Polishing an AG barrel ??
Do or don´t ?? Well – i do but then again i´m a bit weird in that regard : When someone says “Don´t” i most definitely do .
Anyways – i like to polish my firearm barrels every now and then and i´ve NEVER – not once – had any negative side effects of that. There´s this old wifes tale saying you shouldn´t polish an AG barrel since “those barrels are made of mild steel” and will wear out fast. Bullshit i say !
Why should an LW barrel made for AG – or any other marquee barrel – be of a inferior or so soft material it wouldn´t handle the “rigors” of polishin if needed. Anyone with a good,educated,non-theorical answer to this age old question ?? I just had an arguement with one Mr. Know-It-All (no,not Dr. Evil) about the subject. That dumbass says it´s the worse thing i could do to my barrel…
P.S I´ve just finished the Cricket barrel polish (after the first 700 or so rounds and it was SHITTY) and i bet once “seasoned” it´ll shoot at least as good as before the no-no – if not better. And it´ll take a bit longer time before it gets all leaded up again. And it´ll be a bit easier to clean for a good while until it needs to be polished again.
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here is the outside of the barrel that was been polish is 50,000g no other polishing compound use, and that’s the natural color in over cast lighting , I do the same for the rifling, extreme care to control the amount of material to polish the surface, you have to push a pellet through the bore to determine how much polishing you can apply, some barrel are vary tight some are loose I do minor polish on loosely fitted barrels—> if you over polish the barrel (by increasing the ID) you will loose fps and accuracy my suffer. I do not polish the choke, I insert a wooden dowel pin in the choke to insure I don’t.
Don’t forget to polish the entrance point of the barrel to insure smooth transition for the pellet, the in lead of rifling tapered and polish so no deep cuts with burrs on the pellet head and shirt, smooth bore polish, added contoured crown for pellet entry–> some mag are not perfectly aligned with barrel and will always hit the edge during entry. this will insure smooth forward closing motion of the cocking handle/bolt.
also you can see the transfer port on this .25 has been mod and polish– see photos.
I am the odd man out here cause if my gun breaks, I think parts will be available to fix it either immediately or in due time and that is fine. It is not heating my home or powering my freezer, I don’t know of a single one of us on this forum that relies on it to put food on their table, they are in reality big boy toys and when the day comes that I do have to wait for a part, it will be and has always been the nature of Edguns, it can happen. It is part of the mystique to me I guess and anyone buying one of ED’s guns has to surely know this the same as I knew when I put my name on the list the first time. Otherwise I would be shooting Marauders. I wanted a complete valve,reg assy to fit my .22 and .25 last week, sent an email to Tony and it appeared at my door in 4 days. I have seen stems, o-rings, screws, even a breech for OG, and my complete valve/reg. assy all ordered in the last month and no one said they could not get them after posting they needed a part. I still have not actually heard what it is we can’t get for our guns, what am I missing. We can get domestic o-rings that some say are better than OEM, I have complete bolt sets coming for all my Ed’s that are harder than OEM all from aftermarket companies. There is so few real unique parts on an Edgun to fail and Tony seems to have them. Almost !! a non issue, and part of the game. I say if you cannot stomach the novelties of of having an Edgun, don’t buy one, there is other good choices out there. We all know they are low volume, long waits, running changes and the such going into it.
Back on point, is there any doubt these barrels are of similar hardness steel compared to powder burning barrels on other guns. I can see a well seasoned barrel getting overly cleaned and needing to season back to best grouping but damaging it from polishing seems unlikely unless the throat or crown is damaged somehow in the process.
WingmanNZ: I like those pictures of the 2 barrels, that really demonstrates the smoother barrel on the newer guns I have read about.
I have a question.
Once the “polishing process” is complete, is the barrel silver metal inside, or is it still black.
Regards
Hein
Plain and simple, with every order Ed should send Tony 5% common spare parts kit with each major delivery. One set for every 20 guns….that’s all. Then Tony can sell them as needed. At least common spare parts….that would cost Ed NEXT TO NOTHING. Tony then could have the ability to stock those parts and sell them for a profit to cover his troubles for caring for and stocking the extra parts. Seriously, how hard would that be to carry o-rings, spare regs, etc?
