Is lubricating pellets necessary?

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my opinion on washing and lubing pellets is this, is it necessary ? probably not, can it help, well there is a lot of lead flakes in most the tins I've shot so when I'm bored and not feeling lazy I'll wash a couple tins (dish detergent and hot water) then after they dry I put them in a 1gallion baggy and sprits them with some Napier power pellet lub. I do think it helps keep the barrel clean longer and never needed to replace a breech, Oring.
 
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After washing the pellets in hot water and Dawn I strained and rinsed the pellets through a plastic screen.
I laid the pellets on a couple paper towels to dry in the sun rolling them around a couple times. After putting them in the bag to lube I looked at the towel. There were definitely metal flakes on the towel.
 
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This is ridiculous.
I wanted to do the pellet test with the lubricated 4.5 and 4.52 air arms pellets. The gun is an HFT-500 regulated and tuned to 850 fps.
So I first shot the 4.5 Exacts at 50 yards at the “know your limit” target. I missed the smallest two targets on the first try but got them on the second try. The middle one I clipped the upper left corner so I reshot that one. So three misses as the control.
Then the 4.52
Cleared it on the first try. Just went down the line holding the center on the rod and hit them all at 50 yards.
Now I’m gonna shoot a 60 shot FT course.
So shooting from sticks and bucket the larger lubricated pellets are hitting high to the left. But it is so predictable I shot low right just a little bit . I shot 52 out of 60 and I cleared the last lane so I went back to the 4.5 and it would have cleared the lane but I was still aiming low right and it clipped the bottom of the kill zone twice in the exact same spot. But I have to say the 4.52 were really solid . I made an adjustment to the scope and will shoot them for the rest of the tin. The only time I missed is concentration. I have AADS that’s Air Arms Distraction syndrome. After I clear a couple lanes or hit a 55 yard target I start to think about freaking awesome this gun is and I miss.

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Sounds like you're making a little progress on the question , anyway ...

Fire up the Wayback machine and this question has been running since FT became popular enough that pcp's were being designed specifically for it... early 90s, anyway. Shooting springers and pumpers till around 1993 for us, it was never even a thought. Our first pcp was a Daystate LR90 ... wonderful little rifle that was about 12 ft lb and no problems with H&N or RWS pellets. Then came a Huntsman Mk2 at about 17 ft lb ... still no notice of problems for a while but accuracy started eroding and the hubbub was that lube was needed so we tried a bunch and ended up on FP10, later to find out that breech seals deteriorated from it and by now, a couple of more rifles and Premiers were the new thing. Well... Premiers were/are pretty hard and the mold release is some serious crap. We were finding accuracy decay within a couple of hundred shots. Sooo... a lot of experimenting later, found that white gas(Coleman fuel) was the best at removing the crap and leaving a pristine clean pellet which was then lubed with Slick50 1Lube. Accuracy stayed and fouling went. This was all in HW and LW 12 groove barrels . Now enter the USFTwith HW barrels and LD was claiming that the Krytox enhanced bike chain lube was THE answer, so here we are again, comparing lubes and their potential for enhancing performance.
Fast forward a bit and now EBR is formed and rifles are quite a bit more powerful are used for benchrest where accuracy is a competitive necessity. THIS has been the biggest learning curve for me.
So this is a (hopefully ) brief description of my current stance.
1. Lube has rarely , if ever, enhanced accuracy in good barrels that are well supported.
2. Leading was never much of a problem at lower velocities ... say 850 or so and less
3. Lube can delay the need for cleaning in rough barrels or velocities above 900
4. Not all lubes will help without sacrificing some accuracy ...
A case to help relate... My wife's RW was a 177 and we wanted her to be able to use it for EBR (100 yards max). With a lot of testing , the 16.2 Beasts were competitive but we had to drive them at 975 to get them anywhere close to 100 before they went wonky. Leading became a big problem and after a LOT of experimenting with lubes, including all the old ones, found Gunzilla to be the only thing that wouldn't degrade accuracy but would push back the fouling to where she could get through a match before cleaning. The amount of accuracy degradation was pretty crazy in some cases, including our old favorite ... 1Lube.
5. I've settled on using Gunzilla on mine so I can switch between pellets and even slugs without having to clean or have a fouling series of shots. I just keep an empty tin with a paper towel in the bottom and pour whatever I'm going to shoot in that to get them lightly wet with it.
Ok, so that's the essence ... I've even tried lots of the wax formulas and techniques but remain unconvinced about REAL benefit, though cleaning might be easier.
I change projectiles a LOT ... whatever suits the need of the moment... but if I were to shoot only JSB 10.3s , say, exclusively , I wouldn't bother with lube. I only use it to facilitate the switch to some NSA 15s or Beasts or maybe Baracudas or Premiers. It goes a little smoother with lube...
Needless to say , I have a fair inventory of lubes that have no use... including Ballistol and PowerLube... even some Daystate lube that appears to be some kind of soap...

Just my$0.02...
Bob
 
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Arzrover said:
Sounds like you're making a little progress on the question , anyway ...

