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 am recieving a chrono soon and will be doing a lot of testing and i will post all of my data with my chad2 upgraded cricket.
my data will include three of each and given the average
how many shots from clean it takes to start loosing accuracy. dry pellets
my shot string on one fill. dry pellets
how many shots from clean it takes to start losing accuracy if ever. with lubed pellets (MAC1 lube)
my shot string with lubed pellets on one fill
12 shot groups at 100 yards with gun topped off. with and with out lubed pellets. (1 full mag groups)
and all of my mods and there specs.
I may even see what the lube does to the BC of the pellets
all testing will be done with JSB kings 25.39 grain.
Hey Zonk, I did shoot some targets with it backed down to around 910. I’d say the targets between the two velocities are statistically the same…but I have not shot enough to justify that.. There are so many variables at play as well, including, wind, my shooting skills, etc, to make an intelligent observation. I could post the two but not sure if that would prove anything. I’d like to shoot several targets each and measure holes and average out the findings.
So I’m not claiming anything here, just goofing around. I know the gun needs to be tuned …my targets at 50 are nowhere near the ones I’ve seen you guys shoot. What I’m doing here with velocities and Krytech are just band-aide alternatives to a real tuning with barrel lapping, trigger tuning and regulator tuning.
I know I should get the gun to Ernest but the weather is prime now to shoot, soon it will be too hot here in the South. Ugh, decisions, decisions, do I want to keep the gun and shoot it, and be unhappy knowing that it’s not up to it’s potential or send er off for a month and twiddle my thumbs? Well, if I send it, I do have the Condor and Marauder and the old Diana springer to play with. :confusedn:
In any case i think it would be cool for us to post some targets at different settings, lubes etc ..might make an interesting database.
Thoughts?
Lets see what it does after backing it down a little, and yes 50 yards targets for sure.
I finally cleaned my barrel after shooting last night. Probably sent 100-150 pellets down range. Maybe more. The patches did come out with only a light amount of debris on them but I emphasize the word “light”. Nothing like the unlubed barrel before, where patches came out black! It only took 2-3 to totally clean things. The gun has been shooting quite well. A few flyers or is it me? It seems that the Krytech does help the groups a bit…maybe by keeping the barrel cleaner, can’t say. I do see a bigger difference with the Condor SS .25 with Krytech than with the Cricket. I should post targets…
I’ve been playing with the velocities via the hammer spring tension and comparing groups at different velocities.I noticed the Cricket “seems” to group slightly tighter with the HST set to the out-of-the box position which put it in the neighborhood of 940. This is a very preliminary finding, I could have been shooting better last night but the differences are slightly better with few fliers at a faster V. I know 30 yds is too close to see real speed related distances. More testing
I know slower speeds are supposedly better for Kings so I think the regulator might be set too high in mine and the HST has to be backed out so far as to maybe cause an out of synch situation between the two which might play a role in grouping. So, until I get it tuned I’ll stick with Krytech and the HST cap flush with the breech body.
Anyway those are my findings for what their worth…. oh, and yes, Krytech is what Mac1 recommends. And, as always, your mileage may vary.
Isn’t the Mac 1 lube the Kryteck finish line product for pellet lube that Drumsguns started testing here??? I thought it was.
has anyone used Mac1’s lube????????
Hey there drumsguns. I cleaned my Colibri barrel yesterday. 3 tight patches, without any lead particals, only the fine black lead dirt. Noticed I had shot over 5 tins of 500 JSB 18.1 without a cleaning before shooting those groups. So obviously I would totally agree with you that “Lubing for a cleaner barrel” with any type of lube is better than none. The Krytech may work just as good or better than OneShot. I,ve only tried no lube, Rem oil, and OneShot. Rem oil is too messy for me, and my .25 still had lead particals in the first cleaning patch. So lazy me grabbed the OneShot off the reloading bench, because I’ve used the stuff for decades, it just seemed a better choice. I did contact a Hornaday tech. to ask about health risks, with blowing this stuff into the air, shot after shot. Safe, after the propelant is gone.
I did a youtube video shooting x-mas light bulbs at 100 yards, with my Cricket .25. The barrel at that time had well over 1000 pellets down range, in a stock barrel. Also a friend just came by with his new .22 Condor and experienced the same group tightening at 50 yards with lubed compared to nonlubed. “Good skill” finding the best lube for you gun.
Just might have to try this stuff….
It’s a case lube for easy resizing of cases. I do about the same thing as eelect does except I just spread them on a paper towel and spray. Roll them around and spray again. Dries instantly.
It’s the Case lube with dynaglide. I use the same tin each time to spray approx. 2 seconds on a half full tin.
Then I put the lid on and VERY slowly rotate it around and over to allow puddles in all the back of the pellets to spread out.
Just open it up after that and wait for the solvent to evaporate completly before closing or using. That’s all I do. Seems to work for me.
I empty the whole tin on a cotton rag. I then make sure I lay them flat on the side with no tail of pellets exposed. Then spray from top down on pellets to make sure I get the sides and nothing goes into the tail. I then lift rag on one end and roll them to spread the lube to the other side of pellets. I do that right after I spray so I get a bit of wetness. I roll them a few time and pour them into tin. That’s it. Takes about a minute
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How are you applying the One Shot? Looks like it comes in an aerosol can. Is it the Cleaner or the case lube? Actually I meant to include you as well, Long_shot
Interesting…and very nice groups, BTW.
I have been looking at USMC videos on Youtube lately to try and correct hold mistakes and I have been seeing immediate results. There’s something to loose holds and airguns across the board I think…or just seems that way.
What is the Hornaday One Shot? is it an oil or a wax? I’d be interested in trying it just for the sake of experiment. I am leaning towards Krytech mainly because of the irritation problem with oils. Have you compared Hornaday to anything else, Zonk?
I hope the weather cooperates and the wind dies by the weekend. I might shoot some targets as well at different distances and post. If they suck you won’t see any :confusedn: :biggrinn:
K
I use the same thing eelect uses and hardly ever clean my barrel. When I was competing Nationally in IPSA I’d lube my cases with one shot and what a difference it was when reloading my .45s. Feels the same when inserting a pellet, real smooth.
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Drummer, If you send it to Ernest he’ll have it for 3 to 6 weeks as I’m sure he has a backlog of guns to tune. You might want to just keep shooting and tinkering with it and enjoy it. Or call Ernest for a time frame.
Chad, let the testing begin. I spray my pellets with one shot and my patches always come out extremely clean, and that’s after 100s of shots.