By the time it gets there it´s already too late … For me, and many others , getting parts for things we pay “very money for” the least to expect is to have a parts support If something happens.right ??
i think that having such quality rifle the least you could expect is quality parts for it – if something,by barring diseaster – should happen to it. This BS about nothing happens to my
R3 is just that – BS !!!
Bad things do happen evento good people…
Is it OK to pay big money for a rifle that – if needed – doesn´t have spares if needed? In my book : No!
Eventhough the R3 seldom breaks down it does- break down..
The best BP in the World isn´t unbreakable and even if it was that´s a thin comfort when it happens to you- IF you haven´t those needed parts in time….
We need to push on Ed to improve the parts situation with our Edgun’s to compete better with our Crickets. He should be able to do that if there is enough customer demand. 😯 Spare valves are probably the number one item.
I´m not an importer nor do i have any interrest on either brand but after having shot both i say the EdGun is NOT the winner of the BP war. Why? It´s not more accurate than the Cricket or the (God forbid) Bobcat. It looks better (IMO) and has a soul that neither aforementioned rifles has since it´s more of a “one-off” than neither, but … It being better – Well …
My biggest concern is the parts delivery time. It´s ridiculous. I don´t want to buy an expensive rifle and when/if i need parts for it there´s a 3-4 month delivery time for those parts. I don´t know if KalibrGuns are any better on that regard but it can´t be much worse.
I´ll keep my EdGun (one of them) as a souvereign for a great shooting gun but i´m just an regular idiot – like the most of you – and if/when something happens to my equipment i´d like to be ablle to fix it fast.
The bottom line: I LOVE my EdGun… I just hope the parts delivery worked a bit better.
To the Cricket now – it feels like a “Girl´s gun” in comparison. The rough,handmade part is missing. It shoots as well though and i´m kinda happy with mine. The Ed i have is an .22 and the Bug is an .25.
A note: When i say “better” , in thid case , it means + – .10 better. Could be my aging grip too …
I don´t know how it effected the grouping. Yet. Like Dr. Evil already said the grouping was fine before the polish and by fine i mean 10 shots/50m/ under 1/3 an inch … it COULD be better. To give some perspective to the matter – i thought an EdGun was the best of the best. A mear BP that outshot most of the high-end rifles like Steyr and Daystate. Which it did,BTW! Anyway – having owned two of the EdGun´s i have to say that whatever they did with the polishing of the barrel and such, the “unpolished” Cricket barrel shoots better than the Eddie. No question.
I´m not an importer nor do i have any interrest on either brand but after having shot both i say the EdGun is NOT the winner of the BP war. Why? It´s not more accurate than the Cricket or the (God forbid) Bobcat. It looks better (IMO) and has a soul that neither aforementioned rifles has since it´s more of a “one-off” than neither, but … It being better – Well …
My biggest concern is the parts delivery time. It´s ridiculous. I don´t want to buy an expensive rifle and when/if i need parts for it there´s a 3-4 month delivery time for those parts. I don´t know if KalibrGuns are any better on that regard but it can´t be much worse.
I´ll keep my EdGun (one of them) as a souvereign for a great shooting gun but i´m just an regular idiot – like the most of you – and if/when something happens to my equipment i´d like to be ablle to fix it fast.
The bottom line: I LOVE my EdGun… I just hope the parts delivery worked a bit better.
To the Cricket now – it feels like a “Girl´s gun” in comparison. The rough,handmade part is missing. It shoots as well though and i´m kinda happy with mine. The Ed i have is an .22 and the Bug is a .25.
A note: When i say “better” , in thid case , it means + – .10″ better. Could be my aging grip too …
Hi Sir ville,
I am not online all the time, I just saw your reply.
Thank you for sharing!
My next question is the same as charly; how did this effect the grooping? 🙂
How would it have been when you just cleaned your barrel? 😉
I am sorry for my poor english, like many of us, it is not my native language…
Regards, Robert
My 3
Dr 👿
Nothing bad can come of it as long as you dont over do it.. you only ever have to do it once from new there is no need to do it every time its dirty, just regular patches and solvent on the odd occasion is best.
From new barrels have lots of tiny scratches and imperfections caused by tooling that fill with lead over time and sometimes cause faster fouling.
