Friendly reminder to clean your barrel

So..........

Probably should have cleaned the barrel of my new toy when I first got it (duh). It was shooting well and figured it was clean enough. Welp.

First two dry patches felt like I was pulling the patches through peanut butter. After I pulled those through I peeked down through the barrel and could physically see the buildup starting to seperate from the rifling.

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Switched to 2x Hoppes soaked patches and let them soak for a few. You can actually see chunks of lead buildup on the patches.

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After the patches starting coming through fairly clean I put 10 down range and then 10 more on paper.

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Not counting the flier (it wasn't but I won't get into that) 9/10 landed in a neat little 0.35", MOA group at 32yds. Not too shabby for a 20ftlb .177 break barrel. Its officially too dark to keep testing but I have some very high hopes now :)

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I'm curious if anyone has ever seen buildup like this on a break barrel? I pretty routinely pull a dry patch or 2 through every couple hundred shots so I haven't. I'm wondering if maybe someone decided to give slugs a try in this thing before I got my hands on it
My own experience with airguns has been primarily indoors, and it's not been much of a problem with new variable pumpers and CO2 airguns, but break barrels are another thing altogether. If nothing else, failing to clean a new springer or gas piston airgun usually produces not only some fairly cool visual effects (smoke, etcetera), the smell alone can drive you and everyone else clean out of the house! What a gosh-awful odor! :)

No prior experience with setup and first shots out of a new PCP (and don’t really know if that's a good or a bad thing)... ;-)
 
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This is an excellent topic. No matter what the gun is when it arrives here I clean the barrel in order to eliminate one of the variables of accuracy. In air guns I don't advise using hoppes.

I'm a fan of JB Bore paste and a brass brush. Not necessarily polishing but removing the cosmoline and lead.

Final patches with FP-10 or ballastrol to remove the JB Bore paste.
I don't recommend Hoppes for anything. It's junk. Yep, it's old junk, and your grandad probably has fond memories of the smell of banana oil (that's the scent...), but it doesn't clean worth a hoot, nor is it a good preservative. I think I still have part of a large bottle on hand to demonstrate what a lousy cleaner it is. JB is definitely a big step up, so is Remington 40x bore cleaner (though I think they used to have a different product, closer to JB). Paint thinner (mineral spirits) is superior to Hoppes (though hard on o-rings and the like). M-Pro 7 (back when it was a single product) was good, and airgun safe, but I haven't messed with it since it became a brand for eleveny-million different concoctions.

GsT
 
I use CLP on all my guns, Pull a couple dry patches at the end and silicone the Orings. I generally wash and lube my pellets also, I believe it helps keep the barrel cleaner longer. I use Napier power pellet lube for a few years now with no bad effect to my guns or Orings. As a matter of fact, I have never had to replace a breech Oring on either PCPs or Springers and I contribute it to cleaning and lubing.
 
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I don't recommend Hoppes for anything. It's junk. Yep, it's old junk, and your grandad probably has fond memories of the smell of banana oil (that's the scent...), but it doesn't clean worth a hoot, nor is it a good preservative. I think I still have part of a large bottle on hand to demonstrate what a lousy cleaner it is. JB is definitely a big step up, so is Remington 40x bore cleaner (though I think they used to have a different product, closer to JB). Paint thinner (mineral spirits) is superior to Hoppes (though hard on o-rings and the like). M-Pro 7 (back when it was a single product) was good, and airgun safe, but I haven't messed with it since it became a brand for eleveny-million different concoctions.

GsT
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion but the original post very clearly shows that not only did Hoppes clean the barrel, it did an excellent job of doing so quickly. Whether or not something else would work a bit better is another story.
 
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion but the original post very clearly shows that not only did Hoppes clean the barrel, it did an excellent job of doing so quickly. Whether or not something else would work a bit better is another story.
The original post only showed that swabbing the barrel (probably with anything) helped. That's hardly even evidence that Hoppes "works". There's no evidence that it worked any better than Ballistol, or whatever, or even a dry patch. Believe what you want, but I've tested enough bore gunk to know that my opinion of Hoppes is well founded.

GsT
 
The original post only showed that swabbing the barrel (probably with anything) helped. That's hardly even evidence that Hoppes "works". There's no evidence that it worked any better than Ballistol, or whatever, or even a dry patch. Believe what you want, but I've tested enough bore gunk to know that my opinion of Hoppes is well founded.

GsT
Whatever you say chief
 
I don't recommend Hoppes for anything. It's junk. Yep, it's old junk, and your grandad probably has fond memories of the smell of banana oil (that's the scent...), but it doesn't clean worth a hoot, nor is it a good preservative. I think I still have part of a large bottle on hand to demonstrate what a lousy cleaner it is. JB is definitely a big step up, so is Remington 40x bore cleaner (though I think they used to have a different product, closer to JB). Paint thinner (mineral spirits) is superior to Hoppes (though hard on o-rings and the like). M-Pro 7 (back when it was a single product) was good, and airgun safe, but I haven't messed with it since it became a brand for eleveny-million different concoctions.

GsT
Everybody has a favorite that works great for them. I'm not crazy about Hoppes either. I really like the Extreme Force Weapons oil: pretty expensive, but worth it to me. It was cooked up for firearms, but works great on airguns for lubrication, cleaning and protection. The tiniest little amount is darned near enough to wipe down your whole rifle. I've been using it for a couple of years and the small bottle I ordered is still practically full. The lube properties are absolutely amazing: I had an ancient swiss army knife I wasn't able to get opened even with needlenose pliers. I put a drop or two in the gummed up works, let it set awhile (fifteen minutes or so), then took another knife and an old rag and started tryin' to clean out the crud between all the blades and tools. I was amazed at the amount of rock hard old lint and dust particles I got out, and soon was able to open each appliance again with my fingernails, as usual. I thought the knife was a write-off, but thought of my 'miracle' oil and gave it a try. Wow. Now I use it on all small household lube jobs, and it works unbelievably well. Like I said, everyone has their favorite, but this is far and away the best stuff I've ever used (posted JIC anyone might want to give it a try).