• The AGN App is ready! Search "Airgun Nation" in your App store. To compliment this new tech we've assigned the "Threads" Feed & "Dark" Mode. To revert back click HERE.

FX tune/accuracy/barrel/clean

Jump to latest Follow Reply
D

DrOcean

Member
Aug 26, 2018
118
0
TX
Ooooookay. So some of y’all will be aware of a small part of my journey with my Impact 30 which now also includes a dreamlite 22. Having similar issues with the 22, but I think I’ve got it ALL FIGURED OUT...lol. It’s dirty barrels. And the barrels get dirty and lose accuracy waaaaay sooner than I anticipated given how they’ve been sold on the interwebs. It would seem that each of them need to be cleaned appropriately every 100-200 shots. I was expecting them to need to be cleaned maybe every 500-1000 shots, or as some of you have said, practically never. Maybe our standards on group sizes differ...maybe yours actually don’t need it. Maybe results will vary over time. Idk. 

But I have a dilemma. 1-clean barrel. 2-rezero scope. 3-harmonically tune it again. 4-clean the barrel, n repeat. Mind you, sometimes it only takes 20 shots or so to get it tuned again, which gives me 100 shots or so before the groups start opening up...but sometimes it takes 80+ shots to get the group size back where I want em, which is one hole at 50 and 1” or better at 100. I’ve gotten pretty good at this process by now. 

Now my questions...does your poi shift on your fx gun when you remove the barrel? Do you have to sometimes completely retune it after cleaning? And can you clean it without removing the barrel? My patchworm kit can’t make the bend at the breach end. I have a rod system for powder burners, but am hesitant to ram a rod down the muzzle. Will cleaning it in place solve the issue? Do y’all share this experience? 

I must say that at this point I am EXTREMELY satisfied with both purchases. They are both incredibly capable rifles. But this cycle is unsustainable. There’s got to be a way to clean these things without losing all that hard work and money on pellets. Thoughts gentlemen?
 
I think you have 3 options:

1.Shoot, clean and repeat until you have shot several thousands rounds true the barrel, and then hopefully the need for cleaning as often as one do in the begining, will disapear. Probably not that fun if one has to clean often

2. Try to lube the pellets. I have good results with silicon oil, but there might be better stuff out there. As long as the pellets are lubed, the need for cleaning is almost gone on 2 fx guns I have. You can at some later point (many thousand shots)try to shoot them unlubed again if you like. 

3. Try to polish the barrel. I have never done it myself and do not actually know how to do it. It seems somewhere on the forum people have good results with it.

Shooting many thousand pellets should polish the barrel naturally, but it require some patience. With lube on pellets you can probably find a good tune from the beginning, and enjoy shooting the gun more.
 
Upvote 0
I have 3 smoothvist x barrel in caliber.177 .22, and .25. The .177 is the only one I shot unlubed from when it was new. But it did reguire some cleaning from the begining. Maybe every 200-500 shots. After I put around 10 tins with 500 pellets (did not count exactly), the need for cleaning has almost dissapeared. Have shoots several thousands wihtout cleaning after that. My .22 barrel was the first I got, and the worst out of the 3. I do not exactly know how many shots I have put trough it, but last time I tried shooting unlubed, it probably fouled up again after 100-200 shots. My .25 seems not to be that bad, but I have probably shot 8 tins of 350 shots true it lubed. I will probably try shooting it unlubed, when I get a new order of 10 more tins.

On both my .22, and .25 barrel fouling is not an issue when pellets are lubed. I only lube. Have not bothered to wash my JSB pellets first

A nice way to check the condition of the liner when cleaning, is to remove barrel and shroud, and use a flashlight. You can usually see the lead fouling with naked eye near the choke. I clean until all looks shiny when using the flashlight from the breach end. 
 
Upvote 0
DrOcean, when you refer to harmonically tuning after each cleaning, what exactly are you doing?

My only experience with the Smooth Twist X liners was a .22 Crown, and it fouled relatively quickly. My Royale 400 with original Smooth Twist barrel has about 1000 shots through it now, never cleaned, still very accurate. 

Yes, POI will change slightly in most rifles after removing the barrel. 

