Barrel Cleaning - BJ Armada

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d1lazarus

Member
Jan 15, 2020
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North Dakota, United States
So after over 1000 rds my accuracy started to fall off and I decided it is time to give the gun a good cleaning. Got the patch worm kit and started running patches. My question is how clean do the rest of you pull patches for before you consider it good? So far I am about 20 patches through about half wetted with Ballistol and half dry and still pulling fairly dark patches. Nowhere near as bad as when I started but.....

I know with my powder burners I keep pulling patches till I see only a very faint trace if any. But I know pellet/slug barrels are different.

Thoughts?
 
This subject is one of those for which I think there are no answers . There are well respected air gunners who claim they never need to clean a barrel. Others clean a lot some say you clean when the accuracy drops off. Frankly I don’t know what’s the best. However when I clean any gun I try to be affective. I’m not going to run 20 or more patches. Frequently I use a nylon brush ( not that I am opposed to brass I just find I don’t need them ). I run the brush saturated with Hoppes or your choice and scrub the bore until the brush slides easily. Then a patch or two and I’m done. Now this is assuming you have a high quality barrel that doesn’t foal badly. With air rifles I pull a bore snake thru a time or two. I have a bore scope which I find invaluable. I will say this if you have a barrel that is leaded up they are hard to clean. Only time I had that problem was a pistol shooting wade cutters. Best way to clean that was a couple full metal jacket rounds. 
I don’t think you have to clean air rifle barrels a lot to get the accuracy back . Some times with air rifles and 22 rf cleaning has hurt the accuracy with some of my guns. With the 22 lr and pellet guns the bore snake works good for me. I think it does the same job as a bunch of patches. BUT eventually you find what works best for you.
 
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Yeah, opinions vary quite a bit on how much and how often. For the “how often”, the safe middle-of-the-road advice is to clean whenever you notice accuracy begin to degrade…which is what you’re doing. Meanwhile there are many potential reasons for accuracy to degrade that have nothing to do with cleaning, which means cleaning usually gets done more frequently than truly necessary. But that’s okay as long as you’re careful to avoid harming the crown or introducing grit.

Regarding the “how much”, be aware the dark stuff you’re seeing is just graphite. Other than being unsightly, it really isn’t a problem. What causes a problem is lead caked onto the walls. That will come out as dull gray or shiny silver flakes or strips. Nonetheless I like to go until patches are completely clean.

Assuming your 1000 pellets is representative, the bore is probably in good shape in terms of its surface quality but be advised a good one-time scrubbing with something like J-B Bore Compound will help extend cleaning intervals, as well as make it easier to clean when the time comes. Another thing some of us do is a deep clean followed by paste wax. If you’re interested in either of those, let me know and I’ll link you to the relevant info.
 
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Yeah, opinions vary quite a bit on how much and how often. For the “how often”, the safe middle-of-the-road advice is to clean whenever you notice accuracy begin to degrade…which is what you’re doing. Meanwhile there are many potential reasons for accuracy to degrade that have nothing to do with cleaning, which means cleaning usually gets done more frequently than truly necessary. But that’s okay as long as you’re careful to avoid harming the crown or introducing grit.

Regarding the “how much”, be aware the dark stuff you’re seeing is just graphite. Other than being unsightly, it really isn’t a problem. What causes a problem is lead caked onto the walls. That will come out as dull gray or shiny silver flakes or strips. Nonetheless I like to go until patches are completely clean.

Assuming your 1000 pellets is representative, the bore is probably in good shape in terms of its surface quality but be advised a good one-time scrubbing with something like J-B Bore Compound will help extend cleaning intervals, as well as make it easier to clean when the time comes. Another thing some of us do is a deep clean followed by paste wax. If you’re interested in either of those, let me know and I’ll link you to the relevant info.
Click to expand...

Links are always appreciated.


 
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Graphite is a commonly used lubricant in the manufacture of lead pellets...in industry terms, a solid film lubricant used for wire drawing. In other words, it's not so much a treatment for the finished pellets as it is to lubricate the lead wire from which the pellets are cold formed in a mold, leaving at least some incidental amount on the surface of the pellets.

Sometimes graphite gets attributed to helping prevent oxidation but my understanding is it has almost no benefit in this area, though some pellets seem to have a combination of oil and graphite mix. Crosman is one such example that frequently contains enough oil to discern its presence. At the other end of the spectrum, I find JSB to be generally lacking any oily residue and having but a small amount of graphite.

Just an example thread on the subject picked at random:
https://www.airgunnation.com/topic/jsb-pellets-and-waxy-substance/

Lead on the other hand oxidizes to a dull gray or white in the atmosphere. Granted, lead can in fact oxidize to a dark brown color (lead dioxide) but that requires either a chemical tranformation or electrolysis. It does not oxidize that way in the atmosphere. So suffice it to say, if the dark colored stuff we get from our barrels isn't graphite, neither is it lead. It would have to be something else altogether.
 
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I think the answer to your question should be your shooting results. If accuracy is restored, you've done enough. It is a little unusual to have 20 dirty patches, but it doesn't necessarily mean the barrel is still fouled to a point of affecting accuracy. If it is, I would remove the barrel and clean with a rod and brush from the breech end. If it is a problem barrel, it might benefit from polishing, as mentioned above. 
 
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