Polishing with a cotton boot lace and some autosole or cutting compound can certainly help stretch out the time between barrel cleans but wont effect accuracy.
The reason military rifles had chrome barrels has nothing to do with accuracy, they were hard chromed because the older primers and powder were very corrosive on the bores and if not cleaned regularly the would rust out very fast. Some cheaper cheaper Soviet and /Chinese ammo is still corrosive which is why the cosponsoring gun makers still use the bore chroming method.
There is no need to polish an Edgun bore as Ed pays twice the price for his “premium grade barrels” for a higher standard of polish from the L/W factory.
heres a cutaway of the older R2.5 barrel and the new R3 barrel to show the difference in factory finish.
The R2.5 ( and used by most other airgun makers)mass manufactured barrel bore “cross cut”. Note the rough chatter grooves
and rough dragged un-polished steel from the older tooling of the manufacturing process ..
The new R3 Spec custom L/W barrel cross cut. It is easy to see where the long range accuracy begins…[/size][/color]
Not really so. My R3 got easier to clean after i polished it and it took longer before it needed any cleaning. It doesn’t matter if it’s a “premium grade” barrel or not. There will always be some shit left from the half-mass production anyway.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2. This POS iPhone sucks though …
I posish all the Bores I need toop accuracy from. I have taken my .257 from needing the bbl. cleaned every 25 or so shots, to not needing it for well over 150 shots. And with great accuracy. It doesn’t hurt to touch up the crown after a full polish.
I use a bore mop loaded with flitz, after fire lapping for the final polish.
If it did nothing, Ed would not spend the extra money and effort having W/L do it for him! 😉
Here is a quick Pic I snapped here at the desk of target from today at 80 yards with a 60 grain NOE flatnose bullet. (Cut down from a 80NOE mold). This 3@ 80 yards i a 5-10 mph wind. It measures .189″
KnifeMaker Yeah – Yeah I know, I missed the whole damed target! 😆 🙄
My 3
Dr 👿
Nothing bad can come of it as long as you dont over do it.. you only ever have to do it once from new there is no need to do it every time its dirty, just regular patches and solvent on the odd occasion is best.
From new barrels have lots of tiny scratches and imperfections caused by tooling that fill with lead over time and sometimes cause faster fouling.
Polishing with a cotton boot lace and some autosole or cutting compound can certainly help stretch out the time between barrel cleans but wont effect accuracy.
The reason military rifles had chrome barrels has nothing to do with accuracy, they were hard chromed because the older primers and powder were very corrosive on the bores and if not cleaned regularly the would rust out very fast. Some cheaper cheaper Soviet and /Chinese ammo is still corrosive which is why the cosponsoring gun makers still use the bore chroming method.
There is no need to polish an Edgun bore as Ed pays twice the price for his “premium grade barrels” for a higher standard of polish from the L/W factory.
heres a cutaway of the older R2.5 barrel and the new R3 barrel to show the difference in factory finish.
The R2.5 ( and used by most other airgun makers)mass manufactured barrel bore “cross cut”. Note the rough chatter grooves
and rough dragged un-polished steel from the older tooling of the manufacturing process ..
The new R3 Spec custom L/W barrel cross cut. It is easy to see where the long range accuracy begins…[/size][/color]
I personally don’t think the grouping will improve that much because they are so tight already but rather keep tight for longer due to the “staycleanlongerness” properties of the polished bore as mentioned above by sir Ville. This talking about the Cricket, for a lesser barrel (no names no country) I think it even could improve accuracy or at the least consistency. There must be a reason why some sniper rifles have chromed bore on them other than bling bling 😉
My 3
Dr 👿
Thanks for sharing. I’d like to see the group after that one day.
Pretty much. You can see when the VFG’S come out clean. You can feel it too – the bore gets very smooth and there’s almost no drag to be felt. Take a look thru the bore you’ll be blinded by the sparkle .. 😉
Sent from a Tab my wife lured me to buy …
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Ernest – i think that naked barrel looks superb! Do you have any clear coating on it or you just take good care and look after it by oiling and even occationally re-polishing it ??
Is there any real world benefits to be found with that TP alternation/mod on a .25 cal ?? I was under the impression it was only needed on a .22 to align the TP correctly in order to get the most FPE outta it.
I really like the attention to detail on all your rifles. Really nice work !