Barrel polishing vs. Cleaning time

[Hold_Over]

I went through the archives on the topic of barrel polishing. Am not interested in methods or claims of greater accuracy vs. Not etc. What I want to know is for those who do it, after polishing, does the smoother shinier bore collect less lead, and require less frequent cleaning?

 

[Firewalker]

I went through the archives on the topic of barrel polishing. Am not interested in methods or claims of greater accuracy vs. Not etc. What I want to know is for those who do it, after polishing, does the smoother shinier bore collect less lead, and require less frequent cleaning?

Um, clean when your groups open up. Not so much a less frequent need for cleaning as much as ease of cleaning.

1 soaked patch, 1 dry patch, done!

 

[Hold_Over]

Um, clean when your groups open up. Not so much a less frequent need for cleaning as much as ease of cleaning.

1 soaked patch, 1 dry patch, done!

Ease of cleaning is good for sure. I guess what I am asking is do you see a longer period of time before the groups open up?

 

[Rawroots]

Absolutely

 

[Hold_Over]

Absolutely

Any thoughts on how much improvement? Is it 2 to1 where before you would clean after 1 tin of 500 and now it's after 2. Or nothing quite that concrete...just longer

 

[Rawroots]

First i should say that i purchase the lower priced 700$ and lower priced air rifles and 75% of these probably would not benefit much from barrel polishing, but the other 25% needs cleaning after 20 pellets and groups show it, the process i use is shooting harder pellets that have polishing compound and bee wax saturated in the foam in the tins, after a couple tins are shot thru and many cleanings the barrels are comparable to the other rifles , almost never need a cleaning after 500 shot, and very few flyers.

 

[Orv]

I clean the barrels of new rifles when receiving them. After this, nothing until I notice a problem . . . even then, I check my seals and O rings before I'd clean, usually after thousands of shots through the gun. Orv.

 

[subscriber]

Hold_Over

How many more shots you can shoot after polishing depends on how rough the barrel was to begin with. If it was rough and fouled in 100 shots, a proper polishing job could extend that interval to 1000 shots.

It also depends on the alloy of your projectile. If nearly pure lead, such as JSB uses, then cleaning is fast and easy. If high antimony hard projectiles like Crosman are used, then cleaning can take a lot longer.

If you could shoot 2000 shots before you started getting fliers, then you may not get 4000 after polishing, as 2000 is already pretty good. So, the rougher your barrel, the more polishing will help it. Of course, if the roughness is so deep that you projectiles are loose after polishing to a smooth surface, then you have a no-go. Ditto for such shallow rifling that it is gone before the barrel is smooth. Hence the value of using a "hard lap". A lap cast in the bore will not preferentially cut the lands, or over round their corners. This can happen when you overuse a soft lap, even when fine polish is used. Many will tell you that over polishing is a myth. Perhaps for normal barrels, rather than very rough ones. You just need to know when to stop.

Big bore projectiles may foul more and benefit from some sort of lube to reduce that, and make cleaning easier. So, you may need to be more specific about your platform, your experience, and your expectations.

 

[Long_Gun_Dallas]

Polishing combined with carnauba wax treatment or Gunzilla can dramatically increase cleaning intervals. In my case, something to the effect of 3x, in other cases maybe 2x or possibly more than what I'm seeing.

I've had guns that originally untouched, shooting slugs may be fouled enough to reduce accuracy noticeably after as few as 100 shots. It's possible the projectiles I was shooting were not Ideally sized, leaning a touch toward over sized. But still produced extreme accuracy. Just really excessive fouling also.

 

[Dairyboy]

Polishing combined with carnauba wax treatment or Gunzilla can dramatically increase cleaning intervals. In my case, something to the effect of 3x, in other cases maybe 2x or possibly more than what I'm seeing.

I've had guns that originally untouched, shooting slugs may be fouled enough to reduce accuracy noticeably after as few as 100 shots. It's possible the projectiles I was shooting were not Ideally sized, leaning a touch toward over sized. But still produced extreme accuracy. Just really excessive fouling also.

