My definition of accuracy with regard to a clean barrel

I like to think of myself as a perfectionist. Substandard performance isn’t what I settle for when it comes to my hobbies. In the case of shooting air rifles, my standard of accuracy is very rigid. My definition of accuracy is, well, same-pellet hole accurate with a high number of shots in a group. I am unwilling to accept a half-inch group or a group which displays clustered pellet holes that, although are dime-sized as a group, have some pellets shooting to a different hole other than the one the very first pellet made. I have been shooting for a long time now, trying to perfect my shooting technique, paying very cautious attention to everything that influences a perfect shot. To date, I perceive that I’ve shot over 50,000 pellets with all the airguns I’ve owned. And with each pellet that disappointed me I’d always wanted to figure out what may have caused it to land where I didn’t want it to (this is in perfect, no-wind conditions, and shooting from a bench rest). It was quite a journey…until recently.

Skipping all the other things which probably doesn’t matter to me now and to keep things short, I’ve always been intrigued and dumbfounded at the same time that a cleaned barrel has to be re-leaded in order to shoot accurately. Well, I had gone that road but wasn’t too satisfied with the accuracy I got with a re-leaded barrel. Yes, accuracy was good, but it was not to my standard. As I said above, I consider accurate PINPOINT ACCURATE. I always wanted to hold on to the idea, which makes perfect sense to me, that a barrel should be clean in order to achieve this level of accuracy. Then one day, I saw these videos:

In this first video of FX Airguns, note that Mr. FX himself, after making a barrel, goes straight to testing it for the first time without any leading of the barrel first (skip to 7:24 of the video).

In this second video of a precision competition Feinwarkbau air rifle, note again that the barrel is shooting one-hole groups without it going through a leading process first (skip to 1:10 of the video).

Watching those sections of the two videos made perfect sense to me with regard to demonstrating what a properly built airgun can do in terms of pure accuracy in perfect conditions (no wind, indoor shooting, eliminating human error, non-deformed pellets, etc.) without needing to be leaded. With all due respect, I just think that the process of re-leading a barrel after it has been cleaned just introduces an uncontrollable variable. It is very difficult to gauge — that with each layer of leading or seasoning from the pellets as each one is fired — when accuracy will begin to be altered.

Let’s say you’re shooting your 100th shot on paper after re-leading, and given the POI is consistent you go on a hunt. The day is perfect: zero wind, you spot your quarry motionless, and it’s exactly ranged at your rifle’s zero point. You aim at your quarry feeling confident that you think the pellet is going to land where the crosshairs are at when you take the shot. With good technique you take the shot only to see your quarry jump a few feet, stop, laugh at you, then run away. You wonder to yourself, WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED? It may have been that at that time the 100th shot you took prior to the hunt added a layer of lead that altered the trajectory of the pellet a bit, enough for a clean miss.

With all other things considered, to me, controllable accuracy (or very close to it) is priority number one. I want to feel confident that each pellet I launch out of my air rifle is going to hit right where I intend it to, and that’s exactly where the crosshairs are on the target. On the subject of controlling accuracy relative to the airgun’s barrel, I want to make sure that when the pellet has left the barrel I ensured that I paved the way to enable it to land exactly where I want it to.

I decided to put this conception to the test. To keep things close to controllable by me, I waited to shoot on an absolutely windless day and via benchrest. Prior to shooting, I cleaned my Cricket’s barrel before shooting the groups. Also, to keep the barrel as clean as possible for at least 50 shots (my cut-off number) I ran two patches soaked in Break Free CLP through the barrel after the 50th shot. The distance the groups were shot was at 27 yards. Below is the result.

The group below shows a 47-shot group with JSB 14.35 grain pellets lightly lubed with Break Free CLP (pellet speed is 755 FPS average).

The next group below is a 44-shot group with JSB 15.89 grain pellets lightly lubed with Break Free CLP (pellet speed is 720 FPS average).

As you can see, both groups show only one hole slightly larger than the pellet beside them. This leads me to conclude that keeping the barrel as very close to its original state of cleanliness enabled me to control original POI much more through “programmed cleaning” than from settling on a different, uncontrollable POI through re-leading of the barrel. I believe that through re-leading each layer of deposited lead is enough to change POI to a point in which, although the pellets are clustered together, the pellets may land left, right, up, or down next to each other.

The gun responsible

Of course, all of this may possibly be all just mumbo jumbo. Or, the Cricket may just very well be the best air rifle on the planet. What are your thoughts?