This might not be applicable to the FX X liner system, but I'll share it anyway. I was shooting my Red Wolf today, and at 50 yards it was giving me groups of over 1". I pulled one tight fitting, dry patch through it, and accuracy was immediately restored, next group was .3". 
 
Upvote 0
DrOcean, when you refer to harmonically tuning after each cleaning, what exactly are you doing?

My only experience with the Smooth Twist X liners was a .22 Crown, and it fouled relatively quickly. My Royale 400 with original Smooth Twist barrel has about 1000 shots through it now, never cleaned, still very accurate. 

Yes, POI will change slightly in most rifles after removing the barrel. 

This might not be applicable to the FX X liner system, but I'll share it anyway. I was shooting my Red Wolf today, and at 50 yards it was giving me groups of over 1". I pulled one tight fitting, dry patch through it, and accuracy was immediately restored, next group was .3".
Click to expand...

My poi always shifts after removing the barrel (even if I remove/replace the shroud and NOT the barrel). Sometimes the shift is about an inch. Sometimes it’s closer to 12” (at 50 yds). So i rezero the scope to get it close. Then I adjust the velocity up n down slightly until the groups tighten up. Sometimes there’s no need to adjust velocity. Sometimes I just turn the hammer up or down a click. On the impact sometimes adjusting the valve stop slightly helps. This isn’t an option on the dreamline, but slightly tweaking the hst preload screw does the trick if turning the dial is too crude.
 
Upvote 0
I don’t really WANT to get into lubing pellets. They shoot great out of the tin, even visually effed up skirts. Just tired of having to redo everything each time I clean the barrel. I just cleaned/zeroed/tuned the dreamline. Next time one of em starts acting up I’m going to try the fishing string method n hope it goes right back to where I had it. Any more info from others’ experiences still helpful.
 
Upvote 0
My poi always shifts after removing the barrel (even if I remove/replace the shroud and NOT the barrel). Sometimes the shift is about an inch. Sometimes it’s closer to 12” (at 50 yds). So i rezero the scope to get it close. Then I adjust the velocity up n down slightly until the groups tighten up. Sometimes there’s no need to adjust velocity. Sometimes I just turn the hammer up or down a click. On the impact sometimes adjusting the valve stop slightly helps. This isn’t an option on the dreamline, but slightly tweaking the hst preload screw does the trick if turning the dial is too crude.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

Yes, I had POI changes with the Crown if I removed/replaced the shroud, but not to the extent you mention. In fact, I had POI changes for no apparent reason. The barrel system has too many parts, IMO. As for tuning, assuming no change other than barrel cleaning, I've never had to do any re-tuning. 
 
Upvote 0
If you clean the barrel there will be POI changes until you have "leaded" the barrel. There will also be POI changes when the barrel fouls up, before cleaning. If you take barrel on or off and do nothing with the barrel, you probably has to re zero the scope. But it should not change your tune on the gun. As I see it removing the barrel on the impact is so easy and convenient to do (it is just one screw), and makes cleaning much easier. As long as you do not use force on the screw (it requires litle force to lock it in place) no harm should be done to the gun. I also see it a more safer way to clean the gun. Especially if one use the flashlight to check visually if the barrel is lead free. I personaly do not feel comfortable staring down the muzzle of a cocked gun even there is a safety on the gun. 

Personally I would not remove the liner out of the sleeve, as that might change the harmonics of the gun, as if the O-rings does not get in the same position. Also how much one tighten the liner nut can affect the harmonics. So basically all which should change by removing and installing the barrel, is just a rezero of the scope. 
 
Upvote 0
If you clean the barrel there will be POI changes until you have "leaded" the barrel. There will also be POI changes when the barrel fouls up, before cleaning. If you take barrel on or off and do nothing with the barrel, you probably has to re zero the scope. But it should not change your tune on the gun. As I see it removing the barrel on the impact is so easy and convenient to do (it is just one screw), and makes cleaning much easier. As long as you do not use force on the screw (it requires litle force to lock it in place) no harm should be done to the gun. I also see it a more safer way to clean the gun. Especially if one use the flashlight to check visually if the barrel is lead free. I personaly do not feel comfortable staring down the muzzle of a cocked gun even there is a safety on the gun. 

Personally I would not remove the liner out of the sleeve, as that might change the harmonics of the gun, as if the O-rings does not get in the same position. Also how much one tighten the liner nut can affect the harmonics. So basically all which should change by removing and installing the barrel, is just a rezero of the scope.
Click to expand...