I bought Gunzilla last year at some point and never used it. After my winter break on airguns I noticed it next to my Shooters Choice lead cleaner which was recommended by Tom from AAA. That's a very good cleaner BTW. But I knew I bought the Gunzilla for a reason also. I just found a thread where you and Franklink talked about its use and helping with cleaning intervals and such. I'll be trying it now that I use JTS pellets which are a harder alloy than JSB and seem to lead up more.

 

[Long_Gun_Dallas]

The stuff undoubtedly works, I think the only downside is if left in a bore unused, it can gum up? So I've heard anyhow. I discovered it shooting powder guns. My .45acp match barrel sustains accurate use roughly 2x as long. Nothing done to it other than applying that stuff after cleaning. Some guys don't clean their guns often. I just prefer having one that is accurate. If it doesn't need cleaning to be accurate, I don't clean it. Unless it's just been a while. Then I might just cause it's good practice to clean and check things so long as you aren't one of those people that's more prone to mess something up while doing so.

 

[airgunmike56]

I use a tiny bit of Dry Slide after cleaning my barrels, It bonds to the metal and makes mess on your fingers , It makes cleaning the barrel a lot easier , I think also extends the time to clean the barrel, I use it to lube brake and clutch cables on my motorcycles and after 20 years its still on the cable , Impressed.
make sure you let it dry for 24 hours. Its not cheap.
Mike

 

[delooper]

Other than "clean when necessary" something to keep in mind is that sometimes when you switch to a different projectile material (lead to copper, for example) you need to clean. Not sure what it is but you appear to get inconsistent friction levels when shooting copper out of a lead-fouled barrel.

 

[Hold_Over]

Polishing combined with carnauba wax treatment or Gunzilla can dramatically increase cleaning intervals. In my case, something to the effect of 3x, in other cases maybe 2x or possibly more than what I'm seeing.

I've had guns that originally untouched, shooting slugs may be fouled enough to reduce accuracy noticeably after as few as 100 shots. It's possible the projectiles I was shooting were not Ideally sized, leaning a touch toward over sized. But still produced extreme accuracy. Just really excessive fouling also.

Thank you

 

[jps2486]

Almost every one of my FX rifles that I use in target competition lead up quickly after less than 100 shots. I clean then polish the bores, focusing on the choke, with JB bore paste. Even so, after 100-120 shots the accuracy starts to degrade. I'm talking about shooting with slugs which has a larger bearing surface between the barrel and projectile resulting in lead build up in the choke. Pellets? Not so much, but the oils and lubes used on these still will build up in the bore after a while. Those that claim that they never clean their barrels are fooling themselves.

Before and after cleaning. This was from my FX Crown MK2, .177 cal at 100 yd using JSB 13.4 gr KO slugs after 100 or so shots.

 

[Peashooter]

Before and after cleaning

A clear difference
I will have to admit i shoot a lot more than 100 shots before i clean my FX barrel, but it could be the POI chasing i have some times done have been more than me also shooting my slugs a tad too fast.
I will have to look closely into this in the months to come, not least on dead calm days, CUZ i can easy shoot well over 1000 shots in a day.

Mind you i do also have my cleaning rod and patches at hand,,,,, ALWAYS, but i should probably use them more often.

First order of the day, get my new rifle to shoot, as it absolutely do not seem to like CUZ its worse than that and with a clean barrel.

 

[jps2486]

A clear difference
I will have to admit i shoot a lot more than 100 shots before i clean my FX barrel, but it could be the POI chasing i have some times done have been more than me also shooting my slugs a tad too fast.
I will have to look closely into this in the months to come, not least on dead calm days, CUZ i can easy shoot well over 1000 shots in a day.

When I shoot a 3 card 25 shot BR match, I clean between each card. I clean with a couple of patches moistened with Ballistol followed by 3 or so dry patches. After, I shoot at least 5 to 10 sighters to season the bore.