bed last night googling and reading about proper trigger technique. I think I’m doing something wrong…but that’s for another post.
I tried 3 different velocities using only HST adjustment to see how groups would be. I ran out of daylight before I could get down to 920-910 but I’ll try that next good day. Not sure this tells much but looks like the groups were “slightly” better at 939 av. fps. Still, with one target one can conclude nothing…need a whole bunch more. But hey, it’s something to look at and would be interested in anyone’s input.
I’m also throwing this one up for input. My condor with and without lube:
Unlubed at 30yd
Lubed at 30 yd
I see a difference…not huge but an improvement. Both shot on the same session.
KPinNC
can’t wait to see the results.
:rofl: :rofl: Damn sounds like me too……………. :sadn:
Yep, rain here too…at least for the next few days….and wind…wow lots of wind. Sitting by the door, holding Cricket, big watery eyes, bottom lip quivering…….waiting for good weather.
KP
We have rain coming for the next several days, I hate this weather can’t get to my shooting spots as they’re all dirt roads.
Good points guys…I’m thinking about hanging on at least through the summer and just enjoying it. it shoot VERY good right now, know it could be better but trying not to get all hung up on that. Sometimes you just gotta forget all the numbers and pulled the friggin’ trigger and hit something.
the Lubing Sage continues….
I still want to get some One Shot and see how that works…sounds like good stuff. I’ll bet that stuf and a lapped barrel is probably a sweet combination :5:
The only reason I went with Krytech first was because I had some sitting around..I bought it for my bike. 🙄
Like I said, it would be interesting to post some targets if a few of us are going to do a little testing. I’ve read a lot of comments about lubing on the forums but not seen a whole lot of visual data to back anything up…though it would still be rather unscientific and subjective. In the case of my Condor, like I said, it was a very significant improvement…
good to know zonk that at least give me a starting point maybe MAC1 lube does not work as well and then there will be more testing on which lube works best for my gun.
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I can only do this with one tin of pellets. Same gun same speed same everything except the pellets.10 shot groups at 55 yards. So what does that tell you.
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