Fire up the Wayback machine and this question has been running since FT became popular enough that pcp's were being designed specifically for it... early 90s, anyway. Shooting springers and pumpers till around 1993 for us, it was never even a thought. Our first pcp was a Daystate LR90 ... wonderful little rifle that was about 12 ft lb and no problems with H&N or RWS pellets. Then came a Huntsman Mk2 at about 17 ft lb ... still no notice of problems for a while but accuracy started eroding and the hubbub was that lube was needed so we tried a bunch and ended up on FP10, later to find out that breech seals deteriorated from it and by now, a couple of more rifles and Premiers were the new thing. Well... Premiers were/are pretty hard and the mold release is some serious crap. We were finding accuracy decay within a couple of hundred shots. Sooo... a lot of experimenting later, found that white gas(Coleman fuel) was the best at removing the crap and leaving a pristine clean pellet which was then lubed with Slick50 1Lube. Accuracy stayed and fouling went. This was all in HW and LW 12 groove barrels . Now enter the USFTwith HW barrels and LD was claiming that the Krytox enhanced bike chain lube was THE answer, so here we are again, comparing lubes and their potential for enhancing performance.
Fast forward a bit and now EBR is formed and rifles are quite a bit more powerful are used for benchrest where accuracy is a competitive necessity. THIS has been the biggest learning curve for me.
So this is a (hopefully ) brief description of my current stance.
1. Lube has rarely , if ever, enhanced accuracy in good barrels that are well supported.
2. Leading was never much of a problem at lower velocities ... say 850 or so and less
3. Lube can delay the need for cleaning in rough barrels or velocities above 900
4. Not all lubes will help without sacrificing some accuracy ...
A case to help relate... My wife's RW was a 177 and we wanted her to be able to use it for EBR (100 yards max). With a lot of testing , the 16.2 Beasts were competitive but we had to drive them at 975 to get them anywhere close to 100 before they went wonky. Leading became a big problem and after a LOT of experimenting with lubes, including all the old ones, found Gunzilla to be the only thing that wouldn't degrade accuracy but would push back the fouling to where she could get through a match before cleaning. The amount of accuracy degradation was pretty crazy in some cases, including our old favorite ... 1Lube.
5. I've settled on using Gunzilla on mine so I can switch between pellets and even slugs without having to clean or have a fouling series of shots. I just keep an empty tin with a paper towel in the bottom and pour whatever I'm going to shoot in that to get them lightly wet with it.
Ok, so that's the essence ... I've even tried lots of the wax formulas and techniques but remain unconvinced about REAL benefit, though cleaning might be easier.
I change projectiles a LOT ... whatever suits the need of the moment... but if I were to shoot only JSB 10.3s , say, exclusively , I wouldn't bother with lube. I only use it to facilitate the switch to some NSA 15s or Beasts or maybe Baracudas or Premiers. It goes a little smoother with lube...
Needless to say , I have a fair inventory of lubes that have no use... including Ballistol and PowerLube... even some Daystate lube that appears to be some kind of soap...

Just my$0.02...
Bob
Click to expand...
Thanks for the extensive detail Bob, based on your testing and experience. Your post encouraged me to re-read this entire thread.

As one would expect, there is quite a divergence of experiences and opinions as to the benefits of lubing pellets as this relates to improving accuracy. It appears there are mixed view points on this, but after re-reading the entire thread, I find myself agreeing with your points ( especially #’s 1, 2,3, & 4) mentioned above. Also, H&N Manufacturer’s statements were noted.

An analogy comes to mind here for me. “Lubing pellets and polishing barrels, tend to extend or delay barrel cleaning intervals.” This then seems to be the primary benefit for my intended purposes.

And to think I was actually improving my scoring accuracy, so disappointing. 😞😞😞
 
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tommyb said:
Thanks for the extensive detail Bob, based on your testing and experience. Your post encouraged me to re-read this entire thread.

As one would expect, there is quite a divergence of experiences and opinions as to the benefits of lubing pellets as this relates to improving accuracy. It appears there are mixed view points on this, but after re-reading the entire thread, I find myself agreeing with your points ( especially #’s 1, 2,3, & 4) mentioned above. Also, H&N Manufacturer’s statements were noted.

An analogy comes to mind here for me. “Lubing pellets and polishing barrels, tend to extend or delay barrel cleaning intervals.” This then seems to be the primary benefit for my intended purposes.

And to think I was actually improving my scoring accuracy, so disappointing. 😞😞😞
Click to expand...
Possibly the improvement could arise from practicing ? Maybe more attention to details? 😉
I want to add that these opinions were formed on paper... with a bit of learning curve for benchresting to add to it.
Also, the mention of the white gas is kind of important, at least for Premiers. Dawn and other cleaners took SOME of the crap off, but not all. Brake cleaner may very well work equally but alcohol and a couple of other solvents did not.
Bob
 
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Arzrover said:
Possibly the improvement could arise from practicing ? Maybe more attention to details? 😉
I want to add that these opinions were formed on paper... with a bit of learning curve for benchresting to add to it.
Also, the mention of the white gas is kind of important, at least for Premiers. Dawn and other cleaners took SOME of the crap off, but not all. Brake cleaner may very well work equally but alcohol and a couple of other solvents did not.
Bob
Click to expand...

Yep, good pick up. Might have been due to better technique and practicing.

It is just so coincidental that I use lightly lubed pellets and my scoring lately is better. However, I think the AEA and JTS heavier pellets for .22 caliber ( I.e., 22.07g, 21.9g ) at higher velocity may have helped accuracy and scoring more than any lubrication effect.

This thread and all the input has been very informative.
 
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