Difference in STX barrels ??

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PerkyVal

PerkyVal

Member
Nov 22, 2017
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Wisconsin, United States
I've read that some people have had fouling issues on their STX barrels after a tin of pellets. 

While my Impact is on vacation I have been shooting my Crown....alot.

Yesterday I noticed a little bit of group size increase at the range while testing the new FX Chrony, at 50 yards. I didnt think much about it because the wind was kinda stupid, and I wasnt there shooting for groups.

Today at my home range range I noticed it again after shooting most of a tin at 25 meters, with no wind.

I was on my 12th tin of unwashed pellets. The inside of the shroud was filthy, and the barrel took 10 patches with ballistol to clean it.

I know my 700mm barrel on the Impact needs cleaning more often than the 600mm on this Crown. Other than length the only difference is when I bought them.

The Crown was purchased in Dec 2017, I believe the first shipment that was available to more mortals. The 700mm barrel on the Impact was added late last summer.

Got me to thinking if .maybe the first x barrel liners were somehow better, or different than later ones.

Anyone notice that at all?


 
Shooting at higher velocities will require additional/more cleaning than shooting at lower velocities, due to more lead particulate breaking up and higher frictional forces as the projectile is forced down the bore.



Your 600mm barrel likely only has the twist towards the muzzle/crown where as the 700mm barrel likely has rifling the entire length of the barrel liner, which means even more frictional forces as the pellet has to twist the entire length of the barrel opposed to just the last few inches. Just my 2 cents on the matter! HTH.



-Matt
 
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My only experience with the STX liner system was a Crown I bought about a year ago. I kept it only through 1,500-2,000 pellets. At that point, it still needed cleaning after maybe 80-90 shots. My old ST barrel in the Royale 400 apparently never needs cleaning, haven't touched it after 1,000. It's not an STX barrel, so I guess not really responsive to your question, sorry. 
 
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Shooting at higher velocities will require additional/more cleaning than shooting at lower velocities, due to more lead particulate breaking up and higher frictional forces as the projectile is forced down the bore.



Your 600mm barrel likely only has the twist towards the muzzle/crown where as the 700mm barrel likely has rifling the entire length of the barrel liner, which means even more frictional forces as the pellet has to twist the entire length of the barrel opposed to just the last few inches. Just my 2 cents on the matter! HTH.



-Matt
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Both rifles are the STX barrel, not ST, and they were both shooting near 850fps.

I wish I remembered how often I had to clean the 600mm stx barrel on the Impact before I changed it to 700.

Your point is correct with the older ST barrels. I had a Royale that rarely needed cleaning.

I had thought about the extra length on the 700, and you could well be correct that it might be it, but I'm having trouble believing that a 100mm difference would necessitate cleaning twice as often, but maybe.


 
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There are the differences in every product created even by CNC machines. The best barrels go to youtubers and reviewers because they make a commercial. Mr X and Mrs Y will get a random barrel which can vary from poor to excellent.
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I don’t have any insider information but having read that I hope you wouldn’t say that unless you DO.

( just to be fair)

It maybe so but I would hope every effort is made to see that doesn’t happen . 

Maybe I’m an optimist
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The 500mm pellet liner that came with my Crown in around June last year is absolute junk, and it appears most of the guys I know that bought Crowns from that shipment (SA has a small airgun community and hence few, widely spaced shipments of the higher end guns) got similar results - poor accuracy with cleaning needed at ridiculously short intervals.

Now after a year I put a 600mm slug liner in and the gun is a laser with most pellets I've tried (don't have any slugs to try yet), requiring virtually no cleaning at all. The difference between the barrels is frankly bizarre.

When pushing a pellet through the respective barrels there is a huge difference, with the tightness of the pellet liner bore being markedly more so than the slug liner, with the choke even more so. The pellet goes through the length of the pellet liner in stops and starts. A friend recently took a chance and bought a new replacement pellet liner and noticed a similar difference between his first one and his new one, with the original being extremely tight and over choked 

So I guess I'm with many of the others here- don't believe the 'every barrel is identical' hype. The barrel lottery seems to still be in full effect.

My sample is small and probably biased but from what I've seen here is SA at least, the difference between good and bad may be even bigger than 'normal' barrels. I suppose it could make sense - when essentially squashing a tube is your method of rifling, I'm sure a tiny, 0.00x mm difference in the thickness of a supplied batch of steel tubes could make a relatively major difference to the resulting bore? Plus if it really is as easy as they claim to change the twist, degree of 'squash' etc on the STX machine it may be that there is a much larger human element of attempts at improvement between runs at the factory.

Who knows exactly what goes on though? I picked up two more liners since (which I believe were actually from a different shipment) that both feel similar to the slug liner. I have yet to test them in a gun as I want to do a similar thing to Airsupply and try fitting (a good) one to my red wolf and see the results. Here's hoping these liners are trending to steady improvement rather than it being pure, random luck!
 
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How many of yall lube your pellets? I'm also gona suggest a product I use in my powder burners called gunzilla. I use it on my last patch run thru my barrels. On my 1911 alone I've noticed it retains accuracy more than twice as long (fouling causes it to drop off) maybe 3x. And the barrel is much easier to clean after even extended use. My continuum gets here tomorrow, and I'll make sure to use that cleaner in it as well. 
 
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In early 2017, I got one of the first Crown's. It fouled in very few shots and in prepping for EBR, I polished , cleaned, polished, cleaned, over and over and it finally seems to not foul so frequently... or... I just don't care as much. It fouls at the choke. At that EBR I asked Frederick why he choked it so heavily. He said "I just put choke on it, test, put more choke on it, test, till it doesn't shoot better". He also told me that he had purchased 60000 meters of that tubing and it was VERY expensive. I'm just guessing he was insinuating it was very precise.

Not sure that answers anything but it IS kind of interesting. 

When I got my Royale the previous year, the accuracy would drop off some after a few hundred shots, but it did get better quickly.

Anyway.... some polishing may help... or lubing, as was also suggested. ST or STX barrels generally don't like lube from my experience , but the Gunzilla that was suggested has worked for me on several rifles now, including the Crown. Just seems to extend the cleaning interval quite a bit. 

FWIW

Bob
 
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