Ah. It didn’t occur to me to remove the entire barrel assembly to clean it instead of just the liner. I’m still going to test cleaning it without removing anything first, but good idea.
 
Upvote 0
There is other guns like the crown and wildcat which is a lilte more unconvinient to remove barrel, as on the crown the scope has to be removed first. And then there is 3 screws which have to be removed. On the wildcat there is not a notch which align the barrel, requiring a lilte more care to get the barrel in same position. So on thouse I may just clean without removing anything. 
 
Upvote 0
If you clean the barrel there will be POI changes until you have "leaded" the barrel. There will also be POI changes when the barrel fouls up, before cleaning. If you take barrel on or off and do nothing with the barrel, you probably has to re zero the scope. But it should not change your tune on the gun. As I see it removing the barrel on the impact is so easy and convenient to do (it is just one screw), and makes cleaning much easier. As long as you do not use force on the screw (it requires litle force to lock it in place) no harm should be done to the gun. I also see it a more safer way to clean the gun. Especially if one use the flashlight to check visually if the barrel is lead free. I personaly do not feel comfortable staring down the muzzle of a cocked gun even there is a safety on the gun. 

Personally I would not remove the liner out of the sleeve, as that might change the harmonics of the gun, as if the O-rings does not get in the same position. Also how much one tighten the liner nut can affect the harmonics. So basically all which should change by removing and installing the barrel, is just a rezero of the scope.
Click to expand...

Ah. It didn’t occur to me to remove the entire barrel assembly to clean it instead of just the liner. I’m still going to test cleaning it without removing anything first, but good idea.
Click to expand...

Just beware of not turning or twitching the barrel. There is a notch on the brass peace of the barrel which align the barrel on the breach block. So turning it, is a no no. Just remove or loosen the lock screw enough, and pull barrel straight out, no turning. And then no slamming it in when installing it. When you have done it once, you will see how easy it is:) 
 
Upvote 0
All 3 of my fx rifles have the original s/t barrels and I never clean them. im not sure if its the old school barrels or that I wash and lube the pellets. Personally I believe it also keeps the breech O rings in good working order as I have shot thousands of pellets without a single oring issue to include my .25 Impact....Just some food for thought.
Click to expand...

Well the old smoothtvist barrels migth have an advantage there as there is only a small portion of the barrel which is rifled. But they also have an advantage of being old, meaning they probably already has many thousands of shots trough them. And my experiance is, if there is lead fouling, espesially on a new stx barrel, lubing the pellets basically removes the need for cleaning on thouse also.
 
Upvote 0
If you clean the barrel there will be POI changes until you have "leaded" the barrel. There will also be POI changes when the barrel fouls up, before cleaning. If you take barrel on or off and do nothing with the barrel, you probably has to re zero the scope. But it should not change your tune on the gun. As I see it removing the barrel on the impact is so easy and convenient to do (it is just one screw), and makes cleaning much easier. As long as you do not use force on the screw (it requires litle force to lock it in place) no harm should be done to the gun. I also see it a more safer way to clean the gun. Especially if one use the flashlight to check visually if the barrel is lead free. I personaly do not feel comfortable staring down the muzzle of a cocked gun even there is a safety on the gun. 

Personally I would not remove the liner out of the sleeve, as that might change the harmonics of the gun, as if the O-rings does not get in the same position. Also how much one tighten the liner nut can affect the harmonics. So basically all which should change by removing and installing the barrel, is just a rezero of the scope.
Click to expand...


I have a different opinion. When I had my Crown, I would remove the liner for cleaning if it needed more than a pull-through cleaning, which it often did. It is much easier to clean the liner alone, without removing the sleeve. You have to assume a need to re-zero either way, so why not do it the easier way and work with the liner only. All this demonstrates what I consider the weakness in the FX liner system in general, it's too complicated, too many parts. I guess the new generation needs lots of bells and whistles, and FX surely accommodates them. If you review the winners of the top level BR competition, I think you will see one common characteristic, a simple, solid barrel attached securely to a robust action. The best way to fix a problem is to avoid it. 
 
Upvote 0
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back
Home
Forums
Resources
Menu