Thomas owners -- question on cleaning

Well Percula 
welcome to the world of Thomas! 
Most Thomas owners find the need to clean with stronger solvents than WD-40 which in reality has no lead removing ability's --
but each barrel is slightly different but most polygons require constant cleaning to abait accuracy issues
before id sent my barrel off for Re inletting and recrowning this is what patches looked like after each 25 shot card 



good Luck -
its really trial and error to find what your barrel likes 
will take several thousand shots to settle in to a routine -
keep us posted on your progress 
and post some Cards 


CK 

My barrel is good with 3 cleaning pellets after a card, 1 soaked in balistol, 2 dry.
ive only deep cleaned maybe 5 times in 5000 rounds..

I use WD-40 one wet two dry 
I've shot 400 rounds before cleaning just to see what it would do and how it would perform and when I did clean it, the wet patch was medium gray in color, the first dry was almost clean, the second dry was clean.
I've tried other solvents with the same result 
CK is right, each barrel is going to be different and the cleaning process will be different for each
a friend has a RAW BM500 and he has to clean after 30 shots and that only gives him 5 sighters per card and when he cleans it the patches are black with chunks of lead on the patch.
there is a lot of work involved if you want to be competitive, its part of the fun in my opinion 

Between AZ and I, we have put close to 2400 pellets though my poly barrel. No cleaning at all, just lubed pellets, and no accuracy degradation or unexplained fliers yet. I do get a dark gray drizzle (my lube is clear) even after 10 shots out the end of the moderator or stripper. AZ says expect it as it is the lead particles and dust that isn't sticking to the lands and groves which is getting pushed out the end.

"What do you use to lube your pellets?"Between AZ and I, we have put close to 2400 pellets though my poly barrel. No cleaning at all, just lubed pellets, and no accuracy degradation or unexplained fliers yet. I do get a dark gray drizzle (my lube is clear) even after 10 shots out the end of the moderator or stripper. AZ says expect it as it is the lead particles and dust that isn't sticking to the lands and groves which is getting pushed out the end.

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"mark404"
CK is right, each barrel is going to be different and the cleaning process will be different for each
a friend has a RAW BM500 and he has to clean after 30 shots and that only gives him 5 sighters per card and when he cleans it the patches are black with chunks of lead on the patch.
there is a lot of work involved if you want to be competitive, its part of the fun in my opinion

Click to expand...

I agree!

At my local range there are many Thomas, RAW, Steyr, FWB, AA, and other makes of benchrest air rifles. Everyone goes through the process of determining the best cleaning routine for their particular barrel / pellet / power combination: this process is part of the competition. The routines vary, even within the same manufacturer due to differences in barrels and pellets. By experiment we determine the right pull-through, patch material and size, number of patches per cleaning, wet vs dry, what solvent to use, frequency of cleaning, etc.

Of course even with these trials you often wonder if the shooter at the next bench has a better cleaning routine, especially when she out-scores you!

Scott_Allen,

I use the lube recommended by Allan Zasadny https://www.amazon.com/Slick-50-43712012-Supercharged-Protectant/dp/B0016GXOXW I"m guessing there isn't any magic in this particular lube though. You'd probably get similar results with any thin synthetic lube that is designed for metal on metal applications.

Kim,

For what it's worth, my barrel was sourced from Martin at RAW and sent to Allan for barrel work, (polish, crown, etc) indexing, and fitting. It is the same full length blank that is trimmed down for the RAW BM500s. I was told by Allan to keep it lubed and I will not need to clean it. The only cleaning it has had (by either of us) is wiping off the grey lube drips at the end of a session. The pellets are wet enough they are transferring the lube+lead stuff to the target (look at the grey edges of the hole). That's 10 pellets worth of lube around that one hole. The squares are 1/8 by 1/8 so .125 vs the .177 pellet